Need new computer! ASAP this week

[DN22 Gardening]

We lease our Macs through apple.

£40 per month per mac.

After three years they're ours.

Looking on FleaBay, three year old macs are fetching about £700/£800.

So win win.

 

 

 

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[David Dobedoe]

My first suggestion would be to try using the PC/laptop you have but instal Linux on it. I have a netbook that was as slow as a slow thing on Windows XP. Installing Umbuntu which is readily available free version of Linux has made it usable and hassle free. The added bonus is that there is lots of free (open source ) software available online including office packages.

 

My second suggestion would be to consider a chromebook. £230ish will see you up and running on what would seem to me to be hassle free computing. All your work would be stored online at Google so no back up issues, no maintenance issues. If its broken lost or stolen you just log into your account from another machine and continue to work. (probably at this stage changing your password) My brother runs his farm business this way and it seems very good. Even without a Chromebook I think this type of setup is the future of computing for the majority us and whilst the "cloud" has some disadvantages it looks like its going that way. As i understand it some of the downsides of the chromebook system are

 

1. you more or less need an internet connection which is not always possible espcially in remote areas
   
2. printing is not quite as straight forward
   
3. it is not particualry pratical for large file sizes tyical of multimedia work…photos video etc
   
4. it is limited to normal stuff and specilist software is not going to work
   

 

Third suggestion wold be to get all your important work into the "cloud" safe and sound so that whilst your changing things you don't loose things. I use Mac, Windows and Linux . Mac is probably an even better option for you if you don't mind the difference in cost.

[NFG]

Hi,

 

@ DN22 That lease plan sounds like a good idea, I sold my old MacBook after 6 years service & still got around £300 for it.

 

@ David, agreed a netbook may do the job, dont expect Sage to run on it tho.

 

Talking of backups, Macs have a simple effective backup called Time Machine which backs up as you work to another disc, this can be USB, Tb, WiFi connected or a second installed drive where possible. If you have a PC look at Two Bright Sparks SyncBack & Acronis for imaging discs. For cloud backup solutions, look at BackBlaze.

 

Some may consider Macs expensive but certainly worked out very economical for me, I used to hate having to fix my own PC, its counter productive & I wasnt being paid for it!

 

N