So, I finally have enough $$$ to buy a laptop...
 

...what would you recommend for someone that will use it for:

--surfing the net a lot
--typing notes in class
--burning CDs and DVDs

I'm considering either a used Mac or a new Dell. I'd love to get a new Mac, but they're still too pricey for my liking. I've liked the Dell PCs I've used in the past, and I have a friend that loves her laptop, but I've heard of support issues with them.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Go here: http://www.illwillpress.com/vault.html

Click on "Tech Support".

Yeah, that sounds like (insert one of many company's names here).

take a look at this.

2nd hand ibook. Or new, they'll be new ones soon however so wait for that. They work, they keep working, they keep working after you drop them and you don't get that icky feeling you get from touching dell hardware. Battery life is good too. sm is dead on.

Except when you drop them and get a dent in the case and Apple wants to charge you $750 to repair it. (Don't get me wrong, Macs are great, but in my experience their post-sales service is sometimes fabulous and sometimes useless & overpriced.)

Hmmm...the iBook is not bad. I wonder how big of a HD/how much memory I should have, though. I'm going to stick a second HD on my desktop, which will hold all my mp3s, plus I'll have my iPod. I'm also going to throw some more memory in the desktop (currently 256 MB).

We have an Apple retailer here in Philadelphia called Springboard Media...I might check out what they've got used.

This is true. However you don't really need to get it repaired. It took two drops from 1m+ onto concrete, more than 20 flights in a soft bag being kicked around, beng dropped onto chairs, hit with hard objects, one memorable time skidding off the desk discus-style into a wall because someone stepped on the powercord HARD and being crushed between big heavy books on a regluar basis before I needed to replace the case and then it was only because the HDD had died.

You want half a gig of memory min really, OSX loves the stuff and Tiger is no exception. Also if you do get one, pm me if you need any software.

Apparently Tiger will use as much video card memory as you give it, as well.

it does make use of it but it's not necessary.

Goof. All of the software you own is PC.

You will end up spending triple on your machine if you switch formats, even if you save some bucks on the hardware costs.

I've had my Dell laptop for 4 years. It faithfully served me throughout law school - typing notes and papers, surfing the web during class, chatting during class... I also have used it to burn CDs... don't have the DVD-R capabilities because that was pre-this laptop.

I never had any problems with this machine and would highly recommend a dell laptop.

It is coming to the end of it's life... but i want an ibook next because they look cool ;).

I'm thinking of getting one too. What do you think about this ?

I bought an old iMac off ebay last week for a friend (400Mhz, tangerine - perfect for writing essays and browsing the web). We looked at ibooks, overall the value-for money seemed noticeably lower, they all needed more ram(that one doesn't have ram listed?), in many the battery was on the way out as well. Also keep in mind the acution price will probably more than double in the last day. Once again (syc as well as cat) if you need mac software, pm me.

I don't own any software, and anything important that I've downloaded to the PC is available for Mac.