I currently have the option of buying a new laptop.

Here are some basic specs:
Vista Home Basic
1 MB L2 cache, 1.73 GHz Intel Celeron
1 GB DDR2 ram
80 GB Hard drive
DVD Drive (Can't write)

About how much would a laptop like this cost?
The asking price is $350. Is that good?

I don't plan on doing anything too intensive on it. Mainly school work and programming.

By the way, it's an Acer Aspire.

$350 is pretty cheap, but that laptop is going to suck.

Meh, its your call, just know that its probably going to be pretty slow, and I would bump that 1GB of RAM up to 2GB if you are going to stick with Vista - even if it is the crappy, stripped down "Home Basic".

I think this is the CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819111202 and if so, it is going to be really slow. Its not even based on the Core2 architecture, nor is it dual-core. Yuck.

So just be warned, the laptop sucks, but at $350, its not horrible...

If you upgrade to Windows XP, that machine would be an excellent buy for the specs and price. With Vista, eh, not so much.

Heh, subtle choice of words there (it is Vista Basic so XP won't be any faster - XP will probably feel slower due to the lack of "SuperFetch" which should help with the slow hard drive)

Still, even if it is WinXP, it won't be any faster - it'll still be a piece of crap, it just happens to be a CHEAP piece of crap

Kerm, how many times must I say, don't bash Vista till you really use it. Once you do, you appreciate it. Also, I have to agree with Kllrnohj. I have seen in the ads (Best Buy, Circuit City, etc.) for about 400-500 Pentium D machines, and I think some AMD Turion 64 X2 machines. Even a Pentium D will be better than a Celeron. Take a look at what else is there.

Also, if you plan to watch DVD movies on this computer, than you are going to want at least Home Premium (with Basic, you need to install more stuff to play, Premium will do it out of the box). You can turn of Aero Glass if you don't want that to bog you down, but it really doesn't do much unless you are playing 3D games in Windowed mode, but that is just a lot for the graphics card to do.

I don't have and don't want to pay for XP. The only Windows I have discs for is 95.

Again, I really don't want to pay extra for an OS. Especially if it's just for watching movies.

Also, would using Linux make much of a difference?

And compared to my current laptop which has 133Mhz processor (it's an original Pentium), 16 mb of ram, and Windows 98, this'll be rather fast.

A frikken' huge difference, that is for sure! Linux is definitely the best choice for an OS, provided you have some experience with it or with something similar in the past. With Linux, you can customize your computer software as much as you want, and Linux is the most optimized OS out there. However, Linux is a nightmare for user who only knew about Windows and Macs and how to run basic tasks on them (ie, send an email), while it is the best piece of software available for anyone moderately (and maybe even slightly) experienced with computer software. If you know how to use Linux, I say go for it: it is going to make a huge difference. If you don't know how to use Linux, install Ubuntu so you can dual-boot and slowly ease into the world of open-source and free distributed, community-maintained software.

Linux plays much nicer with old hardware than Windows does, and will feel much smoother and faster - especially if you try to multitask (the windows thread scheduler still sucks balls - why oh why can't MS fix that?!?). If you have something that is loading up your CPU Linux will continue to feel smooth whereas windows will be jerky (hell, Intel's HyperThreading was a hack to fix window's crappiness ).

@Rivereye: Those $400-500 machines aren't laptops, though (at least I couldn't find any dual-core laptops that were under ~$700 new).

I could have sworn I saw them, I will take a look later.

I bought mine for $450, and it has a dual-core processor. Of course, I did get a $300 rebate, so you Kllrnohj is still right if you aren't considering rebates.

About Linux, it's a great OS, but it doesn't have drivers for some new computers (at least not yet), so don't assume that it will work for your laptop.

Also, if you PM your zip code to me I will keep an eye out for a laptop that meets your requests.

Linux has drivers for all major new hardware (video cards, motherboards, etc...) - of which there really ISN'T anything new. Only new major piece of hardware to hit the market recently is the 8800GT... The only thing that may be difficult to find is wireless drivers - but those have improved by a huge amount (and Ubuntu bundles them anyway).

If anybody cares, I bought it. I might upgrade it to 2GB of ram. And I'll probably install Linux (Dual-boot).

That's cyberkewl.

I bought 2 laptops from a friend for a total of 85 dollars US. One was an Gateway with 512mb ram, 1.6ghz centrino, 40gb hdd. The other was an HP zd7000 with an burnt out motherboard. I did some chatting with HP, and managed to get the whole motherboard replaced due to some defect in cooling that leads to graphics adapter failure. It has 2 gb ram, 60gb hdd, 3.8ghz P4 processor, NVidia GEforce graphics adapter, which was replaced with an Radeon by HP. It also has a huge 17inch widescreen display...Good deal for me, eh?

Your friend is a certifiable idiot for letting those go at $85. How confident are you about that 3GHz+ clock speed?

I am sure it is 3.8 ghz because I had to take it apart in it's entirety to determine what was causing it to not turn on.
Turns out, the DC charging jack had burned through, which according to alot of websites online is a fairly common problem on the zd7000. I "fixed" the dc power jack by drilling a new hole through the mobo, and soldering a wire directly from a trace on the board to the jack. This fixed the problem...Then like a week later the graphics failed, probably because I had left it on renderinga pointless 3d animated film I made...tried to make. Then I did some research online and found out the graphics failure would be repaired for free if I had one of the recalled models, which I did. Within 4 days, I had recieved the laptop back from HP, with a new mobo, and all parts replaced. They left the chipped case though...
I am not sure if the processor in the new mobo is the same, a 3.8ghz. I have not turned on the laptop yet as I returned the charger to it's owner.(I really have to get my own...the universal I have does not charge the zd7000s because they draw so much current)

So I am fairly sure I have a 3.8 ghz P4 in the laptop...

I am also fairly sure the friend I got it from had the 3.8ghz processor added to replace a 3.0ghz processor.

Ah, fair enough. Yeah, that DC jack problem happens with a lot of laptop models; I've fixed three laptops of various brands with burned-through jacks. Anyway, nice acquisition on those boxen,.

yeah, those 17" screen laptops take a lot of juice to run. I know, I have one myself. I actually had the actual power adapter fail to my laptop once, and I think my jack failed once. I am not sure on the jack, as I still even now have 2.5 more years on my warranty, I am not about to open up the machine and loose that.

The zd7000 does not sound like too bad of a machine (though it does pale in comparison to my Gateway NX860XL).

Ok, so someone asks how you know it is a 3.8ghz processor, you respond with a bunch of random crap about taking it apart and checking the video card, and suddenly you make the jump that yes it is a 3.8ghz CPU. Does logical reasoning mean anything to you?

Rather than just making a claim and providing a completely worthless story that has nothing to do with the claim as evidence, download and run CPU-Z and GPU-Z - and provide screenshots

Ok...as soon as I get a power supply/charger for the laptop. As I mentioned in a long and "worthless" story, I returned the charger to a friend.