cheap laptops...whats the best...?

[glasgow guy]

right !
the subtle hint has been dropped at home for christmas pressies...and I dont have a clue about them...she (who must be obeyed?) has hinted at a laptop...now I dont want to spend too much cash as we now have baby and pressies for him to buy is a must !
someone said that these things on the links are really good but I am none the wiser...
Asus Eee PC: £199 Linux laptop - Crave at CNET.co.uk

and

ASUS Eee PC 701 Review Review in Notebooks Reviews at ZDNet.co.uk

now she is only interested in surfing the net...no downloading music or films etc...

so whats good just now and are those in the links worth it ? ...pros and cons in normal speak please

I am sure entwisi could? offer some assistance...

[WillowTheWhisp]

The second one only has a 7" screen. I was looking at one and said to Busman how cute it was and he said would I really cope with a screen that small even if it was super portable. I think it would be too small for comfort.

Neither of them have windows - I've played with Linux but gone back to XP. What would you do if you wanted to run programs that wouldn't run because they were not compatible?

It all depends on what you want to use it for. My daughter for instance uses hers 90% of the time for MSN but I have oodles of fancy programs.

Another point is how much hard drive there isn't. Not much room to store anything.

[glasgow guy]

hmmm..now you've thrown a spanner in the works and I amunsure about the things even more so now !
anyone recommend/help out ?

[onlyme]

Hiya

Linux is an operating system best used with a business environment, all to do with citrix n stuff. Best to look for Microsoft operating system (XP or Vista). Vista is slowly becoming acceptable now on mpst things- couple of months ago I would have said avaoid like the plague lol. Windows 2000 is still ok, but is being phased out. XP is still being manufactured on tier 1 brands (HP, DELL, IBM) for the next year so its still a good buy.

Have a look on ebuyer.com (sorry if I'm not allowed to mention that lol) or even dabs.com. They have a habit of purchasing a bulk of end of life machines from HP etc for dirt cheap and so can sell them on at a discount as well. Ebuyer are advertising a HP laptop from 299 at the mo, but thats a brand new one and not refurbished. I think they advertise those as well and theyre cheaper.

Bear in mind that most machines these days can do over and above whats ever asked of them so will probs be over specced for what you need. DONT go for a Intel Pentium D processor, they have a nasty habit of overheating, and overworking the fans.

Am wittering on, so if you need any other help, please pm me and i'll be happy to help. If you have a business you can get a better discount over the web as a business customer as well

[andrewb]

Linux is perfectly good for a home environment

[onlyme]

sorry didnt mean any offence, was just saying that most software designed for a home environment is designed with Microsoft operating system in mind, such as xp or vista

[entwisi]

Oh dear onlyme. You really don't know much about Linux of late. And BTW Citrix runs on Windows......

Ubuntu and Madriva are leading the way with desktops. Look at Compiz Fusion that comes as defalt with Ubuntu. It leaves Vista in its wake for eye candy and runs on far less poweful machines than Vista needs for its AERO interface. With the lack of need for AV/anti-malware etc and the fact that it is a 'properly' secured OS designed to be so from the ground up it suits teh un-geek home user perfectly.

Vista needs a very powerful machine to be useable certainly not something a £200 laptop is going to be.

In response to Glasgow guy. I'd leave those two examples that you posted alone. Whilst they might be OK for a very limited market I doubt they would suffice for your requirements.

for a new laptop your looking at ~£300 upwards. Even then I'd avoid Vista like teh plague (in about an hour I'm about to remove all traces of that stinking pile of poo from my laptop. I rarely use Windows for anything but I'm going back to XP media centre as Vista is really not worth the effort.)

For your £200 budget look at factory refurb stuf with a decent warranty and XP. You should be able to get something that will offer far more than those links.

I spent 10 mins and found teh following

itfactory.co.uk - Cheap laptops: Refurbished IBM T23 Laptop


Factory Refurbished - Ex Demo Laptops FROM STOCK,Information Technology Clear Limited


I'm happy to keep an eye out as I do get stuff offered all teh time.

[glasgow guy]

Originally Posted by entwisi

Oh dear onlyme. You really don't know much about Linux of late. And BTW Citrix runs on Windows......

Ubuntu and Madriva are leading the way with desktops. Look at Compiz Fusion that comes as defalt with Ubuntu. It leaves Vista in its wake for eye candy and runs on far less poweful machines than Vista needs for its AERO interface. With the lack of need for AV/anti-malware etc and the fact that it is a 'properly' secured OS designed to be so from the ground up it suits teh un-geek home user perfectly.

Vista needs a very powerful machine to be useable certainly not something a £200 laptop is going to be.

In response to Glasgow guy. I'd leave those two examples that you posted alone. Whilst they might be OK for a very limited market I doubt they would suffice for your requirements.

for a new laptop your looking at ~£300 upwards. Even then I'd avoid Vista like teh plague (in about an hour I'm about to remove all traces of that stinking pile of poo from my laptop. I rarely use Windows for anything but I'm going back to XP media centre as Vista is really not worth the effort.)

For your £200 budget look at factory refurb stuf with a decent warranty and XP. You should be able to get something that will offer far more than those links.

I spent 10 mins and found teh following

itfactory.co.uk - Cheap laptops: Refurbished IBM T23 Laptop


Factory Refurbished - Ex Demo Laptops FROM STOCK,Information Technology Clear Limited


I'm happy to keep an eye out as I do get stuff offered all teh time.

good stuff my man...keep an eye out please...bottle of christmas plonk in it for you if you find me something..


and thanks for all the replies..

[entwisi]

No probs mate, if you pm me your mobile number as these things rarely hang around long

[onlyme]

vista only has a minimum memory and processor, and the spec of most laptops on the market today meet that anyway. but anyway...

Cheap Laptop Deals on HP, Acer, Toshiba, Sony, Samsung at Ebuyer

dabs.com - Notebooks products at great prices from dabs.com

[Mick]

Have a look here Roy asked me for somewhere and i gave him this place he went and had a look and bought a laptop and got a good deal on it too
its in Darwen


We specialize in new and second user computers

[entwisi]

They may specify a minimum spec ( 1 gig CPU 1 gig RAM and 40 Gig HD ) to be vista ready but try running it on that spec. I beta tested vista ona 1 gig machine as part of MSDN and with just Vista and 1 IE window it was using 800Meg. Even the released version is so memory hungry it is commonly accepted that you need 2 gig RAM to use it( and that is from a friend who is about as Microsoft friendly as they come who incidentally won't use it as quote" It doesn't work for what I need as a developer")

Most budget laptops come with 1 gig of RAM but pinch some (up to 256M) for graphics so you end up with a machine that is constantly swapping to disk making it run liek a complete dog. Not exactly a good experience for someone with a new laptop.

My Ubuntu laptop is currently using 800M thats running, IM, Opera, Email(Evolution), MySQL, MythTV, apache2 and a few other background services liek SSH, FTP etc. Thats aloso running teh full 3D compiz fusion desktop over Gnome

[andrewb]

Originally Posted by onlyme

vista only has a minimum memory and processor, and the spec of most laptops on the market today meet that anyway. but anyway...

Cheap Laptop Deals on HP, Acer, Toshiba, Sony, Samsung at Ebuyer

dabs.com - Notebooks products at great prices from dabs.com

My dad got a cheap replacement laptop as his bust. It was £350 and had vista preinstalled. It was actually more powerful than his previous one, however he was using XP on the other one.

The system ran like a steaming pile of slugs! It simply couldn't handle doing a few things at once.

What do you mean most people develop for Windows? Have you used Linux?

[onlyme]

i'll just shoot meself now and crawl back in me corner. Various versions of vista need different specs of machines, I use Vista on an older pc and xp on my laptop. Didnt like it at first but now runs like a dream and has useful tools etc.

Not used Linux but just looking at software available, think more is there for xp/vista. However as posted in a different thread, I am not a techy, no one had replied to the OP so was just trying to help with deals, thats all

Shall go and repent now

[andrewb]

Originally Posted by onlyme

i'll just shoot meself now and crawl back in me corner. Various versions of vista need different specs of machines, I use Vista on an older pc and xp on my laptop. Didnt like it at first but now runs like a dream and has useful tools etc.

Not used Linux but just looking at software available, think more is there for xp/vista. However as posted in a different thread, I am not a techy, no one had replied to the OP so was just trying to help with deals, thats all

Shall go and repent now

No need to go and repent! Its a common misconception

Lots of programs you know of, you know of because they're windows and don't have a linux version... but odds are that there will be an alternate program for linux that does the same thing (or more)..

For example, Photoshop don't work on linux, but there is a program called GIMP thats a completely free alternative!