Yes, I am getting the picture now.
Thanks to all for the information and advice.
As opposed to the more worldly folks here, I only want to play extra-good piano/strings/drums 99% of the time -- so I am a little less likely to have large libraries of fonts or special packages. I can use my tweaked 9000 for that kind of fooling around.
Onward with testing and trial. Both desktop and laptop installations.