Any recommendations on a laptop?

[Suki Wingy]

I know next to nothing about PCs as I have been a Mac user since I was little but good luck!

[Alysser]

I have had dells for as long as I can remember, all I can say is...never again. I had a Sony Vaio that was half decent till the battery went and it needed to be connected to the charger at all times. Oh and until Mikey jumped on it, but that's another story and it was all my fault really. But at the time, it was five years old. I now have a Macbook, and I don't think I'd ever go back to a PC. I LOVE it! I haven't had any problems. It's really nice not to worry about getting viruses from everything on the web. I know they're expensive but they're really really good and I have never heard of anyone having major issues that I personally know. I am sure there are plenty of bad stories about Macs on the internet, I guess it just depends on the person.

As for the issue with Word, you can get Microsoft products that run on Mac OS X and it'll be a little different but you won't have any difficulties. My brother bought the MS pack for him, my sister, and me and I believe it was around $150 with 3 uses. It comes with Word, PowerPoint, Entourage and Excel.