[RNLD] Laptops

[#HIRAM RANDALL RING#]

Hi Nick,

  Have you looked at Netbooks? Lenovo and Asus make some pretty good quality small form factor laptops with no extra frills (Asus: https://www.asus.com/Laptops/Eee_PC_1005PX/, Lenovo: https://www.lenovo.com/ph/en/laptops/ideapad/ideapad-100-series/c/ideapad-100-series). Netbooks typically only have wifi and USB ports, and sometimes slightly outdated hardware, so make sure everything you need is on the machine you buy. You can get them for under $200 USD and they would likely last a year or two in field situations. The main issue I’ve found with laptops in the field is that viruses often get transferred via usb sticks used to copy movies and music for entertainment purposes (another reason I use a Mac), so a good simple virus scanner is helpful too - just be careful it isn’t a memory hog, and the virus scanner will need to be updated regularly for best results via an internet connection.

Some reviews of netbooks are here: https://www.pcmag.com/feature/287214/the-top-10-best-netbooks and here: https://bestlaptopsworld.com/best-netbooks/

With FLEx and Elan the main requirement is going to be Windows, which unfortunately means you probably wouldn’t find anything under $100 due to the Windows license. If you could somehow get cheap copies of Windows and get netbooks without software, you could save a bit of money, but this makes you your own IT department. If you set up something like Ubuntu with LibreOffice it would be mostly impervious to viruses, but it’s much harder for the locals to fix if something does break - and I’m not sure how well FLEx and Elan work on Ubuntu.

Anyhow, just my two cents.

Hiram

On 27 Aug 2019, at 5:39 AM, Cindy Schneider <cschnei3 at une.edu.au<mailto:cschnei3 at une.edu.au>> wrote:

Have you tried approaching IT departments of large-ish institutions, ie, Melbourne Uni? They might have some perfectly useable laptops that are just a few years old, and may be willing to donate to a good cause.



From: Colleen Hattersley [mailto:colhatts at gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, 27 August 2019 1:30 PM
To: Nick Thieberger
Cc: RNLD mailing list
Subject: Re: [RNLD] Laptops

I am on the same search Nick. Will be interested to read any suggestions that are forthcoming. Thanks for asking the group.
Colleen

On Tue, 27 Aug 2019 at 12:39, Nick Thieberger <thien at unimelb.edu.au<mailto:thien at unimelb.edu.au>> wrote:
Hi,

I'm looking to get laptops for people in the Pacific to use for transcription of recordings. These laptops need to be able to run Elan and FLEx but also be as cheap to buy as possible. Do you have any suggestions?
Thanks,
Nick


--
Colleen
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