Just for info, VMWare Player is a free option - and, despite its name, you can create VMs with it. It does most everything that VirtualBox does (but I prefer VirtualBox).

an external DVD for £30 provides for the few software installs that aren't downloads.

I used to do my engineering on 12" Sony Vaios or a 13" Toshiba as carrying these "organ envy" 17" laptops around was too ridiculous for words.

Not a big fan of external screens on laptops unless you're adding an external keyboard as well - the laptop screen gets in the way. Custom docking solutions are best if you want to go that way, though that does limit your options (which might actually be useful).

Thanks for your input, Phil. I'm planning on getting an external DVD writer/reader for myself when I get around to buying an ultrabook for the sake of portability. As far as external monitors are concerned, I've had mixed results over the last 6-7 years. Some combiantions seem to give perfect results; others (in particular with a Dell laptop) rather uphappy. On the whole, though,OK. I've never, as yet, felt the need for an external keyboard. Would you opt for a wireless model?

In reply to a post by AEP:

Just for info, VMWare Player is a free option - and, despite its name, you can create VMs with it. It does most everything that VirtualBox does (but I prefer VirtualBox).

Thanks, that's useful to know; the last time I used VMWare Player it was fairly limited but I see they removed the limitation on creating VMs in v3.0.1 - presumably as a result of competition from VirtualBox for personal users that might turn into paying ones.

I use VMWare Fusion and VirtualBox, and VirtualBox has reached a point where (at least for the price ) it's a great alternative and works on some other platforms.

I would probably use a wireless keyboard on a laptop, there are tiny usb transmitters now that can live plugged into the laptop. In one case the wireless keyboard & mouse wouldn't work through a desk so the transmitter had to be on a usb extension onto the desk top.

I don't like wireless kb / mouse setups on normal desktop PCs as they aren't reliable ways to access the bios options etc in the event of problems, but that wouldn't arise on a laptop.

I agree about buying something with higher versions of Windows - Windows 7 Pro includes the XP mode which I used to provide an XP environment for a guy running OU maths course software that wouldn't run on Win7.

Misco often have good deals on business laptops with bundled warranties and W7Pro

Just a quick comment on VMware. VMware server is also free and gives you great power over creating and managing your vms. And if you don't want the heft of server for normal use you could shut it down and use player to run the vms you have created. The VMware ecosystem is pretty significant and only really expensive if you start needing the high end multi server capabilities.

Windows!

There are lot of small engineering or maths apps out there for specific tasks and often with limited distribution or requirement. From ones I have seen they will be Windows first and iMac later - if at all. So without running a windows virtual machine, it will be a lot easier with Windows.

I also see lots various Apple machines at conferences/workshops but only for note taking, email &c and would guess that the users will run a VM or alternate machine with specific apps.

In reply to a post by MHC:

I also see lots various Apple machines at conferences/workshops but only for note taking, email &c

That's certainly not my observation, but I can only speak for communities in which I've worked directly or indirectly: applied maths/Physics, E.Eng & CS types. As well as pure research, I know others in diverse commercial environments spanning applications such as computational finance, the early stage design/simulation of microprocessors and engineering problems that require complex multiphysics simulations. I'm also told that Macs are popular among computational chemists and life-sciences folk.

This stuff is running natively on Mac OS X, often using math/stat/graphics tools like SciPy, SciLab, R, Matlab/Octave, IDL/GDL, Mathematica, as well as packages and tools developed using compiled languages. CAD/CAM/ECAD stuff is undoubtedly in short supply, but I know of at least one commercial multiphysics package (COMSOL) and another edu/gov one (Flash - not Adobe - better suited to large bangs of the thermonuclear kind).

Under the hood, OS X is essentially a variant of unix and so Macs also fit well in environments where large multiprocessor unix supercomputers and Linux HPC clusters perform the very heavy lifting. For many they're a worthy successor to the Sun, SGI and other workstations that many of us used when Windows sat atop DOS and was barely capable of running itself, let alone an application.

Windows is certainly well endowed with engineering packages for things like CAD/CAE, ECAD etc. - a lot of those moved from VAX minis and Unix workstations once PCs were up to the job - but those things are only part of a spectrum of math, science and engineering R&D ranging from blue-sky research through conceptual design and modelling to implementation design and manufacturing.