[OPLINTECH] laptops

[Tim Burns]

We're getting ready to order some admin staff laptops and was wondering everyone's opinion on comsumer vs. commercial grade laptops.
…<snip>...
Is the business commercial grade laptops worth the extra money to get them for a small library system? Comments and thoughts much appreciated.

Fred Miller Jr

——

Anymore I try to determine what users are doing. When it made sense to provide my kids laptops for school (somewhere during early HS  years) I bought them (on eBay) Apple MacBooks.  The software/hardware integration with project-oriented learning made this an easy choice. No real concern about “gaming” or sharing software— these were meant to be tools. The MacBooks would not die, and lasted 6-8 years through HS and college. Unfortunately for them, now they are old enough and resourceful enough to replace the machines on their own dime.

That being said, I don’t know that I would do this the same way today. Given that they were locked in to technology that was eventually 10+ years old, and still working flawlessly, they miss out on whatever developments occur. Instead of say, $600 spent once, I might consider <$200 outlay for a Chromebook … which I consider disposable, and plan to replace it every 2.5-3 years. The ChromeOS is reasonable mature, the experience is meant to be cloud-based, and it integrates with other technology well. (ie. Android Phone).

It looks like tech companies (Google, MS, Apple) are trading software for data now, so the cost of software upgrades has gone away… well, I suppose that’s true if your data is worthless :)  So as long as your hardware will support it— you can have the latest greatest for a while.

——


Tim Burns, Technologist
Birchard Public Library of Sandusky County Ohio
Department of Nuts and Bots
tim.burns at birchard.lib.oh.us<mailto:tim.burns at birchard.lib.oh.us>
telephone: (419) 334-7101 extension: 239



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