...dedicated laptop ... suggestions on brand?

 I have owned many,

 Most reliable was a Dell. "Ultra-Sharp" screen offered at the time was well
 worth the $extra. Person who is using it says it is still going strong after
 about 5 years.

 I suggest you stay away from Sony. I currently have a Sony VAIO. Wish I had
 not bought it. Comes loaded, partially filled, with too much nonsense
 software, I upgraded OS and could never get it to work right after that. Too
 many unique driver for sound/video/add-ons etc are required. Hours of
 attempts to install everything downloaded from Sony have not worked.
 Wont run Linux

 My daughter's HP got her through 7 years of college and still runs.

 My son-in-law has a neat IBM with a screen that doubles as a tablet. He can
 write on on screen with a stylus. He is teaches mathematics at Cornell and
 prepares all his lectures on it. lecture notes are all done using the
 stylus,
 and published on the web. Has dual boot Windows/Linux, which works great. He
 loves it. I you might need those features, I can get you more information.
 Let me know.



 R

Latest Mfr laptop reliability data, as published by SquareTrade.
Hardly the definitive source, but interesting none the less.

Mark Supinski

I love my solid state 40 Gig drive on my Azus EeePC and Linux is
in read only memory. Seven to eight hours of battery life because of that
solid state drive. I run the whole newsletter on it when
I am on the road. With the help of a few 32 gig USB sticks.

It is not cheap however running around $700.

Paul Lamar