h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Join? Nah, it's open source, you just down load it. There's no reason to sign up for the programme unless you're a programmer with something to contibute. Just like Blender etc.

Cool. I'll let her know. Cheers again

buy the looks of that openoffice site it seems anyone can download it. it appears to have somewhat the same appearances as MS-office...

But you said she is a teacher. There could be an educational discount on MS office packs...I got my office cd (with word, ppt, excel etc) for about 14 Euros with a student license.)

It all boils down what you want to do with your laptop. If you want to be mobile and not use it for "heavy" programs any standard laptop will suffice, why not go for a simple model, an apple or a relatively low end ms machine?

simpost :P

and its by the looks...silly me

You can get a reasonably good low-end lap-top for around £400 now...don't know what that is with a teacher discount. Unless you're gonna use your PC for online gaming or downloading DVDs and other high-spec stuff, there's no need to buy the high-spec PC.

I use a 5-year-old laptop, pentium II-type processor (remember them? ), Windows 98. Hey, the damn thing works!

RF

If I'd bought a PC with MS Office installed I wouldn't bother with OpenOffice but it had Works installed instead. Works sucks so I removed it and slapped OpenOffice in instead. It ain't perfect but it's good and, because it's open source, it gets updated more than once every three years!

I mentioned Blender earlier. I remember when you needed £500 for Lightwave. Belender's free, so it's worth downloading to have a muck about with anyway. There's a great feeling of accomplishment when you first play back an animation of a nicely renedered flying cube!

As others have said, specifications mean very little these days unless you're actually doing something intensive like playing games. I would recommend at least 512mb of RAM, however.

I'd suggest taking a look through a computer magazine, which you can do easily enough for free online. PC Pro/Computer Buyer (same company, same website) are probably a good bet.

Pay attention to review sections on ergonomics: a good monitor and keyboard can make a big difference.

A very nice combination is to have one of the extra small laptops with a large separate monitor. A 19" TFT is very nice to have and a decent one can be found for around 150 quid.

Personally, I just got a new PC. Did think about getting a laptop, but a cheap laptop would cost me at the very least 350 quid aand would have pretty much nothing to show for it spec wise, and would need another one in about 2 years. Instead, shopped around, got a desktop tower unit, dual core 2.66 Mhz processor, 512 Mb Ram, 120 GB Hardrive, DVD RW, some snazzy grpahics card g force 64 MB I think, the works basically all for 280 odd quid. Ok, didnt come with a monitor or perphirals, but just because I didnt get a branded pc, can get over the lack of a new monitor and got a desktop, I've saved myself so much money on a pc thats easily going to last me a few years.

Why would you need to get a new laptop after 2 years?

Laptops dont seem to last long in my company. Maybe its just me, but the desktop I just replaced lasted me 7 years. In that time, my family have got through 3 laptops. So 2 and a bit I suppose, I just dont like to split hairs.

OK. You get what you pays for I suppose. My last laptop lasted 6 years of daily, often extensive use, and actually still goes.

My PC is going on four years and is totally okey-dokey. Nog's laptop (after two years) is in computer hospital at the moment, getting a new hard disk put in. I think it's just the luck of the draw.

My microwave oven is working perfectly fine after five years, the one next door collapsed after two years.


az

I guess so, and it doesnt help that I have a little sister who downloads every piece of adware going. Also, desktops you can upgrade, but laptops, unless you are rich, you generally are stuck with what you buy.

Living in a small room, I always (only?) have a laptop and I don't like unknown labels, so I buy always Toshiba,when it's sale (I'm Dutch you know ).
Normal prices are around 1100 euro's or higher.

But I must say, I don't use it as a media player ánd I buy laptops with a minimum on software, because I already háve my own (from Torrent, etc).

But Laptops get too warm easily. Be aware of it.

And also be aware of the fact, if it can be opened easily at the bottom, so a repair won't takes hours.

For me the most important; I love the screen, because my (and anyone's) eyes don't get tired at all, while I can't say that after half an hour of a normal screen.

And, I lóve the "keyboard" so to speak; very soft and it stimulates me in writing stories.

Greetings from Amsterdam