In a word: Moof.

After months of deliberation, hours of consultation with that guy who knows everything about laptops, three mistrials, and a lot of cash, I ordered a laptop. The decision: an IBM Thinkpad T43.

For all those who really care about specs: 1.86 Pentium M, Radeon X300, 14.1 inch screen (SXGA+), 5.1 lbs ("travel weight"). Ram needs upgrading, HD is ok. The T line is IBM's middle-of-the-road between ultra-portables and ultra-heavy desktop replacements. To those not satisfied by specs alone and want the full logic behind my decision: read on.

A big issue was Dell vs. IBM. Dell has very cheap hardware, especially after their educational discounts. IBM is more expensive, and gives no educational discounts (that I could see.) But, to repeat the traditional cliché's, you get what you pay for. My mom has a Dell Inspiron from 2001 or so, and it is woefully broken in many ways. My dad has a Thinkpad from 1997 or so, and it runs wonderfully. Consulting with people more experienced in laptops than I shows that my experiences are not uncommon.

A few months ago, Dell or IBM wasn't even a question. I wanted a Powerbook. I used a 15-inch titanium powerbook for a month, and it was great. That was before Intel CEO Paul Otellini appeared on stage at Apple's WWDC. I think Apple may pull off the x86 switch, and I hope they do. They have created an incredible operating system, and they continue to add useful and creative features every release. The changes in Windows between releases are minuscule compared to OS X. I wish I could switch to OS X. But I don't want to switch in the middle of the x86 transition. It just doesn't make sense to buy a PPC laptop right now. I also don't think I could survive on OS X alone. I'm too accustomed to Linux and x86 software. If apple was selling an x86 laptop right now that ran OS X, I'd buy it without question. But as it is now, I have to go with one of the "traditional" x86 manufacturers.

Now I just have to wait a few weeks for IBM to actually ship me it. Estimated ship date: 8/12. Bloody annoying, but I can live with it. That leaves me three weeks to decide what OS to stick on it. That will be another few blog entries.

——cs