The choice of laptop depends quite heavily on budget daveeb, although it doesn't sound like your friend needs anything too sophisticated.
In my experience, if you intend to keep the laptop more than a couple of years, it is better to go for one of the major brands e.g. Sony, Toshiba, Dell, Compaq (HP) etc. as they tend to keep better stocks of spare parts for when things go wrong. The (normally cheaper) clone brands tend not to keep parts for very long and it can be difficult to get them repaired when they are out of warranty. On the whole, branded PCs also tend to be more robust.