UPDATE: Windows 7 laptop vs Chromebook?

[LiberalEsto]

Last edited Mon Jul 28, 2014, 09:06 AM - Edit history (1)

Thank you all for excellent advice!

I decided to go with an HP laptop with Windows 7 and an optical DVD drive. Found it a Microcenter for about $330 plus tax. It will definitely need extra memory but that's not a problem.

I'm still debating whether to get MS Office or not. I don't use Outlook, PowerPoint or Access at all. OneNote is a frustrating, annoying piece of software, but I've got a lot of important writing stored on it. I use Excel a little, but have a lot of Word documents from the old pc that I'd like to be able to view and use.

The thought of shelling out more than $100 for Office and gumming up the limited memory with stuff like Outlook, Access, etc bothers me a lot. If only it were possible to just install Word and Excel without the rest.

LE




I'm starting to look around for a laptop and would be grateful for advice, even if it's suggestions on what to avoid.

I have only owned desktop pcs with Windows, currently an HP Pavilion with Windows 7 that has a failing hard drive. I'd like to get something with a built in optical DVD RW drive if that's possible, or one to which I could hook up an external DVD drive.

On DU and elsewhere I've read complaints about Windows 8/8.1, and would rather not use it. Unfortunately my price limit is around $300-$330.

Mostly I use a computer for internet searches, genealogy, DU, writing a small blog, email, uploading occasional photos from a digital camera, word processing, etc. No games, videos, movies or music; no need for most of the bloatware that comes with computers these days.

Also, thanks to recommendations from you wonderful DU folks, I use Firefox and Thunderbird.

The idea of relying on cloud storage makes me nervous - I'd rather back up to a DVD or an external hard drive. Also, are there compelling reasons to not use Google's Chrome? Is it based on Linux? If so, can you upload Windows-based material from backup DVDs?

Thanks for your suggestions!
LibE

[hobbit709]

1. Chrome will not run any decent programs, not compatible with any Windows stuff

A Chromebook is great if you want to check your mail, surf the web and streaming media but not good for any kind of productivity.
If your desktop has a failing drive just replace the drive. If the drive is still working you can clone it, if not just do a clean reinstall. The product key on the computer will validate. I would back up all my data on an external drive before it fails.

If you have a windows 8 computer, just install Classic shell and set it to look and feel like 7.

[LiberalEsto]

2. Thanks for explaining that. So Chrome is out.

I've thought about just fixing the PC, but I can't use it in bed. This became rather clear during the past two days as I was dealing with a tummy bug.

[teach1st]

3. I have lots of Windows laptops as well as Chromebooks for my class

Chromebooks run on Chrome, which is an operating system different from Linux and Windows. They do have USB, so you can use an external HD.

The Chrome browser is part of the Chrome Operating System. You cannot run Firefox unless you install a Linux type OS on your Chromebook, such as Ubuntu (there are directions online for doing so).

You can do everything else you described on a Chromebook, with the exception - perhaps - of uploading pictures. I've never used a Chromebook with a camera (I use my Windows desktop), but a quick Google search seems to reveal some users having difficulty. Google suggests inserting the camera's card in the Chromebook and not using USB. https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/chromebook-central/GciA-jcaRRA

The advantages of Chromebook include minimal upkeep, security, great battery life, and fast startup and shutdown. They are light, too. I know that the new ones have larger screens, but not large enough for me. If you do processor or disk-intensive work, go with something else. The activities you described are fine for Chromebook.

You might get a good idea of Chromebook's strengths and weaknesses from this article, Living With a Chromebook, from PC Advisor.

[d_r]

7. you can upload pictures

i've only down it with putting the card in the sd slot. I never keep up with camera cables to think about that. You can upload to google + or picassa or whatever you want to.

[Cooperstown]

4. If storage on a cloud someplace is not for you, ...

Chromebooks are OUT, for you.

Windows 7 is preferable for previous Windows users, because, as far as I am concerned, Windows 8.1 offers not distinct advantages over 7 and just gives you more bothersome bells and whistles, more screen clutter, more supposedly "smart" management tools which any savvy Windows 7 user can do without.

Windows 7 laptops are not generally available new in retail shops and on-line, but refurbished and warrantee'd Windows 7 laptops can be found on-line, even through reputable on-line and bricks-and-mortar stores such as Best Buy, or even Amazon, Ebay, etc. Finding one in a $300 price range, quite possible. I bought a brand new Windows 8.1 laptop, (Dell) from Best-Buy for $400 last month. I bought a refurbished window 7 desktop from a Best-Buy aligned reseller last week for $160, and it was delivered in 4 days, works just fine, has a licensed Windows 7 operating system, and is sleek and fine and five years old, (4 GB ram 80 GB hard drive, 6 USB ports, DVD and separate CD burner/player). Check for a local small store retailer or re-seller in your area who may make a retirement income for some person refurbishing 2-4 year-old Windows 7 laptops. There ARE many sources for Windows 7 refurbished laptops, but you might have to browse around for a few on the internet to find one to fit your needs and desires, decide if you trust the seller, (Best-Buy now lists refurbished products from aligned reputable re-sellers and handles the credit card purchase, as the seller sends you the product via UPS or Fed-EX, etc.) Be sure to check the specifications carefully before placing an order on-line, make sure it has built-in WiFi access, a couple USB ports, adequate RAM, (4-GB is best, 2-GB adequate), etc.

Most refurbished Windows 7 laptops come with WiFi, a CD-DVD drive, so software loading from a disk would be no problem. Look for models built in the last 4-5 years. Also, think in terms of buying 2 or more of those little USB flash drives, (available in up to 32-GB models for $12.95 each or less), as a back-up medium for your files, documents, pictures, etc. Two or three of those little flash drives can hold millions of pages of documents, thousands of old pictures, short videos, etc., and can literally fit comfortably in a shirt pocket.

Unless you're willing to use the cloud for storage, stay away from Chromebooks.

Just my two cents on this topic. Others may advise you differently.

[jrandom421]

5. Several places for laptops in your price range

If you're close to a Fry's, they've got good deals in their weekly ads.

Another place to check in Newegg.com in their refurbished section.

Also, check out the Dell Outlet.

http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineSales/Online/InventorySearch.aspx?brandId=2201&c=us&cs=22&l=en&s=dfh

Not only deals, up to 30% off and full factory warranties, but sometimes free shipping.

Good luck!

[d_r]

6. I bought my wife a chromebook

and I just ordered one for my 10-year-old because he loves he write stories.

Chromebooks are actually pretty dang awesome for 90% of the people who use computers.

My wife has an HP 14". The monitor isn't super great, but I like watching netflix and amazon prime on it fine.

It boots up in about, I don't know maybe 7 seconds. It is really fast.

It has four gigs of ram and a little bit of free 4g, so that it nice.

The thing about it is, it is just easy, it just works. It is secure. It is stable.

If you do writing, you just do it on google docs and save to your google drive.

you'll get a free 100 gigs on your google drive.

if you want to store your documents and pictures, movies, etc. locally then remember that it takes SD cards and USB sticks. You can stick a huge usb 3 hard drive on it for that matter. Store away.

You can use google drive and google docs off line.

It is amazingly light. It is incredibly simple to use.

For my son. because I know that he will basically be using it to replace a word processor, i just got one of the 2 gig 11" Acers that are so ubiquitous. I paid $170 on the internet with free delivery and no sales tax. His school uses google drive anyway so its a no brainer.

For what you listed it is much better than a windows computer. You won't have to spend any time or energy worrying about viruses and junkware and all that windows muck and bloat.

Chromebook is based on linux. If you really want to, you can easily install basically any linux distro on it that you want to. But in your case, if what you are mostly doing is blogs and writing and internet, there is no reason to install another distro on it. Chromebook already does it.

Here is a way to check it out. Just put a chromium browser on your pc and go look at the google chrome store.

For your geneology files to you use gedcom or something like that? Here is a geneology guy talking about it, it isn't 100% accurate (he says that chrome isn't linux, it is) but he probably touches on issues that you are probably most interested in and it looks like the geneology software isn't as mature as on other platforms so you'll want to look in to what he shows and see if it works for you: http://blog.eogn.com/2014/05/01/why-use-a-chromebook/

Oh, google is going to make android aps available for chromebook in the future also. So if there are better android aps for geneology keep that in mind.

[jrandom421]

8. RE: Update

You don't have to spend the money for Microsoft Office, if you don't use major portions of the suite or don't need the advanced features. You could do well with LibreOffice or OpenOffice for a full office suite. Or if you need just the word processor, you can get Abiword. They're all open source, so you can just download them, install them and use them. The Word compatibility has been improved and they work well with pretty much all Word Docs, unless you have complex formatting and macros.

For a standalone Excel replacement, you can try Gnumetric. Again, works pretty well, unless you need complex formatting or macros

http://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-fresh/

http://www.openoffice.org/

http://abisource.com/

http://gnumeric.org/

[LiberalEsto]

9. Thank you!

Open Office sounds really good. Think I'll go with that

[jrandom421]

10. Also

OneNote is a free download now.

http://www.onenote.com/Download