Which netbook

[Missy D]

My daughter is currently in A level studies and seems all our laptops and netbooks does not have what she needs. She needs Microsoft office.. Can you get Office on Ipad? also despite me buying every virus protection possible and not downloading anything we still get viruses and trojan.
Can someone give me some advice please:flower:

[cederic]

If your daughter needs to create documents/spreadsheets/presentations then an iPad (lacking a keyboard) may not be an optimal choice. I suspect you can't run MS Office on one (as it would contravene Apple's app store constraints) although you should be able to view most documents on it.

A netbook may also be unable to run MS Office - some will, some wont. If you need a netbook form factor then do some research before buying one.

If you have laptops already then you could just buy and install MS Office for one of them - the school should be able to provide a hefty educational discount.

If you're buying new, then consider the broader use of the laptop/netbook/tablet and buy something able to run MS Office as well as meet other needs (music/video playing, 'net access, etc).


Regarding the trojans/virii it's difficult to comment remotely over the internet. Start with a known clean system, with proper protection installed, use Chrome or Firefox with Adblock installed and assure that everyone using the system is educated not to download/run/click on/open/attach anything to it. That's very difficult in a family household :(

[Lee Bartholomew]

an Ipad will be no good at all. It will be incompatible with school computers and won't run office along with it being wayyyy overpriced for what it is and having no keyboard. :wink:

It depends on what your budget is really, theres many out there.

[Cruella]

an Ipad will be no good at all. It will be incompatible with school computers

Not necessarily, our school has macbooks :wink:

[philsmove]

Not necessarily, our school has macbooks :wink:

But a Mac book is just £867
an ipad is only £399 but still wont run MS Office
An Acer lap top, which will run Office, without emulation, can be found for £299

Re virus protection
Having more than one virus program running, can cause problems
SpyBot seems very good at cleaning an infected computer
but few people seem to use it for day to day protection
( don't forget to scan all your drive and disks including back ups
choose just one virus program and stick to it

[CheesyRobMan]

I have an Asus EeePC netbook - silly name, good computer. Netbooks aren't that powerful/fast but they are designed just for office type tasks and web browsing, and they do it pretty well. I've got Avast antivirus installed and it seems to be doing a good job so far although I'm careful about what I install too.

Don't buy Microsoft Office, download OpenOffice for free. It does almost everything that MS Office does, but it doesn't cost £££s. The only gotcha is that it uses its own native file format, but you can save documents into 'normal' MS Office formats and transfer them to any other computer (except a Mac, obviously).

[Dreadful Scathe]

My daughter is currently in A level studies and seems all our laptops and netbooks does not have what she needs. She needs Microsoft office.

No she doesn't. And if she got told that as actual advice, it was wrong. OpenOffice is free, as CRM says, and can happily handle MS Office format documents. And I'm not just saying this, as someone who has to create professional documents and alter other peoples Microsoft Office documents - I have used Open Office for years with no problem. (MS software in schools is just wrong!)

[David Bailey]

No she doesn't. And if she got told that as actual advice, it was wrong. OpenOffice is free, as CRM says, and can happily handle MS Office format documents. And I'm not just saying this, as someone who has to create professional documents and alter other peoples Microsoft Office documents - I have used Open Office for years with no problem. (MS software in schools is just wrong!)

:yeah:

I've installed OpenOffice at home and at work, it's better than MS Office and it's free.

You can download it here:
http://download.openoffice.org/

[David Bailey]

And on the original post:

My daughter is currently in A level studies and seems all our laptops and netbooks does not have what she needs. She needs Microsoft office.. Can you get Office on Ipad? also despite me buying every virus protection possible and not downloading anything we still get viruses and trojan.
Can someone give me some advice please:flower:

Firstly, iPads are clearly rubbish for anything involving work. They're simply big iPods.

Secondly, I'd recommend using "Avast" anti-virus software. It's free, and it seems to work quite well for my purposes. You can download it here:
http://www.avast.com/en-gb/index

[philsmove]

:yeah:

I've installed Open Office at home and at work, it's better than MS Office and it's free.

what would you recommend as a free version of Outlook





Firstly, iPads are clearly rubbish for anything involving work.
unless you happen to be a photographer ( no I have not got one ..yet)

[Dreadful Scathe]

what would you recommend as a free version of Outlook

Gmail : better searching, better labelling and filtering, will integrate any meeting requests from outlook used by others with your google calendar...and its cloud based so you are not tied to a pc. You would also use Google Calendar for meeting rooms etc..

[geoff332]

unless you happen to be a photographer ( no I have not got one ..yet)I'd not like to actually manage or (worse yet) edit a decent size and quality image on an iPad - or on my phone.

In general, it's hard to do most creative things on a tablet. It's hard (and much, much slower) to write anything longer than a paragraph or two without a keyboard; it's hard to get the precision of a mouse with touch-screen and it's very limited at managing data and doesn't have the processing power for anything serious with audio or video. People may come up with ways of beating all these limitations, but I've not seen them yet.

That leaves you with a netbook or a laptop.

A netbook can often suffer from the same sort of processor limitations as a tablet. They are generally more powerful than a tablet, but are mostly running Windows OS so use up a lot of power for that. They are light and have relatively good battery-life and can usually run full versions of software - albeit slowly.

A laptop's main limitations are weight/portability and battery life. If you can get a machine with a SSD, then they tend to be lighter and run better. But these are still criminally expensive at the moment. You can get a laptop as powerful as you need.

As to whether to get open office or MS Office depends on a number of factors.

OpenOffice will obviously let you open and edit MS Office documents. It will let you produce and save word documents that other people can open. And so on. It's free and powerful, so very good.

The main limitation comes if you have to properly collaborate on documents (ie exchange documents back and forth). Here, it really matters that everyone uses the same software - because every piece of software has some messy nuances in how it handles the files that can make this really annoying (ie someone opening a Word doc in OpenOffice and having it subtly change table formatting...). This is usually more true if you are using the mode advanced features. I'm not advocating any particular package here: what matters is that everyone uses the same one.

[philsmove]

I'd not like to actually manage or (worse yet) edit a decent size and quality image on an iPad - or on my phone.
.

I tend to do all my Editing in Lightroom 3 on a powerful desktop
Then export jpegs to a folder that syncs via i tunes with my Iphone
As I always have my phone with me, I can show people examples of the sort of photography I do

Cant imagine allways having an ipad with me but it would be nice to show bigger images

an Ipad can also be set up as a second screen from Lightroom

[cederic]

:yeah:

I've installed OpenOffice at home and at work, it's better than MS Office and it's free.

You can download it here:
http://download.openoffice.org/


I was behaving and identifying how to get MS Office cheaper, as that was explicitly requested and OpenOffice doesn't fully support all MS Office features (particularly around some of the VBA support).

If you are going for free office packages then please go for Libre Office rather than OpenOffice: http://www.libreoffice.org/download

It's largely the same software but without Oracle's authoritarian control. I used to like Oracle but they broke BEA and now they've broken Sun :(

Good call on the £300 laptop btw - they're not great, but for A Level support they're perfectly capable.

[frodo]

A netbook may also be unable to run MS Office - some will, some wont. If you need a netbook form factor then do some research before buying one.

If you have laptops already then you could just buy and install MS Office for one of them - the school should be able to provide a hefty educational discount.
Probably given the educational price there is probably no point not having Microsoft Office. I think you just have to prove educational status rather than the school being involved in the purchase.

I don't think OpenOffice has an equivalent of the OneNote tool, which looks like it would be good for Students.


I think there are few netbooks that wouldn't run Microsoft Office. Netbook specifications haven't varied much for a while.

Whether they run it well (is another matter), particuarly if you don't connect it to an external monitor.


Top search links

http://www.software4students.co.uk//Microsoft_Office_Download_2010_Pro_Plus-details.aspx?gclid=CM7fnNeg8qcCFUEb4QodNT1Qbw
http://www.software4students.co.uk//Microsoft_Office_Download_2010_Pro_Plus-details.aspx?gclid=CM7fnNeg8qcCFUEb4QodNT1Qbw

[t0mt0m]

A quick poll for those bashing an iPad - who's used one?

So you'd know that you get Read only access to Office files as standard for starters (2003 .doc files, 2007 .docx format etc).

I wouldn't recommend an iPad for this situation - A decent low cost laptop would probably be better if you want Office. Microsoft Security Essentials, Avast etc are free - if you have issues with viruses, trojans etc. The Student deal on Office is good, as usually is the cost for getting a license when buying a laptop/notebook. I'd agree with Cederic's comments.

It is a pita to use Office, but it's the most widely used program. Open Office works you can always give it a go - it depends if you don't mind paying the Microsoft Office tax essentially. "Just works" and not having compatibility issues can be something worth paying. Depends what you're doing with the software and which format you're using.

iPad
For what it is - no other competitor can meet the whole package (see the Xoom, Samsung having to scrap their previous attempts, RIM's PlayBook, HP's efforts ;) )
You can write well on an iPad, and you can use Bluetooth keyboards with it. People like Andy Ihnatko have shown that you can do long form writing on it.

Seeing as you can pretty easily take photos off the iPad from a digital camera, then edit them, or use as a store for them - it isn't that bad. It's remarkably easy to edit things with a tablet.
I think most people who aren't that computer literate find it much easier to point, than try and control a mouse, and it's respective cursor.
It's quite competent at managing data. And it's processing power is enough to run an 8 track Garageband studio. Run 720p or 1080p out to do video mirroring.
It's worth trying one, or at least gemming up on the specs rather than just bashing it.

[Dreadful Scathe]

I don't think OpenOffice has an equivalent of the OneNote tool, which looks like it would be good for Students.

Probably not that useful, but evernote is arguably better and also cloud based, and for the amount of note taking a typical student may done - free.



I think there are few netbooks that wouldn't run Microsoft Office. Netbook specifications haven't varied much for a while.


I agree a £300 laptop is better than a netbook - better screen , better keyboard , better cpu , more hard drive space.



So you'd know that you get Read only access to Office files as standard for starters (2003 .doc files, 2007 .docx format etc).

Not much use for students then.


. Microsoft Security Essentials, Avast etc are free - if you have issues with viruses, trojans etc. The Student deal on Office is good, as usually is the cost for getting a license when buying a laptop/notebook.

Not only do students not need MS Office, using Windows as their operating system is a bad idea too. Ubuntu all the way; everything you could possibly need to do work but without the hassle of viruses, trojans.


"Just works" and not having compatibility issues can be something worth paying.

Most software "just works" or it would be poor software.




I think most people who aren't that computer literate find it much easier to point, than try and control a mouse, and it's respective cursor.

er... most people find it easier to point, regardless of computer literacy! :)



It's worth trying one, or at least gemming up on the specs rather than just bashing it.

The iPad is overpriced and locked down and has no decent connection ports. But the last two are not a concern for most people and the first doesn't matter if you have money and think its MUST HAVE GROOVY APPLE GOODNESS which clearly many do :)

[t0mt0m]

So generally agree :)
For £300 - gets you a nice laptop. Netbook over a laptop. 13-15 inch screen probably useful - is a tradeoff between bigger screen and becoming a burden to lug around. Can always put Ubuntu on and boot, or dual boot.

Agree Evernote is useful.

For A level material - yes, i'd imagine you could replace Office completely. Each to their own :) If folks feel comfortable using different OS, or Open Office over Office - it gives a lot more options, but there can be times when you need to trouble shoot/get help. Probably not an issue for A level work as said.

Agreed - If folks are happy using Ubuntu/Open Office, all for it :)

Aye - price isn't cheap, yes, but overpriced compared to which other tablet offering equivalent over all the features? ;) It is what you make it (like a smartphone over a simple Nokia one). I think it's specific to each person - as in - "overpriced for me" or "worth it/ enough value for me".

[cederic]

One belated thought: Does the school use any computer based training? Much of that uses Flash as a delivery mechanism, which would rule out an iPad completely.

[Bubble]

Ubuntu all the way; everything you could possibly need to do work but without the hassle of viruses, trojans.

I've been meaning to try UBUNTU for a while. Should I just buy a laptop, load the latest flavour and hope it will work, or try and research which machines work best? I've heard Eeeeeeepcs are quite Linux friendly.


The iPad is overpriced and locked down and has no decent connection ports. But the last two are not a concern for most people and the first doesn't matter if you have money and think its MUST HAVE GROOVY APPLE GOODNESS which clearly many do :)

............... and buying an iPad suggests that you're probably a horrible person! (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/jul/30/ipad-owners-personality-facebook) :lol:

[robd]

I'd second the advice to get a similarly priced laptop rather than netbook unless you really need the longer battery life. I bought a Samsung netbook last Xmas and it's a great little gadget but I use it less and less since the screen just seems too small to be comfortable for extended use.

[Dreadful Scathe]

I've been meaning to try UBUNTU for a while. Should I just buy a laptop, load the latest flavour and hope it will work, or try and research which machines work best? I've heard Eeeeeeepcs are quite Linux friendly.

the asus eee netbook works with the special netbook edition of ubuntu - but they have awful keyboards. The desktop ubuntu will work with most PC specs you throw at it, i've not had any issues yet but others have (but then windows vista and 7 are in exactly the same boat here). Yes I would check out the laptop first to see if there any any issues, but there probably won't be, and you can boot ubuntu from cd to try it without installing anything.

[David Franklin]

the asus eee netbook works with the special netbook edition of ubuntu - but they have awful keyboards. The desktop ubuntu will work with most PC specs you throw at it, i've not had any issues yet but others have (but then windows vista and 7 are in exactly the same boat here). Yes I would check out the laptop first to see if there any any issues, but there probably won't be, and you can boot ubuntu from cd to try it without installing anything.How's Ubuntu with wireless networking these days? When I last tried it this was the showstopper for me - you needed to know things like the chipset for the wireless card (great, let's open up the machine and look for identifying marks on the ICs) and then some fairly arcane magic with WPA-supplicant.

(Of course, getting this to work when you have no internet access to search pages on google is particularly unfun).

[Dreadful Scathe]

How's Ubuntu with wireless networking these days? When I last tried it this was the showstopper for me - you needed to know things like the chipset for the wireless card (great, let's open up the machine and look for identifying marks on the ICs) and then some fairly arcane magic with WPA-supplicant.

(Of course, getting this to work when you have no internet access to search pages on google is particularly unfun).
fine now. Last 2 inbuilt wirleess cards and 3 external usb dongles have worked first time - so i think they are pretty much there - This makes it far better that windows, as the last 2 times i added usb dongles in vista they were ignored. Xp always did ignore external devices until you found drivers and Win 7 i have yet to try with anything wireless.

[frodo]

I'd second the advice to get a similarly priced laptop rather than netbook unless you really need the longer battery life. I bought a Samsung netbook last Xmas and it's a great little gadget but I use it less and less since the screen just seems too small to be comfortable for extended use.
I also find (1024 * 768 - 10 inch screen) netbooks too small for extended use, but going just one level larger to a 11.6 inch screen netbook or ULV notebook (1366*768 widescreen) makes a huge difference.

Typically with a cheap 15 inch screen you wouldn't get much higher resolution, and the weight increase is relatively small.

[DavidY]

I bought a Samsung netbook last Xmas You might want to scan it for key-logging software...
http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/03/30/samsung-intentionally-shipping-laptops-with-keyloggerspy-software/:what::what:

[cederic]

I also find (1024 * 768 - 10 inch screen) netbooks too small for extended use, but going just one level larger to a 11.6 inch screen netbook or ULV notebook (1366*768 widescreen) makes a huge difference.

Typically with a cheap 15 inch screen you wouldn't get much higher resolution, and the weight increase is relatively small.

Or spend stupid money for a 13" laptop with 1920x1080:
http://www.sony.co.uk/product/vnp-z-series/vpcz13z9e-x

I lust..



(incidentally the Samsung keylogger story was a false positive)