Hiyas -

I have a couple questions..


I want to buy a reasonable (cheapish) lap top for school. I've been looking around and everything I see has windows Vista installed on it. I can't find anything with (or being able to add) MS Word or Excel on these computers. Is that standard? I would really like to buy the MS Student Suit with Open Note for my home computer, and was wondering is that something i can buy loaded onto a lap top also? Or can I put it on 2 computers if I buy it? Can I buy a NEW lap top with Windows XP still?


With all that said, does anyone have any recommendations?

Thanks!

If you purchase a laptop preinstalled with Windows Vista Business or Windows Vista Ultimate you have the legal right to downgrade to Windows XP Professional. So, keep that in mind when looking for a notebook. I can sell you a notebook to meet your needs, but if price is a critical issue you will honestly find better deals with companies like Acer, HP, etc.

Most big box company notebooks, and even smaller companies these days should come preinstalled with the Microsoft Office 2007 time limited trial. The pre-installed trials have the entire application installed and running, and you essentially purchase a medialess license from Microsoft.

The Student version of Office will cost ya about $149. Every laptop I've bought for myself and family have been Dell's. Mainly cause I've had few problems and they offer a good extended warranty. To me it's worth the couple of extra $ to get the extended that has accidentl coverage for 3 years. Everything hook-up on you laptop that turns into a problem means replacing the motherboard, in my experience.
Dell also has a program to use XP instead of Vista.

Here's a link - Dell laptops. Here you can see the warranty choses. XP has already been chosen as OP System. You can also choose to Offics Student preinstalled.

Do not purchase a laptop preinstalled with Windows XP. In the end you are spending more money then you need. As I said purchasing a notebook with Vista Business or Vista Ultimate gives you the right to use XP Professional instead. In the future when you do decide to move to Vista you retain that right - by purchasing a notebook with XP installed you essentially are doubling your cost when you eventually decide to upgrade to Vista in the years to come.

There is no reason to get a laptop with Windows XP - the price differences are negligble and purchasing Vista Business or Ultimate gives you the legal right to go either way.

Yea I would go with Vista as well.
Given XP's limited support from MS in the future, it'd be best to go for the latest.
*hates vista, lol*

Also, consult your school. Many schools have deals with one company or another for great discounts for laptops and software packages...

As far as MS Student Suite goes, there are probably cheaper alternatives, like Open Office, a free office productivity bundle that has programs that work very smiliar too PowerPoint, Excel, etc. And there are ways to convert the files to their M$ counterparts if you have to email them to your profs.

Considering the dirt cheap price of Office Home & Student 2007 there really is no reason not to purchase it. Ease-of-use and cost of maintenance in the long run is cheaper running a Microsoft Office package over Open Office or its counterparts. Unless you are standing on a street corner, pickup Microsoft Office Home & Student 07.

Hmmm, cheapest price I could find (granted I wasnt trying all that hard) was about $120 USD.

I honeslty dont think I could bring myself to spend that much money on something that had a free alternative...

Though he does have a strong point on ease-of-use. Especially if you take any courses that deal specifically with Microsoft versions...

You aren't just buying software, you are buying support, development time, service packs, and most of all you are lowering cost of maintenance. The filetypes are more universally support being that MS is the standard, and 99% of all repair shops can fix any office issues with minimal service time. Open Source applications *always* suffer from reduced support, reduced updates, and a smaller market share of users.

If you want to be 100% sure it works, and 100% that if you do run into an issue that its easily fixable.. Go with the industry standard application.

Do you know if the license allows it on two computers or just one?