Author Topic: New Laptop - no CD/DVD drive  (Read 5130 times)

Offline BobM

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New Laptop - no CD/DVD drive
« on: December 26, 2013, 06:47:32 AM »
Bought a new laptop for both my daughter (Lenovo) and my Wife (Asus). Neither one came with an internal CD/DVD reader. I just figured that was standard, but I guess they are starting to go away now. Not too much of a problem, since external CD/DVD readers/burners start at about $35 and are USB plug and play. But tithout this external drive you would not be able to rip CD's and store them for digital play-back either.

And how are you expected to install software from a disk? I guess the marketplace is going more toward a cloud delivery of software, or download or buy it on a USB stick. I know buying Microsoft Office Home and Student is cheaper buying as a key card or download than a CD, and is only good for 1 PC. MS Office 365 is a subscription service that is a cheaper option, good for more than one PC, but expires in a year. If you have a college student it is cheaper still and good for 4 years (I do, and this may be the way to go).

Planned obsolescence in software licensing. Well, it was going to happen eventually.
« Last Edit: December 26, 2013, 06:59:35 AM by BobM »
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Offline Nick B

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Re: New Laptop - no CD/DVD drive
« Reply #1 on: December 26, 2013, 12:18:32 PM »
My wife got a MacBook Air laptop last August and it did not have a DVD drive. But the laptop is so light and she rarely uses the DVD drive anyway. We ende4d up buying the external drive for $75 and it has worked out great. I wish I had the Air laptop, rather than my ASUS with DVD drive. It has crummy battery life and is heavy. My wife and I are in the long process of going all Mac and I'll be running Windows as well for business reasons only. As to MS Office 365, I don't ever want to pay Microsoft an annual subscription fee. I'd rather use Libre Office or something si8milar. It is soooo much more pleasant to get support from Apple than Microsoft.
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Offline richidoo

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Re: New Laptop - no CD/DVD drive
« Reply #2 on: December 26, 2013, 01:22:25 PM »
Disk? What's that? We are all cloud-based life forms now. Your palm crystal will be turning red soon, Bob.

Most of the new software I have purchased over the last decade has been downloaded. Books, movies, apps (programs as we used to call them back in my day.)

except for cds but who needs cds when mp3s are smaller and are CD quality all that awful plastic just cruds up the environment imagine how pulluted the world was when people used vinyl records yuk vinyl is so toxic google it duh.

Offline BobM

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Re: New Laptop - no CD/DVD drive
« Reply #3 on: December 27, 2013, 05:56:26 AM »
Picked up a well reviewed external Samsung CD/DVD drive for $33. I guess that's an easy solution. Should have it in a few days.

Last night I was downloading some things onto the new laptop (Malwarebytes, AdAware, Chrome, etc.) and all of a sudden the touchpad stopped working. Well I loaded drivers and rebooted for about an hour before contacting Asus chat support. Guess what, Fn-F7 turns the damn touchpad on and off (I must have hit it). It would have been an easy fix had they just packed a user manual with the damn thing.

But I did get to find out a few other little tricks, like how to bring up all the program icons on Windows 8 (Start+Q), etc. Guess there's a learning curve.

I will be researching MS Office options today. I also do not like the subscription service move, even though I will get a student discount from my college age kid.
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Offline shadowlight

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Re: New Laptop - no CD/DVD drive
« Reply #4 on: December 27, 2013, 07:31:39 AM »
Bob,

Depending on your needs for Office application you might want to give LibreOffice a try and it is free.  I use that on my Linux system and it has ability to open Microsoft Documents and save it in MS office format also.

Offline richidoo

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Re: New Laptop - no CD/DVD drive
« Reply #5 on: December 27, 2013, 07:35:16 AM »
That Win8 learning curve cost Balmer and Gates their jobs. Good riddance, maybe they can invent something new and the stock can move now after stuck for 20 years.

I'm lucky to have a 13yo willing to trade me computer lessons for food or else I'd still be using XP. Win8 can be frustrating without a tutorial. Old stubborn people don't want to do a tutorial. It's so hard to change. ;)

Have you used Open Office? Gets the job done, mostly office compatible files, free, open source. The of course there's the black hole, google apps calling your name... it's inevitable. Resistance is futile. Surrender to the cloud...

I wonder how well your USB external CD drive would rip CDs? My laptop's internal drive is not too good, but my old Plextor full size drive gets much less errors during ripping.

Offline BobM

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Re: New Laptop - no CD/DVD drive
« Reply #6 on: December 27, 2013, 08:22:18 AM »
Best MS Office alternatives seem to be:

(1) Google Docs - yes, its inevitable that this will probably become the leader so I might as well learn it now. Plus it has a GMail Offline App that will allow it to work even if there is no internet connection. One of the few that allow this plus collaboration and access via my Droid phone.

(2) MS Office Web App - typical light MS Office functionality on the cloud, but it only works if you have an internet connection. Wonder how it functions on the Chrome browser also, because I have given up on IE.

(3) Yes there are others like Libre, but Google will certainly outplay them, so I should probably go with what will become the industry leader soon enough. Plus we don't do anything at home that won't be covered in the standard functionality. Work might be a different story, but that's not what this laptop is all about.
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Offline richidoo

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Re: New Laptop - no CD/DVD drive
« Reply #7 on: December 27, 2013, 09:49:40 AM »
I've been using thunderbird (mozilla) for email for so long, and then eurdora for a decade before that. But Thunderbird has problems I'm ready to dump it. Maybe cloud is the wtg now. I'd like a more private system than google, less tied to govt. Schmidt is OFA.

Offline richidoo

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Re: New Laptop - no CD/DVD drive
« Reply #8 on: December 27, 2013, 12:01:03 PM »
I got a Windows Phone8 for xmas. Just put some music on it. It will play AAC, and WMV, and of course mp3, but it won't play flac or wave!.  :rofl:  Kinda like no more CD drives, cuz no more CDs, cuz no more Wav files.

I'll have to find an app to play flac. I found a Sonos app for Windows phone, but it snot free.

Offline Nick B

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Re: New Laptop - no CD/DVD drive
« Reply #9 on: December 27, 2013, 12:38:35 PM »
I'm with Rich regarding Google and privacy concerns.

Rich, when you find an alternative to Thunderbird, pls let me know. I don't much care for it, but have to use it since I did an upgrade to Win 7 and lost my MS Office discs.
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