decoration decoration
Stories

GROKLAW
When you want to know more...
decoration
For layout only
Home
Archives
Site Map
Search
About Groklaw
Awards
Legal Research
Timelines
ApplevSamsung
ApplevSamsung p.2
ArchiveExplorer
Autozone
Bilski
Cases
Cast: Lawyers
Comes v. MS
Contracts/Documents
Courts
DRM
Gordon v MS
GPL
Grokdoc
HTML How To
IPI v RH
IV v. Google
Legal Docs
Lodsys
MS Litigations
MSvB&N
News Picks
Novell v. MS
Novell-MS Deal
ODF/OOXML
OOXML Appeals
OraclevGoogle
Patents
ProjectMonterey
Psystar
Quote Database
Red Hat v SCO
Salus Book
SCEA v Hotz
SCO Appeals
SCO Bankruptcy
SCO Financials
SCO Overview
SCO v IBM
SCO v Novell
SCO:Soup2Nuts
SCOsource
Sean Daly
Software Patents
Switch to Linux
Transcripts
Unix Books

Gear

Groklaw Gear

Click here to send an email to the editor of this weblog.


You won't find me on Facebook


Donate

Donate Paypal


No Legal Advice

The information on Groklaw is not intended to constitute legal advice. While Mark is a lawyer and he has asked other lawyers and law students to contribute articles, all of these articles are offered to help educate, not to provide specific legal advice. They are not your lawyers.

Here's Groklaw's comments policy.


What's New

STORIES
No new stories

COMMENTS last 48 hrs
No new comments


Sponsors

Hosting:
hosted by ibiblio

On servers donated to ibiblio by AMD.

Webmaster
MS-word compatibility | 360 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
Laptop for college student?
Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, November 10 2012 @ 12:58 PM EST
Do you really expect one computer to last 4 years being
lugged about at College?

You don't say what subjects, i.e. do her subjects consist mostly of written work
or is there a substantial amount of
calculation (maths / science / engineering) or is there a
substantial graphics / music requirement.

What about back up requirements, both data and spare machine
if that one is out of use?

What computer facilities does the college supply?


If you really are looking for one machine I would go
Thinkpad, Thinkpad or Thinkpad. as they still appear to be
reasonably indestructible.

However you might be better off considering a cheaper laptop
and replacing it each year. with a backup desktop machine at
her home / digs.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Chromebook
Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, November 10 2012 @ 01:18 PM EST
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromebook

http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

What are the requirements?
Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, November 10 2012 @ 02:04 PM EST

Seriously. Before shopping, you have to know. I have a friend who is
attending Art school, and she had a choice between a Mac and a Mac.

A couple of years ago another friend took some engineering courses, and
Windows was a requirement to run the CAD/CAM software used in the
course.

So ask.

As to drive space, in addition to the computer, you should also buy a USB
powered backup drive, and a couple of USB sticks. The student will need
them.

But yes, a Chromebook is a good general purpose solution.

Wayne
http://madhatter.ca

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Laptop for college student?
Authored by: stegu on Saturday, November 10 2012 @ 02:27 PM EST
In my experience, a typical laptop is not built to
last through 4 years of daily use, even if you are
careful with it. The batteries tend to wear down,
the screen backlight dims considerably and the
keyboard starts giving in if you use it a lot.

(A few months ago, this is where I would have advised
you to consider a MacBook, which lasts longer and is
more rugged than most PC laptops, but I will no longer
recommend an Apple product to anyone.)

Instead of going for high quality and high cost
hardware that might possibly last 4 years, I would
go for a budget machine at about half the price,
and replace it after 2 years. On an average, she
will have a better computer over 4 years, and
the consequences of an accident or a theft are
less dire.

As for software, I have managed with LibreOffice
for years in a professional environment where people
send me Microsoft Office files all the time. Most
Word, PowerPoint and Excel files open without problems,
and the few problems that arise are not fatal.
For authoring of proper documents, I advise my own
students to use LaTeX, not a WYSIWYG word processor,
but that is not necessarily sound advice for everyone.

You will have problems purchasing a laptop PC without
paying for Windows, but setting her up with Linux
anyway, in a dual boot installation, might be a
good idea for a young and inquisitive mind.

Proprietary software vendors tend to give very
generous discounts to college students, in particular
if the college makes a deal with the vendors, but
I cannot advise you in any detail there. It depends
very much on the IT culture where she is going,
and what she is going to do. Steering clear of
proprietary software altogether might pose a practical
problem, and it might not be worth the possible hassle.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Laptop for college student?
Authored by: Wol on Saturday, November 10 2012 @ 03:05 PM EST
Most of this I think you'll get by accident ...

Dual core processor (are single cores still around?)

15" screen - you can get smaller, but don't get bigger. We've got a
17" and, frankly, it's too big and heavy :-(

Then you'll have to look for 4Gb RAM. Most laptops will come with 2, but the
more ram the better.

Disk - you'll probably have a choice between 320 and 500. Be warned - many
nowadays split that in two, so unless you know a little more than is typical
nowadays, only half of that is usable. The other half is used for recovery and
backup - not much use if you have a disk failure ... :-(

I'd ask - does she actually need a laptop? Or would she be better off with a
desktop in her digs, and a cheapo netbook for notetaking if required.

As for the disk space she needs, though, how long is a piece of string? Will she
have a large collection of ripped music? Is she into photography? If it's just
for documents then the default smallest disk will be plenty, if she's studying
music or photography then several terabytes of storage will be wanted (although
that's not that expensive, nowadays).

Cheers,
Wol

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Laptop for college student?
Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, November 10 2012 @ 03:21 PM EST
A second hand Thinkpad or something similarly built. Not to fast, so she won't
feel the urge to waste her time playing games on it :-)

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Backups
Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, November 10 2012 @ 04:57 PM EST
I'll offer that understanding the Why, When, Where and How
of backups is an essential part of whatever kit you buy.
The Who is simple, she is responsible for getting it done.
I've put two daughters thru college. One survived a theft
and two total destructions by being on top of backups.
The other suffered untold agony from a single HD failure.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

  • WWW - Authored by: Gringo_ on Saturday, November 10 2012 @ 07:06 PM EST
Don't buy anything - until you know the course requirements
Authored by: cassini2006 on Saturday, November 10 2012 @ 08:45 PM EST

I wouldn't purchase anything until you have found out the preferred platform for at least the first and second year courses.

Many programs need widely different pieces of software.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

MS-word compatibility
Authored by: ailuromancy on Saturday, November 10 2012 @ 10:47 PM EST

In my experience, the loudest swearing in the office is caused by the PHB finding that MS Office is not really compatible with other versions of MS Office. If you are worried about compatibility, I recommend Libre Office.

As others have said: check the course requirements, keep it cheap and backup each day. Also test restoring from backups.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Groklaw © Copyright 2003-2013 Pamela Jones.
All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners.
Comments are owned by the individual posters.

PJ's articles are licensed under a Creative Commons License. ( Details )