English language computers in Budapest

Logger do not you know that electronics usually are more expensive in Budapest than in west?

If you have the possibility come with your own laptop bought from somewhere else

Yupp.

Switching power supplies are the expats' best friend, all you need is a local power cord.

Also the keys painted on the keyboard are different if you buy "local".


On the other hand if you buy a computer in one of the small garage shops here, you can get a better price, often a better computer, keep the VAT (25%), and the price of the OS because it is pirated, so it doesn't have to be the Hungarian one either.

I'm not saying it's right, I'm just saying that's how it happens.

If you buy your pc in a specialist shop you can get your pc with any language you want. That might be more expensive than at home but that depends where your home is and if you can get there.

Of course if you want language that is not commonly used, you might have to wait (for the keyboard at least).

Thanks folks, for all the good advice with the pc purchase.

In the end, I bought a mail order product with a French version of Windows – not my first choice, but everything is so iconic these days, the language hardly gets in the way.

As long as you can point and click, the world is at your finger tips !  The internet's the important thing.  I can download an English version of my favorite browser anytime I want.  In fact I just did !

Your friendly neighborhood Dorfinformatiker will have a strong opinion about your mother's occupation when facing windows error messages in French :-)

What is all this?  I've been taking a lot of flak these past 24 hours.  First it was PDLin all worked up about my pickles.  Now it's you, szocske, taking the piss about my pc. It's beginning to look very much like a conspiracy!

You mean not all Hungarians speak French?  I can probably learn to live with the revelation of this petty linguistic oversight in the Hungarian psyche.  What bothers me much more, is your implication that in my hour of need, my local friendly neighborhood pc service technician might turn out to be German.  In which case, you're probably right about my mother's occupation.  I just have to pray, my new pc never needs to be serviced.

On the other hand, always look on the bright side.  It took me a while sorting out some keyboard irregularities, after I selected English (silly me) as my preferred language, in response to the initial installation screen that greeted me in French when I fired up my new pc for the first time.  That's all sorted now, the keyboard maps like a dream.  I now regard myself as a pc repair and service informaticien.

I see commercial opportunity here, sharing all those incomprehensible windows messages I keep getting on my pc with the rapidly expanding francophone population in Budapest. They seem to be coming off the boat in droves this summer.  I reckon someone could make a euro forint mint, setting up a rent-a-pc-francophone service business.  Thanks, szocske, for trying to throw me with that funny German word.  Without your inspiration, I'd be none the wiser and a lot less paranoid.  But at least I have a business plan now!

At first I thought I left off the smiley from that post because I wrote it in a hurry, but no, it's still there :-)

So keep your cool, and refine your splendid business idea :-)

(I keep telling my wife we should make and sell ice cream from the goat milk and eggs we produce. Us Hungarians live in such in-grained fear of regulations, inspections and fines, that it's a small wonder anyone but total outlaws start any businesses.)

Szocske, I do hope you're not suggesting I'm an outlaw :-)

Those grand masters of the homemade ice cream, Ben and Jerry would be proud of your own idea. Forget about the tax man, he's on the take like everyone else.  Make ice cream while the sun shines.  You could be down balaton beach right now, making a mint. :-)