After reading through all of this, I agree and disagree with some points.
First of all, many posts of people asking what laptop to get typically breakdown to what hardware performs best for this type of use. Obviously no one knows what exact notebook every particular person would be best suited for, but most people don't go in expecting to be told that a CL56, or a Sager 8790, etc. will be the exact laptop that will be perfect for them. When I started a thread, I didn't expect to be told what to get, I expected to get what people have and what they've experienced so I can get an idea of what to look for and go from there. Most people on these forums seem to be intelligent enough to decide the minute details of what size HDD to get. I came to the forums in search of facts and information about the various choices of processors, video cards, and the like and how people have seen them perform based on what their specific type of use is. Typically the people that need to be told exactly what to buy will go to a retail store.
That being said, yes people do mention what they have and how it performs for them in what they do. However, not everyone pushes their product on everyone else saying it is the end-all, be-all for everyone. Some people do say "Oh, my CL56 is so great" or "My Alienware laptop is the best ever". This may be true, but not for everyone. Your laptop should be good for what you do. If you have similar needs to what someone else has, there stands a chance that a similar laptop will work well for both people. For someone who wants 64-bit capability for the future and doesn't care about battery life, then an Athlon64DTR would be best, but for someone who wants ultra-mobility, that probably won't be the case and they would benefit more from a Pentium-M (and before everyone starts up, yes, I'm aware that there is an Athlon64 LV, but you're missing my point).
Forums are meant to be a helpful resource of information. They are supposed to be used for the sharing of people's opinions and information. When people start broadcasting that their way is right and your's is wrong it loses all meaning. Personally, I know that I would take the opinion of someone who acts professional and backs up their information with legitimate reviews or resources much more strongly than the person who flames everyone who doesn't agree with them and has no information to back it up. I came across these forums and found a lot of very useful information, and then I started a thread with some questions of my own and found even more useful information and from there I made my choice. I was very open to information and would take any that I could get and with all of that information, for my particular uses I made a decision. I, like many other people, changed my decision many times because I kept coming across new information. If I'm presented with more new information, I may change my mind yet again. That's how things work, everyone makes a decision based on what they know, so by starting arguments over who is right or wrong, all of these people turning to the forums for help, like myself, may wind up making the wrong choice because they were unable to get all the information necessary.
That's my 2 cents. This is not meant to be directed at any person in particular.
