I am the manager of the IT division for the corporation at which I work. Reference the current Dell 1501, I buy this model for our salesmen on the road, and put some high end personal management software on it as well as Microsoft Office Pro for their presentations, remote database access, and reports. These particular machines, without exception do all and more than we require, reliably, everyday.
I quit buying the $3,000 - $4,000 IBM Thinkpads a number of years ago and went to Dell's mid-line. We treat our computer hardware as near-consumeable, and no longer consider them as real property. Since I changed us over to an all-Dell shop 6 years ago, (servers, client stations, workstations, notebooks) our reliability time has gone way up, and our down time has nearly vanished insofar as hardware/firmware is concerned. The only exception is printers; there we are all-HP for both network and individual printers. I buy all mid-line units; top-of-the-line units have too many "bells & whistles" which sometimes conflict with the basic functions of our computer needs. Jim Haynes
