Hello Albert,  since about one year I use a notebook with MIDI.
The notebook was bought by my wife in a food store. :)
(Aldi, brand: Tevion).

The original name was Athelmi.  I bought a port replicator for it which
fits at its rear side and provides me with a normal sound card (game)
port in addition to the printer-serial-video-USB-mouse port.  A MIDI
cable with an opto coupler in the plug works fine together with my
programs and synths.  Before I used a Portman from Midiman
parallel-to-MIDI device which fits into the printer port.  But this
solution did not like DOS programs.

My advice would be: Try to get a notebook with a port replicator.

Best regards

Horst Mohr