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JennGM
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Although I'm much rather have a sewing machine, crafting stuff, books, or clothes, it looks like Christmas will be a new computer.
We were at first considering buying an Apple, but because of their open stand on Proposition 8 we're not putting our money that way.
What I want to know does anyone use a laptop for their main home computer? Do you use a docking station and larger monitor, or find the laptop monitor sufficient?
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Angie Mc
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I recently purchased a refurbished Dell desktop from Delloutlet.com and am very happy with it. After considering the directions you were/are considering, I went this way because my computer guy asked, "Do you want to invest a lot of time into learning something new? (Apple)" I said, "No way, I don't even know how to use my new cell phone yet." He said, "Don't go with Apple then. Most of my customers who have gone to Apple have not been happy with the learning curve or the cost." Next..."Do you need a laptop?" I said, "I don't know." He said, "Then you don't. You know if you do. If you don't need a laptop, stick to a desktop because they are sturdier and are cheaper to purchase and cheaper to fix." He helped me to pick out a Dell that fit exactly what we want from our computer at this time and for a few hundred bucks, we're in business.
Jenn, when I was at the resort in Tucson a few weekends ago there were a few business type women sitting poolside with their very cute Apples...I tried not to covet  .
Love,
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Angie Mc
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Paula in MN
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I've always had a Dell and have never had a problem with them. I second what Angie stated -- if you don't know if you need a laptop, you don't need one.
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 Paula
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JodieLyn
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yes from what we looked at.. the laptops are enough more that you should really want one before forking over that much.
We went with Dell again because the last computer from there worked for us for 7 yrs without a single call for help.. then it died.. and for machines that life expectancy is 5-10 yrs with 10 being close to miraculous  7 yrs without problems was very respectable.
We ordered a Dell online, got it in 8 days from the day we ordered.
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JennGM
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Thanks for the good advice. The thing is, I do have a laptop. I haven't used it as a laptop much lately because it's not that good...the computer itself is old, the screen wasn't that good, the battery doesn't work...so I couldn't really be portable. I did use the computer when on bedrest last year, so that aspect is extremely appealing...to be able to bring the computer where I want it to be.
But I have a docking station, a big monitor, printer, scanner...and just wondering if I can ditch the expense of the monitor and just use the laptop. I don't do videos or gaming, just use the computer for graphics and word processing...a work horse.
Or like your advice, should I just switch to a desktop system.
Our current system was from my old work...Dell, and not a problem that required support. So Dell definitely is frontrunner.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Family in Feast and Feria
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RamFam
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Ack! I use google for everything: searching, blog, maps, etc.! Is there an alternative? Yahoo search engine and maps? CatholicBlogs.com?
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Leah
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JennGM
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RamFam wrote:
Ack! I use google for everything: searching, blog, maps, etc.! Is there an alternative? Yahoo search engine and maps? CatholicBlogs.com? |
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Well, this is how I view it. Right now, I'm not giving them money. If I can find good alternatives for the freebies, I'll switch. But that isn't as pressing to me right now.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Mary G
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Jenn,
When our tower died just after we moved into the house in Denver, I opted for a laptop 2 years ago and I would again.... it's nice to be able to take the "whole thing" with when we go on a road trip and when we didn't have internet yet here in Virginia, I could take the laptop to Panera, wifi for free and drink coffee and eat yummy things ....
I think the bang for the buck for us makes the laptop a great idea.... but, except for football season, you don't move around much compared to us -- no, we're not moving anytime soon but we do then toward "road warrior" status during school breaks!
ETA: we don't use a docking station -- I have the laptop plugged in all the time, on my desk in the living room; when we go somewhere I unplug, but otherwise, not. I'm thinking of a MacBook next time, but this Gateway PC is working just fine and we'll stick with it for a while.
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JennGM
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Mary G wrote:
I think the bang for the buck for us makes the laptop a great idea.... but, except for football season, you don't move around much compared to us -- no, we're not moving anytime soon but we do then toward "road warrior" status during school breaks!
ETA: we don't use a docking station -- I have the laptop plugged in all the time, on my desk in the living room; when we go somewhere I unplug, but otherwise, not. I'm thinking of a MacBook next time, but this Gateway PC is working just fine and we'll stick with it for a while. |
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Thanks, Mary. We do travel quite a bit, at least once a month we're on the road, sometimes twice...and, like you said, in football season...  Dh's mom isn't doing too well, so I keep thinking I might have to uproot for a few weeks at a time to help out, so that aspect I was leaning toward the laptop, too.
So, no docking station. Do you do wireless printer? Do you ever scan? I'm a big scanner user here.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Family in Feast and Feria
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Mary G
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JennGM wrote:
| So, no docking station. Do you do wireless printer? Do you ever scan? I'm a big scanner user here. |
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Actually, our laptop is set up like a tower -- wired printer, wired internet, wired camera docking thingy to download pictures, wired mouse (cuz I just can't get the hang of the touchpad on the laptop!).
Anyway, when we go anywhere we don't worry about printing ... altho I do sometimes bring my camera docking thing so I can upload pix easily and the mouse travels with the laptop .... just seems to answer all our needs. The internet we have (fiber optic thru Verizon) would allow me to move the laptop elsewhere in the house and still have internet ... I just don't need to yet.
But like my knitting, I like to take the laptop with me on the road -- and we have USBs that can hold a ton of info so we're constantly saving to those in case the laptop goes astray or crashes or anything ... we got the Gateway thru Best Buy and got an extended, covers-everything 3-year warranty that has about 6 months left and we've never had to use it (which could be good or bad  !)
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MaryG
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SuzanneG
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Jenn, I asked a related question here:
Laptop vs. Desktop
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Carole N.
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Jenn, we have always had a desktop and we love it. Whenever we have a problem, dh can usually repair it. However, last year when we knew we were coming overseas, we decided to purchase a laptop. It has been great because when we are away from home, we can still have access to the Internet. This makes traveling much easier (and ds was able to attend his class last Friday when we were in Bath)!
Since we have a school room that is above the garage, dh has us set up with a wireless. I can print to the printer/scanner in the school room or upstairs in the study (which is were we set up the desktop). Like Mary, I just plug it in and go. So sometimes I am in the dining room, sometimes in the school room, and sometimes at a wifi pub! 
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Bookswithtea
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We are running an older Dell and are happy with it. I think I'm in the minority, but I don't like laptops. We had one in the house for a few months through dh's work. What I found was that every time I turned around, someone was invariably on it, and everyone else was over that person's shoulder, watching as well.  I cannot imagine having it on a family vacation. It would be like having all my phone calls forwarded to my cell or something like that, for me.
With a stationary unit, everyone gets their turn and then moves on to more creative ventures. With a laptop, its too easy to spend more time on the computer. I know your children are young, Jenn, so its not an issue right now, but if you are making an investment for the next 10 yrs, it might be worth considering??
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mavmama
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My dh won a Dell last summer. while it was great that it was free (!!!), I am finding that we really like it and would probably go with a Dell again. HTH
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LisaR
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Bookswithtea wrote:
We are running an older Dell and are happy with it. I think I'm in the minority, but I don't like laptops. We had one in the house for a few months through dh's work. What I found was that every time I turned around, someone was invariably on it, and everyone else was over that person's shoulder, watching as well. I cannot imagine having it on a family vacation. It would be like having all my phone calls forwarded to my cell or something like that, for me.
With a stationary unit, everyone gets their turn and then moves on to more creative ventures. With a laptop, its too easy to spend more time on the computer. I know your children are young, Jenn, so its not an issue right now, but if you are making an investment for the next 10 yrs, it might be worth considering??
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ditto!! I occasionally feel like we are in the dark ages without a laptop, but over the past few years, whenever dh's is around for a few weeks at home, it reminds me of a gameboy!! lots of kids hovered around a portable unit .
I like our Dell.
We had briefly thought about Mac, but wow, I get so distracted when I read the in your face tactics they are using to support gay marriage, among other things...
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Mary Chris
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The prop 8 thing made me sick to my stomach when I saw it on the Apple home page.
I love my laptop. I have gotten use to the smaller screen, I don't mind it a bit.
Like Mary G, I usually keep mine plugged in, I don't have a docking station. I like to move around the house. I can sit with the kids while they watch a movie and still do stuff on the computer. The kids can play in the front yard ..ride bikes or roller blade in the street and I can sit with my laptop at the front window and keep an eye on them.
If I were going somewhere for a long time, I might take a printer with me. Otherwise, I'm sure I could take whatever needed to be printed to Kinko's or Office Depot and have them do it for me. I don't understand how to scan, will you teach me?
I do take the cable for downloading pics from the camera. It stays in the camera bag anyway. I have found that Radio Shack has everything I computer, ipod, phone and camera that I might have forgotten.
I don't know that I would ever go back to a desk top.
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JennGM
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Books, I appreciate that insight. We're very strict about computers here. Ds isn't allowed to be on it at all. And we don't intend on allowing computer games until he is much, much older, and shows some balance and maturity in being able to regulate his time online.
Right now our computer is in an office that away from the main family rooms, and when it becomes a "family computer" and not just my computer, it needs to move into a more centrally located and visible area. So in that sense I think a laptop might be a better option in that way, if you saw the layout of our house. There is no good place to put a computer permanently in our family room.
So much to mull over... I missed that earlier thread, Suzanne, so thanks. I do appreciate the input of giving up the computer monitor for just the laptop.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Mackfam
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Mary Chris wrote:
| The prop 8 thing made me sick to my stomach when I saw it on the Apple home page. |
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Me too!!!!!!!!!
I will offer one other reason for the laptop and that is ease of placement. Our house has an open (and very challenging to work with) floorplan. The laptop is the family computer and is used for school projects, research, well....everything. It "lives" here in the learning room, but it moves everywhere in the house with ease which is nice. It doesn't have a large footprint, and I don't keep it hooked to anything but the battery charger. So, if I decide it is more of a distraction than a help here in the learning room - I move it. If my dh really needs it to live upstairs for tax time it goes up. If I'm desperately seeking a recipe that includes parsley, chicken and sour cream, you'll find the laptop sitting on my kitchen table. My husband and I have this tradition during the fall/Advent season - he watches football, I sit and Christmas shop on the laptop. Sounds goofy...but I like that we can sit together on the couch and I can lean over and say, "hey, what about this for the little man?" between plays.
I had no idea I needed a laptop until I began living with one and found its portability and flexibility of location to be a real benefit to our family's needs. Just throwing that out there from my weeping little mac.  I didn't know about Prop 8! Now, I'll have to start writing them so that I can replace my laptop in good conscience (hopefully in several years!)
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stefoodie
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If you're going to get a Dell, I'd suggest to go with one that has a docking station. My Dell laptop has taken so much abuse (it's about 4 years old), that last year I had to spend $400 to get the "post" (?) (for the AC connection) replaced. It's giving me trouble again and I really don't want to spend the $$ anymore, so I'm thinking of getting a separate battery charger and just going on DC all the time. I'd get a Mac but no funds for it right now -- which is a good thing given Prop 8. 
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Rachel May
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Love my (Bill's) laptop, and the only thing I wish is that it had wireless printing. I sit and catch up on email as I monitor kids falling asleep, but there is nearly always something that I will later have to make time to go into the dungeon and sit at the desktop and print. It becomes a time-suck.
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4Real Forums : Tea and Conversation
Topic: Home Computer Question
