[harrisjamieh]

OK, this may sound totally mad, but hear me out;

My sister needs a new laptop, and we have around £750-£800 to spend. She wants something small and light, with good battery, a stylish case and good battery life. She has been using Windows for all the time she has had a computer (I say all, she's only 14), so I am a bit apprehensive about throwing her in with Mac.

The thing is, I do not know of any machine, apart from the MacBook, that offers everything she wants, at such a great price, with such high performance. Here in the UK, the MacBook is just an extremely good value for money computer!

So, my main question is simple, do you think I will come into any problems using Windows as the primary OS? I know it sounds insane, but you have just read my reasons for wanting to do this. OTOH, if anyone thinks this is an absurd idea, and can suggest an alternative machine that will fulfill all requirements at the right price, then by all means, suggest away...

The reservation I have is that the future of boot camp is uncertain... I mean, the main functionality is not going anywhere, but if 10.5 brings virtualisation, and not a dual boot option, then my Sister will be forced to learn at least some Mac stuff, which she is reluctant to do. There is a chance I will eventually encourage her to mess around with X, but its not a sure thing..

Any thoughts on the matter will be appreciated!

[msuper69]

I can't see why Bootcamp would ever be dropped precisely because there will always be those who will want to use only Windows (or another OS) on their Mac.

Even if it were not available, I would bet that it will be possible to install Vista (whenever it is out) as the only OS.

I think it would be to Apple's advantage to at least be able to sell a Mac to a Windows-only user if that's what the user wants. Seems like a win-win to me.

[Eriamjh]

If you buy a mac now with boot camp, Apple can never take that away. You won't really be running OSX. You'll be running windows.

Here is your big problem. At this point, only Apple has released drivers for its machines for Windows XP that are worth a crap for video, etc. If you think that Apple will update them if it completely drops separate booting of XP/Vista, then you are stuck with whatever is available now.

I would NOT buy a mac today and think that you can always run windows on it. Buy it for OSX. Otherwise, wait for more info on Leopard from Apple or just buy a PC. Apple doesn't tell us what they are going to do and that sucks. But it makes for great surprise when they do make announcements!

[stwain2003]

I did some reasearch for you and found the Dell Inspiron 640m. There are two versions, I recommend that you get the (euro)629 version. It's a lot cheaper than the money you CAN spend, and its a great machine!

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/pr...hs1&l=en&s=dhs

[Cross]

You can grab a compaq V2000 series thats perfect and just what she would need.

I had a V2570NR
Turion 64 1.8Ghz
512MB Ram DDR
60Gig HD
ATI Radeon x200
14" Glossy Widescreen
DVDRW DL

Cost about 800 here in the us. I am not sure what the exchange rate is but they are cheap on eBay. I sold mine locally with a 40gig and 1 gig of ram for 550.

[harrisjamieh]

Cool, cheers guys. stwain, I have a mental block with Dells, but cheers for contributing anyway!

Cross, I'll look into that Compaq, it sounds rather good...

[stefanicotine]

I'd go with a Dell over a Compaq. No offense, just that in my experience the Compaq laptops have been poorly manufactured (screen hinges have snapped off) even though they have incredible specs for the price. I've never had a problem with Dell though.

Wouldn't getting a MacBook for just Windows be counterproductive, with that one button mouse? Or do they have two now?

[ghporter]

Dell has some really great deals right now, at least in the States. And some of their laptops are surprisingly similar to MacBooks.

[Apfhex]

I would suggest the MacBook for the very reason that OS X would be an option to her, should she want to try it out. And it's good to be familiar with more than just one OS.

[Apfhex]

Edit: Ugh.

[Apfhex]

*stabs the forum for messing up*

[©öñFü$íóÑ]

Originally Posted by Cross

You can grab a compaq V2000 series thats perfect and just what she would need.

My sister has one of these V2000 series laptops. It was alright for a good part of a year, but the fan inside of it just stopped working for no reason and the whole thing just shut off on its own (even after 5-6 minutes of 'light' use).

I guess it's true then, about everyone saying that Compaq's are poorly manufactured. But my sister sent hers in to be repaired and got it back with a new fan in only a few working days. Thankfully, she didn't have to pay anything because it was still under warranty.

I know we're all talking about laptops, but I have a Compaq Presario (desktop) that I bought back in Spring 2000, and it hasn't failed me once! Although........ "Windows 98se" and "Windows XP" have failed me miserably every now and then, to be honest.

[ghporter]

I would stay away from Compaq; they have a track record of not holding up to even moderate use. My brother-in-law used a corporate Compaq laptop for a long time and his firm had to replace or repair it frequently. They finally switched to Dells and stopped having to fix computers for their field workers.

My Dell laptop has been very reliable, in spite of having flown all over the place with me, gone to sea, and worse than anything else, been hauled back and forth to class on a daily basis for over a year. My only complaint is that this Inspiron 8200 is HEAVY. The new Dell laptops are light and offer a lot of performance. If I didn't have my heart set on a MacBook Pro, I'd be getting an Inspiron E1505.

[production_coordinator]

I would get the Macbook and let her try out OS X. If she doesn't like it after 3-4 weeks, turn Windows on and cross your fingers.