Hello-
We are contemplating purchasing a laptop. I currently have a Gateway 500 PC from 1998 and it's getting tired and ornery.  It's been doing some funky things lately and we're afraid it's days are numbered.
Since my husband and I are planning to retire shortly and do some traveling, we're opting to replace the PC with the laptop. A Dell Inspiron 1505 has been recommended. We would like to upgrade to Vista eventually (is Microsoft the way to go?). We do e-mailing, word processing, and have many pictures that we are currently storing. We'd like to transfer them to CDs, a capability that we now lack. In retirement, we may expand our usage of computer capabilities.   My husband is slowly increasing his gaming expertise.
Also, Dell wants to sell me a program for $56 that supposedly facilitates transfer of data from my old PC to the new laptop. Is there a more efficient, less expensive way to do that? 
Any specifications I should absolutely have? I'm not looking for minimum components. We'd like this to be something that will adapt to the fast-changing computer world in as much as one can predict today. On the other hand, we don't want to be getting frills that we'll never use. 
Thanks in advance for any suggestions. 
Sharon K.

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