Re: looking into a laptop
I really can't agree with many of the things said here, some are decent suggestions, like using a Macbook as a Windows box, but that has it's own problems as well, even under Bootcamp; mainly, that there is no right control key, which is a problem in games that let you use both to complete actions more quickly, E.G. Pipe and Pipe2, the recently revamped version of Superliam, and others, or have different uses for each one. There is also an issue with the grave accent key, where it's function is randomly switched to that of the apostrophe key within other programs; however this isn't really such a big deal, even if it does slow down drawing of your field kit a bit in Swamp.
What is a big deal though, is that you can't do a right click with the touch pad, only a left click, which is an issue in RTR and Swamp, too very popular titles in the au
dio games world that are made considerably better with the use of a mouse; and while there is a way to set up the ability to do one by holding down function and clicking, it isn't the same as being able to quickly transition between them, or use both at the same time in the case of Swamp. This means that you need to invest in an external mouse, which is often rather awkward when paired with a laptop, or you can just deal with the far slower keyboard, which, in the case of Swamp, requires radically modifying your keyconfig.ini file.
Still, if you can find satisfactory workarounds for those issues, than yes, I would also highly recommend a Macbook if you can afford one, my vote goes to the macbook Pro 13 inch without Retna Display, with an I5 processor, 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD with Apple Care; because the newer Macs are very hard to repair with everything either glued or soldered in place, and no user access to speak of. A computer like that, with high quality
components and a one piece protective aluminum shell, should last you long enough to where you would have had to buy two or three mid range, 500 to 700 dollar laptops in the same amount of time, probably ten or more years as long as you aren't super ruff on it.
You also get another entire operating system to mess around with, one that is very stable, intuitive, VI accessible, and fast, along with a talking recovery partition to help you out if something goes wrong, and a host of other useful built in tools.
Apple does spy on you though, all the time, just like every huge company will if given a chance, why wouldn't they, the opportunity is simply too good to pass up, and the benefits of having all that raw data to predict market trends with far outweigh the criticisms and mistrust, as long as people don't actually care enough to stop buying.
On the laptop brands and minimum processor frequency statements, I'm sorry to say that I can't
disagree more, even if I do agree about the security risks of Windows 10, the 4GB minimum RAM on full featured 64 bit operating systems, and the importants of finding an accessible keyboard. Dell is the only brand listed that I would second there, but HP, even though it's gotten far, far better over the last 4 years, still has quality control issues and weird gaps in it's price point scheme; still, customer service apparently isn't bad lately, replacement accessories aren't too hard to find, and the computers them selves are mostly okay, with some notable exceptions cropping up every year without fail.
Acer is an innovative company with very good value for money on paper, but also uses cheap, easily breakable external and internal components, and has suffered for years with horrible customer service and legendarily lax quality control, so unless your in the market for an ultra cheap but still usable 11.6 and smaller media oriented netbook that you shou
ld never bump around, I would steer clear of them.
So at this juncture I would give the top spots to Dell, Lenovo, and Asus, especially for this price point, with HP being a close runner up.
As to the 3.0 GHZ minimum, that's just not true, every new iteration of Windows has a smaller footprint than the last, especially from Vista onward, and therefore requires less powerful hardware, that and clock rate is only one small factor of a CPU's efficiency, and hasn't been the main consideration since the 2010s, this is why so many laptops are now shipping with 2.0 to 2.5GHZ processors, in both dual and quad core configurations; anything greater is most likely either a pointlessly expensive overkill or for specific, power hungry applications, such as mass video conversion, real time large format graphics editing, or gaming on the latest titles at a high frame rate, all of which could be served better by a desktop with dedicated monitor setup at two thirds the
price.
Also, on the question of bloatware, the perceived impact of which has been blown way out of proportion lately, it's just not that big of a deal for most users unless it's truly enormous, just stop it from launching at startup and your good to go, then remove it fully at a later date if you really think you need the extra 50 to 300MB of space, which to be fare, you sometimes do, in which case you can usually get away with using a good uninstallation program such as revo uninstaller, or other similar solutions. Honestly though, the buildup of temporary files from the normal everyday use of the system is probably a bigger issue than the sometimes useful apps that come packaged with your new computer.
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