Decisions, decisionsMar 05 '04 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line I recommend a small, lightweight, CORPORATE-class laptop running either Mac OS X or Windows 2000/XP. Avoid the consumer models, they weren't made for business.
Welcome to the jungle. The laptop computer jungle, that is. There are so many different sizes, types and even philosophies of laptops on the market today that choosing one for business use may prove a daunting task. To start, I'll give you my definition of business travel. No, I'm not limiting business travel to running across airports and sitting in crowded airplanes, as for me business travel is also downloading email at a cafe, connecting to networks in more than one location, and even just carrying and using a laptop on a train or in a car. Whether you use your laptop in the boardroom or the classroom, the requirements for business use are the same. And what are those requirements? Simple, enough power to get the job done, small and light enough to actually take with you, connected enough to access the information you need wherever you are, stable enough that you can do YOUR work instead of ITS work, and finally, strong enough to take the bumps and scuffs of life on the road. In short, a business laptop must strike a balance, something each manufacturer has a different take on how to do. The first area to consider is operating system. Most people thing there are only two choices, Mac OS or WIndows, but Linux has made tremendous strides and now presents a valid alternative for the technically proficient user. Since Linux is not yet a mainstream player and requires more than a little knowledge and patience to get running on a laptop, I'll concentrate here on the big two, Mac and Windows. Windows is the system that most of us love to hate. We see Microsoft as "The Evil Empire" with their anti-trust suits and monopolistic business practices, but for the notebook user, they also make VERY good software. Windows 2000 and Windows XP (home or pro, the differences are minor) satiisfy all of the software aspects of my business laptop described above. They are stable, allow you to easily configure connections to any type of network, and most importantly, are easy to use so as not to get in the way. For business use there is little difference between the two, with 2000, in my experience, a bit faster on older hardware and the slightest bit more stable, while XP provides much better integration of multimedia. For Windows, its important to know the differences in versions, as 2000 and XP are both "NT" based, which stands for "New Technology", evolved from Windows NT. NT was a stable operating system too, but it was clunky, difficult to use, and offered almost no support for multimedia add-ons or modern peripherals. It also lacked power management, which I'll discuss below, and that omission makes NT a poor choice for laptop use. The versions of Windows most people know and hate are 95, 98 and Millenium Edition, all of which are based on crotchety old DOS. DOS-based Windows, unlike the modern NT-based versions, are unstable (crash-o-matic is an often used description) and generally not up to business use. The alternative is Mac OS, which is currently on version 10.3. Apple makes a big deal about its cat names for new versions with Puma (10.1), Jaguar (10.2) and now Panther (10.3), but what is really important to know is the difference between any version of 10 (OS X in Mac parlance) and the old Mac OS you probably used or use in school. Mac OS X is Unix, plain and simple. Unix, perhaps even more than Windows NT, is a very robust, reliable system that while arcane and difficult to use, is well-hidden under Apple's beautiful user interface. The downside to OS X is that you have a vastly restricted hoice of hardware and software to use with it. The old Mac OS, whether it be System 7, OS 8 or OS 9, is much like DOS-based Windows in that it is no longer suitable for business use. Frequent system crashes due to poor handling of memory, as well as the fact that modern Apple computers no longer support the older Mac OS make it a bad choice, with one exception. The exception is if you are running an older Apple laptop, in which case I would recommend osing System 7.6.1 on the old 68K machines (if you own one of these, you know what it is) and OS8.1 on a PPC Mac (again, you know who you are). Other that the oldies, get the latest Mac laptop and run the latest version fo OS X, as unlike in the Windows world, the newer versions actually run faster than the older ones. So you have the background of Mac and PC systems, now which to choose? I've always liked both, but up until recently the fact that 90~95% of other users were using Windows made the choice a no-brainer for me, as business use is all about being compatible with networks wherever you travel, I chose and recommended PCs running Windows. There are other Windows advantages as well. Windows 2000 and XP simply have more advanced power management than Pac OS X, meaning that everything else being equal (battery capacity, screen size and brightness, processor power consumption, etc), A PC running Windows XP or 2000 will run longer on its batteries than an Apple PowerBook or iBook. Everything isn't equal, however, between Mac and PCs, and even just different models of PC laptops. Intel's Pentium M (Centrino) architecture allow PC makers to get 4 hours of life out of smallish batteries, while larger machines can run 6 or even 8 hours. Similar machines with less efficient architecture run perhaps half as long. Apple's current G4 laptops use much more power than the older G3s, though better batteries compensate to some degree. Don't forget also that a laptop with a 12" screen will run considerably longer than one with a 17", everything else being equal. Also, the slower processors tend to use less power, but not always. Finally, take manufacturer claims of battery life with many grains of salt. Apple claims 5 hours on the 12" PowerBook, and the computer will do it,so long as the user doesn't touch any keys or the mouse. In real-world use I get about 3 hours, 2:15 if I watch a DVD. IBM tends to be very realistic and honest in its battery life claims, in my experience. What has made me consider Mac OS X for business laptop use isn't any feature or behavior, but rather a reation to the current world in which we live and compute. These days one can't read the news without reading about some new virus or worm that is ravaging the internet, and while Macs are by no means immune to these threats, they are a MUCH smaller target. To date, there have been no virus or worms discovered that affect Mac OS X, while Windows is hit every day, and hit hard. Still, good habits and religious use of antivirus and security software can help. I found it to be a losing battle and switched to Mac OS X, but I'm only one user. So now you've decided on Mac or PC, so we can turn to the hardware requirements. First off, laptops come in two basic levels, consumer and corporate. Walk into any Circuit City or Best Buy and you will see only consumer grade laptops. Pick one up and it will be very pretty, but a bit on the heavy side. It will be made of plastic and will have flashy styling and lots of labels about all of the impressive technology crammed inside. The vast majority of laptop buyers choose consumer grade laptops because they are much cheaper for a given level of technology. Corporate laptops, on the other hand, are usually sold mail order or on the web a the manufacturer's website. They are usually 20-40% more expensive than a consumer model with the same specs, and often use older graphics and sound chips rather than the latest and greatest. Why would someone pay more to get less? Simple, corporate laptops are designed for reliability. They have strong aluminum, magnesium or even titanium casings, proven (older) components with known reliability and ost importantly, components are chosen to reduce conflicts rather than to impress on a spec sheet. a 128MB video cars is great for playing games, but terrible if its drivers conflict with your software or cause system crashes. Obviously I recommend corporate laptops for the rigors of business use, but if it is simply outside your budget, consumer models can be a great bargain if you do your homework on the web, avoiding models with many complaints. A good example from about three years ago was the Toshiba Satellite 5000 series, which was billed as the ultimate multimedia laptop. It was the first laptop with the nVidia GeForce graphics chip and 1GHz processor, both of which caused so many problems that a massive law suit followed. Corporte or consumer, the next decision is related to how much you will actually carry the laptop around. I favor small, lightweight machiens because I change location at least three times per day; starting in my office, then going to school, and finally working at home. Add in frequent travel and my desire to watch MY OWN movies when I fly, and I come out with a profile that suggests a very small and light machine, but with good DVD performance. There are four factors that every manufacturer must balance to create each and every laptop. THese are, screen size, weight, speed and price. If you want a machine to be lightweight but have a large screen, then it will be expensive. If you want a large screen that is affordable, then it will be heavy. If you want a lightweight machine that isn't too expensive, it will be slow and have a small screen. I settled on 12" as the ideal screen size FOR MY USE, as I fly coach to Asia frequently and a larger screen would put my expensive laptop at the mercy of the passenger in front of me. I also value long battery life and high performance. Thankfully, the small screen keeps my cost down with a corporate model laptop costing between $1600 and $2300 on average. I actually like the really thin models that lack a built-in optical drive, however my choice of Mac OS over Windows precludes such machines as Apple currently doesn't have one. I simply bought the smallest and lightest Apple laptop on the market, the 12" PowerBook. For Windows, I am a very big fan of the IBM X-series, with the X21 my most recent PC laptop. If you want a larger screen but need to retain portability, Apple's 15" PowerBook and IBM's T-series are excellent corporate-class choices. So what should you buy? Well I've given you my biases, built-up over more than a decade of laptop use. Yours will be different, depending on how you value portability against screen size and cost. The best advice I can give is to find someone who owns if not the exact machine you want to buy, at least something in the same size class, and then play with it a bit. Put it in the case with the power supply and walk around with it on your shoulder for 15 or 20 minutes. Look at documents on the screen and input text using the keyboard. Laptops are far more personal than desktops, and essentially once you buy, you are stuck with only what it comes with. You can't swap out one type of keyboard for one with different feel, nor can you change to a larger monitor later, though of course you can always plug in external devices to work at your desk. Buy what YOU want to use, not what someone else tells you is great. They won't carry and use it on a daily basis, you will. I hope this helps anyone loo,ing to take the laptop plunge. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you need more information.  |
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