In a recent post, Clancy asked for advice on buying a laptop. When I came home today, there was a message from my dad on my answering machine: his computer died, and he wants to buy a new desktop, and he needs advice.
Now here’s the thing about my dad: he won’t upgrade incrementally (no new hard drives, no new cards), so the stock original model he buys will probably have to last him seven or eight years, and being retired, he mostly uses his computer as a typewriter. And I’ve been trying to get him online since 1996, so this might be my opportunity.
He’s a Windows person, and while I think many of the differences between the Mac and Windows OSes are appeals to taste and taste alone, I’m also aware that — if he actually does get online — he probably won’t bother to download the occasional Windows security update. So that’s an excuse for me to suggest a Mac. But he may do just as well with a Windows machine, which leads me to ask: what would you suggest to him? I’ve heard good things about Dell’s reliability, and some good things about Sony’s reliability too; as far as customer service goes, Sony seems to have the better record, and most of the other folks kinda suck. Can folks recommend a long-lasting Windows desktop machine?
I have a Dell Diminsion 4400 that’s 2 years old, and it’s been a wonderful, problem-free machine. I’ve only had to talk to their tech support folks once (I can’t remember what for), and they were fine.
I like it so much that I’m thinking about a Dell laptop.
Anything by Dell, but…
The new eMacs are nice. And compact. And all in one. AND CHEAP. And pretty powerful. And comes with Appleworks.
I would recommend one of those.
Scott
I’ve had a Dell laptop for about a year and a half and I love it. However, my mother-in-law recently purchased her first in-home computer and she wound up buying a Mac based upon the advice of her brother, who is retired but lives about an hour away. I think she’s likes it but the process has been frustrated by the fact that she has two sons and two daughters-in-law who are computer literate and live in the same town – but who are not Mac people and can’t provide instant advice.
I say get your dad whatever you’re most comfortable with unless you’re confident he’ll never need your help.
if your dad has broadband (i wouldn’t do it otherwise), i believe that windows update can be set to run automatically in xp. used to, i wouldn’t have advised this for anyone. but recent security problems in the last year or so have not been email-based; not running the updates just leaves it wide open for a host of virus/worm problems. can’t get my mom to run her w98 security updates regularly, and it’s a pain (sigh!)
as for systems, i haven’t tracked this in a year or two, but before that, dell traditionally had one of the best customer satisfaction ratings for quite a while. and if you go dell, get ’em the service plan with it.
as for sony, i’m not partial to them because they customize their systems for sony products. they feel sonyized. so they are devoting resources for making everything into a sony world at the expense of putting design dollars elsewhere.
As an eMac owner, I’d agree with Scott. I just received an ad yesterday that announced new ones with 1.25 G and free RAM for less than $1,000.
I love my eMac–fast, compact (though heavy as hell), and super-reliable so far (over one-year).
As for you, Mike, make the switch and get an iBook!
(Sorry, but as far as I’m concerned, there is only one kind of computer in the world worth owning, and it has a cute little apple logo on it).
Wow — thanks, everyone, for all the helpful advice! My dad observed that in terms of price for performance, Macs seem to be about twice as expensive as Windows machines. Having done some browsing at the Dell and HP/Compaq sites, his argument seems hard to refute.
One big question I have: do iMacs and eMacs come with internal modems? Looking at the Apple store, it seems like they don’t.
And Cindy — now why would I want to give up my Powerbook for an iBook? 🙂
OK, I’m turning all shades of red here. Didn’t read carefully 😉