Two external displays without Thunderbolt

I need to buy a new laptop (Mac) for work and the top priority for me is having at least two displays.

Unfortunately, due to budget limitations I cannot buy Apple Thunderbolt Displays. Now, and correct me if I’m wrong, the Apple Thunderbolt Display currently seems to be the only Thunderbolt display out there.

Is it possible, using MBP or MacBook Air, to use two external displays that do not s use Thunderbolt? … Without using additional hardware (like the Matrox multiplexer used elsewhere – this doesn’t work, and the DisplayLink USB to DVI adapter drivers don’t work yet on OS X Lion).

I've been using a DisplayLink USB to DVI adapter on Lion since the day Lion shipped, and I haven't had any trouble with it. Actually, it's been better than with Snow Leopard because the new beta driver doesn't crash like the SL driver did.

No - you need at least an USB to whatever input your third display (the second external display) accepts.

I suppose some would say you could use another computer and use some sort of virtual screen / VNC software to have the system make a virtual screen and send that data over the network to the other computer to push to the third display.