Re: extended warranty, I took a closer look at the fine print on AppleCare, and I don't like how 'accidental damage' is left completely unqualified. I have a bit more faith that they won't be total bastards about it, but it's still bothersome.
I don't think 2GB is overkill. I would settle for 1.5, but I don't think 1GB will cut it anymore. I use Eclipse a lot, Firefox is no longer a lean vixen (if it ever was), and I'm a big fan of having umpteen things open at a time.
I take your point about third party memory being cheaper, but I'd rather not add any third-party stuff that they could use as an excuse to sleaze out of the warranty if something goes wrong. Especially not RAM, which is notorious for being flaky in unpredictable ways. The advantage of getting RAM directly from the vendor (besides not needing to crack open the laptop itself) is that they're also accepting at least some responsibility for the reliability of that RAM.
Thinkpad is my second choice.
I will also admit to a weakness for aesthetics: Macbooks look sexy. I think I will ultimately go with the Macbook if Apple has some nice Black Friday deal going on, but until then I will continue to wait and consider.
And as for digging into student loans: My current student loan debt already exceeds $65k, not even counting what I owe to my parents directly. Comparatively, this is a drop in the bucket. I have thought about this issue a lot, especially given that I hate being in debt and plan to aggressively pay it off when I graduate. But right now, a suitable laptop is sufficiently important that I'm willing to steal money from my future self, even at a poor exchange rate, to make it happen.
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I don't think 2GB is overkill. I would settle for 1.5, but I don't think 1GB will cut it anymore. I use Eclipse a lot, Firefox is no longer a lean vixen (if it ever was), and I'm a big fan of having umpteen things open at a time.
I take your point about third party memory being cheaper, but I'd rather not add any third-party stuff that they could use as an excuse to sleaze out of the warranty if something goes wrong. Especially not RAM, which is notorious for being flaky in unpredictable ways. The advantage of getting RAM directly from the vendor (besides not needing to crack open the laptop itself) is that they're also accepting at least some responsibility for the reliability of that RAM.
Thinkpad is my second choice.
I will also admit to a weakness for aesthetics: Macbooks look sexy. I think I will ultimately go with the Macbook if Apple has some nice Black Friday deal going on, but until then I will continue to wait and consider.
And as for digging into student loans: My current student loan debt already exceeds $65k, not even counting what I owe to my parents directly. Comparatively, this is a drop in the bucket. I have thought about this issue a lot, especially given that I hate being in debt and plan to aggressively pay it off when I graduate. But right now, a suitable laptop is sufficiently important that I'm willing to steal money from my future self, even at a poor exchange rate, to make it happen.