Sony Vaio Laptops?

[evulish]

With the Powerbook, it can interact with Windows quite well. In fact, Microsoft makes Office X for the Mac. I'm also quite sure Adobe makes all their products for Mac, too. Most files on a Mac are common. Probably the only thing is the filesystem and compressed filetypes. That doesn't really matter since you can create a SAMBA share on the network or use FTP or something. Also, something like winrar can probably open .sit and .dmg filetypes.

Also, Apple offers a great educational discount. It knocked a few hundred off my Powerbook. (Also, if you do go the powerbook way and are looking at the 15" without the DVD burner.. you'll get a nicer laptop by selecting the 15" w/ DVD burner then in the customization part, removing it. That way, you get the 1.25ghz processor, backlit keyboard [gorgeous], and built-n Airport Extreme (802.11g))

You might try picking up a copy of PC World. I'm pretty sure they have a a section in the back of their top laptops.

[Andy A.]

Im just going to shortly plug Hewlitt packard/Compaq notebooks.

The one I'm on now is an AMD based system with comparable specs to what is being kicked around, and cost me just a bit over $1000 before rebates. The only problem I have had was with the power adapter plug coming loose from the MB, which I was able to fix my self and I hear has since been resolved on new models. It even has a serial port, a rare thing on notebooks, which I have found beyond useful in dealing with microcontrollers. USB converters are a poor substitue for classic 1980's tech.

My battery life is about and 1 hour to 1.5 hours on this battery, which is getting a little tired. But then, the display, processor and optical drive are all very beefy and I see it as a fair trade. Same for wieght and shear size. She's big, but powerful. If you want to work on graphics and video, you can't get a large or bright enough display. Keep that in mind.

I could go on about my system, but I would suggest that you at least take a look at HP.

-Andy A.

[Dick Linn]

Our company has several Sony laptops, and I inherited one. It is HEAVY, though it has a nice display. I did hear that our in-house support people said "No more SONY's!". Apparently repairs or parts are a hassle, so I'd check into this aspect of ownership. Wish I could provide more solid info.

[fox46]

All I can say is I love my Hewlett Packard pavillion ze5185 . I bought it a year ago to replace my desktop, and it has far surpassed all my expectations and needs. 2.4Ghz, 512MB ram, 60Gig hard drive, CD burner, DVD, 64MB video card, 15" SXGA screen, and all the goodies. And best of all, the keyboard, power button, and touchpad are all backlit with blue LEDs! Our team has been using it to do all the animations, autodesk, and programming, and it has never crapped out....yet.

[Aaron Knight]

Originally Posted by evulish

With the Powerbook, it can interact with Windows quite well. In fact, Microsoft makes Office X for the Mac. I'm also quite sure Adobe makes all their products for Mac, too. Most files on a Mac are common. Probably the only thing is the filesystem and compressed filetypes. That doesn't really matter since you can create a SAMBA share on the network or use FTP or something. Also, something like winrar can probably open .sit and .dmg filetypes.

Adobe has stopped making Premiere, but only in relation to Apple bringing competition to their badly maintained version. Microsoft has announced a new release (2004) of Office for Mac as well. As far as cross-platform compatibility, I personally own two Macs and a PC, and have few issues at all going back and forth between them. Aladdin Systems makes a Windows version as well, although all new Macs (using Panther, OS X 10.3) the default archive method is the cross-platform favorite zip files. Macs can read all PC media as well.

Also, Apple offers a great educational discount. It knocked a few hundred off my Powerbook. (Also, if you do go the powerbook way and are looking at the 15" without the DVD burner.. you'll get a nicer laptop by selecting the 15" w/ DVD burner then in the customization part, removing it. That way, you get the 1.25ghz processor, backlit keyboard [gorgeous], and built-n Airport Extreme (802.11g))

The backlit keyboard is awesome, as are the laptops themselves. Good luck with your decision......

[MichalSkiba]

I have a PCG-FRV23.

I bought it for the multimedia capabilities (firewire and video out). I'm not terribly impressed by it. It heats up. The fans seem to alway be running. Whats with the 5 gig mystery partition (the one with no letter, that was sacrificed for SuSE Linux)?

I have a celeron which is both good and bad. Good because the battery lasts forever (3 hr+) when typing or browsing, but premiere chuggs at times, even though theres 512 MB of DDR in it. BTW, the there are two memory banks, both filled with 256 each, so upgrading doesn't seem economical (buying a 512 stick and effectivly only getting 256 MB more for the 512 price).

The hard drive is really slow (seems to be running @ 4.6 MB/s max), however the burner is superb; flawless burns every time.

I've had it since October of 2003 and I've had no need for taking it in, even though it averages about 6 hrs of use every day.

My recommendation for getting more speed out of your Vaio: run Linux!