Here’s my reply:

Ok, here’s the 3 most important things:

1.  If you get a laptop with Windows Vista, make sure you have at least 2GB of RAM.  Vista uses about 1GB by itself and it’ll suck when you try to run any other programs.

2.  Don’t get a cheap processor.  Intel Celeron and AMD Sempron are the common cheap ones and should be avoided.

3.  Don’t get a Compaq.  They suck.  They’re cheap, and I have never had a good experience with them.

I have a Gateway and personally I really like mine.  Here’s the one I would buy if I was gonna buy one today:

http://www.gateway.com/systems/product/529668194.php

It’s got everything you’ll need and is relatively cheap for a laptop.  It’s available at Radio Shack according to the gateway site.

There’s also a new breed of laptops called netbooks which are much cheaper, and are built to be used online.  They are pretty bare as far as programs and storage, but like I said are cheaper. I haven’t really looked into them at all, but pretty much every major manufacturer makes one these days. Here’s gateway’s netbook:

http://www.gateway.com/systems/product/529668245.php

This one’s actually not too bad, it’s only $380.  The processor is a little slow (which is common for netbooks), but it runs Windows XP, which uses a lot less than Vista (most netbooks use Linux as their operating system because it’s free, but you’d have to learn a whole new operating system).  And this thing has a 160GB hard drive which is huge for a laptop.