Norton is horrid. They’re like the CCP of antiviruses.
I use Bitdefender because I can protect multiple devices with one subscription, and it has less of a performance footprint for gaming compared to others.
My mom is looking for a new laptop. Her budget is under $800 Canadian. I think she wants a 15 inch screen. It’ll primarily be for searching for stuff on the internet which she prefers on a computer rather than her iPad. Also some bookkeeping using Sage which I believe is cloud based. Any recommendations?
yes, but you’re not going to like it. the goal isn’t the laptop. the goal is to limit tech support.
get her a used Lenovo. I use t540p’s but there are newer used models available. Max the ram, and drop in an SSD drive.
THEN install unbuntu Linux. drop shortcuts on her desktop for chrome, a shortcut for chrome to launch Gmail and a shortcut to launch chrome point at sage.
She’ll never need tech support and the os and the machine will last her half a decade or longer.
source; my 83yo mom has been on Ubuntu for years. she doesn’t even know what she has, everything she does is browser based so it works better than fime. and no more calls complaining about windows. not working
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Are there people who specialize in setting this up?
Spacelobster apparently
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If she’s using Chrome to access Sage via the cloud, it seems highly likely the tasks she’s performing would work well on a Chromebook.
We had a chromebook because it should do.everything. We just found it underpowered and couldnt be updated.
I like the idea, but I’m not sure if she would like it. My sister tried getting her onto an OSX system and she was constantly frustrated with the new operating system. She knows how to do a lot of what she wants to do in the windows environment and isn’t eager to learn the workings of a different operating system. I find her biggest problem is she cheaper out on her computer and then is unhappy with the performance of her cheap computer.
I’m honestly wondering if she’s not taking full advantage of her iPad. I’m wondering if it’s feasible to use a proper keyboard, mouse and monitor with it.
I went down that path before, assuming that since I wasn’t a gamer and was mostly using it for internet things didn’t need to spend much, and ended up with something I barely used.
I am very happy with my last purchase from 2024 - a Lenovo from Costco that was MSRP $1499 but had a $600 rebate, assuming it was the outgoing model. I spent a few months trying to hone in on what I really wanted - 15" 3-4k screen with a decent amount of ram and processor to avoid that cheap computer experience. What I learned from comparing prices and looking for a deal - nearly every laptop that Costco sells will be similar as one available from Best Buy, but will have something upgraded - usually ram or disk, but sometimes the screen as well, for the equivalent price as the model from BBY. Costco will also rotate through nice rebates on a monthly basis, so there is a good chance that if you find one you like, but its a bit above your price range, just wait a month and it might be $250-500 cheaper. BBY has a deal of the day that is also worth watching.
In that price range, unless there’s some other need, I’d probably just go to your favorite vendor and search for 4-star+ reviews of laptops that meet the following criteria:
- 32GB+ RAM (16GB might be enough, but if a concern is the current laptop being underpowered…)
- 1TB+ HD (if storing more than that, it might be worth considering making use of Microsoft’s nagging about OneDrive, or looking into a NAS)
- At least 1080p resolution (I like more, but that’ll be hard to find in this price range…and an external monitor with better resolution can always be connected)
- Avoid anything that is advertised as “gaming” (it’ll be marketing hype in that price range).
For off-the-shelf Windows laptops, I currently have a bias towards HP, but that’s mostly because that’s what I’ve been issued from my company for almost 25 years, rather than other knowledge about HP vs other brands…and I don’t think you’ll find a new HP laptop meeting those specs in that price range. (Maybe HP will run a Black Friday sale on their website in a couple of weeks?)
Here’s the URL for the Amazon search I did while drafting this reply. I don’t know whether the search options will be preserved. I did set the price range a little above C$800 and didn’t consider GST / PST / HST / QST / LMNOP, just to allow a few more options to come through:
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The leap.you need to make here is that the interaction with the OS is almost nonexistent. Theyre probably using chrome, and thats it.
My mother is computer illiterate. It took two minutes to teach her how to switch to linux, because all i had to do was set up a couple of chrome shortcuts. I havent had a tech support call since and its been years.
Might help to not call it linux, dont even mention it. Just ‘heres the new computer’.
Best thing i ever did for both of us.
Regarding Linux – I tried moving my late father over to Ubuntu, but he was frustrated in a couple of weeks, partly because he couldn’t figure out how to poke around (and create problems) the way he was used to, and partly because he’d call on his retirement community’s tech support guy to help him when he got into trouble, which led to me getting a call about such support being limited to Windows / OSX / iOS / Android.
Yeah, it’s not a suggestion for anyone that’s interacting with the OS. I mean, it’s fine, but for those folks you’re just creating different tech support issues.
It’s great for people where you’re the tech support person, and they’re not doing anything other than using chrome. Which is often ‘mom’. Certainly is the case with my mother.
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The difficulty is my mom does interact with the operating system a bit with file folders for pictures and various documents and backing stuff up a bit. Her push back with OSX was I think because of her frustrations with not being able to do things she knows how to do in windows. I’m suspecting it would be the same for Linux. She’s been using windows based machines for 30 years and is still working (doing computer based work). I suspect she’d also be doing her taxes on it. I’m going to talk to her a bit more.
I think your solution would work better for my dad who’s quite computer illiterate, but he seems happy with his phone and occasionally an iPad.
ETA: how do people feel about Dell Inspiron and Acer’s.
Eh, they’re cheap consumer laptops. If that’s what you want, they’re fine.
If you want something more robust, that’s a refurb lenovo.
Why Lenovo? They all seem to have a “cheap consumer” line of laptops, including Lenovo.
Certain models have a reputation for being business class. Companies buy them en masse, then turn them over after 3-5 years. So there’s a lot of business class laptops available on the refurb market.
As I noted, I’m rocking multiple T540p’s running linux which are like 10 years old. Do everything I need for office work. The odd bit of windows apps I need I run in a virtualmachine. Everything else, like ‘mom’ is just chrome and the odd document and spreadsheet. But I’m not a power user like a lot of you folks here.
The only hiccup I’ve found is that the machines are just old enough that I think I’m having video driver problems with linux; the latest release I think has discarded the drivers I need. The machine works but I could’nt get a second monitor running. Eh, nbd.
Anyway, the refurb thing :).
I actually found a black Friday deal from Best Buy for an HP laptop that’s in the price range.
Bump…
Which one?
We need to replace a non-upgradable Windows 10 Desktop/Tower (nine years old) with one laptop (for wife) and one desktop/laptop (me), because she wants to be anywhere and doesn’t want to share, and I want mine in my office instead of the bedroom where she’s in bed by 9:30PM. I need mine for personal stuff that I cannot do on my work laptop (Google mail/sheets/forms, etc.), and not sure how much longer I’ll be working so need to move all non-work stuff off my work laptop (yeah, I know).
No gaming for me, just Office, internet, personal mail, poker. She just needs Office, internet, and personal mail.