Any suggestions on a good laptop...

[Bidenworth2020]

for running DRA, among other things

ideally less than 1,000 dollars

[Vern]

Apple is always a safe bet.

[Nyvin]

Apple is always a safe bet.

Bleh...don't buy the new Macbooks with the thin keyboards.   Those things are a travesty.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Apple is always a safe bet.

If you like wasting money. There are a few narrow areas where an Apple is useful, but generally either a Wintel or a Linux machine will do what you want for less money.

[Virginiá]

for running DRA, among other things

ideally less than 1,000 dollars

I'm not sure how big these files are that DRA loads for census/other data, but assuming they don't break the bank, your primary focus should be on CPU power. Granted, there is a lot of stuff that your "other things" could mean, so I'll just take a stab in the dark that its mostly just common stuff people use computers for, in which case you won't need anything fancy like a 512+ gb solid state hard drive, which could get pricey.

Don't waste money on Apple products either. If you really want to run macOS, just get a decent laptop and put VMWorkstation on there.

[Antonio the Sixth]

The only browser I got it to work on is IE, so make of that what you will.

[Bidenworth2020]

for running DRA, among other things

ideally less than 1,000 dollars

I'm not sure how big these files are that DRA loads for census/other data, but assuming they don't break the bank, your primary focus should be on CPU power. Granted, there is a lot of stuff that your "other things" could mean, so I'll just take a stab in the dark that its mostly just common stuff people use computers for, in which case you won't need anything fancy like a 512+ gb solid state hard drive, which could get pricey.

Don't waste money on Apple products either. If you really want to run macOS, just get a decent laptop and put VMWorkstation on there.

thanks! helpful as usual

The only browser I got it to work on is IE, so make of that what you will.

nah, mac safari, and, even better, the extended version of mozilla is best

[Starry Eyed Jagaloon]

Can't beat a surface.

[Ban my account ffs!]

Apple is always a safe bet.

If you like wasting money. There are a few narrow areas where an Apple is useful, but generally either a Wintel or a Linux machine will do what you want for less money.

So will drinking Soylent.

[Adam Griffin]

I mean, wouldn't even a netbook (or whatever they're called these days) be enough? I've tried DRA on a variety of computers ranging in power and - for the most part - I haven't noticed much of a difference. The big states always take forever to load and become laggy real quick when drawing districts (I'm looking specifically at you, NY, FL & TX; even CA doesn't seem that bad).

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

The hitch with DRA at present is its dependence upon the deprecated Silverlight plugin which I doubt any netbook ever supported.

[Ban my account ffs!]

To put things in perspective.. my sister bought an iMac in early 2008.  It was $1200 at the time.  She only just retired it in fall 2017 when the hard disk finally croaked.  It was, understandably, getting slow...

But the point is that you can easily get 4 years out of a mac and still sell it for a decent price.  Higher end, well cared for 2014 Macbook pros are still going for $500-600 on eBay.