5 replies to this topic

[Dave]

Let's suppose that I needed a portable laptop computing device. Let's also suppose that I'm poor. If we strip it down to bare essentials...maybe not even internet. Maybe I can get by with Word or a reasonable facsimile. (Open Office? I'm asking. I don't know how Open Office is.) Bare essentials for me means word processing and...um...I guess that's it. If I want internet or games, I'll go to my desktop. (I'd love a gaming laptop as much as the next guy, but I know that's out of my price range.)

Saw a refurb just over $400. Vista, unfortunately, but 4gb mem. If I can find that so quickly, I feel like I could do a little better.

No rush. I can wait.

[mango]

screen size? 10 inch too small? You can get those under $300 at walmart.

Also, verizon is subsidizing netbooks, assuming you want barebones 3G service from them... HP mini is $199

open office is an acceptable alternative to word. I used it until i was able to gimp a free copy of office 2008 from work.

[monogodo]

Newegg has the MSI Wind netbook for $289 running XP Home. Cynthia uses one for blogging. The keyboard is just a bit smaller than a standard keyboard, but still usable. I use Open Office and have no problems with compatibility with MS Office.

[Drax]

4 gigs or ram or memory is too much for what your wanting. id just go with that laptop they are talking about above from walmart. i beleive its a acer laptop. it can do wireless internet im pretty sure. if not. go with a vista computer, 2 gigs or ram. and you should be just fine

[jeckles]

Dave, on 25 August 2009 - 12:21 AM, said:

Let's suppose that I needed a portable laptop computing device. Let's also suppose that I'm poor. If we strip it down to bare essentials...maybe not even internet. Maybe I can get by with Word or a reasonable facsimile. (Open Office? I'm asking. I don't know how Open Office is.) Bare essentials for me means word processing and...um...I guess that's it. If I want internet or games, I'll go to my desktop. (I'd love a gaming laptop as much as the next guy, but I know that's out of my price range.)

Saw a refurb just over $400. Vista, unfortunately, but 4gb mem. If I can find that so quickly, I feel like I could do a little better.

No rush. I can wait.

You can get an Asus refurbed for between $100-200 if you look around. It will come with some sort of linux on it that is tuned to the machine. Rumor has it that it sucks. You can install Ubuntu Netbook edition at no cost and have a very functional laptop. You would be able to use OpenOffice.org and the internet (it has wireless.) As long as this is all you want from the laptop, this would be the most inexpensive way to go.

If you'd like, I'll let you know next time I see a deal like that.

[Dave]

jeckles, on 30 August 2009 - 03:02 PM, said:

If you'd like, I'll let you know next time I see a deal like that.

Indeed. That shows promise. Thank you.