[Tfug] Windows laptops?

[Claude Rubinson]

I'm wondering if I may have just given bad advice to a friend.  She's
also in sociology.  She's in the market for a laptop and she said that
she didn't want to pay more than $2,000.  I replied that I thought
that figure sounded excessive, considering the kind of tasks that we
use our machines for--namely, word processing and statistical
analysis.  As I've mentioned before, my machine's processor basically
sits at 600Mhz.  Complex statistical analysis can push the machine,
but most sociologists don't ask their computers to do the kind of
stuff that I do (having a background in programming isn't always a
good thing ;^).

Anyway, my friend wants to buy a new Gateway notebook (brand loyalty).
I told her that she could save a lot of money by buying the slowest
processor and cheapest video card that she could find, and that they
would work just fine.

And then I realized that I haven't actually owned a Windows machine in
years and really can't speak about them.  (I've gotten good at now
answering configuration questions but this was a "hardware" question.
And I spoke before I should have.)  I know that Unix is happy on
systems that are slow by today's standards but does Windows need more?
(I assume that maxing out RAM is probably as still a good suggestion
as always?)

Thanks,

Claude