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It's actually happening... the wife wants a PC </sigh>
- Thread starter DCBass
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LOL..generik said:
At least you didn't say the graphics card in a powerbook is really good, that would be even worse
Definitely get McAfee anti-virus. Most schools seem to have a deal with them and will provide a free copy of it. I personally like Zone Alarm albeit all the pop-ups, which can get annoying but at least i know i am pretty well covered. And definitely go for the nVidia option for the $25 upgrade. Good luck!
QCassidy352 said:I'm surprised no one has suggested this yet...
Divorce her.
KIDDING!
Nah, just take out a huge life insurance policy and have her new HP explode on her. Tragic accident...the hazards of windows.
then buy yourself a mac pro
On wintel installations I use Zonealarm. You can configure it to not pop up so much. You can also set it up for her and grant access to the programs you know you'll want her to let online. Kept my HP virus free for a long time.
Go for as much RAM as possible though, and go for the real graphics card not the GMA950, as that takes up system RAM.
andrewheard said:
And none of these excellent applications are available for the Macintosh, which just proves that Windows is superior and you shouldn't even think about getting a MacBook.
Now seriously, if I made my wife use a Windows PC, she would take that as a reason for divorce.
GFLPraxis said:
I suggest that the next time you have to help him, you send him a bill at a decent hourly rate (how much does a plumber charge per hour where you live? Do you think computer support should be cheaper or more expensive than plumbing? Or check out what a support call to Microsoft would cost), and subtract 100 percent rebate because he is your dad. Just so he gets an idea how much money using a PC costs.
Update, we just got it...
Hey Everyone,
Thought I'd give all of you an update and review of my wife's new laptop.
On Wed. night, we picked up her new HP laptop. It is still the dv2000t, but since we waited a while she's got the Core 2 Duo 1.83 chip, and for even cheaper than before. We also got Windows Media Center Edition as a free upgrade, which I'll talk about below. I believe all of the other specs are the same as in the first post.
First impressions:
The exterior has an interesting "piano gloss" finish on the back of the screen, and on the wrist-rests and trackpad. It feels pretty slick and high quality, though it easily collects fingerprints (it feels just like the face of an iPod) and the mousepad takes some getting used to with this finish.
It's pretty light at 5.3 pounds. The 14.4" widescreen is really nice to look at after using my 12" powerbook, though it is of course that much larger to haul around. Personally, I think that 13.3" wide may be the sweet spot.
The keyboard feels nice and solid. Much better than some of the Vaios I've played around with, but nowhere near as nice as my pb (which I still think is the best-feeling keyboard in the world, imo).
As far as software goes, of course it's windows, so I'm shuddering at the thought of it in my house again (j/k... kind of). The popup messages and notifications were continually being annoying the whole time we were setting this thing up, but I know that's just the way it goes in pc land.
One of the nicest things we noticed right away was how it's wireless internet signal strength is sooo much stronger than my powerbook. I know that since my pb is aluminum that I wasn't going to get the best signal, but the difference is just ridiculous. I imagine this is the kind of signal strength iBook users used to rave about and I suspect the macbooks are comparable as well.
Media Center is pretty slick, though we haven't messed with it too much. Really, it makes me wonder what Microsoft is really capable of if it was realistic for them to start from scratch, much like Apple was able to do with Mac OS X. nah, they'd still probably goof it up somehow.
So, overall, it's a darn nice pc so far. But yes, it is a pc. To be honest, I'm glad to have a mixed household, so now there's never anything I won't be able to do.
So... why didn't she get a mac you say???
I misspoke earlier by saying she didn't like mac os x. It's not the operating system. She likes that just fine. She's a fast learner and got used to my powerbook in no time.
What was really the problem was she wasn't able to do a lot of things she wanted to do. At least not easily.
And no, she doesn't even do anything out of the ordinary either. She really doesn't like office for mac, she detests iPhoto (the worst program ever, apparently), she couldn't use it well with her palm (installing various little programs), and finally, we couldn't find any good photo uploading program for the online photo services we like to use.
Really, she has the biggest beef with iPhoto, which I'll talk about in another thread. Coincidentally enough, HP provides a photo program which addresses all of her concerns. I have to admit, it seems to be nice so far.
So, there you have it. I also wanted to thank all of you again for the helpful advice. Let me know if you have any questions, but I'm sure I'll be asking many more as well.
-DCBass
Hey Everyone,
Thought I'd give all of you an update and review of my wife's new laptop.
On Wed. night, we picked up her new HP laptop. It is still the dv2000t, but since we waited a while she's got the Core 2 Duo 1.83 chip, and for even cheaper than before. We also got Windows Media Center Edition as a free upgrade, which I'll talk about below. I believe all of the other specs are the same as in the first post.
First impressions:
The exterior has an interesting "piano gloss" finish on the back of the screen, and on the wrist-rests and trackpad. It feels pretty slick and high quality, though it easily collects fingerprints (it feels just like the face of an iPod) and the mousepad takes some getting used to with this finish.
It's pretty light at 5.3 pounds. The 14.4" widescreen is really nice to look at after using my 12" powerbook, though it is of course that much larger to haul around. Personally, I think that 13.3" wide may be the sweet spot.
The keyboard feels nice and solid. Much better than some of the Vaios I've played around with, but nowhere near as nice as my pb (which I still think is the best-feeling keyboard in the world, imo).
As far as software goes, of course it's windows, so I'm shuddering at the thought of it in my house again (j/k... kind of). The popup messages and notifications were continually being annoying the whole time we were setting this thing up, but I know that's just the way it goes in pc land.
One of the nicest things we noticed right away was how it's wireless internet signal strength is sooo much stronger than my powerbook. I know that since my pb is aluminum that I wasn't going to get the best signal, but the difference is just ridiculous. I imagine this is the kind of signal strength iBook users used to rave about and I suspect the macbooks are comparable as well.
Media Center is pretty slick, though we haven't messed with it too much. Really, it makes me wonder what Microsoft is really capable of if it was realistic for them to start from scratch, much like Apple was able to do with Mac OS X. nah, they'd still probably goof it up somehow.
So, overall, it's a darn nice pc so far. But yes, it is a pc. To be honest, I'm glad to have a mixed household, so now there's never anything I won't be able to do.
So... why didn't she get a mac you say???
Blue Velvet said:
I misspoke earlier by saying she didn't like mac os x. It's not the operating system. She likes that just fine. She's a fast learner and got used to my powerbook in no time.
What was really the problem was she wasn't able to do a lot of things she wanted to do. At least not easily.
And no, she doesn't even do anything out of the ordinary either. She really doesn't like office for mac, she detests iPhoto (the worst program ever, apparently), she couldn't use it well with her palm (installing various little programs), and finally, we couldn't find any good photo uploading program for the online photo services we like to use.
Really, she has the biggest beef with iPhoto, which I'll talk about in another thread. Coincidentally enough, HP provides a photo program which addresses all of her concerns. I have to admit, it seems to be nice so far.
So, there you have it. I also wanted to thank all of you again for the helpful advice. Let me know if you have any questions, but I'm sure I'll be asking many more as well.
-DCBass
DCBass said:
Wow. iPhoto is really what clinched the switch for my wife. I suppose it depends on what you want to do with it. My wife uses it to edit photos for her blog. The only problem she's had with it was that she didn't really understand how files were stored and accidentally deleted a few months worth of photos!
yt
OT: I simply refuse to help my parents now when they have problems. I bought a PowerBook so I wouldn't have to deal with maintaining Windows anymore and I'm sure not going to be their support help ... ok, I''m not that heartless. I help them but I always tell them to buy a Mac first. It worked so well, in fact, that they are both going to buy one.GFLPraxis said:
On topic, I have the opposite problem. My wife now wants a MacBook ... ok, that's not a problem
My wife wanted a Dell like her friend had. She also had used nothing except Wintel her entire computing life. I did not see this as a battle worth fighting, but I made one agreed restriction. She could not use it for connecting to the outside world. I also bought a Mini and told her that was her Internet/Mail computer. Like I said, she agreed. To make a long story short, she found OSX to be a clearly superior working environment. I bought her Office:Mac with the proceeds of selling the Dell.
Glad to hear it's going well.
Another good anti-virus software that I fell head over heels for is Avast! (www.avast.com). Really simple to use, and is free for personal/non-commercial use.
Another good anti-virus software that I fell head over heels for is Avast! (www.avast.com). Really simple to use, and is free for personal/non-commercial use.
I would recomment AVG as well or if you want something wth firewall in it then I would recommend trendmicro internet security 2006, it has virus/firewall/spywar/spam stuff for about $40 or so. Have seen it at walmart for about $35 in the past. I use that on both my wifes an my pc at home an a few clients. I have put the free avg on others machine that did not want to shellout the money for a paid solution. I would run from norton's antivirus/firewall an have uninstalled it on clients machines that it came with an put trend micro or avg on them. Now if it was my new laptop I would go with a macbook pro. I'm going to upgrade at somepoint to a mac laptop when I can afford to do so an replace my mac mini.codo said:
you should get more then one spyware program from any of the ones that have been suggested so far, I say get more then one since one will catch what one of the others want.
jack
One note of caution: if you don't have an extended warranty, you might want to consider one. According to Consumer Reports, HP has the 2nd worst historical repair record of all brands for desktops/laptops, exceeded only by Gateway.
Having said that, the repair rate for all laptops is quite high, and there is not much difference between brands (compared to the amount of difference for desktops).
Having said that, the repair rate for all laptops is quite high, and there is not much difference between brands (compared to the amount of difference for desktops).
Well I have found AVG to suck most recently. I have tried it, and moved friends over to it..... but I eventually had a problem where my Windows Install didn't start for over a minute. It got to the desktop, and appeared fine..... you could double click on icons and open explorer windows..... but any attempt to start a program or click on the start menu revealed that the the thing had frozen and only after 60-90 seconds would it do all the actions you wanted in the meantime.
So I tried AntiVir, another free AV solution. Again this got used by me and friends and family for a while, quite successfully, until SHOCK!!!..... same goddam thing happened. This time a fight between a lexmark printer and AntiVir on one persons machine. Well, they weren't going to ditch their £80 printer for some £0 software.......
Eventually, I have found what I feel is the perfect solution.
ClamAV/ClamWin (there's an OS X port too)
GPL, Totally free, and it DOESN'T run in the background. Oh no, I have to remember to run it every so often, but as long as I can remember to not forget to run an antivirus package once a week, I should be OK. Plus side is... Its quite lightweight. G4 400's, Pentium 3's, everything runs better with this rather than one of the larger alternatives.
SAY NO TO BLOAT
So I tried AntiVir, another free AV solution. Again this got used by me and friends and family for a while, quite successfully, until SHOCK!!!..... same goddam thing happened. This time a fight between a lexmark printer and AntiVir on one persons machine. Well, they weren't going to ditch their £80 printer for some £0 software.......
Eventually, I have found what I feel is the perfect solution.
ClamAV/ClamWin (there's an OS X port too)
GPL, Totally free, and it DOESN'T run in the background. Oh no, I have to remember to run it every so often, but as long as I can remember to not forget to run an antivirus package once a week, I should be OK. Plus side is... Its quite lightweight. G4 400's, Pentium 3's, everything runs better with this rather than one of the larger alternatives.
SAY NO TO BLOAT