Horribly OT - PC Advice

[Dave Fawthrop]

|The Natural Philosopher wrote: | | |> 2/. Buy a cheap reliable PC locally, install LINUX, spend the time to |> get it working exactly as desired and install at parents house with |> training session. |> |> Linux will do at vastly improved reliability all the basic things - |> web, mail, word processing etc. |> |> Of cpurse if they want to edit videos, download gangsta rap, and play |> doom, its not the OS of choice...;-) | |One reason for using Linux that has not been mentioned, and may not be |understood by Windows users, is that all the software that they could |ever want comes free with most Linux distributions. SuSE is a good one |and easy to install.

But on Windoze we expect things to be absolutely *dead* *easy* to install. Half a dozen clicks and it works.

I have a copy of Red Hat Linux somewhere which did not get used because I was not willing to read and understand umpteen pages of documentation, before I could get it running

[Mike Halmarack]

I dual boot Ubuntu.I had no trouble installing it and little in the way of problems with additional software.

I'm counting on intuition kicking in after some preliminary confusion.

[Colin Wilson]

Search on code: UKDHSONL-D04115

Otherwise, from their home page, Home, Desktops, and it should be=20 displayed...

Note that the warranty option is now "nested", so find the "Cover It=20 with Dell Support Services" option and click the blue drop-down arrow on=20 the right of the grey bar and hit "90 days collect and return"

Oh - it also includes a free printer !

[mogga]

Get AVG and thew ms spyware thing installed. Tell them under no circumstances to instal those smikleys in emails thingys. Find a neighbour who's clever with the pc stuff. Trying to do it by phone will drive you mad.

[John Cartmell]

On RISC OS most programs install by dragging the application icon from CD/floppy to wherever you want it to go on your hard drive. One click and drag. ;-)

[Colin Wilson]

Hopefully my post with the link should have appeared by now...

The one for =A3239 has free delivery (finishes today though)

[Bob Eager]

Presumably you also have to select options sometimes....that might use a few more...!

Same on this system - most things install with one double click on the install package.

[PeTe33]

Ah, I see what they do now.... They cunningly decide you want the 3 year upgraded service plan for an extra £100 !

I have never noticed that in the past, and always dumped the shopping cart as the price always seemed to jump up well above the offer price.

I'll watch out for that in the future.

[Colin Wilson]

May I humbly suggest my site for info on helping lock down the shyte ?

is listed but not on my recommended list, having had to sort out a few machines with it recently...

[The Natural Philosopher]

Indeed.

However teh tme taken to install and get it all working is high.

Basically I think that hardware is irrelevant in this context, what is required is SUPPORT.

Either get it from someone who will, and install whatever OS/software they are happy with, or bite the Linux bullet, and install it yourself, knowing that once set up it will probably never ever fail to work.

I consistently go to one supplier, who has never ever let me down on hardware support. Software support..well if its bloody windoze, he helps too.

He is +15% more expensive than most people, and i don't care. I buy whatever he has cheapest that he assures me is reliable.

My time is worth more than a hundred quid if I have to hassle with some bloody nerd in PC world/Dixons/substitute your won horror story shed/mail order company.

[The Natural Philosopher]

This is a valid point. However, once you have Linux running, it doesn't crash, or need rebooting endlessly. This may be relevant in the context of a remote installation with people who are unlikely to fiddle, or ant to download and install heaps of crap.

The biggest downside to Linux is that there are still many sites that ONLY work with IE6...and some of them are online banks...there is not browser for Linux that is absolutely guaranteed to have the same bugs and workarounds and sloppy coding as IE6 and its excuse for Java.

Its all very well talking about remote maintenance, but that requires the PC to be up and running to some level first.

[John Cartmell]

Options?

I hate install packages. I want to have full control over what I store where.

[Andy Hall]

There's a third.

Buy a Mac.

I'm in the throes of dispensing with the services of a Dell notebook (not a cheap one I might add) which has had two new displays and two new motherboards in 2 years. When running XP, even though it's a

3GHz machine, with all the applications loading their bits of service software etc. it takes ages to boot from cold and then runs disappointingly. It does run very well with Linux or FreeBSD, but the hardware is still unreliable.

So I have bought one of the new Intel based Macbook Pro machines. What a difference. All the applications I need. It reliably runs with Unix and if I want to do the multimedia stuff I can as well. I can even load up a virtual environment to run XP as a guest OS if I really wanted to.

The physical build quality is streets ahead of anything I've seen in PCs.

[Clint Sharp]

In message , "Pet @

;¬)" writes

Do you know what, I've bought several and very happy I am with them.

The trick with Dell is to make sure you follow the spec through and remove options like 3 yr onsite support and you'll get the special offer prices. It's quite often cheaper to downspec a better model than up-spec a low end one, they charge ludicrous prices for things like DVD writers or extra RAM.

I must have ordered over thirty Dell systems last year for people and never once had a mistake made. I've only ever had one problem with an order and that took four weeks to sort out but on the whole, I'm a happy bunny with Dell.

[Mark Spice]

I know it's bad form to reply to myself but it seems the easiest way.

Thanks to all who responded. I'm afraid I don't know enough Linux to make that a sensible solution as the aged parents have almost got the hang of Windows now and I think a total learning curve for both them and I would be far too much stress. The same goes for Macs as well with the addendum that they are far too much money and I really don't see the point of them - I have yet to find something that I need to do that a Mac can do that a cheaper PC can't.

All in all I would probably get a Mesh if it was for me but having bought a Dell previously myself I think the aged ones could do with the extra hand-holding that is available

Cheers

Mark

[Owain]

Sometimes.

Why install, just boot and run the entire OS and apps from CDROM. (Bit sluggish though.)

Owain

[Owain]

If the OP and the OP's parents both have broadband, having the PC (or a virtual PC) at the OP's place and giving the parents a thin client and router might be an easy way around.

Owain

[willie]

Take it you don't have a G4 Titanium laptop then, Andy? Bent Ti cover (way too thin), snapped hinges (has anyone got one on its original hinges?), blowing power supplies and a dead superdrive now. Had Mac optical mice fail as well, never had MS optical one fail yet. Don't get me wrong, still like Mac OS but I would not buy one for quality of construction. If you want a well built laptop then the only thing on the market as far as I am concerned is the Panasonic Toughbook range which are simply in a class by themselves.

To the OP, if you want good customer service then you shop local - there are loads of good small computer shops that offer service far above the big boys like Dell and Mesh. Ask around for recommendations. Do you want to deal with call centres, premium rate calls and flow chart following "engineers"? Buy a Dell machine, your parents will end up spending twice as much on the machine after their "trial" software all expires three months down the line and it becomes infected with all kinds of trash. I seem to be peering at a lot of small monitors from them these days as well, if you do go that way, check what size monitor they sell you, they have one that is tiny, not suitable for old eyes at all.

Regards

William MacLeod

[Colin Wilson]

Pretty much everything you need to keep them clean can be had for free - as I mention on my site per the other post.

Avast is, IMO, the current cream of the crop as far as free virus checkers goes.

[Andy Hall]

I have used one without problems

I've had two Dell power supplies.

I suppose if you want something for use in a steelworks....... :-)