Chromebook, tablet, or Linux

[MachineGhost]

10" Android tablet.  I like this one: http://www.amazon.com/ValuePad-VP112-11 ... 00VKWEIK0/

It's not worth spending a lot on a single use device.  $599 on an iPad is stupidity.

[Pointedstick]

Since this will be a luxury purchase, you should buy what will actually make you happy and not try to economize; that's at cross-purposes with the motivation behind it. This means potentially spending $500 or more for a fast modern tablet that's responsive and has a good screen. An iPad should be good, as would be any of the modern high-end Android tablets. I've had various iPads and can vouch for their quality. You can get a new iPad Mini for $300 if an 8" screen is big enough. My ordinarily technophobe father has one and you can't pry it out of his fingers.

[MachineGhost]

Do you have one?

No, I'm waiting for the price to drop.  I want one for a book reader.

If you want top shelf speed, you're gonna have to pay up.  But if all you want to do is read a newspaper, there's no need for overkill.

I agree with PS however.  You're uber rich, so don't economize.  It's no sweat off your back.

[dualstow]

If that paper is the Washington Post, I would get a kindle fire and a free year of the Washington Post app. I love it. If it's any other paper, I'm not sure.

You might also look into the app called Pocket.

[MediumTex]

Why aren't you interested in an iPad?

I have purchased 7 iPads since they were first introduced and I have enjoyed them all.  I think that I like the IPad mini with retina display the most.  The lighter weight compared to the larger iPad IMHO more than compensates for the smaller screen.

[Greg]

Why aren't you interested in an iPad?

I have purchased 7 iPads since they were first introduced and I have enjoyed them all.  I think that I like the IPad mini with retina display the most.  The lighter weight compared to the larger iPad IMHO more than compensates for the smaller screen.

7??? Haven't they only been out since 2010. This is changing pads every 9 months?

[MediumTex]

Why aren't you interested in an iPad?

I have purchased 7 iPads since they were first introduced and I have enjoyed them all.  I think that I like the IPad mini with retina display the most.  The lighter weight compared to the larger iPad IMHO more than compensates for the smaller screen.

7??? Haven't they only been out since 2010. This is changing pads every 9 months?

Five people in my house.

I bought an iPad 1 when they first came out.  I traded it in for cash and applied that to purchase an iPad 3, and then I bought an iPad Mini with Retina after that.

All three kids have had iPad 2s (which was probably the best overall iPad to date in terms of service life) and my oldest now has an iPad Mini like mine.

[Greg]

Why aren't you interested in an iPad?

I have purchased 7 iPads since they were first introduced and I have enjoyed them all.  I think that I like the IPad mini with retina display the most.  The lighter weight compared to the larger iPad IMHO more than compensates for the smaller screen.

7??? Haven't they only been out since 2010. This is changing pads every 9 months?

Five people in my house.

I bought an iPad 1 when they first came out.  I traded it in for cash and applied that to purchase an iPad 3, and then I bought an iPad Mini with Retina after that.

All three kids have had iPad 2s (which was probably the best overall iPad to date in terms of service life) and my oldest now has an iPad Mini like mine.

Hah, I forgot people have families. It's just me and the wife as of the moment. Our minds are shaped based on our realities at times.

[Pointedstick]

Why aren't you interested in an iPad?

I have purchased 7 iPads since they were first introduced and I have enjoyed them all.  I think that I like the IPad mini with retina display the most.  The lighter weight compared to the larger iPad IMHO more than compensates for the smaller screen.

I know many people here are Apple fanboys, but I just can't force myself to drink the kool-aid. Their stuff is so overpriced IMHO. I can't rationalize spending $600 for a tablet to read the news on.

For the most part, you get what you pay for. I have a 13" MacBook Air that cost about $1,300 IIRC. It's an absolute tank and is as good as when I got it. It's fast, reliable, flexible, very portable, and still gets great battery life (about 7 hours). My wife has an HP laptop she spent $800 on at around the same time I got the Mac and it's a wreck. It's thick, heavy, and clumsy. It's made of flimsy plastic so it's dented and cracked. The USB ports randomly cut out from time to time. It gets barely 4 hours of battery life. Windows 8 is an abortion of an operating system that drives her crazy. A lot of things simply don't work properly. Etc. I will admit that the power cable is much beefier and better-built, though.

It used to be that Apple products cost 2-3x as much as the competition and were no better. That was true maybe 10 or 15 years ago, and it's simply no longer the case IMHO. Apple products are priced in many cases very closely to their competitors in the market segment of actually high-quality products.

[MediumTex]

Why aren't you interested in an iPad?

I have purchased 7 iPads since they were first introduced and I have enjoyed them all.  I think that I like the IPad mini with retina display the most.  The lighter weight compared to the larger iPad IMHO more than compensates for the smaller screen.

I know many people here are Apple fanboys, but I just can't force myself to drink the kool-aid. Their stuff is so overpriced IMHO. I can't rationalize spending $600 for a tablet to read the news on.

For the most part, you get what you pay for. I have a 13" MacBook Air that cost about $1,300 IIRC. It's an absolute tank and is as good as when I got it. It's fast, reliable, flexible, very portable, and still gets great battery life (about 7 hours). My wife has an HP laptop she spent $800 on at around the same time I got the Mac and it's a wreck. It's thick, heavy, and clumsy. It's made of flimsy plastic so it's dented and cracked. The USB ports randomly cut out from time to time. It gets barely 4 hours of battery life. Windows 8 is an abortion of an operating system that drives her crazy. A lot of things simply don't work properly. Etc. I will admit that the power cable is much beefier and better-built, though.

It used to be that Apple products cost 2-3x as much as the competition and were no better. That was true maybe 10 or 15 years ago, and it's simply no longer the case IMHO. Apple products are priced in many cases very closely to their competitors in the market segment of actually high-quality products.

I have a late 2011 13" MacBook Air and it has easily been the best computer I have ever owned and it still runs like a champ.  Given that it is almost four years old and doesn't feel obsolete in any way, whatever Apple premium I paid for it was easily worth it.

[MediumTex]

Why aren't you interested in an iPad?

I have purchased 7 iPads since they were first introduced and I have enjoyed them all.  I think that I like the IPad mini with retina display the most.  The lighter weight compared to the larger iPad IMHO more than compensates for the smaller screen.

I know many people here are Apple fanboys, but I just can't force myself to drink the kool-aid. Their stuff is so overpriced IMHO. I can't rationalize spending $600 for a tablet to read the news on.

It would probably be closer to $400 and you would probably find that you would do a lot more with it that just read the news.

For one thing, you could keep up with things here more easily with a tablet. 

[MediumTex]

I also really like the way my 2011 MacBook Air, 2013 iPad 3, 2014 iPad Mini, and 2015 iPhone 6 all interact with one another flawlessly.

The point is that when I buy an Apple product I am rarely concerned about it being obsolete soon.

Apple products also have an amazing re-sale value.  My 2011 computer would probably bring about 35% of the price I paid for it if I wanted to sell it today.  This means that you may actually only pay an Apple premium one time, and after that you can just sell your prior Apple device when you buy a new one every few years and that easily absorbs any Apple premium.

[MediumTex]

I know many people here are Apple fanboys, but I just can't force myself to drink the kool-aid. Their stuff is so overpriced IMHO. I can't rationalize spending $600 for a tablet to read the news on.

It would probably be closer to $400 and you would probably find that you would do a lot more with it that just read the news.

For one thing, you could keep up with things here more easily with a tablet. 

As stated previously, I already have a desktop PC at home and also work that I use for the forum, etc. The tablet would be 99% for reading the news at breakfast. Again, I don't care how great Apple is, I'm just not going to spend more than $200 for a newspaper made of semiconductors.

I understand the fascination with Apple, but I specifically said in the OP that I refuse to go that route, so I find it kind of frustrating that people keep bringing it up. If anyone has any non-apple advice, I would be happy to take it under advisement.

Okay, no Apple.  I don't know what would be good for $200.  If I didn't have an iPad I would probably get something similar to a Surface Pro, but that's a lot more than $200.

[gizmo_rat]

I finally decided to stop having the newspaper delivered daily [I know, what's a newspaper?] I really like reading the paper at breakfast though, so I was thinking about getting either a Chromebook or an android tablet. I have a desktop computers that I use for running work related Windows programs both at work and home, so the tablet or small notebook [11.6"] would likely be used for reading the paper and other minor internet tasks only.

I also have an old laptop that has WinXP but is very slow now. And it's 'heavy' by today's standards. I could install Linux on it since I would be mostly just using it for the internet. It would not be as nice of an experience as a small lightweight tablet or notebook, but OTOH, it would be free.

Assuming Apple products are not an option, any advice on which way to go?

Stick linux on the XP laptop, use it for a few weeks. If it does what you need get a ex- corporate Lenovo x201 without hardisk off fleabay, stick a cheap small ssd in it, install linux.
Enjoy your paper and as a nice side effect do your banking etc. securely.

If you found you did't like linux on your XP laptop, pony up for iPad mini 2 and forgetaboutit.




   

[Mike59]

I have a 2 year old acer win8 notebook I got on sale for about 300 , Windows 8 junked it, and it got worse with every update. I installed a dual-boot with linux and at least it's usable. You can play around with it for free, and it might buy you some time. Xubuntu, it's lean and light- not perfect, occasionally buggy but still much better than windows 8.

I run servers with ubuntu and mac, and must say the macs are much better and more reliable, to echo the posts above they are worth the extra premium given their longevity (I have an imac from 2009 that is still running strong and updated to the latest os). My next comp will be a macbook, whatever is entry level or cheapest should suffice.  I don't want to be an apple fanboy , really! But we're left with little choice 

[MachineGhost]

I have a Kindle paperwhite that was around $90 IIRC. Highly recommend. Much better than a cheap tablet. It's just sad you can't do much else with it besides read books.

I borrowed one from the library.  It sucked.  It in no way shape or form even remotely resembles the experience of a book.  I rather just read a real book and use a tablet for the ebook PDF's.  There's no point reading books on a blue toxin emitting electronic device in bed anyway.

[Pointedstick]

My personal favorite linux Distro is Linux Mint. It's fast, lightweight, clean-looking, and not burdened by all the politics and drama of the Ubuntu crew. It also comes with third-party codecs capable of playing things like Flash that more zealot open-source folks tens to scorn. Basically, it's more practical and less dogmatic.

[MachineGhost]

I can't imagine that reading on a tablet with epub or pdf is in any way preferable to a kindle. I have done both and IMHO the kindle experience is vastly superior. To each his own, I guess.

The Kindle is 6".  A tablet is 10" or so.  A huge difference.  Do you really want to read a newsletter one column at a time constantly zooming in and out and moving around?  ePubs and PDF's also have pre-formatted layouts compared to the Kindle wrap-around abortion that looks like the early web circa 1990's.  I say there's more fuss and aggravation in trying to use something insufficient for the task compared to reading a real newspaper with a pair of eyes.  And as far as I know, none of the tablets come in standard 8.5"x11" paper size format so magazines are still all squished or you only see 1/3rd or less of a page at a time and cannot be read without the annoying scrolling and zooming in and out.  Ught.

Yes, I really don't think any of these devices are appropriate substitutes for the real thing yet.  Maybe when the flexible plastic OLED displays come out, reading will go back to being a more natural sensory experience with less aggravation.

[Mike59]

I pulled out the old laptop, and used a puppy linux liveCD to test. I think this might be a reasonable option while I explore alternatives [or not]. I think I need to wipe WindowsXP and install a full version of linux on the HD.

I am not that familiar with the difference between all the distros. Do you recommend xubuntu? Why? Or is there another version that is less buggy or preferable in some other way? I think stable, light, and fast boot are the priorities.

If the machine is super old, maybe Lubuntu to satisfy those requirements .
Here's a quick overview: http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/whichbuntu

[Mountaineer]

My personal favorite linux Distro is Linux Mint. It's fast, lightweight, clean-looking, and not burdened by all the politics and drama of the Ubuntu crew. It also comes with third-party codecs capable of playing things like Flash that more zealot open-source folks tens to scorn. Basically, it's more practical and less dogmatic.

+1

[dualstow]

Once upon a time, there were preditions of a large, thin, light screen that could be read buffet-style, like newsprint. I think the most oft-mentioned company was Plastic Logic. Was really looking forward to that, but I haven't seen anything like that come to market.

[dualstow]

That was not my experience, Pug. I had my share of quirks and problems with Linux Mint, but I had only 1GB of RAM and the system never dragged. I had a 40GB solid state drive.

[Pointedstick]

If your machine has a hard drive instead of an SSD, that's probably the culprit. Virtually any modern operating system is going to feel slow if it's installed on a hard drive. That said, there are variants of it that are designed to be extremely light weight, like the XFCE edition: http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=182

[Pointedstick]

Might be. You can always try the live version on a USB flash drive to see if it's snappy enough. I'm pretty sure it comes with Firefox, but in the odd event that it doesn't, it's easy enough to install from the Software Center.

[koekebakker]

Cinnamon is really good, but it's not exactly lightweight.
XFCE will definitely feel faster with 1GB ram. I believe all Mint editions have Firefox installed by default.