I have, and travel with, a Dell Latitude C610. It's about middle-of-the-line, but it does what I want it to do, and I'm typing on it now. :)

My tech friend got it for me as surplus from his place of employment (thank you, Boeing!), so I'm not going to look a virtually free laptop in the screen.

I'm satisfied with it, though I wish it were a little faster...

Seriously bubblz, get a freakin Mac. I'm getting one in a few months, and I'm going to walk around telling people that not only am I cooler, richer and better looking than them, but that my computer can kick their computers ass.

Macbook Bubblz. Remember that.

As much as I love my snowy white pristine iBook with the wide screen and the iPod dock that matches...

Many of the programs required to take the tests in Law School don't seem to be available for Macs. Though, you can either dual install Windows or run an emulator.

I reccomend to check with the law school you are planning on attending first.

OSX Tiger is awesome btw.

I have Virtual PC on my Mac, and I can run PC software.

That statement is like saying that if you buy a PC from 1995 it won't run many of today's windows programs. You have an older computer. A mac will run every windows program without an emulator.

-Rudey

(I have the last iBook model to come out, so my computer isn't that old. It was right before they introducted the MacBook. Plus, if it was that old it wouldn't run Tiger.)

I don't know if this is exactly true, but now that I think of it, I haven't had any problems running any program I wanted on my Mac.

The macbook is the new version of the ibook but with a different name. The ibook that you had, had a G4 processor that hadn't been updated in years and was the cause for Apple switching to Intel.

-Rudey

Rudey pretty much explained to you why you're wrong - the new architecture does, in fact, account for ANY translation issues.

This means ANY law school software than can be run in Windows can be run on the MacBook, because the MacBooks actually RUN WindowsXP (it's not 'virtualWindows' anymore).

Since when is there law school software? WTF? Can't you people read books and use Westlaw or Lexis on the internet like normal people? What else is there?

We use ExamSoft to take exams. It basically shuts you out of every other program on your computer except for ExamSoft, and you type your exam. It's kinda of like a word processing program I guess, I handwrote my exams. When the exam is over, you save your exam and close the program, then you upload it to the registrar through the internet. There's other details, don't worry, no one can write stuff and save it in there before the exam, because once you save a document, you can't open it again. There's no way to cheat around the software.

The Tablet PC is a waste of money unless you are into graphic designing and want to actually draw on it and import the graphics. The ones I'm most familiar with are made by Motion Computing. If you don't purchase a keyboard for it, you have to use the stylus to type or write like you do on a PDA to "type". With the Motion Computing one, EVERYTHING is a plug in accessory. CD drive, Floppy drive, etc. There isn't anything built in except the ports for things to plug into. So, you get this really cool tiny tablet thing and you have to have at least 3 accessories to really use it (mouse, keyboard and CD/DVD Rom). The keyboards for them also act as a stand and as a cover for the Tablet. They feel really flimsy and typing on them, I worry I'm typing too hard.

I hear people rave about Vaios and I don't get it. Granted, mine was one of the earlier models, but it overheated a lot. I also had several keys just stop working.. the 6, the - and the delete key. It made things interesting, especially since my phone number has several 6's in it and my username on Yahoo has an _ in it (the shift of -). When I called Tech Support, they insisted it was an Operating System problem and had me re-install the OS over and over. It needed a new keyboard is what it needed. I do this for a living and KNEW what the problem was. They wouldn't fix it. I wouldn't touch another one.

The laptop I would like to have is the Dell Latitude D410. It's lightweight, very portable and comes with a docking station that has all your extras (CD/DVD and additional ports). Even WITH the docking station, it's slimmer than most others. One of our PhDs just got one and I was really drooling over it. It's much easier to get parts for Dells if you want to fix them yourself. They are pretty easy to disassemble too and have all their service manuals online, with step by step directions for replacing/upgrading parts. Their tech support is top notch and I would ALWAYS get the 3 year next day service level of support.

I've also had Canons, IBM Think Pads, and an Acer and I've worked with Toshibas. If I was going to get anything other than Dell, it would be Toshiba. We've never had an issue with any of our Toshiba laptops.

I am typing from my MacBook Pro as we speak, and I LOVE IT! It's lightening fast-- has 2.0 GHz with an Intel core.

I have had two other Macs.. they never break, and they never get viruses. I STILL have my old Performa 600Cd from 1994, (with a whopping 8 megs of Ram-- LOL!) and it still works! I use it for word processing since I have a fabulous Apple Laser Printer (which also never breaks) that is incompatable with my newer Macs.

I have a Dell at work, and it's forever crashing and getting worms and viruses. Consumer Reports rated Apple above all the other computers for service. But then.. who needs service? They don't break!

I love my Mac.

It's worth the extra $'s!

TAKE THIS ADVICE.

I know at my school a couple people have Macs. They can't take the exams on them, but we can take the exams in the computer lab if you don't have a computer or have a Mac. I do this too because my Toshiba crashed in the middle of our contracts exam and I haven't really forgiven it. You should find out if your school has an option like that available.

Oh, also, get some sort of case to carry whatever you get in. I have a little CaseLogic one I got off eBags that I keep in my regular bag - but unfortunately I didn't get it until I had already scratched my laptop up (not a big deal) and jacked up the power port (big deal).

I have a macbook pro and I am seriously considering marrying it.

Ok now that I have your attention... I never used a mac before this and I thought it would be hard to learn. I got it as a bday present it March and it is the best computer ever and now I am completely sold on Macs. It is not the cheapest computer out there, but, it doesn't crash, I don't worry about viruses, it is soooo amazingly fast, and it so incredibly easy to use. It comes packed with software and I mainly use it now for school-I am in a doc program, so it is my research tool. It has a buitl in camera, it's own programs for instant messaging, calendar tools, this program called garage band (so you can make your own movies). It is compatible with word and excel and comes with a trial version that you can buy but if your school has a software deal like mine does then you can get it from your school for free. If you are into blogging and making websites-it has programs for that too-I haven't tried those on mine yet.

The only draw back for me is that I can't find as many games as I could for my old PC. (that sounded really geeky) But it really is an amazing machine.

You can install Windows on it and run every single game out there.

-Rudey