>and since other places that i've posted i get alot >of comments about how students should get dells b/c >of the support... i would like to say that i am good >with computers, and when i have helped friends with >their dells and had to deal with their people on >email and on the phone i found them all to be >useless, and i dont like that dells ship with stuff >on them that acts to keep you from being able to fix >problems on your own.
What do Dells ship with to keep you from fixing them yourself?
im getting a new laptop for college and would like any input you have about my current considerations or any other laptops you would like to suggest. basically i want a fairly light and thin notebook that doesn't sacrifice speed for the kind of work i need.
1) im a debator and frequently need to be able to open many huge files like pdfs and large text documents without causing the comp to slow down terribly. (we're talking like 10mb+ text files in some cases) and my desktop gets really slow when im working on too much stuff, and i know from trying to work on my dads laptop (a dell, p4 2Ghzish) it has a hard time and gets really hot.
2) im majoring in computer science. this should be close to irrelevant since coding doesn't stress the system as much as the other stuff i do will, but if anyone who is involved in computer programming has any advice, tha'd be good to hear.
3) i do alot of picture taking and editing with photoshop, and i've heard some people complain about using laptops for photoshop, so anyone who has knowledge about how large photoshop jobs run on certain systems, that would be helpful.
the 2 main competitors on my list right now are:
ibm thinkpad T42
apple powerbook (15")
and since other places that i've posted i get alot of comments about how students should get dells b/c of the support... i would like to say that i am good with computers, and when i have helped friends with their dells and had to deal with their people on email and on the phone i found them all to be useless, and i dont like that dells ship with stuff on them that acts to keep you from being able to fix problems on your own.
thank you in advance for any help.

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