[Dxbase] Laptop/processor/operating system?

[Peter Dougherty W2IRT]

On Fri, Aug 13, 2010 at 10:19 PM, Crownhaven <crownhaven at bellsouth.net>wrote:

> Avoid anything that doesn't have XP on it unless you are a computer
> wizard or like to flog yourself.........I bought a couple of Thnk Pads
> from Overstock.Com at Neal's suggestion.  They work great.  Price was
> right.
>
> Steve, N4JQQ
>
> On 8/13/2010 6:54 PM, KB2000a wrote:
> > Howdy,
> >
> > Looking for a low end laptop for mobile use, anything to avoid (or
> recommend) relative to DXBase (7 and ready for 10...)?
>

The answer to your question is that it all depends on your software
requirements. Are you're looking for something for today's needs or are
you're looking down the road. Most anything you get today will be more than
good enough for browsing, e-mail, Office and similar apps. If you need to
run DX Base 2007 in a meaningful way then definitely stick with something
that has XP on it. The downside is that once DXB 2010 is released you'll
have a machine that's essentially obsolete. DXB 2007 is the only reason I'm
staying with XP on my radio system. All other apps will run fine, without
the need to tinker, under Windows 7.

If you're looking at a longer-term, you'll definitely want Win7/64 bit and
as much RAM as you can throw into the box (or 32-bit and 4 GB). All modern
productivity apps run beautifully under Win 7 and, speaking as someone who
supports Windows for a living, it's a great OS--feature rich, stable and
quite intuitive--despite being different than XP in many ways. The downside
is that DX Base 2007 can be a real bear to get working correctly under
Windows 7 and requires a lot of tinkering.

Since you're getting a laptop, I assume you'll be using it while traveling.
My experience has been that Win7 plays MUCH better with WiFi connectivity
than XP ever could. To quote the Apple guys, "It Just Works."

As far as processor/hardware is concerned, I wouldn't worry about specs.
Virtually everything from a name-brand manufacturer will be good. The trick
is finding a machine that's of light-enough weight to schlep around to
wherever you need to transport it. A fully-featured machine with a huge
display may look great for movies, but if it tips the scales over 6 pounds,
it'll be a bear to carry around.

If you're going to stick with an older machine and XP, I'd strongly suggest
either the T-60 series from Lenovo or even the older T-40 series (which was
made by IBM at the time and is my current laptop--T-40s can be hand for
under $300 used).

Bottom-line: if it was me, I'd get the best combination of performance, size
and weight I could find and look towards the future--and try to slog through
a DXB 2007 installation. After all, you'll only need it for a few months (I
hope!).