Do you need a Laptop?

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Do you think it is necessary to have a laptop to be successful in college?

I'm thinking about getting an Asus EEE 4GB Surf before fall. I have a desktop replacement laptop, but it is really too heavy and bulky to carry with me. I can't afford to spend a lot of something else, though. If I could afford it I would love to get a Fujitsu U810, but it is a little out of my budget. Hopefully I can get one before I start clinicals in a year or so.

Yeah, I have just decided to get a ASUS eee 1000H. Its $549, got 80gb hd (5400 speed), win XP home, 2GB RAM unlike other Intel Atom notebooks (and MCI Wind voids warranty if add to 2GB), all the wirless do dads, AND 7 HOUR BATTERY LIFE! Its 10" wide so near normal key pad.

Only thing is you need: $50 cd/dvd rw attachment, (maybe 3.5" attachment if you have a Sony Mavica camera like me), a carrying case for $20, a 2GB Ram about $50(??), and the 3 year ACCIDENT insurance is $274 (kind of high, but you never know, and if you can afford it when you need it most and something happens).

But that's it!! No extra battery (another 7 hours for $129 though). So for:

$550 - 10"W notebook,

.$50 - portable cd/dvd rw

.$20 - carrying case

.$50 - ram (FOR 2GM RAM! and 80GB HD(5400) TOO-YEOW!)

$274 - 3 year accident insurance (I like CDW since most insurance is scams)

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$944 - total small package, decent screen, big enough for 2 hands, LONG BATTERY sweet deal with insurance. With all these doo-dads, its AT LEAST HALF of the larger pcs with similar capability except more power.

Pay that much for insurance, maybe an impending accident about year 2.5 if they don't have continued insurance, lol, not really :jester:

CDW is one source:

http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?edc=1523921&enkwrd=ALLPROD%3aasus+eee+1000h

Amazon is anther with posssible free interes financing (?), but insurance is scam from comments (??)

http://www.amazon.com/1000H-Display-Intel-Processor-Battery/dp/B001BYB5ZS/ref=pd_cp_e_0/105-3728254-3082816?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-41&pf_rd_r=06GASXDBWEJCP6BK76B0&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_p=413863401&pf_rd_i=B001AS6YFQ

And here is good place, BEACH CAMERA, I had a Toshiba picked out (I may never have been able to afford with all the doo-dads you really need) but has high price on eee 1000H (??): BUT THEY HAVE GOOD PRICES ON RAM, extras, AND INSURANCE (Note, I only know Toshiba, Samsung, Kingston, and Sony Ram to be unquestionable, and also do not know about insurance - but if anyone tries BEACH CAMERA's Ram and Insurance out (did not see the Accident Insurance though), let everyone know!! We have TEAM buying power, so lets stick together!).

Here is notebook I was going to purchase (link below), but when??? The ASUS 1000H(H-Win XP home plus 80GB hd) is so new, the small guys like Beach Camera has not secured any to sell yet. But as price leader for the one below, they are on my watch list.

http://www.beachcamera.com/shop/product.aspx?omid=104&ref=become&utm_source=Become&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=TBA9S9018X&sku=TBA9S9018X

Maybe we can get an Allnurses.com 10% discount somewhere?? :clown:

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My Gateway laptop has 3-year accidental damaged and battery replacement on it. I have used it one to get a replacement AC adapter. Even if I don't end up using it again, it is worth it to me because I am fairly clumsey.

I think if I had $900 to spend I would get the Fujitsu U810 and forgo the extras, though. Unfortunately my budget is much lower, so I am looking at a $300 3G surf (pink) and a $17 case.

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Guys, I'm the informatics nurse at my facility and computers are over-used and over-rated.

They are fabulous for what they're good at. But nothing is going to replace paying attention in class and doing the reading. And I still carry a pencil and yellow pad instead of a freakin' Blackberry.

WalMart sometimes has $400 laptops that will do everything a student needs to do and more. 4 gb RAM, DVD r/w and built-in wireless cards.

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I prefer not to shop at Walmart and the cheap Walmart computers usually have crappy processors in them.

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I prefer not to shop at Walmart and the cheap Walmart computers usually have crappy processors in them.

Then I would suggest that you don't, although Toshiba is a name I trust.

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Labtops are tools and wireless is just now coming into worth.

The $300 job has a 7" screen and perhaps tiny keyboard: worse than even Vista, Linux is not ready to interface with the world and is mainly for geeks or curious people with 2nd pcs.

I plan on studying AND PUBLISHING LABS AND OTHER ASSIGNMENTS on my midnight shift and every spare time I have. Not always needed, agreed, but I need to be flexible since I'm going to utilize all 168 hours per week.

And when I'm an RN on 2nd or 3rd shift, i want to be able to look at my positions overnight for trading during business hours. PC's are not the end all: they are just tools of currnet information, power presentations, and communication over the world. Worry about the job at hand first and above all, but don't sit on your hands when the power is here and knocking on your door. YMMV :wink2:

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I've never had any problems with Linux.

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I've never had any problems with Linux.

You, Mam, are a Geek! LoL, just kidding. :yeah:

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I've never had any problems with Linux.

Linux rules.

Nah, the screen on the $400 deal was 14".

Now, that isn't the sweetest system on earth by any means. But it'll run Word, the internet, and most things that a s tudent'll run into. It certainly wouldn't run the Java systems we use at work.

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The $300 job has a 7" screen and perhaps tiny keyboard: worse than even Vista, Linux is not ready to interface with the world and is mainly for geeks or curious people with 2nd pcs.

Yup, I'm a geek. Tech support and system administration in my previous life. Is something wrong with that?

That said, I write papers, do powerpoint, manage my online classes, and do pretty much everything else I need to do on my EEE. It is my desktop - I have a 17" external monitor, full-size keyboard and mouse, and external hard drive that I hook up when needed. When I do want to carry it around, the small size is well worth any compromise in screen space.

And of course, they do run Windows if you really want, though I'm not sure how well.

Still, not for everyone. Neither is anything else. Why disparage people with different preferences?

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Yup, I'm a geek. Tech support and system administration in my previous life. Is something wrong with that?

That said, I write papers, do powerpoint, manage my online classes, and do pretty much everything else I need to do on my EEE. It is my desktop - I have a 17" external monitor, full-size keyboard and mouse, and external hard drive that I hook up when needed. When I do want to carry it around, the small size is well worth any compromise in screen space.

And of course, they do run Windows if you really want, though I'm not sure how well.

Still, not for everyone. Neither is anything else. Why disparage people with different preferences?

I'm an engineer and always will be no matter how I make a living. I want a eee 1000h myself.

First, why are you disparaging my intentions? I am trying to give a realistic view to newbies who only hear how good Linux is without ANY qualifiers or reasons. See the Linux eee's $150 more less half hard drive size? No one is buying it. Why may you ask?

All the Windows or Apple or Xerox Star look-alike applications can't talk to MS office programs (seamlessly) to the best of my knowledge. And if they can, its a nerve racking constant editing for glitches that could make you get 2 grades lower due to trying to be an Tech support and system administration when they are not!! I AM JUST ADDING BALANCE! Do you want an all Tech support and system administration point of view hurting people's educational chances because they spent their last monies and waste all their time looking for formating errors that are trying to share with everyone else using MS Office 97?

I'll admit linux is good for file server interfaces since it has less overhead and its cheap (i.e. - for Tech support and system administration). Unfortunately, its like Chinese goods: it looks like windows, but it does not have the integrative powers and it is NOT the standard everyone else uses to communicate.

Eee is here to stay because of battery power, and the 10" is something everyone can use and see too. But until someone gets behind Linux application support, it will never be MS. For all the IT geeks behind it, I was personally hoping for a little more substantial progress in the last 20 years, other than cheerleading. I know its not easy to replicate thousands of man-years in programming. But I feel strongly that newbies ought to be warned from empirical evidence of a system with an incomplete interface for what they need NOW.

So please quit disparaging my trained opinion. And if you have a small eee you need to type with a pin, then I can see someone with pens taped to their fingers typing away. But I can't see a newbie doing that if they don't know how to type yet anyway.

The few dollars saved and the increased speed at doing tasks on an island by yourself and with a couple of people that have the same linux applications as you, are insignificant to the integrated human factor engineering, standardization, and communication efficiencies of Windows. Windows Java even was quite an improvement over the old unstable Java (lots of traders lost their life savings on Interactive Brokers Java and low commission rates, lol). Windows has some pretty nice applications, and most are relatively free for users.

And yes I think they are going downhill with Vista, but even MS is making concessions on XP. Look at the Intel Atom running on XP. In business, Intel and MS is all you can count on for your livelihood if you depend on it working every time. So whether you like it or not, those are a list of my REASONS for my opinions, and why I think it is best for newbies and someone who doesn't want to waste their time to AT LEAST hear a more BALANCED viewpoint of linux :yeah::yeah::yeah:

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Linux is a beautimous system for the ultra-geek. Not for the usual user, or even someone like me who surfs the 'net and opens Outlook.

We run our Java apps at work on a Linux box, as well as our home phone system and media server. But really, who need to do that on a school laptop?

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