Recommendations for a new Computer?

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I like this one:

http://www.dell.com/content/products/pr ... l=en&s=bsd

Very similar to mine, (only a gaming level, which you don't need). Make sure that whatever you order, that you customize the order. They seem to be better put together, with more care, if you do that. And definitely get the 3 year warranty. They've replaced my monitor within less than 24 hours, 'puter's an '05, just last spring. And I notice that you're doing manuscripts - I got mine through the Dell Small Business division. You can write it off if you order it before the end of the year. (I also think that going through SB gets a better product - just a hunch).

Well, based on the input here, I've ordered my new desktop. I decided that, pretty though it was, the hybrid was costing more than I was budgeted for. So I went with an Inspiron 530, which was on sale. I called a rep, and told her exactly what I needed, based on what I usually use my computer for. Can't wait till it arrives!

BTW, YowlingCat, that model was sweet! I don't do a lot of gaming, though. For the model I ordered, they gave me a 2 year warranty, and threw in some other extras, as well.

For future reference if anyone finds this thread check this out:

http://www.computer-fix.net/how-to/pick-a-computer/

Buy a copy of XP Home or Pro before you purchase. Also make sure its the full version and not the upgrade and have a tech friend install it.

To late now . She could have bought herself a nice pre-installed Ubuntu Dell! ( http://www.dell.com/ubuntu ) Well she can install it on the computer that she did buy, but I guess that won't be happening any time soon, if ever!

i just paid $15 for a mac that will do everything you said but probably more slowly than your current computer.

My 11 year old daughter has 600 and wants to buy a notebook computer. It is 1gb ram, 160gb hdd and 166 gh process. It is 728 with cash back $649. Is that good value.

Do you mean?
600 Currency?
1Gigabyte RAM (1gb = 128MB)
160Gigabytes hard disk
166gh ... Is that 1.66GHz ? Written like that sounds like an Intel Celeron, or maybe the Centrino.
728 - what?
$649 = which country? Australia uses $ too, but the conversion rates differ

No. No. No. 1Gib = 128MiB. 1Gb = 125MB. 1gb = nothing in particular, since a lower case "g" is never used as a prefix. If you insist on being pedantic, at least get it right.

This may be a bit too late but dells have built in limitations for hardware upgrades compared to other brands, this enables them to save cost. For other people this might not matter.

Buy a computer with Ubuntu Linux. iPod support is built in and works pretty well. I don't own an iPod, but I hear it's good.

Ok I will try that. She only has 600 and I am not putting in anymore than 50. It stated it was an Acer extensor vlaue notebook. She can get a other notebook for 500 but they have smaller screens.

Does it mean she will have to buy accessories to make it wireless?

I truncated my post enough to make it legible, therefore excluding the Mi in MiB. Some people can't handle all the extra information I could give, so I have limited it to something more familiar.

She should be able to go round with the lap top and pick up other peoples insecure wireless connections, with the in built wireless support, but to have a wireless connection of her own a wireless router is needed.

The computer you described is the kind of basic specs that are standard for a Vista Home Premium lap top. Vista needs at least 1GB RAM to run ok. With Home Basic people can get by with 512MB RAM. 512MB RAM for Vista Home Basic sucks!

A 160GB hard disk may sound like a lot to you, but it really isn't for a Vista computer. A clean install of the Vista Home Premium operating system takes up about 14GB. An install of The Ubuntu Linux Distribution Operating System will only take up about 1GB of hard disk space. Most if not all programs for it, will take up hardly any hard disk space. Certain Windows programs can take up a lot of hard disk space. It is rather impressive what can be done with a 10GB Ubuntu partition ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partition_(computing) ).

Virtual machine ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_machine ) softwares such as Virtualbox ( http://www.virtualbox.org ) are very impressive, because they allow people to use other guest operating systems inside a host operating system. The host OS that ideally is not Windows, is installed in a physical hard disk partition. Many virtual machines that are properly installed could take up a few or more GB's, so a 160GB hard disk that contains many downloads as well as virtual machines, that together have added up to be many GB's worth of space, will result in a hard disk that is not much good at all.

A guest operating system might run a bit slower than if it was on the hard disk for real, but it should be fine for most if not all 2D programs, with 3D support being worked on for some virtual machine softwares.

A major advantage of using a more secure operating system such as Ubuntu as the host, with Windows as the guest, is that if Windows was to mess up with say a virus, it can be deleted like any other normal Ubuntu data file. A backup copy of a clean Windows VM can then be used.

With most or all alternative operating systems, viruses, spyware, and that, does not really need to be worried about, with one reason being that Windows is the prime target. With a Linux distribution unlike with Windows people actually have to know what they are doing to get a malicious program installed in the first place, unless they got cracked and had a bad root/sudo (admin) password. Whatever OS is being used people should have a firewall to keep nasty people out of their computer, as well as good user account passwords.

An Ubuntu lap top or desktop can be bought from Dell ( http://www.dell.com/ubuntu ) after customizing it, as well as Zareason ( http://www.zareason.com ), and if living in the USA System76 ( http://www.system76.com ).

Many Windows programs will run well in Wine: http://www.winehq.org

A lap top or desktop PC can be bought with Windows and then get dual booted with Ubuntu: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBootHowTo

It is a good idea to not bother buying new computers that come with Vista until after July 1st, because then the computer should be entitled to a free legal upgrade to Windows 7 from Microsoft: http://www.linuxtoday.com/infrastructur ... 3135NWDTMS

Windows 7 is meant to be released at the end of this year and replace Windows XP, as well as what in many peoples eyes is the Vista failure. I have a dual boot with Windows Vista Home Premium. Vista is not that bad for Windows, which now days does a lot of catch up with Linux distributions ( http://www.distrowatch.com ) and Apple's Mac OS X. Ubuntu and many other Linux distributions are a lot better than Vista!

Still not sure about this Ubuntu, after being on some web pages about it? Not to worry, it's actually easier to install and maintain than Windows. It also has a helpful user community with people such as myself who will gladly help you become a very comfortable Ubuntu user.

In fact I helped a 35 year old woman quite a bit with Ubuntu last year, who wasn't that technical before. I converted her to Ubuntu after an IT shop had put Xubuntu on her old lap top, (a more light weight less resources using version, that in my eyes is a cut down version of Ubuntu, that is not as good as proper Ubuntu). It turned out that indeed I was right about Ubuntu being able to run good on her old lap top. This woman has certain learning difficulties so had to do a few things with her a few times before she could do it herself. I was actually connected to her computer from mine doing things with her a lot.

I have a seven year old little brother, and he has been using Ubuntu easily since he was five or six years old. He has used it for some Flash games, as well as some of Ubuntu's games, and very good childrens programs. He would like to use Ubuntu with better games eventually, but I haven't sorted that out yet, even though it is very easy to do.

Most kids it's just give them a computer, show them the basics, and they start to experiment and learn things, that's something that is great when it comes to kids. If you gave your daughter Ubuntu she would probably pick it up very easily.

Did you really have her when you were 12? It says your 23 and that she is 11. 23 - 11 = 12

What is your price range ?