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Originally Posted by gmku

I guess that's the thing. I know Macs are the graphic artist's choice, photographers, too, and other artists. And in fact I use a Mac for all my writing and editing at work. As I go into my freelance career, I need a notebook/Macbook/laptop so that I don't have to fight other family members for computer time, but also to be mobile, versatile, so I can take it to assignments, meetings with clients, etc. I will be using it for writing, keeping up on e-mail with clients and designers, connecting to the web (wireless). Shouldn't I be okay with a Dell? Or is Mac still the better choice?

man, the question is simple-- HOW MUCH MONEY DO YOU HAVE TO SPEND? sorry i don't mean to ask embarrassing things, but really, give us your budget. if money is no object, say you got aroudn $4,000, get a macbook pro loaded with everything. if you got a couple of thou, get a thinkpad. if you have $1K get a dell. if you have less, get refurbished. don't forget that in this world you still have to pay for your software, and if you're looking for open source/shareware windows has a lot more to offer than mac.

about the reliability of dells, or the stability of windows, pardon me val for saying this, but you're talking out of your ass-- dell business laptops are excellent, and a better deal for the money than a mac. xp pro was a robust & mature system and while vista seems like a bit of a resource hog, nobody in their right mind would call it unstable.

so, for the silly things you wanna do, like basically a typewriter you can carry around, if you wanna be mobile, i already told you spend $300 on that used thinkpad and you'll have what you need, no more, no less. that's what you do with your clients. LATER when youre racking up the $$ and you have $5,000 to spend buy yourself some fancy box. in the meantime, it doesn't make sense to get anything else, unless you secretly want to play games, and if that's the case, sir, do confess now.