You may buy business machines through dells small business site with nothing more than a made up company name. In fact, I recommend buying through the SB site as the customer support/service is better and you actually have a shot at a US based service/support person.
The Vostro is a bit better made than the old inspiron it replaced but I've heard the touchpad is a bit smaller and not as friendly as the larger one on the inspiron. Do note that touchpads have a lot of adjustments in speed, sensitivity and target areas, and a lot of times i've found a touchpad a lot easier to deal with after a few tweaks to those settings. The vostro is also heavy for what it is, but its a solid, rigid machine as a result. About 1/2 to 3/4 of a lb heavier than the equivalent inspirons.
The latitude is the true business class machine. Its not a true thinkpad in quality, but they're pretty darn good. I still have a pentium II 300MHz latitude that was an engineering sample when the pII/300 first came out. Must be 8-8.5 years old. Its still working perfectly even after being used as one of Gabes toys for the last 2 years.
The outlet is a funny business. Machines are mostly released at 40 minutes past the hour but they are dropped all through the day. People have banks of servers with specialized custom scripts that scrape the site every second or two and pull the really super deals. You can have some success late at night when most people arent looking, hitting 'refresh' on your browser every few seconds.
Theres also some scripts at
DellScripts.com - Dell Proxomitron scripts, Dell Outlet Scripts, Proxo Scripts (among others) that involve installing a local proxy product (proxomitron), loading a slightly tweaked script into it, and pointing your browser at it. The script will perform much like those highly tuned expert servers and will after half a day or so probably cough out a cheap laptop or desktop. I've gotten 35-40% off of some machines. The process does require some technical expertise but not too darn much. If you have trouble installing software and configuring options, this is going to be beyond you. If you have a little technical acumen and follow the instructions to the letter, you can make it work.
Dell keeps changing the site to foil the scripters, and the scripters keep trying to keep up, but its a bit of a cat and mouse game. Also make sure you dont buy any non current model machines from the outlet. Those are probably the ones that were on a 2 or 3 year extended warranty and turned 'lemon' and had to be replaced. Besides getting an old machine, you might end up with the original citrus smell still attached.
