Laptop Advice
My Dell Inspiron 1420 laptop is going on ten years old, and I'm still entirely happy with it. I even recently bought an identical machine off eBay to use for parts if/when I need them. But I'm starting to feel like maybe it's better to upgrade while I'm still happy rather than wait for the inevitable crisis.
But I haven't been in this market for 10 years, so I no longer know what to look for, re either hardware or OS. Here are a few considerations, on which I solicit your comments:
OS: I run Windows Vista, which is a large part of the reason I've been so reluctant to upgrade. Vista was a nightmare right out of the box, but I managed to tame it with a whole lot of tinkering down deep in the Windows registry, and now I have almost no complaints. But the whole experience has made me gunshy about starting again with a new OS that might need a comparable amount of taming. I've done that once and I don't want to do it again. Am I going to have to do it again?
More on OS: I still do almost everything in command windows. I run Cygwin, which gives me access to a great many Unix commands, and I run 4NT, which is a sort of souped-up DOS, which gives me access to a great many more commands. I have a huge library of scripts I've written over the years, most of which contain some lines of Unix and some lines of 4NT, and all of which will have to be scrapped if I can't continue to run both. Please tell me that current versions of Windows still run both Cygwin and 4NT.
Still more on OS: Given that my reliance on 4NT pretty much ties me to Windows, should I be looking at Windows 7,8,10? Does the fact that I do almost everything in command windows change your answer?
Hardware: I have a large collection of 2.5" SATA drives of standard laptop height (which I think is 9.5 mm?), which I continuously swap in and out of my machine. If I buy a new laptop with a 2.5" SATA drive, can I safely assume that my existing drives will fit in there? Or have standards changed in a way that makes this no longer a safe assumption? And even if the drive fits in, will all laptops be able to deal with a terabyte drive or do some have limitations on the drive size they can handle?
More on Hardware: I have had a lifelong commitment to Dell, based on their absolutely superb customer service. I therefore tend not to look at any other brands. Is this a mistake?
Dell: On the other hand, Dell has now got so many different laptops it makes my head spin, to the point where I just want to shop someplace else. What is the difference between an Inspiron, a Latitude, an XPS, etc? Is there just one of these lines I should be looking at?
Screen shape: In the old days I used to be able to easily fit six standard 80x24 windows on my screen, non-overlapping: two across, three down. Then screens got more wide and less high, so now I can fit two-and-a-half across (i.e. two, with a bunch of completely wasted space between them) but only two down. That wasted real estate drives me insane. Does anyone still make a laptop with a screen that accommodates an integer number of windows without space between them?
Stuff I really care about: Battery life matters a lot to me. Lightweight is important, but less so. Processing power matters (I use Mathematica pretty heavily in ways that use up a lot of cycles.) And reliability and longevity trump everything. Does any of this change the brands I should be looking at?
Other: What else should I be thinking about?
But I haven't been in this market for 10 years, so I no longer know what to look for, re either hardware or OS. Here are a few considerations, on which I solicit your comments:
OS: I run Windows Vista, which is a large part of the reason I've been so reluctant to upgrade. Vista was a nightmare right out of the box, but I managed to tame it with a whole lot of tinkering down deep in the Windows registry, and now I have almost no complaints. But the whole experience has made me gunshy about starting again with a new OS that might need a comparable amount of taming. I've done that once and I don't want to do it again. Am I going to have to do it again?
More on OS: I still do almost everything in command windows. I run Cygwin, which gives me access to a great many Unix commands, and I run 4NT, which is a sort of souped-up DOS, which gives me access to a great many more commands. I have a huge library of scripts I've written over the years, most of which contain some lines of Unix and some lines of 4NT, and all of which will have to be scrapped if I can't continue to run both. Please tell me that current versions of Windows still run both Cygwin and 4NT.
Still more on OS: Given that my reliance on 4NT pretty much ties me to Windows, should I be looking at Windows 7,8,10? Does the fact that I do almost everything in command windows change your answer?
Hardware: I have a large collection of 2.5" SATA drives of standard laptop height (which I think is 9.5 mm?), which I continuously swap in and out of my machine. If I buy a new laptop with a 2.5" SATA drive, can I safely assume that my existing drives will fit in there? Or have standards changed in a way that makes this no longer a safe assumption? And even if the drive fits in, will all laptops be able to deal with a terabyte drive or do some have limitations on the drive size they can handle?
More on Hardware: I have had a lifelong commitment to Dell, based on their absolutely superb customer service. I therefore tend not to look at any other brands. Is this a mistake?
Dell: On the other hand, Dell has now got so many different laptops it makes my head spin, to the point where I just want to shop someplace else. What is the difference between an Inspiron, a Latitude, an XPS, etc? Is there just one of these lines I should be looking at?
Screen shape: In the old days I used to be able to easily fit six standard 80x24 windows on my screen, non-overlapping: two across, three down. Then screens got more wide and less high, so now I can fit two-and-a-half across (i.e. two, with a bunch of completely wasted space between them) but only two down. That wasted real estate drives me insane. Does anyone still make a laptop with a screen that accommodates an integer number of windows without space between them?
Stuff I really care about: Battery life matters a lot to me. Lightweight is important, but less so. Processing power matters (I use Mathematica pretty heavily in ways that use up a lot of cycles.) And reliability and longevity trump everything. Does any of this change the brands I should be looking at?
Other: What else should I be thinking about?