Preferred laptop, OS, and Cellular Phone for Access Developer 3

[BxWill]

About to start a new job as an Application Developer.

What are the recommended laptops, operating system, and cellular phones that will enable me to be the most productive? Basically, I will be on the road the majority of the time and need to access voicemail, email and web conferences via the cellphone or laptop and deliver applications - sometimes remotely.

Welcome your thoughts!

 

[kjv1611]

You might be better off asking this in the below forum:
forum602

I'll say for now, though, that your question is way to vague. If you post over there, please give some more information.

What's your budget?

What kinds of applications? I'm assuming Access databases, but be as detailed as you can be.

Do you have any preferences? You say mobile, okay, that covers some, but not necessarily all.

There are just way too many options out there....

Fujitsu lifebooks are small, portable, and generally powerful, but expensive.

many other brands make portable laptops that are just fine in my opinion - Toshiba (I really like my U205), HP, Dell, etc..

There's also netbooks... if you can just do small things on the road, and the big things at home... have a full-blown desktop or powerful laptop at home, and then just use the netbook on the road... depending upon what you need, perhaps a "smart phone" would fix your needs as well... though I doubt it..

However, if it were me, this is what I would do:
1. Mobile Phone - if I'd be traveling a lot, and those places could get away from the major Interstate Highways, I'd go with Verizon as first choice for my carrier. With that, I'd try to get basically an unlimited plan or whatever my budget could afford. AFter that the choice would be AT&T next, then Sprint... based on coverage. However, for the next option, if you'd always be in areas that Sprint could cover - which is still pretty good usually - particularly in any area with a respectable business presence, then Sprint may be best, actually... reason below.

2. for your laptop, I do indeed like the small Toshiba Satelites. In general, Toshiba has been arguably a very consistent maker of quality machines. However, I don't like their hard drive and RAM choices, generally, which is why I prefer to pick up a laptop as cheap as possible - perhaps on eBay, get my own new RAM and hard drive, and reinstall, etc... For the wireless internet on your laptop, Sprint (I think I've read, anyway) has the fastest available wireless broadband. So you'd need a plan for that, and a WLAN card. You just have to decide if Sprint's coverage will take care of the places you'll be. If not, you can take a (I guess) slower web plan from Verizon for better coverage area.

3. Operating Systems? Um, if you're an app developer, that also depends upon you, what you're producing, and who your customers are. Frankly, if you're sure you're already going to be on the road, and all, I'm shocked you're asking this question. But here's what I'd suggest:
I'd want to have access to at LEAST these:
1. Windows XP
2. Windows Vista
3. Windows 7 when it's commercially available.
4. Windows 2000 if you happen to have a copy.
5. Windows 98SE if you have any customers using 95 or 98 - chances are pretty slim, but still possible.
6. At least a couple Linux variants, running wine - also in case any possible clients would be running those.
7. One Macintosh - again, if clients might happen to use those.

Here's why: You really only need ONE OS for building the app, but you need to be able to test it on as many OSes as you possibly can. Just b/c it runs on XP, doesn't mean it'll run on Vista or Win7. And it especially doesn't mean it'll run within Linux or MacOSX.

So, like I said, your question is way too vague. I mean, these are all my opinions, but I've not the slightest of any details about you - budget, customers/clients, your preferences, etc.

If it were me, I'd get a laptop running Vista (XP is okay, but I actually like Vista better right now, and Win7 will be king in my opinion).

If you can find a laptop when you do buy that comes with Windows 7, then try to get Windows 7 Pro. I didn't think I'd recommend that before, but here's why - one BIG reason: Windows 7 Home Premium does NOT include the ability to run programs in "Windows XP Mode". And if you are (or are going to be) an app developer, then you don't want to limit your options there to save $80 or whatever.

For the hard drive, if you think you'll be possibly bumping around a lot, it might be worth looking into an SSD. However, if it were me, I'd just back up my data regular, and get a standard SATA hard drive - I'd go specifically with the Western Digital Black 320GB hard drive that has a 5 year warranty, and built-in motion detection, etc. It's about $100 most places when you can find it, but well worth it.

I'd personally get an external hard drive, and/or possibly invest in an online backup option that I think I could trust to actually keep the data there, and that wouldn't violate my privacy - or at least come as close to those possibilities as possible.

If I created an app that I thought was really important, I'd be much more careful than that... I'd store it on the laptop, an external hard drive, some sort of optical disk, probably a thumb drive, and even look into "off-site" storage if/when possible... besides the online backup..

At home, it wouldn't be a bad idea to setup a destop/server with a RAID array for a little further file protection...

Anyway, those are my thoughts.. :0)

Vague thoughts for a vague question.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[lameid]

For the most part I aggree...

I'd shoot for Vista with at least 4 GB of ram or better and at least 2 cores. At least through 2003 Access is a single core program and will suck the life out of a core from time to time... If you have 2 you can do something else while it runs those long queries. On the flip side Access runs with a faster with clock speed so 3Ghz used single core might work out better than a 1.7 Ghz dual core.

I personally hate Toshiba's I prefer Dell.... At their worst they were as good as everybody else as long as you stay away from the low end value models. If buying online you are probably better off getting as much memory as possible aftermarket (Tigerdirect.com and newegg.com are my favorite online retailers). Those retailers also sell Acer's which I have read good things about.

Check online prices and then go to Best Buy. I found it just as cheap to buy a laptop at Best Buy last time.

One more thought... My laptop does not have a Pause/Break key and I had to set the bios because my Dell has media and other laptop control keys that are the default default instead of the function keys (to use them you press the function key and the key).

 

[BxWill]

I purchased a Acer 9410-2597 notebook (older model but got a good price) and loaded with Vista Home Premium.

Also upgraded to MS Office 2007. Personally, do not like the MS Access 2007 as well as MS Access 2003 but maybe too early to determine the "marginal advantages" of upgrading...

Looking for Wireless broadband - AT&T and Sprint. Have seen advertisements lately for Cricket broadband that appears reasonably priced but the coverage area may be lacking.

As far as cellular phone - considering a Palm Pre. Other individuals have mentioned a AT&T pay as you go phone...

 

[JoeAtWork]

You might want to look into Microsoft's MAPS program. It's for consultants, developers, etc., who use Microsoft technologies. It's like an MSDN subscription (but doesn't include Visual Studio) but is a lot cheaper - a few hundred dollars a year.

You get all of the current operating systems, database systems (i.e. SQL Server), and a full version of Office, among other software, usually with multiple licenses for each. While you are in the program you get quarterly updates - so you are always up to date.

One other difference between MAPS and MSDN is that with MAPS the licenses are only valid while you have a current subscription. Therefore if one year you choose not to renew, you are legally obligated to uninstall the software.

 

[kjv1611]

@ Wireless broadband

Coverage will be VERY important if you're going to need access while on the road. I'd suggest going with one of the major retailers for that reason alone - Verizon, AT&T or Sprint.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me