I've needed a laptop for school for some time now. For many of the labs in programming, we need a level of access on a computer that we can't get on the school machines. Doing many of the projects at home has led to problems, because I can't just dial up my instructor at 3AM with a compiler error and try to fix it (after all, all the best programming is done in the middle of the night :lol: ).

So my accounta-- er, I mean -- my wife and I went out this weekend and shopped around. For what I needed to do, all I needed was a "bargain" machine: no frills, no bells and whistles, just a CPU, some memory and storage, and an OS to run it.

We found a decent one in our price range at CompUSA (I like the service and parts selection better there than at BestBuy): a Compaq Presario C502US. It will never be a gaming machine (512MB RAM, and Intel integrated graphics? Puhleez....), and I have to learn everything I know about PCs all over again (no one sells XP machines anymore; the one I have has Vista installed), but it runs well, it compiles Java and C++ code pretty quickly, and it was inexpensive.

[Side notes: when I got to school tonight, everyone was staring at my laptop, trying to figure out what I had on it; the school has a deal with (ugh!) Dell, and most of my cla$$mates have them, with XP installed, so I kind of stand out.
Vista isn't as ugly as I thought: it looks nice, and the programs I need run well on it. Some of the new security features are annoying, but since I'm not on a network or the 'Net with it, I shut them the %$#@ off. Also, 512 isn't nearly enough RAM; I sense an upgrade in my future...]