Andy Schmid <ajs at cems.umn.edu>  wrote:
> IBM (now lenovo) Thinkpads are possibly the best choice for linux..
> every feature on my x31 works beautifully running debian.  You can
> pick up a slightly older one at a decent price, but newer thinkpads
> can get kind of spendy.

Be forewarned.  You must purchase an IBM supported minipci wireless
card, if you're going to use minipci at all.  I purchased a set of
wireless cards not too long ago, only to find that on my T30, the BIOS
refused to allow the system to boot.  The only fix would have been to
hack the BIOS itself to allow it.

I just got a new Dell D620 with an Intel wireless card. I had to
install an update ieee801x driver set as well as the Intel sourceforge
open source driver, download the regulation daemon, and the microcode
firmware for the card before getting it to work.  It worked for the
2.6.15 kernel, but when I tried to patch the 2.6.16 kernel, it failed
for me.

With wireless and centrino, you're going to run in to problems.  I
didn't purchase the laptop; it was a college purchase.  Were I to shop
for a personal laptop, I would consider getting something AMD-based,
if only to avoid the Intel hassle.

-- 
Chad Walstrom <chewie at wookimus.net>           http://www.wookimus.net/
           assert(expired(knowledge)); /* core dump */