Laptop recommendations please

[BibiBOO]

We're looking for a nice new laptop, mainly for internet, storing photos and music, can anyone recommend a good one with a mahoosive memory???

What should I be asking for when I go to the shop so I don't get talked into buying something I don't want?

Thank you.

Funnily enough, the machine attached to my telly is a Mac Mini - horses for courses

"there are many and the differences are complex. Mac OS X is Mac OS X, one box, one price, all the features." is oversimplification, because some applications depend on particular (latest) versions...

I've got HDMI out on the Mesh desktop I'm typing this on - it connects to the 19" LCD TV that I use as a PC monitor. My Toshiba laptop's got HDMI out that I occasionally use hooked up to our main LCD TV. Works a treat.

Oh, and note that some of the new MacBooks (and the new Mac Mini, I think) don't have HDMI connectors - they're coming with mini DisplayPort connectors instead. I think you can get DisplayPort to HDMI adaptors.

Go on to Amazon and look for Windows 7.

You've got "Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, Full Version" for £106, "Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade Family Pack for XP or Vista users" for £129, "Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate, Full Version" for £170, "
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, Upgrade Edition for XP or Vista users" for £165, "Microsoft Windows 7 Professional, Full Version' for £150 and so on and so forth.

For Mac OS X there's two versions, a single license for £20 or a family license of 5 copies.

As said one box, one price, all the features.

I like Windows and consider myself to be reasonably technical yet I get flumoxed when someone asks "so what version of Windows do I need?"

If you're going to say that Mac OS X is complicated because you sometimes needs the latest version of the program then you have to say the same for Windows. And for each version of Windows there's at least 6 times the packages as there is for each version of Mac OS X.

Comparing "latest version" to "latest version" has Mac OS X being simpler. Trying to consider other versions makes Windows look exponentially worse. Add one version of OS X, add at least 6 versions of Windows.

Windows pricing and packaging is complex.

Mac OS X pricing and packaging is simple.

And I say that as a relative Windows fan (for certain things), it's really rather inarguable.

I also say this as someone who's in the main a few versions of Mac OS X, and one serious hardware revision, behind the loop and yet doesn't really have any major problems.

I'm not saying that everthing in Mac land is wonderful, it's not. But I know that when I buy a boxed set of Mac OS I get everything, unless you pay a lot of money you simply cannot say the same for Windows.

I'd second the recommendation for Dells. We used to use them at work and they were pretty robust. We had a lower hardware failure rate on those than the MacBooks.

Saying that, the business-class Toshibas are pretty good, too (and Toshiba have been making laptops for longer than pretty much any surviving PC manufacturer). The low-end Toshibas are nothing special though; very Acer-ish. Sony Vaios are very cute but Sony's support for them is horrendous and they fail with sickening regularity.

I'm just about to upgrade to the new Ubuntu. I'm surprised that you can't get your Broadcom wireless card to work, though - I know they can be fiddly due to firmware copyright issues but this might be worth a look if you haven't seen it already. Also, have you seen Wubi? It's a very easy way of getting dual-boot Ubuntu and Windows without having to faff around with the partition table or grub.

Incidentally, there is another Mac OSX version - Snow Leopard Server.

. Acer and the like are cheap junk IMHO.

well, that was the danger..their expensive machine worked (and still works) brilliantly...releasing lower -end machines reduced the perceived brand-value.

though i have never found difficulty sourcing free versions of the software i needed which wasn't included in the initial bundle that came with.

No help at all after seeing that your dh won't allow them, but MacBook is my only recommendation!

I love it to bits and have been an Apple user for several years now and will never go back to PC.

Have used a Dell laptop in the past, was ok but not as nice to use as my mac, plus I don't get the viruses that I used to get.