[H-GEN] Laptops

[Andrew Over]

Hi all.

I'm presently contemplating the purchase of a laptop whilst in the US over
the Christmas break.

So - I'm seeking any and all recommendations/horror stories involving
laptops [0], whilst I attempt to decide on an appropriate brand.

Ideally, I'd prefer some arrangement that doesn't involve the bundling of
MS [insert POS here], since an MS operating system is likely to remain on
this machine for precisely as long as it takes to reformat the hard drive.

Affordability is an issue, so don't even mention IBM :-)

Also, since I'll be buying stateside, and using it here, an appropriately
international warranty is a big plus.

TIA,
  Andrew

[0] Yes.  I do realise that I've asked this on #Humbug :-)