Laptop Dying! suggestions?

Depending on what kind of machine you use now, the Mac and Chrome book will be quite different. Chrome runs an obscure OS, with most applications running in the Cloud. Meaning your Office programs AND data will sit on some server in Siberia. Pus they last like 10 minutes before they catch on fire.

This is sort of a religion, so don't banish me, but Mac's are just regular laptops running yet another obscure OS. Apple was getting there face smashed in by Microsoft in the early 2000's, so they quietly abandoned ship on their whole philosophy and started using Intel architectural (the same parts as Microsoft inside.) (Look it up) Macs are great, but twice the price as a Dell, you can't work on them or get replacement parts, and it doesn't "play well" with the rest of the world. Again, people love them, and BlueDream isn't wrong, your just kind of on an island.

The best laptops out for the money are still Dell's. Windows 8 was a big change for MS, but their adding back the Start button very soon.

This is a very personal topic, and I'm sure I'll be hung at the cross here, but good money says stay with the mainstream products. Cheap reliable, and usable.