Laptop for home business use?

[TheDayOfMyDoctor]

DH needs to buy a laptop that he'll primarily use for work (self-employed). I have a mac and aside from that we've both always had work laptops so haven't really had to buy a windows computer for yonks!

Any recommendations for decent laptops, versions of Office or tips for what to look out for in terms of memory, speed, processor? He'd hate windows 8 I think - technology isn't his strong point and he'd find it pretty frustrating. He'll use it a lot for word documents, presentations, some excel work etc.

TIA

Why can't he use the Mac? Can you not 'export' documents or whatever from a Mac in Windows format? I don't know, I'm only surmising, but fifteen years or more ago when we used Acorn RiscOS we could output from that in a whole variety of formats.

We don't use Windows, and have Linux and Firefox, which a lot of people are using these days, and the software is 'open source' so is free.

If money isn't a problem (yea right) buy an Apple you like, buy Parallels which will allow you to use Windows on it. Then buy the Windows version you like and load it on. I have, and it works ok. I wanted to keep some of my Windows SW but wanted a Mac. Just a thought. As for Office, there is of course Microsoft Office, but also some free suits around you can test/try. It all comes down to cost in the end. Best of luck.

He hates using my MacBook and would really just prefer to have a separate windows based laptop that he can use MS office on. Thanks for suggestions though.

Oh, in answer to your question Ferguson I do have Office for Mac and can export files that can open in Windows. Technology isn't his strongest point though (which is why I'm doing some research for him) so he wants something he's comfortable using.

It sounds to me as though he wouldn't like Windows 8, so you are looking at a Windows 7 system. Most budget systems should be able to cope with MS Office.

Look for a Core i3 or i5 processor with 4GB RAM. A 500MB hard disk is probably a lot bigger than needed, but it's very much the minimum you should expect even in a budget system these days.

The bricks and mortar retailers will probably only have Windows 8. For Windows 7 systems look at ebuyer.com and Laptops Direct.

That's useful, thanks. I'll have a look at those sites.

and the software is 'open source' so is free.

Be a little bit careful with that: the 'free' in Free Software refers to freedom, rather than 'no charge' (as per the Free Software Foundation: "think of 'free' as in 'free speech', not as in 'free beer'."); it all depends on the licence under which it's released. The likes of Red Hat and SuSE (not OpenSuSE) cost as they contain proprietary code.

You can also get Windows 7 laptops from Misco, who are a huge reseller in the UK.

Consider getting Windows 8 and then installing a Windows 7 front end such as Classic Shell. This will give you the performance and compatibility of Windows 8 with the look of Windows 7.

If you're buying a Win7 machine, aim for an Intel Core i5, 4GB RAM. For a Win8 one a Core i3 will suffice. That will cost you around £450 for the Core i5 and £380 for the Core i3.