Dude, I'm Gettin' a Dell

John Biltz wrote:
On Tue, 13 Apr 2004 20:00:28 -0700, EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque) wrote
(in article ):



John Biltz wrote:

On Tue, 13 Apr 2004 16:08:07 -0700, Cheryl wrote
(in article ):

itty (Sherry ) dumped this in
on 13 Apr 2004:

Does anyone know, is there any reason I should buy the upgrade
and get Windows XP Professional instead of Windows XP home?

Congrats! I just got a new Dell laptop and I paid the extra for XP
pro. That said, I'm familiar with both Pro and Home and you really
don't need pro. I only got it so I'd be consistent with my work
computer and anything I can do there, I can do here.

I would put the extra money into ram instead. Before you plug your
new computer into the internet make sure you install a firewall or
turn on the firewall inside XP. Its not the best one, only blocks
incoming not outgoing, but it will do until you can download a free
one. You can get a free antivirus as well. I did not like XP. In
fact it drove me to Macs but I haven't used it in a long time. A
lot of people do and I am sure it is better now than when it first
came out. I doubt one is more stable than the other, if it was
they certainly would not admit it. But they are the same platform
and I can't imagine they would leave something out that would hurt
stability. XP has more features mainly for high end users. You
are going to be amazed how fast it is if you are using something
from 95.

I notice that there are several Anti-virus/anti-spam/anti-spyware
software packages available. I have NAV, because it came with my
computer (but only the anti-virus, not the whole works). Is Norton's
package the best? What about McAfee, which seems to offer more for a
bit less money?

I think Norton has really slipped and is too intrusive and
controlling. McAfee beat it for the firewall. I've used both and
preferred the McAfee. AVG is free antivirus software for home use.
They sell a commercial product for business so their always up to
date its highly regarded and free.

The firewall I use is Zone Alarm www.zonelabs.com it's free and seems to
work well.
--
Adrian (Owned by Snoopy, Milo & Bagheera)
A house is not a home, without a cat.

"Sherry " wrote in message
...
Thing to remember, though, is that her old system sounds like it's
still running old software. For straight word processing I still
prefer Word Perfect 5.1, running out of DOS, and 32MB is more than
enough, and if most of my computer time was spent on WP now I'd
probably still be using the system I replaced last year. Since I
retired from the Army, though, WP is no longer a biggy, now it's
getting on line, playing with pictures, etc, and I love the new system
with 512MB.
--
Steve Touchstone,

First off, let me establish that I am a complete moron with respect to all
things technical. That said, I just have one more question; My humane
society
membership list is on the old computer in Microsoft Word.(from 1997, I
don't
know what version). I need it for newsletter labels and stuff. The new
computer
has Microsoft Works Suite. Does anyone know if that will work for keeping
the
list, and printing labels? Will I have to re-enter the whole list?
Sherry

Open the old list on the old computer and save it to a diskette as a .txt
file, as opposed to a .doc file. You may lose some formatting, but you can
open the txt file using MS Works on the new 'puter. Or do you still have the
MS Word disks (disc?), you can install it on your new computer.

Stacey

"Sherry " wrote in message
...
Thing to remember, though, is that her old system sounds like it's
still running old software. For straight word processing I still
prefer Word Perfect 5.1, running out of DOS, and 32MB is more than
enough, and if most of my computer time was spent on WP now I'd
probably still be using the system I replaced last year. Since I
retired from the Army, though, WP is no longer a biggy, now it's
getting on line, playing with pictures, etc, and I love the new system
with 512MB.
--
Steve Touchstone,

First off, let me establish that I am a complete moron with respect to all
things technical. That said, I just have one more question; My humane
society
membership list is on the old computer in Microsoft Word.(from 1997, I
don't
know what version). I need it for newsletter labels and stuff. The new
computer
has Microsoft Works Suite. Does anyone know if that will work for keeping
the
list, and printing labels? Will I have to re-enter the whole list?
Sherry

Open the old list on the old computer and save it to a diskette as a .txt
file, as opposed to a .doc file. You may lose some formatting, but you can
open the txt file using MS Works on the new 'puter. Or do you still have the
MS Word disks (disc?), you can install it on your new computer.

Stacey

dirtylitterboxofferingstospammers wrote:

One thing I would recommend (even for a "basic" computer these days) is more
RAM. It's fairly inexpensive to jump from 128 to 256, and this is one of
those areas where people usually look back and wish they had opted for more.
XP requires a *lot* of resources.

Yup - I've got 512 on my machine. XP needs memory!

If you are getting the "free"
preinstalled version of McAfee, you may find that you can only download new
antivirus definitions for 30 days -- then you will need to get a full
version of whatever AV software you use.

The version of McAfee that came with my Dell is the full thing - 12 months'
licence all upgrades etc., etc..

Also: does yours include a floppy
drive? You might want to consider it.

Certainly Dell's over on this side of the pond don't seem to come with the
floppy drive but *do* have a CD/DVD re-writeable drive as standard.

I dunno about the UK, but here you can get one if you WANT it - anyway,
a lot I've looked at still have them, in addition to both writeable and
read-only CD/DVD drives. (I have a lot of prized photos which I had put
on floppies rather than having prints made - I'd need one for that, if
nothing else.) They also come with extra ports for digital camera
memory sticks, and a lot of the other ports in front, where they're
acessible.

dirtylitterboxofferingstospammers wrote:

One thing I would recommend (even for a "basic" computer these days) is more
RAM. It's fairly inexpensive to jump from 128 to 256, and this is one of
those areas where people usually look back and wish they had opted for more.
XP requires a *lot* of resources.

Yup - I've got 512 on my machine. XP needs memory!

If you are getting the "free"
preinstalled version of McAfee, you may find that you can only download new
antivirus definitions for 30 days -- then you will need to get a full
version of whatever AV software you use.

The version of McAfee that came with my Dell is the full thing - 12 months'
licence all upgrades etc., etc..

Also: does yours include a floppy
drive? You might want to consider it.

Certainly Dell's over on this side of the pond don't seem to come with the
floppy drive but *do* have a CD/DVD re-writeable drive as standard.

I dunno about the UK, but here you can get one if you WANT it - anyway,
a lot I've looked at still have them, in addition to both writeable and
read-only CD/DVD drives. (I have a lot of prized photos which I had put
on floppies rather than having prints made - I'd need one for that, if
nothing else.) They also come with extra ports for digital camera
memory sticks, and a lot of the other ports in front, where they're
acessible.

Kreisleriana wrote:


I love a new computer. All that RAM, all that disk space. I love
putting my stuff on it, like decorating a new home or office. I play
around with it for days. Ahhh . . .

Thing I'm most concerned about is how do I transfer all the stuff from
my present computer? (I don't WANT newer versions of some of the
software I have, and my entire LIFE for the past five years is in the
files on my computer!)

Kreisleriana wrote:


I love a new computer. All that RAM, all that disk space. I love
putting my stuff on it, like decorating a new home or office. I play
around with it for days. Ahhh . . .

Thing I'm most concerned about is how do I transfer all the stuff from
my present computer? (I don't WANT newer versions of some of the
software I have, and my entire LIFE for the past five years is in the
files on my computer!)

Hopitus2 wrote:

Uh.....Wall Street mumbles Gateway is on life support
financially.......closing many stores.

Yeah - they closed the one near me, as I discovered last Saturday. I
was more than a little annoyed, becuase I had called them just the
previous Monday to ask just where they were located. You'd think the
guy who told might havew mentioned the fact that they were closing in a
couple of days!

But Dell doesn't seem to have any stores at all - sales all appear to be
by telephone or via the internet.

Hopitus2 wrote:

Uh.....Wall Street mumbles Gateway is on life support
financially.......closing many stores.

Yeah - they closed the one near me, as I discovered last Saturday. I
was more than a little annoyed, becuase I had called them just the
previous Monday to ask just where they were located. You'd think the
guy who told might havew mentioned the fact that they were closing in a
couple of days!

But Dell doesn't seem to have any stores at all - sales all appear to be
by telephone or via the internet.

Victor Martinez wrote:

Hopitus2 wrote:
Uh.....Wall Street mumbles Gateway is on life support
financially.......closing many stores.

Opening physical stores was a big mistake for an on-line retailer and
they're correcting it. I'm pretty sure their online operations are ok.
I've never had to contact their customer service or technical assistance
though.

I bought my Gateway the end of 1999, when they were just beginning their
downward slide. All I know is, their tech support sucks - I'd hang on
the line for a minimum of twenty minutes, listening to country-western
music on their "Gateway network" hold button (I happen to HATE
country-western), only to be told by some redneck that "that's a
software problem, you'll have to contact your supplier". Since the
software was resident when I bought the computer, Gateway WAS the
supplier, but protests to that effect got no helpful response.


--
Victor Martinez
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