Archive for the ‘How to Buy a Laptop Computer’ Category

How to Buy a Laptop Computer: The Hard Drive

Mar 2nd, 12 / Comments Off

In my last several posts, I discussed–in brief–the operating system (“OS”) choices facing the typical consumer: Mac-run Mac OS’s, Linux OS’s, and Windows. For the typical consumer who does not have a fortune to spend on extras, I suggested going with a Windows computer; Linux is too complex for most consumers, and it’s extremely hard to find a laptop computer with Linux anyways. Macs are just too expensive, and in my opinion are not really worth the money for the average person. That leaves Windows, whose current OS is known as Windows 7. It is a great pity that Windows 8, the forthcoming OS from Microsoft, looks to be a very great let-down.

All this is subjective, of course.

What is not subjective is the hard drive. In general, the typical consumer faces only two general choices for hard drives: solid state, and the conventional rotating platter technology. Solid state drives are much faster and more efficient than conventional drives. Unfortunately, they also cost many times the price of conventional drives–and their capacity is far smaller. In other words, you as a typical (but informed!) consumer are going to buy a laptop with a conventional drive.

Conventional drives work, or spin at a certain rate measured in rotations per minute (RPM); the faster the rotation speed, the faster the hard drive can read and write data. For many laptops, this speed is 5400 RPM. This sounds fast, but it really is considered “normal” rather than speedy. 7200 RPM drives, obviously, are faster (and a bit more money). For what it’s worth, I feel a 7200 RPM drive is a non-mandatory, though worthwhile investment. You will notice improvement in speed; you may also notice slightly lower battery life. In short: either 5400 or 7200 RPM drives will fit most consumers’ needs.

The most important specification for a hard drive, of course, is the size of its memory, measured in gigabytes (“GB” or even “gigs“). Common sizes of hard drives nowadays include 500 gigabytes, 750 gigabytes, and 1 terabyte (somewhat analogous to 1000 Gigabytes, though the situation is really a bit more complicated than this). Despite the fact that laptops are acquiring larger and larger hard drives, many large retailers like Future Shop, Best Buy and the like are still selling computers with much smaller conventional hard drives. These are waste of money. Don’t settle for anything less than 500 GB if you are buying now.

Actually, with reference to hard drives, there is a curious phenomenon at work that is sometimes known as “Kryder’s Law”; basically, this observation states that the memory capacity of standard, conventional hard drives doubles every eighteen months or so. For example, when I bought my own laptop computer about a year ago, 500 gigabytes was considered normal, perhaps generous. Now, laptops are routinely sold with 750 GB drives.* In fact, even 1 terabyte (“TB”) drives are entering the market.

What can a person do with all this space? Well, with digital cameras, high-quality audio files, and high-definition video becoming ever more pervasive, space gets used up pretty quickly. Hard drives that are too full are apt to break down much more quickly than hard drives that have a lot of space left on them.

In short, in early 2012, get at least a 500 GB for your laptop. Don’t settle for anything less. If you can wait to buy your laptop, then wait another half year and see what happens!

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*Some may note that the pattern hasn’t really held up, and that prices of hard drives, which usually continue to fall even as the products get better, haven’t improved at all during the last few months. This is due to the flooding in Thailand; the area that was flooded, as it turns out, produces much of the world’s hard drive supply. As factories continue to come online, expect the prices of hard disk drives to fall even while their memory capacity continues to rise.

Hard Disk Drives, How to Buy a Laptop Computer, Operating Systems, Understanding Computer Vocabulary (Word of the Day)

How to Buy a Laptop Computer: The Operating System, Part 3: Windows

Feb 25th, 12 / Comments Off

In the last two posts, I discussed the standard Operating System (OS) choices the typical consumer faces; in this post, I’ll talk about Windows. Windows, of course, is owned by Microsoft Corporation, once the largest company in the world. Nowadays, Apple is a larger company, but this is due to the success of its smaller devices like the iPhone; Microsoft still has approximately 84% of the OS market share in personal computing.

The reasons for Microsoft’s dominance are relatively straightforward. Microsoft made good (and sometimes illegal and ruthless) business decisions a long time ago, and moved quickly to squelch any competition. Even today, though, its position is not threatened much by either of its two rivals: Apple’s Mac line or by the Linux family. Macs tend to dominate in sales among those who are relatively well-off and somewhat creative. Basically, Macs are just too expensive for the average person. Linux is for computer geeks and the chaotic nature of its family of OS’s and associated “distros” is enough to overwhelm the average consumer. For every one else, there’s Windows. And Windows works very well nowadays.

All those computer jokes about Windows crashing so often have a good deal less truth than they once had. Microsoft’s early OS’s like Windows 3.11, Windows 95, and Windows 2000 have given way to much better OS’s like Windows XP and Windows 7. Even Windows Vista, much maligned due to lack of hardware driver support when it was released and the large amount of RAM necessary to run it, is better than most of its antecedent Microsoft OS’s. In fact, Windows 7 has ten times the market share of its predecessor, Vista: approximately 47% of the overall OS market, the largest share by far. Windows 7 has a well-earned reputation for being the safest, the fastest, the most stable, and the most aesthetically-pleasing Microsoft OS to date. It’s a solid OS; lighter and faster than Vista, with all of Vista’s beauty, including the Aeroglass interface.

In short, when you consider buying a computer, you have three basic choices: Apple’s Mac line, with the current Apple Mac OS “OS X,” Linux, with its confusing myriads of non-corporately-generated “distros” such as Mint and Ubuntu, and Windows 7, the current Microsoft OS. Since you are interested in buying a laptop, though, Linux is most likely out. Finding a laptop that comes with Linux installed on it is actually quite difficult. So you’re left with two choices: buying an expensive Mac, or paying much less and buying a Windows 7 machine with superior hardware. I recommend you choose the latter and keep its operating system; it will serve you well.

How to Buy a Laptop Computer, Linux, Macs, Operating Systems, Windows

How to Buy a Laptop Computer: The Operating System, Part 2: Linux

Feb 20th, 12 / Comments Off

In the previous post about operating system families, I looked briefly at Macs; this post will give you a quick overview of Linux.

Linux has never had a very big share of the personal desktop computing market. (Things are otherwise in the world of servers, though. “Servers” power the websites you read, such as this one.) As of this time, early 2012, the figure is about 5%, even though Linux is free.

Linux is what’s called “open source.” This means that everyone has access to its code, and no one company can restrict it. This is what makes the Linux world so decentralized–and what keeps it market share so small. Everything you can do with Linux, you do because you are dependent on someone else. This is different than with Macs and Windows-based computers because that someone else is likely a volunteer. Support for drivers, for instance, may not come to the Linux world quite as quickly as it does to Macs and PC’s because people may not be paid to make it happen. It depends on the hardware company, of course.

Computing magazines often tout the greatness of Linux, and the fact that it’s free, but if you are a general consumer with limited time, you may want to stay away. Take the very name, “Linux,” for example. You’d expect that a site like Linx.org would be professionally-done. As of the time of this website, it’s been shut down for about 24 hours. Linux.com is up and running, but is not suitable for learning where to download the various distributions of this operating system, much less what they are. There are dozens of other Linux flavors (called “distributions” or even “distros”), including Fedora, Mint, and Ubuntu–and even X-Ubuntu and K-Ubuntu, but there is no easy way to compare them all because the world of Linux is quite simply chaotic.

There is another reason to stay away from Linux, though: very few laptops come with it. If you buy a laptop and it already has an operating system that you have paid for, it might seem very reasonable to keep that software. For my part, I anticipate looking over Linux for a new computer only if it can come already installed, which at this point isn’t a common event. I may look into it for my own computer when support for my operating system dies, but everything will depend on what happens at that time. In short: if you are buying a laptop computer, it is unlikely that you will get one with Linux on it.

In the mean time, just as Apple has its “fanboys,” so does Linux. It would be ridiculous to make sweeping generalizations of Linux users, but some are certainly driven by something like religious zeal; others have quite a sense of humor. For you as a general user and consumer, though, it’s very likely that Macs or Windows computers make more sense than the confusion of hundreds of distributions of Linux.

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Word of the Day: Distro: a flavour of Linux, short for “distribution.” “Fanboys” was explained in the previous post.

How to Buy a Laptop Computer, Linux, Operating Systems, Understanding Computer Vocabulary (Word of the Day)

How to Buy a Laptop Computer: The Operating System, Part 1: Macs

Feb 20th, 12 / 1 Comment

The first question that anyone needs to ask themselves when they want to purchase a laptop is: “Which operating system should I choose?”  Basically, there are three families of choices to consider: Mac operating systems, Linux operating systems, and Windows operating systems. This post concerns the famous “Mac.”

Everyone knows about Apple’s Mac operating systems. They’re famous for three things: their quality, their differences from other operating systems, and their high prices. Both software and the physical build quality are considered excellent. Macs are often considered difficult to use–if you are not experienced with them. In general, Macs are probably no harder to use than Windows computers, but because most people have only used Windows computers, Macs are perceived as difficult. In reality, they’re just different.

By the way, when I say Mac operating systems are expensive, this is actually a reference to the computers that come with the operating systems rather than the operating systems themselves. Mac computers (aka “Macs”) only run Mac operating systems. The current Mac operating system is known as “OS X.”

For various reasons related perhaps to business decisions, Apple’s personal computing division acquired only a small percentage of market share, leading to a smaller number of programs, equipment, and drivers available for Mac users. Today, this situation is much remedied, but the combination of very high pricing and differences in the user-experience have helped to keep Apple’s Macs with a minimal market share (currently about 9%, according to one authority).

Word of the day: “Operating System” is routinely abbreviated as “OS” in computing magazines and in store flyers.

Interesting tidbit: Recently, neuroscience researchers have made the claim that Apple Mac users’ brains are similar to the brains of religious people. In truth, each operating system has its devotees, its “fanboys” in the current lingo. They can, at times, be very opinionated. Regardless of which OS you are interested in, please remember to avoid getting caught in their crossfire! ;-)

My personal bias: I’m not a Mac user. They’re just too expensive, and for now I’m happy with the OS I have. Full disclosure in two posts.

How to Buy a Laptop Computer, Macs, Operating Systems, Understanding Computer Vocabulary (Word of the Day)