I just got the Dell Inspiron 8000, I Love It!!! I went for the Dell 'cause I can have two optical drives in at the same time, one fixed (DVD), one modular (CDRW) + the modular can be swapped out to put in a another battery for two at a time, or you can put in the floppy drive. I also chose the 8000 for the 32 meg video option & it has other nice features like two USB, IEEE 1394, S/composite video out, digital audio out, built in 56k/v90 modem & 10/100 NIC. I got mine with 800 MHz P3, 128 megs ram on 1 dimm (then added another 128 megs from crucial, saved $80) & 20 gig HD. Running Win 2k, & I'm gonnna' add Red Hat Linux for a dual boot. I?m really happy with my Dell, I do think that there are other good notebooks out there, the dell Inspiron 8000 had the option mix I was looking for. Good luck -john