🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <788ca3cc-043a-4827-baa3-111b83e2a655@m36g2000hse.googlegroups.com>,
Reader  <SZeiss@gmail.com> wrote:
>I'm planning on purchasing a laptop for my daughter who will be
>attending Concordia on 620 in the fall.  I've never owned a laptop so
>don't know what to look for or what a good brand is.  Also, what about

	I recommend a Lenovo Thinkpad, although their new "consumer
level" Ideapad line is getting good reviews.  Not only are they well 
built and well supported by the vendor, but I still see many >5 year
old units in active service. Also, I've worked on a lot of laptop systems,
and Thinkpads are without question the best built.  There's a price premium
but when you amortize 300 bucks over 5 years of useful life it's not such a
big thing.

	Early Dells were nice, and the new ones certainly perform well,
but they're not as well made as they used to be.  And while Dell Business
support is second to none their consumer support has been the target of 
lawsuits.  The high end Japanese makers like Hitachi and Toshiba make good
units but they're very finicky to repair if something does go wrong (whereas
I can still order parts for IBM 390's!).  They're also heavy into proprietary
dongles and other PIA stuff.

	HP's are only OK IMHO and I'd avoid all the third tier Acer and
Gateway stuff because a broken laptop can be difficult and expensive to
repair and because the compromises like mushy flexy keyboards will make
you crazy over time.  Good used units are as expensive as new ones, so 
I don't recommend a used laptop unless ALL you want is a simple email/web 
browser or unless you need a special feature like a serial port.