So, at less than one day before Apple announces new notebooks that I’ve been waiting for, I find myself debating how I will spend my hard earned cash on my next computing venture.
Times have changed since my first computer acquisition. At the time, if I wanted to play game, it was desktop or don’t bother. However, in the last 4 years, I have been almost all laptop and quite happy with that. Without a need for the most powerful computer available, I’ve been able to strike a nice balance between portability and power by buying a decent consumer laptop.
So here is where my problem lies- that laptop is several years old now, and getting a bit long in the tooth. I haven’t run into too many programs that can’t run well on it (only high end games have been a problem), it has the most operating system that can be had on it (OS X Leopard), and I’ve been happy with the amount of RAM installed, though it is maxed out in that department.
Where I start to have trouble is HD space. 60 gigs in 2004 was pretty good, enough to keep most people happy, but since then, the advent of digital photography, music, and other assorted media has left my hard drive feeling a bit cramped. Yeah, I could start moving things to an external HD, but I’ve already done that, and it’s a bit of a pain. Not to mention, the extra processing power of an intel core 2 duo sounds awfully nice right now for encoding video.
“So what?” You may ask yourself, “just buy a new laptop…” After all, they are expected to be released tomorrow from apple, and there always is Vista… Well, I don’t want Vista. Maybe I could tolerate XP, but I don’t want to even bother with Vista. I’m hopeful for Windows 7, but not Vista.
In the last year, though, my computing has evolved somewhat. Since music has been banned for me (but not for any of my coworkers, and before you ask, my last performance review was “exceeds expectations”), I often don’t bring the laptop to work with me, and do what little computing I need to do on my iPod Touch.
The iBook comes in handy when I go to my GF’s, and can burn photo or other DVDs for her on the spur, but other than that, I don’t need to be as mobile anymore. I’m not even sure if I NEED a laptop anymore. Two years ago when I was in school, without a doubt. Today, the one place where I would use it the most aside from home, it’s been barred. Then there is the emergence of netbooks as a viable alternative. Though underpowered, they are fairly cheap, and can be loaded up with XP, but then there is the loss of any sort of optical drive, and the teensy little screen and computer that feel like they are going to fall between my legs whenever I put it on my lap.
So there I am, stuck, not sure how “mobile” a computer I need any more, and not sure what to buy from this point forward. Any thoughts or suggestions?
Topic: My next computer (Read 1740 times)