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I just picked up a nice Dell desktop at their off-lease store http://dfsdirectsales.com/ that could easily handle your development work. It is an Optiplex 790 desktop with anIvy Bridge i5 CPU (i5-2400), mfg says it supports 16 Gigs of RAM (web reports show it can take 32 gigs), has a single HD bay and with a coupon it was just about $250 with 2 Gigs RAM and a small HD (80-160 Gig) shipped.

This is a quad-core CPU, and for an OS I'd suggest looking into the various MS offering to get you a single-use OS license for the software you need (like dreamspark, biz spark, etc.). You can run Win 8.1 Hyper-V or Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V on this type of machine, whichever you have a license for...

I should add: The downside of the Livescribe pen for science conferences is that if you have audio recording on all day, the battery is likely to run flat by the end of the day, unless you recharge at lunchtime. The battery is fine if you only want to record written notes, so I tend to switch on audio recording only for the important talks.

Livescribe is fine, but if you want a $100+ device you'll be able to use more than once, I recommend a Fujitsu p1620 or Dell Latitude XT

Both dual core, both tablets, similar resolutions at 1280x768/800, but p1620 has a smaller screen, 8.9", and weighs less, ~2 lbs, and is almost the exact same size as a iPad, just thicker. p1620 battery is in the front and is easily swappable, and Fujitsu sells a multicharger for it so you can charge two batteries simultaneously while using a third. Resistive screen, uses a digitizer or your fingernail, and I can confirm clicking links and opening programs works rather well with a fingernail.

Latitude XT is larger and heavier, ~4 lbs, but the 12" screen is multitouch so you can use your fingers, great for Windows 8 when it's released. But the best part about this tablet is the available external extended "slice" battery which is basically a 2nd battery that docks to the entire bottom of tablet. You should get an additional 6-8+ hours of real world usage with the slice battery, and the slice battery can be charged separately, so you could leave one charging while using another one, and being an external battery the laptop does not need to be shutdown to swap allowing you to leave the laptop on continuously forever as long as you kept swapping the external battery.

I have both tablets and they both serve their purposes, XT for all day use with external battery, p1620 for maximum portability since it's much smaller and lighter. The Dell Latitude XT can be had for about $300 from Dell and the Fujitsu p1620 is around $200 on ebay.

http://www.geeks.com/products.asp?cat=NBB
http://www.dfsdirectsales.com/edealinv/servlet/ExecMacro?nurl=control/BrowseCatalog.vm&ctl_nbr=641&path=c641-def-USD-230%23%23-1%23%23-1~~c641-def-USD-43620%23%233%23%23at~~c641-def-USD-43622%23%230%23%2385~~q&query=&sortby=%2Bprice

YMMV, but I just picked up a 12.1" 1.8ghz (Pentium M) / winxp pro / cdrw / 1g RAM / 60g HDD dell referb for $450 for my little one. Thought about the eepc for $350, but the screen size was wrong for her. Might for me with the new cut. Point being, is you get a lot of computer for under $500 these days. A windows mobile smartphone for that price... yikes.

/me waves.

Yeah, terabyte media servers are cheaper and nicer every single day. And so easy to get, too. If you know where to look, a pair of 500GB IDE drives will run you about $200. Throw those in an older computer, make sure you've got plenty of cooling in the case, and top with a Linux distro of some kind. For best results with a Windows client PC, get DVD43 and the latest Handbrake to rip your collection. OSX just needs Handbrake, and Linux, I imagine, just needs dvd::rip.

Even with the included Windows XP CD I had to download and install SCSI drivers before XP would install - CentOS just worked. I did have to install Nvidia's driver on all three boxes to get to my native 1680x1050 resolution and I have to reinstall the Linux driver with every kernel upgrade, but Nvidia's got a shell script that makes that a no-brainer. I think the driver install in Linux is easier than the one in Windows.

So, let me get this straight. Their target market is to sell something that costs $150 to people who can't afford to pay $350 to upgrade to something that's 10 times better and would even *include* this new software?

The real reason for the lack of upgrading over the past 10 years is because a) a *complete* lack of funds, in which case they can't afford the new software either, or b) They're too clueless to even know the difference, or c) don't even use the computers enough to *care* about upgrading anything.

This is PC hardware we're talking about, not old mainframes running legacy code that the company can't upgrade because the software they rely on will have to be rebuilt from scratch. If you want to run the old software, you just take out the hard drive and put it in the new computer, or copy it all over the network.

Before this, someone pointed me to Dell's Finacial Services' page of good deals (and no OS tax!) on lease-return laptops. After that, a friend of mine called to tell me that a Ford dealership nearby is selling a 2002 convertible Mustang GT for below invoice with 0% financing over 4 years. And don't get me started on what I could do with a Fry's or a Best Buy right now... Oh, the agony of being such a consumer whore...

It'll be a kick-ass ring, though. I highly recommend browsing this thread before making decisions on engagement rings -- good info even if, like me, you want to go with a diamond regardless of the fact that you're getting ripped off.

(posting anonymously to avoid my girlfriend seeing this post a la Murphy's Law).

If you go to www.dfsdirectsales.com -- not the Dell outlet site, but the Dell Financial Services direct sales site -- you'll find systems that Dell leased out, and has since taken back. Because Windows was "licensed" to the original user and cannot be transferred, these systems are all sold without operating systems! (The Microsoft tax has already been paid; you don't have to pay it again.)

I don't think you're to beat a 12 inch iBook or Powerbook for small and light, though, and if "[p]erformance isn't a major concern," why are you worried about it enough to rule out a Mac?

I'd suggest a refurbished Dell from Dell Financial Services. These are machines that were used by businesses as part of a lease program and were returned. Most still have warranties. More importantly, no OS and no OS tax. Check it out.