IBM all the way, never heard anything bad about them (other than they tend to be a little more expensive). I have an HP and it's OK, but nothing I would scream and yell about how great it is. A friend of mine got a viao about 2 1/2 years ago and it's been a decent enough machine, but has had a few problems and came with a lot of unnecessary software that sapped performance.
HTH,
Pete
