thelinuxlink.net

I finally have enough $$$ for a decent new laptop, and I need help chosing. I'll be installing Debian (or one of its offsprings). The things that are most important to me are Linux compatibility (ACPI, wifi, etc) and battery life. I think I've narrowed it down to the following:

1) IBM/Lenovo X60- 3.5 pounds, 12", 1.8 ghz duo core. Pro: Super small. Con: pricier.
$1460 + tax

2) Mac Book- 5 pounds, 13.3", 512 ram, 60gb HD, 1.8 ghz duo core. Pro: Decent price/specs ratio. Con: People will think I'm a retarded Mac user; I may go sterile from heat.
$1050 + tax

3) System 76 Gazelle Value- 4.4 pounds, 12", Pentium M 1.7 Ghz. Pro: Outta-da-box linux compat (ubuntu installed!). Con: Unknown brand.
$1050 + tax

Any other suggestions? Note that I'd like to keep it under $1500 or $1600 at most. How are Dells in terms of Linux compatibility and batt life?

Stay away from the MacBook, it still doesn't run that well with Linux natively, because someone hasn't gotten that stupid EFI firmware down yet, the Fedora project is working on it for FC6.

ThinkPads are great for Linux, and generally if you stick to Centrino laptops, you won't have any issues.

You can't go wrong with a ThinkPad. I picked up an R52 back in May, and it's been a great little machine. All the hardware is supported very well under Linux. Ubuntu, Fedora, and SUSE installed with no fuss. I bought mine from an eBay store called "ThinkPad World", they deal with new, returned, overstocked, and refurbished machines, which can be quite a bit cheaper than buying direct from Lenovo. Worth a look.

http://stores.ebay.com/ThinkPadWorld

I'll agree with the Thinkpad endorsment. I've had my Z60m for a few months now, and I'm very happy with it.

Running Kubuntu Dapper from day 3 (tried other distros first), no problems found that weren't easily fixed with a google search or two.

I bought a MacBook a while back and am quite happy with it. Of course, the one nag is that nothing really likes the EFI that much. To get linux on it well, you either run it only (wipe OSX) or use a really whacked boot triage with windows xp in boot camp. The idea with the triple boot is to get NTLDR to get going, then use that to load linux. I like OSX and wasnt in the mood to toy with it too much while I am strapped for time. So I use parallels to run all my linuxes. Which works out, I now can create the vm and copy and transfer them from my external HDD to the local drive as I need them. So now I can run CentOS, Freespire, Linspire, RHEL, Fedora, Ubuntu, and play with Free and OpenBSD without dealing with any partitioning issues at all.

I would second the motion that the lenovo may be best if all you want is linux. If you want to take OSX for a ride, or _want_ to dual boot, the MacBooks rock. Note MacBooks, not the Pros ;D The Pros have ATI cards -- tread with caution there.