[PLUG] Procuring Portable Penguin Power while pinching pennies?

[Floyd Johnson <fljohnson3@isp.com>]

Dear PLUGgers,

I'm hoping you find this relevant, and are therefore game for the topic.

My goal is to acquire a laptop for my mum within a year. She has 
suggested that, despite having saddled herself with AOL, she'd be 
willing to learn to use a Linux machine, provided it can be configured 
to make up for her poor eyesight and provide Internet multimedia so as 
to catch the TV shows she missed via the broadcast networks' servers.

Historically, I've bought used laptops that at maximum RAM and CPU, 
barely contained Taroon and Dapper, but, counting shipping, never cost 
me more than $300.

The question is whether to, for my mum's proposed rig, (1) look for a 
high-caliber used laptop, praying for Moore's Law to work in my favor 
-the "Internet hoopty" strategy (2) hunt up a firm that specializes in 
"Tux-tops" and/or blank notebooks, or (3) find parts from various places 
and build the crate myself (digital gearheading)?
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