>Many people here have adviced a Dell Inspiron, but I go for the more expensive Dell Latitude series. They are for the professional. For example, what will happen if you accidentally drop your notebook? With the latitude series your chances that the notebook is still okay are quite big.

I think this is the wrong approach. Get the cheaper HW and a huge USB disk, create a automatic backup service (nothing fancy: synch the personal files and make even/odd copies of SSafe Directory).

You'll be safer even if the more expensive laptop is stolen from your car ;-)

my 0.02 EUR

thomas