Thread: Laptop Help--How Reliable is Vista and Dell Laptops

I am a Mac Guy now and she had a iBook G4 but did not like it that much so I have that now. She is familiar with XP so that is what I am aiming for to be a nice guy and not have to get her anything big until our Anniversary

If it was me I would go for a MacBook Pro and give her back her old laptop, but that would not work out good for me

No Jon that wouldn't work well for you.

Wifey has a Toshiba Satellite with Vista and has had no problems at all.

Dell, HP, Gateway, Lenovo... Its all the same crap with a different wrapper. Just get the extended warranty, and you should be fine. I would call Dell and have them build the laptop with XP instead of Vista. It uses less system resources and support is much easier to find on XP.

If your wife is a moron, buy her a computer with OSX on it.

If she can count without using her fingers, she'll be fine with a Dell.

*** EDIT - If you need to buy a copy of XP, you may as well splurge and get her XP 64-bit. Upgrade her to 4GB of RAM and it'll fly.

The Vostro 1700 with Vista is a pretty nice rig. A few customers have them and they are pretty happy.

Dell is a decent brand and you can usually find some decent deals.

http://www.cheapstingybargains.com/cheapster/dell/

"Vista" and "reliable" don't belong in the same sentence. Put XP or any other OS on that sucker and you'll be happier.

Originally Posted by Creeping Death

Dell, HP, Gateway, Lenovo... Its all the same crap with a different wrapper. Just get the extended warranty, and you should be fine. I would call Dell and have them build the laptop with XP instead of Vista. It uses less system resources and support is much easier to find on XP.

If your wife is a moron, buy her a computer with OSX on it.

If she can count without using her fingers, she'll be fine with a Dell.

*** EDIT - If you need to buy a copy of XP, you may as well splurge and get her XP 64-bit. Upgrade her to 4GB of RAM and it'll fly.

*sigh*...yet another windows sheep.
Leopard>>>>XP>>>>Vista

I just got a new Dell Inspiron 1501 with Vista, and the thing was a POS right out of the box. Right away the keyboard decided it was going to work every other time if I'm lucky. From the initial start up on, it has been very, very, VERY slow. I've tried to streamline the startup programs, but the thing still crawls along and is unable to perform more than a few functions before locking up.

I hate Dell.

I don't know about Dells, but I am running Vista on my Gateway laptop. And if I had the chance to switch to XP on it I would do it in a nanosecond!
I F---ING HATE VISTA!!!!

I have CAD programs that I have to run that are compatible with XP but not Vista. Also I have had problems with my wireless internet setup in my apartment. I tried to set up my wireless print router, and no dice. I have had problems with getting my printer to work as well (bought at the same time as my laptop, but not compatible with Vista).

I have had compatibility issues with people running XP. Its really annoying.

And the DRM thing is lame as well.

Whats even more lame, is when I purchased the laptop (Best Buy) I was told that Gateway didn't make drivers for XP. And If I somehow figured out how to set it up, the warranty would be null and void. So I got strong-armed into this crappy OS.

Damn I hate Vista.