[gui-talk] laptop recommendations, please

[seville allen]

I am shopping for a laptop.  I'd like it to be fairly lightweight
(recognizing that very light may be more money than I have to pay); I don't
care about a high resolution screen, just enough for a seeing technician if
one is needed some time.  I use jfw and currently XP home edition with
outlook and office 2002 home edition. 

I do see that most new computers now run vista which I will learn if I have
to do so.  And some salespeople told me that some business .com sites still
sell xp computers and, according to the salespeople, xp will most likely be
used for a long time by many.  And, what antivirus protection would you
recommend given jfw doesn't like some of the antivirus programs.  
Brand and power, etc recommendations would be helpful.  I'm a pretty good
user and can navigate my way around installing software and doing some
troubleshooting, but the techie talk about ram, drives, processors, etc make
my brain wiggle!  Help from those of you who know these things is welcome.
Thanks.