cyrnel

This may or may not have been clear. Those small vendors are the big laptop manufacturers. Dell, apple, HP, sony, toshiba, IBM (R.I.P.)... almost every laptop is a rebadged (and sometimes reskinned) model from one of a dozen Pacific Rim ODMs. Sometimes laptops are cheaper without the familiar reseller brand on a tag, sometimes they aren't. Some models are exclusive designs for a period which means you have to buy from the big name anyway. The "best price" is fluid and frustrating to figure out. I already get a headache without throwing in whether or not Windows is mandatory.

Like muckluck & the others said, spend the effort finding your favorite system & price and wipe XP.

__________________
There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195