So my free Inspiron B130 laptop finally arrived and it's kind of a
mixed bag. The good part is that it's a higher-spec machine than what
the credit card company promised (1.6GHz Celeron vs. 1.4GHz and 60GB
HDD vs 40GB. Also it has the wireless card fitted already, and a
higher-end software bundle - though still all of the bundled software
is useless credit-card-begging junk that just wastes time in
uninstalling it).

I wrote a review about the laptop on epinions but the salient points
are:

- optical drive is only a combo DVD/CD-RW, however it is a standard
(non-customized) flat square bezel and looks like any old drive will
slot right in.
- standard non-glossy screen! Yay! Thank God!
- it's huge, heavy and as completely non-sexy a machine as you could
possibly conceive. This machine is a desktop replacement in the sense
that it's the size of a small desk :) Looks like Dell uses the same
chassis for 14.1, 15.4 and maybe even 17" machines, because there is a
good inch of bezel on each side of the keyboard, two inches above it
and three below.
- battery life is 2 hours with the 4-cell and just over three hours
with the 6-cell, hardly stellar.
- despite other reviews I've read that give the audio system very poor
marks, I find it's loud and clear. Bass is not very good of course, but
then it IS a laptop.
- desperately needs far more RAM than the base configuration but it is
usable while I wait for memory to arrive.