"John H." wrote in message
...
On Sat, 02 Aug 2008 22:30:29 -0400, "Reginald P. Smithers III, Esq."
wrote:

John H. wrote:
On Sat, 2 Aug 2008 17:14:41 -0400, "D.Duck" wrote:

"John H." wrote in message
...
Am considering this laptop for my wife's birthday in a couple weeks.
Best
Buy has it on sale for $999. I'll add another gig of RAM and router.

http://tinyurl.com/59yons

Thoughts?
Unless she likes laptop keyboards and pointing devices I would suggest
an
external keyboard and mouse, either USB or wireless if you don't mind
fooling with batteries. I don't have a wireless keyboard but have
wireless
mice on two computers. The one that is used extensively gets 2~3
months
from a set of quality alkaline batteries.

She's never had a laptop, and neither have I. We'll see how she does
with
the built in stuff. I'd have to have the external mouse, as I can't
stand
that rubbing the pad stuff.

The keyboard and mouse just plug in via USB cables. While a 16" wide
screen, you don't really need it, but if you want you can also use a
larger monitor and use the laptop as a CPU when she is at her desk. I
am a few years away from buying a new computer, but I am really leaning
towards buying a Mac and MacPro laptop. My son and my youngest girl
will buy a Mac Laptop in the next month. You can get a 10% discount and
a Ipod Touch for any students or teachers, so your wife would qualify.
I think they are both leaning towards the 13" laptop to make it easy to
carry, and then use a larger monitor and keyboard in their dorm.

My wife's never taught, but she doesn't want an Apple. We put the money on
the Sony last night, before the sale went off. So she'll learn to be happy
with what she's got.

Right now she thinks it's a pretty cool birthday present. The big
disadvantage to the whole thing is Vista. I saw a little demonstrated by
the guy in the store, but I wasn't too impressed. Very flashy though.

New users to Vista generally fair better than seasoned users as many of
Vista's defects you would not know without previous experience with at least
XP. For example, record a 4GB video file and copy it around in XP goes
about 6-10 times faster than Vista. But never having done that on a
computer, you are more likely to find 20 minute copies of big files
acceptable not knowing XP can do in 2m30s and Linux in under 2m. Mac, I
don't know but never heard of copy speed complaints. Similarly with Vista
premium on a high speed home network.