[efoote868]

well, today was the day to buy a laptop... best buy and circuit city had them on sale for $250 and $300 respectively.

I would recommend (if at all possible) you wait to get the laptop until vista comes out (i don't think you could buy a mac for $700-900). If not, when making the purchase, see if they'll upgrade you to vista for free, or cheaply.

If you're at college (and you probably know this), don't buy any software from the computer stores until you check out what your college sells. Chances are you can get the software for free, or heavily discounted.

Upgrading a laptop imho is a pain. Don't buy the cheaper one with hopes to install another/different disk drive, or hard drive.