Wow! A lot of new laptops have come out!

  • Thread starter Thread starter MRoss
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Barny said:
Why are they overpriced? Sure, the hardware is overpriced, but you get much more value-added via Mac OS X, the best operating system on the market, period.

If you buy any of those other laptops your options are windows (which is a sack of shit) or installing a linux-distro. As someone who has done this and values his free-time, I would recommend that as a poor option unless you want to be a systems administrator, since you'll have to spend most of your time in the terminal trying to get software to work. Not a great use of time IMO.
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Comparing OS's is a subjective matter. Every computer science student that I have encountered who owns a macbook - friends, people in lectures etc. - runs windows 7 on it, as they perceive Mac OS X to be a "sack of shit". Our lecturer went off on a 20 min rant about how whenever they try to implement osx options with whatever software they are using for the course, without fail they are faced with an overwhelming amount of bugs/compatibility issues etc. so they just gave up on the whole idea. That being said, I don't think one is decidedly better than the other - different strokes.
 
yrekkehs said:
http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3595350

I'd pull the trigger on this one if this is for work (no decent gfx card, which is probably a blessing in disguise) + SSD
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I'm eyeing a deal for T420 for sub $1,000 with decent specs. I don't game so it's purely no-frill, work machine. If you come across one, let me know.
I have a 14.1" 1400x1050 screen so going down to a 16:9 lower res screen is a huge turn off but Thinkpad don't seem to make nice 4:3 LCD anymore.
 
Treefingers said:
Comparing OS's is a subjective matter. Every computer science student that I have encountered who owns a macbook - friends, people in lectures etc. - runs windows 7 on it, as they perceive Mac OS X to be a "sack of shit". Our lecturer went off on a 20 min rant about how whenever they try to implement osx options with whatever software they are using for the course, without fail they are faced with an overwhelming amount of bugs/compatibility issues etc. so they just gave up on the whole idea. That being said, I don't think one is decidedly better than the other - different strokes.
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Tbh I shouldn't really argue with this about business students, because if you just want to use excel or matlab then windows is great. If you do any proper programming then a unix based OS is vital, and Mac OS X is the best unix based OS you can get which is still user friendly (i.e. better than ubuntu etc.). Also, if you want your computer to work in 2-3 years (nevermind work well) without having to reformat every 6 months then you simply cannot use windows.
 
Barny said:
Tbh I shouldn't really argue with this about business students, because if you just want to use excel or matlab then windows is great. If you do any proper programming then a unix based OS is vital, and Mac OS X is the best unix based OS you can get which is still user friendly (i.e. better than ubuntu etc.). Also, if you want your computer to work in 2-3 years (nevermind work well) without having to reformat every 6 months then you simply cannot use windows.
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reformatting windows every 6 months so it works well in 2-3 years? how about upgrading windows for workgroups 3.11 to windows 7 to address that?
The defacto desktop standard in the industry is MS based OSs. You can choose to run MacOS for your own enjoyment if you wish but you won't be coming even close to what the average user is using on a daily basis in the office. I'd dare say that specifically in the financial industry it's very close to 100%. The only way you can get away with doing desktop app development on a non MS OS is when you build Java or Web based apps, but given the fact that your users' real desktops are MS OSs you'd be a lot better off by skipping one extra non necessary layer (your non MS OS) in your development process .
 
Barny said:
Tbh I shouldn't really argue with this about business students, because if you just want to use excel or matlab then windows is great. If you do any proper programming then a unix based OS is vital, and Mac OS X is the best unix based OS you can get which is still user friendly (i.e. better than ubuntu etc.). Also, if you want your computer to work in 2-3 years (nevermind work well) without having to reformat every 6 months then you simply cannot use windows.
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Maybe in the old days of XP...I am running Windows 7 and 8 with no such issues. I do c++ programming and have not reformatted in years.

Of course if I was trying to get every last bit of power out of my machine I would run a stripped down linux...in fact I have a server running ubuntu that I use for simulations, but for normal tasks nothing beats Windows.

Also, I find ubuntu to be far more user friendly than Mac OS X.
 
Manos Makrakis said:
reformatting windows every 6 months so it works well in 2-3 years? how about upgrading windows for workgroups 3.11 to windows 7 to address that?
The defacto desktop standard in the industry is MS based OSs. You can choose to run MacOS for your own enjoyment if you wish but you won't be coming even close to what the average user is using on a daily basis in the office. I'd dare say that specifically in the financial industry it's very close to 100%. The only way you can get away with doing desktop app development on a non MS OS is when you build Java or Web based apps, but given the fact that your users' real desktops are MS OSs you'd be a lot better off by skipping one extra non necessary layer (your non MS OS) in your development process .
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It's industry standard because it's so user friendly a trained ape could use it. I expected users of quantnet to be slightly more sophisticated, not just in their choice of OS but in their reasoning for a particular OS's dominance at least..

In science and engineering, nobody uses windows for anything unless they're a complete newb. I don't deny that if you work in a bank you'll use windows, and if you want to develop programs in a bank you probably should use windows. But this is for a personal laptop (I thought?) therefore you should probably considering buying the best rather than just what's convenient.

Consider compiling and running a C program on a unix based system. All you need is a compiler and a text editor, then
"gcc test.c -o test" followed by "./test" will have your program compiled and running. On windows it requires all sorts of software to do something that is very simple on a unix based system. I defy you to suggest that windows is more user friendly for those sorts of tasks.

There are of course things which are possible using unix which windows is not even capable of doing - ever tried extracting the i'th row and the j'th column of 100 files, but only if that entry is preceded by 'ENERGY='?. Something which is relatively straightforward in unix and for which I have not the first clue how you'd begin doing using windows.
 
Barny said:
It's industry standard because it's so user friendly a trained ape could use it. I expected users of quantnet to be slightly more sophisticated, not just in their choice of OS but in their reasoning for a particular OS's dominance at least..

In science and engineering, nobody uses windows for anything unless they're a complete newb. I don't deny that if you work in a bank you'll use windows, and if you want to develop programs in a bank you probably should use windows. But this is for a personal laptop (I thought?) therefore you should probably considering buying the best rather than just what's convenient.

Consider compiling and running a C program on a unix based system. All you need is a compiler and a text editor, then
"gcc test.c -o test" followed by "./test" will have your program compiled and running. On windows it requires all sorts of software to do something that is very simple on a unix based system. I defy you to suggest that windows is more user friendly for those sorts of tasks.

There are of course things which are possible using unix which windows is not even capable of doing - ever tried extracting the i'th row and the j'th column of 100 files, but only if that entry is preceded by 'ENERGY='?. Something which is relatively straightforward in unix and for which I have not the first clue how you'd begin doing using windows.
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So you are arguing that the reason for MS dominance in the industry in the desktop arena is because of its user friendliness? If that were the case then Macs should be on everybody's desk if not under it as well. What's more user friendly than a computer with a mouse with only one button?:D
Anyway I surely don't have the time or need to persuade you of anything. I am sure you use what you think is best for you already. However if for you the measure of "user friendliness of an OS" is the ability to type in a text editor and compile a c program using gcc and you ever find yourself in the unfortunate position to only have a windows machine near you, just do exactly what you do on unix. Download gcc for windows (you can get cygwin for that matter) and knock your socks off with vi , emacs or whatever else pleases you. You could even use MS Notepad !
 
MRoss said:
1600X900 is not better than 1440X900? I certainly like it better.
Sony Vaio S, Asus Zenbook, ... and more. All 13" (1600X900).

And of course: Vaio Z 1080X1920... but who has that kind of money.

Eitherway, 1080 is overkill at 13". Can't imagine why anyone would use it over 1600X900.
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none of these existed 6 months ago.
 
alain said:
none of these existed 6 months ago.
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I know. Except for the Z. But again, I know its overkill. Although you can get a used Z with 1600X900 with an SSD and a GT330 graphics card for $1,000 on eBay. Not bad at all!
 
Barny said:
Why are they overpriced? Sure, the hardware is overpriced, but you get much more value-added via Mac OS X, the best operating system on the market, period.
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Let me get this straight... You are claiming that Mac OS justifies costing $1,000 MORE than a comparable Sony? Are you bonkers?
Eitherway, if you feel that Mac OS is worth $1,000, why not save some money and buy the Sony I was referring to and then:

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-install-mac-os-x-on-a-pc-without-using-a-mac/

Now what's your argument?
 
Guys I specifically did not post Macs on my original post because I did not want this to become war. People are opinionated. That is fine. Some people like Mac OS better and some people like Windows better. Again, that is fine. I just can't bear to watch people burn good money when they could spend literally a thousand dollars less and get essentially the same machine! Also, as per my above post you can use Mac OS (or dual boot) if you prefer Mac to Windows.
 
MRoss said:
I know. Except for the Z. But again, I know its overkill. Although you can get a used Z with 1600X900 with an SSD and a GT330 graphics card for $1,000 on eBay. Not bad at all!
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you couldn't get a Z for 1K 6 months ago. Now, I have an air. I'm really happy with it but I rather have a computer with linux, 8 GB of memory and a Delete key.
 
Manos Makrakis said:
So you are arguing that the reason for MS dominance in the industry in the desktop arena is because of its user friendliness? If that were the case then Macs should be on everybody's desk if not under it as well. What's more user friendly than a computer with a mouse with only one button?:D
Anyway I surely don't have the time or need to persuade you of anything. I am sure you use what you think is best for you already. However if for you the measure of "user friendliness of an OS" is the ability to type in a text editor and compile a c program using gcc and you ever find yourself in the unfortunate position to only have a windows machine near you, just do exactly what you do on unix. Download gcc for windows (you can get cygwin for that matter) and knock your socks off with vi , emacs or whatever else pleases you. You could even use MS Notepad !
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Have you ever used cygwin? It's vile.
 
MRoss said:
Let me get this straight... You are claiming that Mac OS justifies costing $1,000 MORE than a comparable Sony? Are you bonkers?
Eitherway, if you feel that Mac OS is worth $1,000, why not save some money and buy the Sony I was referring to and then:

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-install-mac-os-x-on-a-pc-without-using-a-mac/

Now what's your argument?
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Good luck to anyone who attempts installing mac os x on a PC/windows laptop. Heaven knows I've tried and couldn't get it to work. The problem with these tutorials is they're written by hackers for hackers. A regular computer user like me wouldn't have a chance.
 
Barny said:
Good luck to anyone who attempts installing mac os x on a PC/windows laptop. Heaven knows I've tried and couldn't get it to work. The problem with these tutorials is they're written by hackers for hackers. A regular computer user like me wouldn't have a chance.
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I'll do it for you for $500. You'll still save $500 ;)
 
AlexandreB said:
I'm curious about the new chromebook (http://www.google.com/chromebook/).

It might not answer the programming needs of all the geeks here (including myself) but with more and more apps online (codepad.org, docs.latexlab.org) I wouldn't be surprised personal computing to head this way.
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Apparently Microsoft believes the world is headed this way as well. Check out Windows 8. It looks like a simplified tablet OS. Bad move IMHO. But I wouldn't buy the Chromebook until a whole lot of reviews come out for it. Also, it is essentially a very expensive non-Windows netbook; see my first post about buying netbooks. Summary: Don't.
 

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