Shopping Help

[etherial]

Thoughts on buying a new computer. What I need:

• a laptop model
• a full adult-sized keyboard
• a non-Vista operating system requiring one click or less to install
• the ability to run multiple web browsers at once (as well as a game or two)
• cheap (free) anti-virus protection
• DVD drive

I've only bought one computer before. That was easy: Go to apple.com, fill out the information for the educator's discount, buy a top-of-the-line model with all the upgrades. Unfortunately, I have not the budget for a top-of-the-line anything. So, any suggestions on sellers, manufacturers, and models?

Edit: I really do mean non-Vista. XP is a version of Windows I'd be willing to use. 7 seems to have all the usability of XP with all the pretty of Vista, but that's just my first impression. *nix is fine, and the one click is just a metaphor, but I remember the days when it took months to *nix working properly on a PC, and I want a guarantee that it'll be fully functional in half an hour.

Comments

[londo.livejournal.com]

First and most important: Newegg is superior. Seriously, these guys are better than everyone. Occasionally someone gets cheaper than Newegg, and every time I've been lured by that I've ended up regretting it.

Second: ...I don't know if you're going to get a one-click OS install. You might get some zero-click preinstalls, though.

Third: I'm very pleased with my Acer Timeline. The battery lasts for ages, it's light, and the keyboard is as big as any I've ever seen. There's a downside in that the processor is nerfed - it's a netbook-level CPU - but I don't do CPU-heavy gaming, which is the only thing that *really* taxes a modern CPU. If battery life is important to you, take a look at the Timeline series.