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Buying new computer. Ideal setup?

by SantiSantana
10 replies
I´m buying a new laptop specifically to do IM. It has to be a laptop because I live on rented accomodation and are always on the move, so a desktop is out of the question.

It has 4GB RAM, 500GB Hard Drive, a 512 MB graphics card and windows 7 Home Premium. My work will revolve around writing, wordpress and video tutorials. I might buy Xsitepro to do websites from scratch but it´s not something I will do right away. I would want to create pdf documents to back up the video tutorials, so a good pdf creator/editor is paramount and adobe with its pricetag and recent security issues is a no-no for me.

Now here is the thing, I want to do all of that with free open source software (there is a specific reason for this other than the obvious savings). What are your recommendations?

Thanks in advance for your replies and happy holidays!
#buying #computer #ideal #setup
  • Profile picture of the author SantiSantana
    Looks like I might have posted too early again. Any input now or is everyone out celebrating?
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  • Profile picture of the author paulie888
    Santi, I think you have a set up more than powerful enough to handle the tasks you mention. You're not doing any high-level high definition videos and encoding, so what you have is more than sufficient. Have thought about using online pdf converters? I have used several that work almost instantly. This is one of them - Convert Word to PDF / DOC to PDF online for free. Single click!

    For video, camstudio is open source and free, and should pretty much fulfill all your needs.
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    • Profile picture of the author SantiSantana
      Thanks for the reply. I notice the doc2pdf is not big on editing. I suppose it would mean editing the original document and then creating the pdf. Perhaps ther eis an alternative out there that will be good for editing pdf? I´´m thinking about whether the converter will leave the links untouched and live as I know some of them don´t.
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    • Profile picture of the author Ross Kenny
      When it comes to PDF creation you should just use the Open Office Software. It's free of charge and as good as any other pdf editor out there.

      It's a free version of the Microsoft Office Suite.

      Hope this is a good resource for you ..
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      • Profile picture of the author fullmatrix
        Santi,

        Your specification is more than enough to do your job, so go for it. And I agreed with Ross, open office software is the best.

        Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all!
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  • Profile picture of the author billnad
    I will give another vote for Open Office. OpenOffice.org - The Free and Open Productivity Suite it is a big download but one of the things that it does really well is it will allow you to put hyperlinks in your headers and then it prints to pdf so that you have your pdf right away without Adobe acrobat.

    If you want to use other options for pdf creation you can install cutepdf (free) and then it acts like a printer so you can print any type of document to it and it will just save that document as a pdf on your computer
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  • Profile picture of the author SteelDanno
    All I can say here is after being a Windows power user for 11 years ... and having switched to Mac a year ago is: I wish I had gotten my Mac sooner. (MacBook Pro)

    And yeah, you can get Open Office for Mac and run any PC app you need by using Bootcamp or Parallels or Crossover.
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  • Profile picture of the author Joel Gray
    Looks like you have a good setup, it is very similar to the setup I use for my laptop other that I have a 320 gig HD and a 320 gig external HD I carry around with my laptop. I have found that it will serve the purpose for just about anything I need and as long as your video editing needs are not over the top you will do fine with your package.

    Joel
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    • Profile picture of the author SantiSantana
      I guess knowing if I will be doing more video editing in the future would be key to knowing if I should switch to Mac.

      Regarding Mac and bootcamp/parallels/crossover, my question would be if it is not a bit annoying having to use them before the software. Thing is, I have no idea how it all works.Is it like using daemon tools for cd emulation?

      In principle, my video editing needs shouldn´t go beyond subtitles and perhaps adding music to them, so I don´t think I should need an advanced setup for this. If someone more experienced can clarify this I would be very grateful.
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  • Profile picture of the author seasoned
    You probably already have it, but I would want at least 3 USB ports also. Ironically, it seems many today only go up to 3 but, properly built, more is better. at the very least, get ONE. USB is the most popular thing out there now, and has TONS of support.

    Steve
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