I answered the question of what laptop to get by buying an Apple MacBook. I got the simplest (and cheapest) model. I put 2 GB of RAM that I bought from Fry’s. One reason is that I could pick it up from an Apple Store. Another is that I liked the flexibility of the choosing what operating system to run and the chance to try out Mac OS X. I haven’t decided yet if I am going to run Linux or Mac OS X primarily and how to switch between them. I am going to give Mac OS X a try first and see if I can get everything done that I need.
I also got some wireless network gear to replace all my old equipment. I got a Linksys WRTP45G which is a wireless broadband router and Vonage phone adapter in one. I also got a Linksys WRT54GL to flash with Linux and turn into a wireless bridge. Fry’s isn’t selling wireless bridges any more and the modified router is cheaper in any case. I don’t understand why the wireless bridging isn’t more available. I finally got rid of the phoneline network I was using.