New laptop recommendation - Mom compatible
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@scottalanmiller said in New laptop recommendation - Mom compatible:
@wirestyle22 said in New laptop recommendation - Mom compatible:
@fuznutz04 said in New laptop recommendation - Mom compatible:
Right, plus she also remotes into her work PC I believe, but not sure what app she uses for that.
This is the only thing that may stop a Chromebox/Chromebook from being her best choice. Definitely check with her and see what she is using. Chromebox/Chromebook's are the way, the truth and the light when dealing with family IT issues. I can't even accurately articulate it. It's huge.
Remoting to and from Chromebooks is easy. It's MS Office that's the issue.
Even if she's using Citrix or something? I haven't specifically attempted to do that so I'm not sure
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@wirestyle22 said in New laptop recommendation - Mom compatible:
@scottalanmiller said in New laptop recommendation - Mom compatible:
@wirestyle22 said in New laptop recommendation - Mom compatible:
@fuznutz04 said in New laptop recommendation - Mom compatible:
Right, plus she also remotes into her work PC I believe, but not sure what app she uses for that.
This is the only thing that may stop a Chromebox/Chromebook from being her best choice. Definitely check with her and see what she is using. Chromebox/Chromebook's are the way, the truth and the light when dealing with family IT issues. I can't even accurately articulate it. It's huge.
Remoting to and from Chromebooks is easy. It's MS Office that's the issue.
Even if she's using Citrix or something? I haven't specifically attempted to do that so I'm not sure
Well you have to use the right tech for the right job. But MS Office is specific and needs compatibility. "Remote access" is generic and is covered.
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@fuznutz04 said in New laptop recommendation - Mom compatible:
Right, plus she also remotes into her work PC I believe, but not sure what app she uses for that.
Horizon View works just fine on a Chromebook. Just need to use the Blast Extreme protocol. Citrix has a reciever for chromebook also.
My wife uses VPN's and RDP's still like a barbarian, but for civilized remote users you should be fine. -
@scottalanmiller said in New laptop recommendation - Mom compatible:
But MS Office is specific and needs compatibility
Office Online (If they have 365) runs just fine in Chrome.
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@storageninja said in New laptop recommendation - Mom compatible:
@fuznutz04 said in New laptop recommendation - Mom compatible:
Right, plus she also remotes into her work PC I believe, but not sure what app she uses for that.
Horizon View works just fine on a Chromebook. Just need to use the Blast Extreme protocol. Citrix has a reciever for chromebook also.
My wife uses VPN's and RDP's still like a barbarian, but for civilized remote users you should be fine.Works fine FROM it, we are talking TO it.
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@storageninja said in New laptop recommendation - Mom compatible:
@scottalanmiller said in New laptop recommendation - Mom compatible:
But MS Office is specific and needs compatibility
Office Online (If they have 365) runs just fine in Chrome.
Maybe that is all that she needs.
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@storageninja said in New laptop recommendation - Mom compatible:
@scottalanmiller said in New laptop recommendation - Mom compatible:
But MS Office is specific and needs compatibility
Office Online (If they have 365) runs just fine in Chrome.
You shouldn't need the extension as it is a webapp and it works fine without it.
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@fuznutz04 said in New laptop recommendation - Mom compatible:
Anyone have any experience on the Asus Vivo books vs the Zen books?
I had a Gen 1 Zen book that died at 2 years and 10 days. Warranty only for 2 years.. I'll never buy another.
I like HP and Dell because Lenovo is a shit company who doesn't care about it's customer's security or privacy.
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@dashrender said in New laptop recommendation - Mom compatible:
@fuznutz04 said in New laptop recommendation - Mom compatible:
Anyone have any experience on the Asus Vivo books vs the Zen books?
I had a Gen 1 Zen book that died at 2 years and 10 days. Warranty only for 2 years.. I'll never buy another.
I like HP and Dell because Lenovo is a shit company who doesn't care about it's customer's security or privacy.
I have a ton of great experience with Dell, so that is always my go-to brand. I don't care for their Inspiron line though. Their latitude line is great though.
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@tim_g said in New laptop recommendation - Mom compatible:
I'd highly recommend what I've been using the last few months:
Dell Latitude E7270 with Fedora 27 Workstation... but in her case I'd go Cinnamon desktop, as it'll be the most familiar and never confuse her any more than Windows would.
I like that model as well, but it looks discontinued. There are some other Latitude models for right around the $1,000 mark that I am leaning towards. Can't remember the model at the moment. Will check when I'm back home.
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@fuznutz04 said in New laptop recommendation - Mom compatible:
@tim_g said in New laptop recommendation - Mom compatible:
I'd highly recommend what I've been using the last few months:
Dell Latitude E7270 with Fedora 27 Workstation... but in her case I'd go Cinnamon desktop, as it'll be the most familiar and never confuse her any more than Windows would.
I like that model as well, but it looks discontinued. There are some other Latitude models for right around the $1,000 mark that I am leaning towards. Can't remember the model at the moment. Will check when I'm back home.
You can go up one gen to the E7280.
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@tim_g said in New laptop recommendation - Mom compatible:
E7280
When my MBP dies, I'm getting the E7280. I got my hands on one a few days ago, and they are really nice. I prefer a 15" screen, but I really like that model.
I ended up finding an amazing deal on a E5480 from the Dell outlet. By the way, I've bought so many things from the Dell outlet over the years, and they have always been amazing deals. Basically almost new (sometimes actually new but never shipped) with the same warranty as new, for a deep discount.
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I like the smaller one. If I can't hook it up to monitors, then I'm in need of something small and easy. 7480 would be too big when I'm monitorless. 7280 would be much more fitting. But I went with the 7270 because it still uses the old style docking station, which I prefer over the usb3 type now.
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@tim_g said in New laptop recommendation - Mom compatible:
I like the smaller one. If I can't hook it up to monitors, then I'm in need of something small and easy. 7480 would be too big when I'm monitorless. 7280 would be much more fitting. But I went with the 7270 because it still uses the old style docking station, which I prefer over the usb3 type now.
Yeah, Docking stations were nice, but I have no problem with the USB one. I'm ready for something lighter for traveling.
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@scottalanmiller said in New laptop recommendation - Mom compatible:
@fuznutz04 said in New laptop recommendation - Mom compatible:
I need a new laptop for my mother.
Requirements:
- 15" screen size - Touchscreen is preferred but not required.
- SSD HD
- 8-16 RAM
- i5 is plenty of processing power.
- Windows 10, because there is no way I teaching how to use other things.
Nothing is harder than Windows 10. If you want to avoid teaching new things, you must avoid Windows 10. Windows 10 updates every six months and is insanely confusing.
Why not keep it simple and avoid constant support needs with a Chromebook?
My mother (rest her soul) had 2 laptops side by side. This was because she did not yet have a Google Cloud ready printer (it was very very new at the time and she already had a fairly new printer). She had a Windows netbook and a Chromebook... she despised using Windows because all she really used was Google Chrome. The netbook, as they all do, ran very slowly and Windows was very clunky for her.
Do your mom a favor and just get a Chromebook. I have yet to meet a parent that uses anything but a web browser and printing.
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@bbigford said in New laptop recommendation - Mom compatible:
@scottalanmiller said in New laptop recommendation - Mom compatible:
@fuznutz04 said in New laptop recommendation - Mom compatible:
I need a new laptop for my mother.
Requirements:
- 15" screen size - Touchscreen is preferred but not required.
- SSD HD
- 8-16 RAM
- i5 is plenty of processing power.
- Windows 10, because there is no way I teaching how to use other things.
Nothing is harder than Windows 10. If you want to avoid teaching new things, you must avoid Windows 10. Windows 10 updates every six months and is insanely confusing.
Why not keep it simple and avoid constant support needs with a Chromebook?
My mother (rest her soul) had 2 laptops side by side. This was because she did not yet have a Google Cloud ready printer (it was very very new at the time and she already had a fairly new printer). She had a Windows netbook and a Chromebook... she despised using Windows because all she really used was Google Chrome. The netbook, as they all do, ran very slowly and Windows was very clunky for her.
Do your mom a favor and just get a Chromebook. I have yet to meet a parent that uses anything but a web browser and printing.
I've found the slightly higher price for a Samsung Chromebook with 4GB of memory to be the best overall with performance, price, and weight. They are insanely light with a reasonable screen size.
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@fuznutz04 said in New laptop recommendation - Mom compatible:
E5480 from the Dell
We just got one of our Controls Engineers a 5580, really nice laptop, I was slightly jealous. The 5590 just came out, and that's probably even better.
The WD15 dock took like 2 month to deliver for it, so I was installing different flavors of linux on it and playing around before I gave it to him, because he really didn't want it without the dock.
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@bnrstnr How are the docks? In the more recent past, I have seen people complaining across Dell, HP and Lenovo regarding the more recent docks.
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@wrx7m The WD15 (USB Type-C) has been decent, but there's a huge shift in how it operates compared to the docks of old. First off, I had to change a couple BIOS settings to get it to work at all. Then when you hit the power button, you have to look at the lights on the laptop to even tell if it's on, then like 10 seconds later the monitors turn on and you can finally see Windows loading. I'm assuming that the downtime is because the drivers aren't loaded yet? Then the other weird thing is that the dock installs it's own ethernet adapter, completely separate from the one on the laptop itself, with its own MAC address. I ended up having to set a static IP on that interface because it wouldn't pull and keep a reservation I made for it for some reason, it would intermittently drop connections and then pull from the DHCP pool (we have a messed up process, don't ask lol). Other than those couple of things, it's been good.
