N Sperlo wrote: Open Office is free and does word files. Works great for saving money vs coming up with the cash for word.
Not in school it doesn't... When a professors says "submit in word format" and you use open office to save a .doc, things get ugly. All that time you spend properly formatting a brilliant 10-page essay, save it as a word file, and send it off to the prof, he opens it and promptly gets the ugliest piece of E36 M3 he's ever seen. Your A+ paper just went to a C
curtis73 wrote:N Sperlo wrote: Open Office is free and does word files. Works great for saving money vs coming up with the cash for word.Not in school it doesn't... When a professors says "submit in word format" and you use open office to save a .doc, things get ugly. All that time you spend properly formatting a brilliant 10-page essay, save it as a word file, and send it off to the prof, he opens it and promptly gets the ugliest piece of E36 M3 he's ever seen. Your A+ paper just went to a C
That's less of a problem now that MS has the .docx format... if your prof has a newer version MS, that is.
On the upside, you can usually get a copy of MS Office with a school discount for about $65. If you don't/can't spend the money for VMWare Fusion or for Parallels to run Windows on your Mac, there are several open source windows emulation options that will run Office.
I use Fusion, myself. I keep at least one "known good" copy of my Windows install and save everything to a file directory outside of Fusion. When Windows eats itself (which is still more often than I like), I just restore the last known good copy and go from there.
Some folks complain that it's "a lot of work," but it's still less (for me, at least) than dealing with a real Windows machine. Because I'm with The Oatmeal on how to fix Windows...
In reply to curtis73:
This I would know if I was in school or had a need to write papers. Glad you mentioned it though.
dollraves wrote: Some folks complain that it's "a lot of work," but it's still less (for me, at least) than dealing with a real Windows machine. Because I'm with The Oatmeal on how to fix Windows...
Hey, that's kinda funny. I sorta did that, but I skipped the Apple part because I'm too cheap. I went straight for Linux (the Ubuntu flavor) and that's where I've been for about 3 years now. Nowadays, Linux really isn't any harder to use than Windows, with the added benefit that it actually works!
dollraves wrote: Some folks complain that it's "a lot of work," but it's still less (for me, at least) than dealing with a real Windows machine. Because I'm with The Oatmeal on how to fix Windows...
HAHA he really nailed the Linux option...
BoxheadTim wrote: Mac or a business-spec Lenovo tend to be my choices for laptops.
+1. I would never recommend not getting a Mac, but if you must, the Lenovo is a great PC. They are short on bells and whistles (boring black case, no flashy speaker grills or shortcut buttons or explosion of slots and plugs) but they are designed for the business user and they are ROBUST and reliable.
Catches your eye at Wal Mart:
Will actually work for a long time:
1988RedT2 wrote:dollraves wrote: Some folks complain that it's "a lot of work," but it's still less (for me, at least) than dealing with a real Windows machine. Because I'm with The Oatmeal on how to fix Windows...Hey, that's kinda funny. I sorta did that, but I skipped the Apple part because I'm too cheap. I went straight for Linux (the Ubuntu flavor) and that's where I've been for about 3 years now. Nowadays, Linux really isn't any harder to use than Windows, with the added benefit that it actually works!
I have to admit, I loooooove Ubuntu! But World of Warcraft on a win-emulator suuuuucks. :( I switched to Mac because I got tired of being a sysadmin. Ubuntu almost lured me back, but for my pesky gaming addiction. :D
dollraves wrote:1988RedT2 wrote:I have to admit, I loooooove Ubuntu! But World of Warcraft on a win-emulator suuuuucks. :( I switched to Mac because I got tired of being a sysadmin. Ubuntu almost lured me back, but for my pesky gaming addiction. :Ddollraves wrote: Some folks complain that it's "a lot of work," but it's still less (for me, at least) than dealing with a real Windows machine. Because I'm with The Oatmeal on how to fix Windows...Hey, that's kinda funny. I sorta did that, but I skipped the Apple part because I'm too cheap. I went straight for Linux (the Ubuntu flavor) and that's where I've been for about 3 years now. Nowadays, Linux really isn't any harder to use than Windows, with the added benefit that it actually works!
Fortunately, my gaming addiction consists of games that were popular in the late twentieth century, like the original Warcraft, Warcraft II, Duke Nukem, and the like. I am impressed at how well these games run under Dosbox or Wine in Ubuntu. It's a kick getting a multiplayer Quake III arena game going with my two boys. I've had to iron out a few glitches and learn a little, but it's been surprisingly easy.
I've taken the "business class" laptop suggestion pretty seriously and have pretty much settled on the HP EliteBook 8560p as meeting all my needs/wants within my budget: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834157831
I figure I'm getting about 90% of the toughness of a ThinkPad or MacBook Pro for about 60% of the price. Discussing the ruggedness of the ThinkPad with my girlfriend she referred to them as the Toyota Hilux of laptops. 
I'm particularly pleased that this HP has a spill resistant keyboard and a larger keyboard drainage hole to evacuate misdirected beverages. Given the purpose of the trip, that seems like a very valuable feature. 
dont buy one of the new hp's unless its one of the i4 or i7 processor's, NOT the base models. I paid 500 for this p.o.s. and hate it with a passion. really wish I would have just saved and gotten a macbook, and I have NEVER been a mac person. I had an old pretty upscale hp and it was absolutely fantastic for the three years it lasted, not so much anymore though. Dell is coming out with solid computers now, and asus is pretty great as well.
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