The next question I ask is their budget.  Of course on a teacher’s salary without a doctoral degree, ones options would be very limited.  More or less I already have an idea on how much they’d be willing to spend on a computer.

So I tell them to buy a desktop instead of a laptop not only because of the cost but also because the latter cannot be upgraded.  Sure a laptop provides for mobility but if they’d truly want to be mobile I’d tell them to get a PDA instead. 

And I get this what’s-a-PDA look and so I describe it to them and this time I’d get the oh-so-that’s-what-they-call it reply. 

I don’t have anything against using a notebook or tablet PC for that matter.  But based on experience, its hard to maintain one especially if the laptop is more than two years old already.  And the speed at which manufacturers come out with enhanced products, the faster a laptop becomes obsolete.

I have encountered one professor who uses a notebook handed down to her by her son.  She came to see me because she wanted to transfer a presentation she saved in the notebook into her office PC.  When I looked at the unit, it had no floppy and CD drive.  Instead she used an external floppy drive which wasn’t working when she brought it to me for troubleshooting.  What I thought was a pretty simple task turned out to be quite thought provoking.  I saw that the notebook had a USB port so I thought of saving the file to a USB drive.  But the notebook’s OS was Windows 98 so I needed a driver before I could save the file on the USB drive.  Since the notebook didn’t have a CD drive I had to think of another option.

I looked at the ports again and saw that the notebook had an internal modem.  So I asked my technician to connect the notebook to the Internet and had him e-mailed the file to himself so that the file can finally be saved to a disk.  And this was how the problem was solved. 

At work, I maintain four laptops two of which are two years old and two about three or four years old.  The newer ones, despite their age, have begun to show signs of breaking down: slow to boot and frequently hangs during operation.  I wasn’t spared from the hanging when I was doing a lecture-demonstration to a group of professors.  I couldn’t say the laptops were used and abused because they’re primarily used for presentation purposes only. 

Of the two older laptops, one has cracks on the cover exposing the wires inside.  My technician, in an effort to save the laptop, placed epoxy on the cracks when a super glue didn’t do the job.  I have no idea how the epoxy will affect the laptop, if at all.

And then, there’s this laptop sitting in my office that was brought to me last Monday for troubleshooting.  Judging from the scratches on the cover, the laptop had seen better days.  When I turned it on, it emitted an ominous humming sound.  It didn’t sound good to me and I suspected that the laptop was as good as dead.  Wanting to confirm my suspicion, I sent it to our IT technician who not only confirmed my suspicion but also suggested to the owner to get a new one.

These things I see and experience at work are the very reason why up to now I haven’t invested on a laptop. 

So between a PC and a laptop, go for the desktop.  Between a laptop and a PDA, I’d go for the PDA but make sure it’s a new model.  But hell, if you can afford all three, then go for it.

(For feedback, comment, suggestions email me at openingpagemb@yahoo.com)