Help me pick a laptop please.

[Majmun]

 In fact, many laptop companies (including Lenovo) are offering XP as a "free upgrade" from Vista.

Good luck!

[jlube85]

What system is used by Mac owners for taking notes in law school?  Is there one that someone recommends more than another?  Am I even making sense with this question?

[jbakguy]

HP is running a coupon right now $400 off customized laptops $1,399 and above.  Coupon code is NB7995, limit 100 uses.  If your budget is around $1,000 dollars this is a great opportunity to get more bang for your buck.  I just ordered a 6700tse, 9300 processer, 3G ram, 250 G hard drive for $1,022 after coupon.

One of the websites I have been watching for coupons says the offer is expired already, but I used it 20 minutes ago.

[laurafern11]

I am in kind of the same boat as the OP. I have a four-year old Acer laptop which has served me very well, but I am worried about what will happen if I carry it to and from school every day. The battery is dead or it has some sort of power problem as well, and it has to be plugged in at all times. I know that is not going to work.

I want a Mac but I really don't want to spend minimum $1200.

I will definitely look into Lenovo. Is there some deadline for when XP will no longer be offered at all? Or has that already passed?

[rtqw]

What system is used by Mac owners for taking notes in law school?  Is there one that someone recommends more than another?  Am I even making sense with this question?

I think you meant 'program' instead of 'system'.

I use OmniOutliner for my notetaking and outlining needs. I highly recommend it. A copy of it should come with your Mac, but there is also a Professional version you can purchase. Many people also just use typical word processors for taking notes.

I want a Mac but I really don't want to spend minimum $1200.

With the student discount, you can buy a MacBook for $1000, which is really the minimum you're going to have to spend for a decent PC laptop as well.

[OingoBoingo]

I'll recommend a Macbook as well. Probably has the best price/performance ratio out there and is a multi-platform capable. Although you can pick up a white one for $999 with the student discount I highly recommend also paying for Applecare and a couple of sticks of RAM. That decision has already saved me and is a reasonable $249 extra for the Applecare on the one hand. Spend money on the RAM: 4GB these days seems insane but will allow you to run a copy of Vista and OS-X comfortably.

I currently run XP and OS-X on 2 GB and it works just fine. With Vista, you are going to want to run 4gb, easy. I run XP solely for running Onenote 2007, which IMHO is worlds better than Omnioutliner, and many other programs available on OS-X. The unavailability of Onenote on the OS-X platform is the achilles heel of Macs in general.

OIngo

[Muhammad Ali]

With Vista, you are going to want to run 4gb, easy.

100% incorrect.

[Ender Wiggin]

I am in kind of the same boat as the OP. I have a four-year old Acer laptop which has served me very well, but I am worried about what will happen if I carry it to and from school every day. The battery is dead or it has some sort of power problem as well, and it has to be plugged in at all times. I know that is not going to work.

I want a Mac but I really don't want to spend minimum $1200.

I will definitely look into Lenovo. Is there some deadline for when XP will no longer be offered at all? Or has that already passed?

I will weigh in on this one, since I am using my new Lenovo X61.  I absolutely love it, and I'm incredibly pleased with my purchase.  I will warn you that I spent $1900 for mine, but that includes the 3 year upgraded service plan. 

I got the better processor, 4G of RAM, the 1G Turbo Memory, and the 7200 RPM Hard Drive.  That may be why Vista is running so well on my computer, but I have to tell you that I am so happy that I chose to go ahead and get Vista.

[OingoBoingo]

With Vista, you are going to want to run 4gb, easy.

100% incorrect.

I should clarify - I meant via VMWare or Parallels, NOT via Bootcamp. Trying to run Vista through virtualization on 2gb of RAM is an exercise in frustration.

Oingo