@atharkhan – Celeron is absolutely the best choice for what you are looking for, at least in the Windows world. They’re underpowered, but the architecture was designed for the kinds of applications you’re looking to use the new laptop for, so you won’t really notice the performance drop. It will chug if he starts getting into video rendering or high-end gaming, but for normal daily use, it’s right on target.
Your other option is to look for AMD’s budget line, but damned if I remember what they are called.
@8lightminutesaway – Celerons weren’t designed for laptops, they were designed for budget. Pentium M is designed for laptops. Centrino refers to any system that has 3 specific, qualified Intel parts – mobile processor, network adapter and mobile chipset. Celeron, Centrino, M, Core Duo – all of these are Pentiums, as Intel has continued to brand every new processor as Pentium.
So, a Celeron is also a Pentium, as is Centrino since it also requires the use of Pentium processor. Pentiums are not “getting pretty old now,” they are the name of every processor Intel has made since 1993. Well, if you exclude the brief period in 2006 where they considered retiring the name.