We have a store in the mall that sell re-conditioned computer with update software. Bought one for my granddaughter for christmas and it was great (lap top),With tax and all paid $149.57 Hope this helps. Diane

If you feel comfortable shopping online I purchased a Dell latitude 620 a while back from overstock.com. 160 gig harddrive; with 2 gigs of ram. Non-technical meaning it has enough storage space on the harddrive and speed to zoom around the internet. Paid 230.00 for it and that included shipping. Note, it was a refurbished unit; but it looks like new and works like a charm. Might check it out just for fun. Good luck and God Bless.

I have a small laptop HP for work and i have to sync my computer at McDonalds. i have had times when the WI-Fi was down and I had to run to another McDonalds. The nice thing about WI-FI is that it is free. Good Luck with your search for a different computer. Hugs, Chris

I saw a Lenovo lap top in Best Buy, 345 bucks, can't beat it, has everything. They're pretty good machines too.

Um, why can't you just get better service at home? Nowadays you can get decent broadband in most places for less than 30 bucks a month. Better than sitting in a restaurant.

Switch to Linux:Ubuntu Much smaller OS and so much faster than Microsoft's bloatware.


Carla

Try going to a few stores to look at them, try them out for feel - not all laptops are comfortable to use. I have a recent Toshiba laptop, and I know the prices have come down on them since I bought mine a year ago. Sometimes the big box stores like Best Buy will have a good deal on the ones that were last year's model. Or you can buy from Amazon - it's frequently easier to get something a few months to a year old less expensively that way. Just be sure to read the Customer Reviews if there are any. It's kind of like cars - as soon as the new models come out, the showroom models get discounted.

You might be able to just get a netbook instead of a full laptop, but you should try them out in a computer store first to see what the specs are and if they are comfortable for you.

For reliability, I'd say Toshiba or Sony. I went for a Toshiba because Cliff's ancient Toshiba actually still works after 10 years. They tend to be well made.

@Carla - Cliff was a big proponent of Linux, especially since he was a web designer. The only problem was that he was the only one that knew how to do anything with it, and you can't run your regular Windows stuff through it. When he died, I even contacted our local Linux Users Group to try and get some help with the stuff he had partitioned off into Linux, and the users group were all just learning, too. When that hard drive got fried in a Florida electrical storm (power outage and surge not even our backup could withstand), I lost a bunch of his creative stuff - I hadn't been able to get everything off the Linux drive. I cried and cried over that. I hate Windows, but I won't go down the Linux road again, not after that. It was like losing a piece of him all over again.

Love and Hugs, Martha

P.S. - the other thing, Nicker, is to see if your phone or cable company is doing a services bundle discount for wireless or broadband with tv, etc. You may be able to save some money on internet service that way.

Hi another geek here. If all you do is email and a little web surfing, you might want to consider a Kindle Fire for under $200. I work in an IT department as a network admin. I have a desktop, laptop and netbook as well as a Fire. I just got back from a weeks vacation and only took my Fire. I was able to do everything I wanted. Another option is to check dell.com, they have a site for refurbished computers. Two of mine are refurbished dells and they come with the same warranty as new. If you buy used, buy from a computer store. I would not buy used from someone on lets say ebay or craigs list, you have no idea what you are getting. Most computers are obsolete after 3 years so if you buy used and something goes wrong you will most likely just be re buying. If you by from a store or someone that refurbishes you should get some type of warranty on the hard drive and memory.

Martha,

Linux can be partitioned to run a Window's emulator...it is a free download like all of Ubuntu's software.

Then you can do anything you ever could with Windows...without the viruses, spy-ware, bugs and slow run time. You can set your desktop environment to where you really can't tell the difference except you never get viruses,it never blue-screens, and the runtime is super fast because it doesn't have so much OS to plunder through.

Did you save Cliff's hard drive? Unless the HD has been physically destroyed (and even then in rare cases) you should be able to back all the data off of it onto a slave drive and then install it onto whatever you are running.

(((hugs)))

Carla