Computer Discussion Thread- issues, questions, etc

[klw]

I did a search but did not see a recent catch-all thread for computer questions. Mine question is hardly worth a thread to itself so I thought a general computer buying/issue/ preferences thread ala the Roku/Chromecast/etc thread could be a good thing to start.

We are having to replace our 6 year old Toshiba laptop and just ordered a HP from Amazon.

The question I have is whether anyone here has used an open source Word Processing Suite such as Apache (https://www.openoffice.org/) instead of handing over the $150 for the Microsoft Office package? Any thoughts? I really don't think my spouse wants to use Google Docs or get involved in the Google sphere.


Re the old laptop- it was doing okay with its Windows 7 package until downloading an automatic update on 1/11. After that it would have issues shutting all the way down at times and even bigger it would connect to our wifi but not to the internet. The computer would not let me reset to prior to the 1/11 date despite me trying a number of different times in regular and "safe' mode.

[BernieCarbo]

I did a search but did not see a recent catch-all thread for computer questions. Mine question is hardly worth a thread to itself so I thought a general computer buying/issue/ preferences thread ala the Roku/Chromecast/etc thread could be a good thing to start.

We are having to replace our 6 year old Toshiba laptop and just ordered a HP from Amazon.

The question I have is whether anyone here has used an open source Word Processing Suite such as Apache (https://www.openoffice.org/) instead of handing over the $150 for the Microsoft Office package? Any thoughts? I really don't think my spouse wants to use Google Docs or get involved in the Google sphere.


Re the old laptop- it was doing okay with its Windows 7 package until downloading an automatic update on 1/11. After that it would have issues shutting all the way down at times and even bigger it would connect to our wifi but not to the internet. The computer would not let me reset to prior to the 1/11 date despite me trying a number of different times in regular and "safe' mode.

I wish you had started a thread about which laptop to buy before you bought the HP.

Anyway, I've tried OpenOffice, and it isn't bad, but if you are exchanging docs regularly with someone who uses Microsoft Office, it's more trouble than it's worth. If you are never going to do that though, it will work ok. And heck, it's free, no take it for a run.

That said, you can get Office 365 as a subscription for $70/yr for one PC, and it comes with live support and 1 TB of cloud storage, Outlook, Publisher, and Access (the $150 package doesn't have Outlook). I actually bought the $99/yr package and can install it on 5 pc's.

God, I remember when Ashton-Tate's MultiMate cost $700 in 1987.

[dougdirt]

What Bernie said.

[klw]

I wish you had started a thread about which laptop to buy before you bought the HP.
.

I probably should have done a thread before making a choice. I was trying to keep it to under 450 which limited the options a bit. Have you not had good luck with HP? I have one for work and haven't had issues other than with our system.

[BernieCarbo]

I probably should have done a thread before making a choice. I was trying to keep it to under 450 which limited the options a bit. Have you not had good luck with HP? I have one for work and haven't had issues other than with our system.

I personally would have gotten an Asus. I've been using them for about five years now, and they're the best bang for the buck and durable. The problem I've seen with HP is the tech support and the difficulty of working on them. One guy I know added a hard drive to one, but then it wouldn't boot, and the only way he could get around it was sending it back to HP because they were the only ones who could unlock the bios. It's nuts. They were great before they bought out Compaq, but after that it seems like they had a hard time merging their corporate hardware with their consumer grade hardware. But that is water under the bridge. I'm sure you can find 10,000 guys who say Asus suck too. You'll be fine. At least you bought it from Amazon and not somebody like Best Buy or Walmart.

[WrongVerb]

MicroCenter, if you have one within 100 miles (there's one in Columbus), is fantastic for all your computer needs.

[dougdirt]

MicroCenter, if you have one within 100 miles (there's one in Columbus), is fantastic for all your computer needs.

Can confirm. It's pretty much where I buy everything. I will also say that the customer service has been outstanding, mostly. The one time I had an issue they took great care of me once I brought it to their attention that something had slipped through the cracks along the chain.

[klw]

New laptop has been working well though we had to get a new printer as the old one was not compatible with Windows 10- grr.
Open office has been okay too.
Thinking of getting a for a rising 6th grader. 2 q's- 1. what have folks experiences been like with Dell 2. One I see on sale has 4 gb and 1 tb of memory. Is 4 GB active enough? The only gaming would be Minecraft.

[dougdirt]

I can't speak to Dell.

I would highly recommend 8GB of RAM though. You can get by with 4, but it's going to be slow. Minecraft is apparently pretty light, as far as requirements to run games. But I'd still have to ask which laptop you're talking about, or which processor is in it.

[Bob Sheed]

and make sure it has a solid state drive.

[dougdirt]

and make sure it has a solid state drive.

Eh. If it's for a 6th grader I don't know that this is all that necessary. I mean, yes, it'll make it faster than a spinning disk drive, but is a 12-year-old even going to notice that their computer takes an extra 10 seconds to load when they open it or click on their Minecraft shortcut?

[TRF]

Eh. If it's for a 6th grader I don't know that this is all that necessary. I mean, yes, it'll make it faster than a spinning disk drive, but is a 12-year-old even going to notice that their computer takes an extra 10 seconds to load when they open it or click on their Minecraft shortcut?

Yes. Yes they will.

"Daaaaaad, this thing is so slooow!"

[dougdirt]

Yes. Yes they will.

"Daaaaaad, this thing is so slooow!"

Only if they know what a fast computer is.

I don't have kids, so I'm only basing this on the cheap laptops my friends kids have (ages 8-14), and I've never hard any of them complain about that kind of stuff.

[TRF]

Only if they know what a fast computer is.

I don't have kids, so I'm only basing this on the cheap laptops my friends kids have (ages 8-14), and I've never hard any of them complain about that kind of stuff.

I may be biased. I work as a programmer, and the kids always knew crap from good. But overall I think kids know more than you think.

[klw]

I think we will wait and not get one at this point.

This was the one I was looking at:
https://www.bjs.com/product/dell-ins...00000001253780