Uh, so I need a laptop. Help?

[halfbakedbliss]

While MacBooks are attractive, they tend to be incredibly overpriced compared to the memory and processing power they're shipped with. Have you looked at smaller notebooks (netbooks) like the Aspire One or the eee? They come a little lacking in the hard drive department, but an external 1 TB MyBook or something similar can be found on the cheap.

[DM was on fire!]

Mac can run Windows and Linux.
Quite versatile little things.

Alternatively, you can install a Windows emulator (I'm unsure what it's called -- I know Linux's Windows emulator is Wine, but I doubt it runs on Mac) and run the programs you need through it.

I personally would suggest an EeePC.
I want one of those things so badly.
[x]
You really don't get any smaller than that.

It runs both Windows XP and Linux (some come default with Mandriva, others come with GNU, and you can also install Fedora, OpenSUSE, and like...a lot more. XD), has a seven to 10.2 inch screen depending on which one you get, and has a fairly decent amount of memory.
[x]
I don't know about hard drive space though.

[shapu]

Mac can run Windows and Linux.
Quite versatile little things.

Alternatively, you can install a Windows emulator (I'm unsure what it's called -- I know Linux's Windows emulator is Wine, but I doubt it runs on Mac) and run the programs you need through it.

I personally would suggest an EeePC.
I want one of those things so badly.
[x]
You really don't get any smaller than that.

It runs both Windows XP and Linux (some come default with Mandriva, others come with GNU, and you can also install Fedora, OpenSUSE, and like...a lot more. XD), has a seven to 10.2 inch screen depending on which one you get, and has a fairly decent amount of memory.
[x]
I don't know about hard drive space though.

Hard drives on the EEE PCs vary depending on how much you're willing to pay. They're also expandable if you happen to have a soldering gun - and doing so won't even void your warranty.
http://www.eeeuser.com/category/mods/

[halfbakedbliss]

Mac can run Windows and Linux.
Quite versatile little things.

Alternatively, you can install a Windows emulator (I'm unsure what it's called -- I know Linux's Windows emulator is Wine, but I doubt it runs on Mac) and run the programs you need through it.

I personally would suggest an EeePC.
I want one of those things so badly.
[x]
You really don't get any smaller than that.

It runs both Windows XP and Linux (some come default with Mandriva, others come with GNU, and you can also install Fedora, OpenSUSE, and like...a lot more. XD), has a seven to 10.2 inch screen depending on which one you get, and has a fairly decent amount of memory.
[x]
I don't know about hard drive space though.

eee's ship with either Xandros or XP, I think. Loading Vista or Windows 7 on it would really compromise the tiny bit of memory its given. WINE works on OS X or a Linux distribution. But DM, don't forget that any distro could arguably be called GNU.

[WIS]

Ammer, if you're just looking for a very well-balanced consumer laptop, I would personally go with HP. I like their prices, and their chassis (Chassi? Chassises?) are very appealing. The downside is that they pre-load their machines with crapware. (Trial software that's mostly useless). But that's how they keep the cost down, and there are tools to remove them automatically such as the one found on: http://www.pcdecrapifier.com

$1500 can get you a very good laptop. For some basic guidelines, you should be able to find a good mid-sized laptop with 4GBs of ram, a 2.xGhz dual core processor, 250GB+ harddrive (A 7200RPM harddrive would be nice, but you'll probably only find 5400RPMs). The graphics card isn't a big deal if you don't plan on playing anything more than the occasional flash game or editing videos.

An alternative, though, is to simply get a very cheap refurbished/second hand laptop ($300-400) or a netbook to begin with. Even the cheapest laptops on sale are definitely more than enough to do day to day tasks with. And after becoming familiar with that laptop for a while, you will find that you'll get much more of an idea of what kind of laptop you want. (If that makes any sense).