I have a Toshiba with Vista and I've not encountered any problems yet.
My last Toshiba did me 2 years which I reckon was a good run considering how cheap it was and how much I used it.
My friends who have Vista on other laptops are ALWAYS getting the blue screen of death, but I've had no problems.
I recommend Toshiba laptops to anyone, they do the job fine (although they're nothing special)

I have a Toshiba Satellite A100. It's roughly two years old and very dependable. All my laptops thus far have been Toshiba, but I'm considering getting an Mac on the next laptop purchase and use a PC for the desktop.

I would honestly recommend going with a Mac, UNLESS you plan on using your laptop for some heavy gaming.....or even light gaming. If you plan on using your laptop for gaming purposes....it's best to go with an PC, then. I'm not crazy about Dell personally, so I'd suggest Toshiba, or maybe HP or Sony. Just make sure it meets your needs.

I don't want to touch Vista with a footlong stick, so I'm avoiding it as much as I can until SP2 comes out (even then....maybe not). If you have to get a new laptop with Vista on it...well, defnitely make sure you have more than 2 gigabytes of memory....(RAM). It won't do you much good if you have less than 2 gigabytes of memory. =)

I've done quite a bit of research on laptops.

I think Macs are great for certain things but pricey. If you are looking for a laptop to do web browsing and normal business applications, they are a good choice.

If you want something for the above, possibly have an interest in games and windows specific applications or are stuck on having windows, I highly recommend HP.

I would've gotten a Mac except I like to occasionally play PC games and even though there are some for the Mac, they tend to be more expensive and not as much variety.

I've used a Mac laptop since 1999. First was the clamshell iBook, then in 2003 I upgraded to a G4 PowerBook, then in 2005 I got an iBook, and in late 2007 I went to my current MacBook (with dual Intel processors).

Each time I upgraded, my "old" laptop went to someone else (usually in trade for a job they did for me--like we gave the first one to my graphic designer for a discount on a job she was doing for me, my hubby still uses the G4 here five years later, and we sold the 2005 iBook to friends), which says something about the longevity of the Mac products (if that helps you deal with the higher cost).

I agree with other posters in this thread about the ease of use with a Mac and the amount of software that comes with it, right out of the box. If you live near an Apple Store, you can also take advantage of their free classes--unlimited options, really--to get up to a pro-level of usage with your new machine, just by registering to attend the workshops in advance online.

I bought my first Mac in 1993 (an LC III) and have owned a Compaq (in 1997--it was rubbish by 1999, which is when I bought my first laptop), so I'm not closed-minded about OS and platform preference. I understand that everyone has a favorite style. But for my money, the number of hours of use I put my machines through, and how long I need them to last before upgrading, Mac does the job best for me.

(And they're so CUTE.)

Good luck with your purchase.

Whatever you choose, make sure you spend some time playing with it at the store and actually picking it up and carrying it around, so you'll know whether it's going to fit your needs in terms of the span your hands will need to make for keyboard use AND the weight of the hardware, depending on how much portability you're expecting. Most laptops are under 5 pounds, now, so you should be fine with whatever you choose and not get a hernia from carrying it around, but I was surprised at the need to change my typing/fingering technique when I went from my clamshell iBook to my G4 PowerBook, because its keyboard was so compressed, comparatively.

HTH! Have fun!

i bought a toshiba tecra directly from toshiba.com in 2006 after i left my 7 year old gateway desktop behind when we moved. so far the tecra has been great-no problems. i bought the extended warranty because my daughter had a satellite that needed work a couple of times but i haven't needed to use. i guess tecra is a little step up from the satellite and is good for personal or small business needs. i did a lot of comparing of prices and attributes and the tecra came out the best at the time and i'm happy with it. it runs xp and i have no desire to get vista. my techie brothers were impressed with my purchase.

on the other hand, one day about a year ago a macbook showed up on my teacher desk at work so i've been using that too. i like it a lot. it boots up much faster then my toshiba. i don't know how to fix problems on it so i have to leave that to the overworked tech guys from the school district but i'd definitely consider getting one if i could afford it when i need to replace my tecra. my son had to get one for art school (better graphic handling) and my daughter needs a computer for school and wants to hold out until she has enough money for a mac because they are better with music recording and mixing-she's a part-time musician.

it depends on what you need it for in the long run and how much you want to spend. good luck!

I have a Dell Inspiron. Do Not Buy One! I have had nothing but trouble from it. It has an overheating problem, which will burn out the disc drive, fry the hard drive, or knock out the sound card. I've had to replace the disc drive 4 times, the hard drive once, and the sound card twice. Not to mention the other things that have gone wrong with it during the three years I've had it.

I have an Acer TravelMate 5720. It's a great laptop, a little on the heavy side, but nothing major. It was fairly cheap as well ($999 CDN).

I have an Acer Aspire. It is my second one. The first one lasted me two years before it was stolen during a home breakin. Even though it was returned to us it was useless. I think the idiot was trying to get into and had no clue what they were doing or left it in their car for the entire week they had it because the sucker wouldn't even turn on when the police returned it to us.

I have a Macbook and love it!!! I've never been much of a computer person until about 4 years ago when I bought an HP desktop. That thing frustrated me beyond words. In February I decided I wanted to buy a new pc, and my boyfriend at the time had an iMac. I played around with that whenever I was at his house and the rest is history I was just going to buy a new desktop for the house, but got to thinking "why spend the money on a new desktop that my kids have taken over??". I started looking at laptops and after much anxiety (macbooks are expensive.....I'm looking at it now and wondering what aliens took over my body in order for me to shell out the $$$$), I bought one. I'm glad I did it and will probably in the next few years be buying an imac for the house. If you have the $$$$, I'm for macbooks all the way. Everyone else is right though: if your a gamer, mac isn't for you.

I couldn't live without my laptop! I have a compaq tablet, brilliant for graphics work being able to draw, brilliant for teaching and its small so great for lugging around (my previous laptop had a widescreen and made it that much bigger and heavier). I have owned a few laptops (macbook, 2 x toshiba, compaq and asus), I loved my toshibas and if I hadn't gone for a tablet I would have gotten another toshiba.

I couldn't go back to using just a desktop but I have a computer geek on hand (my hubby) which makes it easier because sometimes they can be a little more techno challenging than a desktop (or maybe that is just me!).