I've worked with just about all of them. Toshiba (IMHO) sucks. Compaq (who are now HP) were pretty good, but HP are just OK, not fantastic - and I don't know if HP have infected their newly acquired Compaq division with their OK'ness. Gatweay just plain sucks, that goes for everything they make. IBM laptops are not that great either, when you talk about price. They have good deals on some - but you get more laptop for your buck with ANYONE else...
DELL, Inspiron. This is my favorite. I have one, and I have bought ten of them for the bank in the last six months (we are phasing out a few older IBMs). I have no problems with them, they are the right price, and they run great.
Just my six cents...
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The Scarab TGP
Fuckit - why am I in here and not working?