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"Does anyone know the difference between a Vostro and Latitude?"
I used Gateway and have for nearly 10 years without a problem, so I can't
answer this question. Gateway experienced service problems several years
before Dell, but has since put them behind them. Dell is still working out
their service issues.
"Would you think that the default graphics card provided with Dell
laptops is good enough for my needs, or do I need an upgrade?"
How complicated are the graphics you intend to do? That will determine if
the built in graphics will suit your needs. Often, with a laptop, what you
get when you get it, is what you end up with. Upgrading graphics and such in
a laptop is not as easy as a desktop, so my recommendation is to get
graphics capability that is greater than you need, but within moderation.
"Does a 720 rpm hard drive make that much of a difference."
Okay, I know this is a typo, because a 720 rpm hard drive is
reeeeeaaaaallllllyyyyy slllllooooooowwwwww. I have a 7200 rpm drive in my
laptop and it's great. I also have a 7200 rpm external drive that I can hook
up either via USB 2.0 or Firewire. Together, the combination even does video
without lags.
"Maybe this is offtopic, but maybe not, since we all of us who work from
home need to buy our own supplies."
I've worked for companies that allow telecommute and provide laptops to the
telecommuters. It's rare, but they do exist.
"I have until June 16 to be able to buy a Dell with Windows XP (Home
Edition) (a system admin said not much diff between XP home vs XP
Office)..."
XP Home is not the same as XP Office. One is an operating system and the
other is an office suite (Word, Excel, etc.). All of our Gateway systems use
XP Professional. Some of my staff have newer laptops (HP, IBM and DELL) and
they have Vista. My XP systems blow their system away in speed, and they
have had problems using older programs on their systems that I don't
experience. XP Home is not XP Professional. Home lacks some of the security
features that the professional edition offers. We had an older laptop that
had XP Home on it and found that it connected to networks easier, but that
was primarily because it didn't have as robust security as the Professional
edition.
Hope this helps.
Al Geist
Technical Communicator, Help, Web Design, Video, Photography
Office/Msg: 802-872-9091
Cell: 802-578-3964
Website: www.geistassociates.com
See Also:
Fine Art Photography
Website: www.geistimages.com
"...I walked to work, quit my job, and kept walking. Better to be a pilgrim
without a destination, I figured, than to cross the wrong threshold each
day." (Anon.)
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