<p>The Laitude has 2 GB of RAM vs the Inspiron’s 4, and has a 160 GB Hard Drive vs the Inspiron’s 250 GB.</p>
<p>Go with the Inspiron. You get to save $250. If you are not going to do much gaming and the most taxing software you plan to run on it is MATLAB, the differences aren’t going to hurt you one bit. On the contrary, you will benefit from the saved money, a larger hard drive, and more RAM.</p>
<p>Also, I agree with tisthemorning you might be overkilling it even with the Inspiron. I can run MATLAB 2007a fine on my old Toshiba Satellite (512 RAM, 1.73 GHz Intel Pentium M). Maybe not a netbook, but surely you can find a laptop that can cover your needs for $600 or $700 instead?</p>