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Re: What notebook did you buy?

Subject: Re: What notebook did you buy?
From: Sarah Stegall <siliconwriter -at- comcast -dot- net>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 11 Apr 2005 15:56:10 -0700



On Monday, April 11, 2005, at 10:46 AM, Amanda_Abelove -at- toyota -dot- com wrote:


Hi--

I need to get a new notebook. It will be my only computer, with backups
to CDs. I will be running the usual techwriting software. I'd really
like to hear from anyone who bought their own laptop to use as a
contractor as to what laptop they bought and how it is working out. Right
now I am contemplating the Dells.


Six months ago I bought an Apple PowerBook G4 (the aluminum one) and immediately upgraded it with an extra 512 Mb of RAM. Other than that, it's the stock 12"-screen model available online. I find that it does everything I want it to beautifully, quietly, quickly and without fuss. The built-in CD burner allows me to back up to CDs as often as I want, and of course it has all the ports I need to connect to external storage devices as well. It has never overheated on me, the fan is practically inaudible when it does come on, it is light (a very important consideration when carrying a laptop around) and the display is crisp and clean. Networking is seamless whether the link is Ethernet or Wifi. The battery lasts a long time, but I seldom run it for more than an hour off the battery.

Yes, I work in companies that are 100% Windows, or more recently, 50/50 Windows/Linux, but compatibility is not and never has been a serious issue for me in ten years of technical writing. The only problem I find lately is that Adobe has abandoned the Mac version of FrameMaker, but I have two solutions to that: run FrameMaker 6 on Mac Classic (the older OS before Mac went Unix) or run a PC emulator such as VirtualPC and run Frame 7 on top of that. I am finding, however, that most of my clients don't use or want FrameMaker, so it is not really an issue. If your company uses FrameMaker 100%, you might not want to go with the Mac platform, but that is the ONLY reason I would avoid it.
!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!- !-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!
"Be a scribe! Your body will be sleek, your hand will be soft. You are one who sits grandly in your house; your servants answer speedily; beer is poured copiously; all who see you rejoice in good cheer. Happy is the heart of him who writes; he is young each day."--Ptahhotep, 4500 BCE

Sarah Stegall munchkyn at munchkyn dot com


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References:
What notebook did you buy?: From: Amanda_Abelove

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