Hi Dan, Fancy that you brought this topic up. I know a poor sap that recently bought a PC laptop after owning Macs for a number of years. He doesn't know what he has done to screw himself. He justified it by saying that with a Sony Viao you got more bang for the buck. This is the kind of guy that knows the price of everything but the value of nothing. However Sony, Dell and Lenovo all make excellent machines. The hardware is first rate. What you can suggest to your friend is to install a version of the Linux operating system called, "Ubuntu" on any of these machine. I believe Dell already offer the option of an Ubuntu laptop. If someone gave me a PC laptop, this is what I would do. Bill Montreal