I have to admit that I wouldn’t think of relying on my PowerBook’s cute little built-in keyboard (let alone the godforsaken touchpad) except when I’m in transit or just booting up for a brief session. I like the big classis Mac ADB keyboard that has all the Fkeys and arrow keys and numeric keypad and the oh-so-perfect touch-typing texture. And the touchpad is a necessary evil when the laptop is literally balanced on my lap, but everywhere else the mouse gets attached.
Nevertheless, I’m used to hooking up all the cables and cords (power; ethernet; analog modem; Road Rocket card; monitor; headphones or speakers; ADB keyboard/mouse; local printer), and if I were to use a docking station, I’d need THREE of the suckers (work, my apartment, my girlfriend’s apartment) and they cost too much for that to be practical.
I’ll admit I might get spoiled to a docking station if I had one, though.
A port replicator is a alternitive to a docking station. It is somewhat stripped and cost less. If you need such a thing check out port reps and docking stations and get the one that will fit your needs.
It doesn’t matter what sort of machine you buy - my advice is to put your money into adding more memory (RAM) rather than processor speed, but get a decent warranty on the machine - it will break and they’re difficult to fix.
If you just want something that’ll get the job done and is dirt cheap, I picked up an old powerbook for 60 bucks on e-bay (okay, I’m more into collecting and fiddling with old macs than I am actually into getting a powerful laptop). It still serves me well as a back up portable. Weighs only 2 or 3 pounds, handles word processing, internet, simple games etc and cost me next to nothing.