Laptop recommendations - one for work one for DS1

[Solo2]

I need a laptop so I can work on the go. Already have a PC - Windows Vista - am a techno dinosaur and need something completely compatible that can have all my work data on both PC and laptop and use wireless broadband in our home and out and about, access internet and store large files and documents using Word. I'm looking for something fairly good quality and reliable.

Secondly, my son's school has recently said they'll allow him to use a laptop for some work there but despite the school recently acquiring 16 new laptops for pupils, they require ME to buy one for him. He already has his own home PC (Windows Vista) and I'm looking for something fairly cheap but reliable that would be compatible with his home PC too.

In each case, what would people recommend and what do I need to think about in terms of memory storage etc etc?

Bumping my own thread and an additional question - if a laptop has Windows 7 installed will this be compatible both ways with documents done on the Windows Vista based desktop?

If you're thinking about documents, it's not really Vista/Windows 7 compatibility you need to be concerned with, but the compatibility of whatever program you used to create the documents.

For example, you can run Word 2003, Word 2007 or Word 2010 on Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7.

If you have Word 2010, it will read documents created in 2003 or 2007.

Word 2007 will read documents created in Word 2003, and it will also read most if not all documents created in Word 2010

Word 2003 will read Word 2007 documents if you download a convertor from the Microsoft site, though if the person who created the Word 2007 document used some of the formatting or features not available in 2003, they will be lost. i assume the same is true of Word 2010 documents opened with 2003, though I haven't tried it.

I work in a junior school and we have computers running XP and Word 2003, XP and Word 2007, Windows7 and Word 2007 and Windows 7 and Word 2010. The children cope with the different foprmats far better than the teachers....

There are some programs which work on XP and don't on Windows 7, but so far I've always been able to get a patch or workaround from the manufacturer, and I would think you would be unlikely to find many that work on Vista and not Windows 7.

have you seen laptop suggestions made on the following thread:
Help a Luddite choose a new laptop

your DS is likely to want something smaller (bit more trendy, and coming into the cheaper category, too) so I would suggest "EEE book" perhaps (XP was allowed by Microsoft on early models and many firms stuck with XP in preference to Vista... used XP may be from ~175 while a new Win 7 Asus EEE book seem to be up to 375 quid).

Of course lots of options, part down to your budget and trade off risks of theft/damage away from home. Plenty of netbooks... (Asus) MSI Samsung Acer... Google Shopping may be worth using to get some model numbers/ guide to cost and then search agaiin (any search engine so not just where Google benefits)... and check deals on individual sites eg Comet, Tesco, Asda, JohnLewis(.com) dell.co.uk/tv

As for "and use wireless broadband in our home and out and about"

Do you mean using wi-fi "hotspots" or 3G (mobile networks like Oange / Vodafone/ Three) when out ?

Compatibility of documents may depend on what software your files are being manipulated with (*)... perhaps more clarification would help...

(*) and these days compatibility issues with work/ education systems may be place to start...

(strarted post a while ago but needed to restart Firefox hence duplication a bit regarding compatibility of files/ software)

Thanks. On my home PC, I use Microsoft WORD 2000. Is that what you mean by compatability? Would I need to have the same on the laptop for the easy transmission of documents worked on both devices?

Not sure if I mean using wi-fi hotspots or 3G. If I wanted to tap into a mobile network, what would I have to do (did post here about getting a mobile phone a few weeks ago but never had time to follow this up - so don't have or use one at the moment, therefore not with any network at present).

A mobile network would have flexibility to be used (signal permitting) even in places where no public access wi-fi may be on offer (but there are often some fees associated with wi-fi access eg at hotels etc...

Need to get some idea of what 'net would be used for hen not near home (as different quantities of data vary (also depends on network).

used for when not near home
(further - would locations you woukd visit be varied or regular locations?)

newer/other software should cope OK with MS Word 2000

We have a number of Samsung netbooks at home which have been good/reliable and not too expensive. They come with Windows 7 these days and you could use LibreOffice to read your Word documents and do Office-y things for free. They usually cost about £200 (ish).