Purist? Me? NEVER !
I love toys and gadgets! I use every piece of technology I can to add to my sound and comfort. Whish brings me to the topic of laptops. Mine never crashes on the job. Never. Of course, I only have minimal stuff running. It's not a movie unit or a portable office/DVD player ... it's a sequencer and MP3 player. PERIOD.

All it runs are the 2 programs I need to make audio or midi music - Van Basco for midi and WinAmp for audio.

If you limit the tasks, you get great performance from the unit. Shut off EVERYTHING but Explorer and Sys*** (forgot the name) in msconfig - Run ONLY those 2 in th ebackground. Turn off ALL virus programs. As a matter of fact - DISABLE them. You never need 'em if you stay off line with them. Use a pc dedicated for the net and transfer files to the laptop for WORK.

Treat it like a specialty tool and you'll get great service from a laptop. I use one in every job .... almost. It plays midi files for me, audio MP3s on breaks and serves as a clock and stage light too !