ideal laptop recommendations?

[Jason Hunt]

On Mon, May 05, 2003 at 07:00:33PM -0400, Jesse D. Guardiani wrote:
> IBMs seem a bit overpriced and underfeatured to me. Still, if that is
> the best suggestion I get, then I might give it a try.

I have always preferred IBM over other brands when it comes to laptops.
They are pretty sturdy and tend to last a long time.  As Kevin stated,
you get what you pay for.

Also, I have always preferred IBM because of their keyboards.  There is
something about the layout that I really like.  I think it is mainly the
positioning of the cursor keys and the num/caps/scroll-lock keys.  It
seems kind of picky, but I do really like their keyboards compared to
other brands.
   I also prefer the little knobby mouse pointer thing (I've never
bothered to find the proper term for it :) ) over the square ones that
you run your finger around on.  Then again, I also prefer a simple
trackball over a standard mouse, so maybe that's why.

One other note that may or may not be relevant is that if you want to
buy replacement parts (without scowering ebay and hoping for the best),
IBM allows end users to order parts from them directly.  The prices are
usually the MSRP, which is usually not much more expensive than what you
would pay at a reseller.  HP/Compaq might let end users order parts
(they do with their printers at least), but I'm not sure about other
companies.  It may or may not ever be relevant, but if you're a
do-it-yourselfer when it comes to hardware (I assume most of us are),
IBM seems to be a lot easier to buy parts for.

Anyways, just my two cents.