New Laptop!

[mistressofmuses]

I finally had to get a shiny new (to me) computer! I managed to find a very cheap refurbished MacBook Pro... still a decade old, but it's newer than my old one, with a better hard drive, 4 gigs of RAM (instead of 1), and the ability to run a much newer OS. It even came with a higher OS than I was anticipating, which means that it can do just about everything my old laptop no longer could!

So far, so good, though I've only had it running for about a day. I hope there's no sudden issues lurking, but already it's pretty exciting to have a functioning computer!

It was really pretty sad how much weird cobbling together I had to do just for my relatively minor computer activities... If I wanted to post images to DW, I had to use my phone to create the embed links and put them into the draft post, and switch back and forth between editing the post on my phone and on the laptop.

To post to AO3, I had to use a laptop from work so that I could use google docs (because my ancient copy of word wouldn't preserve formatting when copy-pasting directly, but would do so if I imported the doc file to google) except my laptop couldn't access google docs, so I had to put the files on a thumb drive, and use a different computer to upload them and post to AO3.

So... being able to do things all from my computer is pretty neat. There's some OS differences, and I'll have to get used to Libreoffice instead of Word (because I don't want to buy a copy). Importing my music was a mild headache, and there may be some files that I need to replace.

But so far, I'm quite pleased.

Comments

[olivermoss]

That's awesome! Well, not the 'had to' part, but having a computer that can do basic computer things. I know that work arounds can get nutty and time consuming. Hopefully in a week you'll look back and shake your head in disbelief that you had to put up with all that!

[mistressofmuses]

I know it's something I've been putting off for longer than I should have, but in the last couple of weeks the old laptop started having more incompatibility issues with more sites, and the work laptop I sometimes had access to got repurposed, and that kind of forced my timeline a bit.

Workarounds get just plain silly after a point! I'm already shaking my head at me a little bit. Just a tinge of "bitch, you live(d) like this?"

[olivermoss]

That sounds like a lot of fuss and annoyance to do anything. Hopefully, the new machine makes your life a lot easier!

[mistressofmuses]

I'm already enjoying it, though I keep catching myself picking up my phone to google things or pull up wikipedia... because those were things my old laptop couldn't do, lol.

[scarlipswolfwife]

YAY FOR NEW TO YOU COMPUTER!!!!!! (Honestly, all of my computers except for my Netbook and laptops have been secondhand computers, so as long as it runs and does what you need better than the last one, that's a good thing!) I'm so happy for you that you have something better to use! Maybe you can even download some of the movies again!

[mistressofmuses]

Yes, thank you! I am very excited!

Alex's computer we got a couple years ago is a refurb, and with only a handful of exceptions, most of the time people I know have had good luck with them! I'm very hopeful this one stays good for me for some time.

The idea of getting to download things, and not have to use my phone for things it's not suited for, and be able to load the sites I want to visit... I'm very excited!

[scarlipswolfwife]

A very sweet Lokean friend of mine bought me a Samsung tablet for Christmas - a very nice one - a couple of Yules ago. Well, she sent me the money for it, and I found a refurb one on Amazon for a great price and then a leather case on Ebay. She said her own tablet was a refurb and it worked great like new. Mine is the same way. Recently I bought a keyboard for it so that I can write on the go without having to get another laptop anytime soon (until I can afford one, and that's even if I want to at this point). So I think refurbs are good unless they're a bad job of it. I really hope that you have many, many years with this one until you're in a position to buy a brand new one. I would imagine you're excited! This is so cool!!!

[mistressofmuses]

A lot of refurb electronics are quite good. There are a ton of people (even if I could never be one of them, lol) who want the latest-greatest-bestest thing on the market, so they immediately upgrade and trade in their older thing, even if it's pretty gently used. And I thank them for that, lol. Even though this computer is a decade old, it doesn't feel or look like it, ha.

I'd considered a tablet + external keyboard as a laptop alternative before, too, and may have gone that route if I hadn't found an actual laptop alternative.

And thank you! I do hope that this one can keep me going for several more years!

[spikedluv]

Yay for computer upgrade! Wow, that sounds like quite a hassle you were dealing with!

[mistressofmuses]

It was pretty frustrating - I'm enjoying being able to do the things that a laptop should be able to do!