It seems that there are many nice laptop computers in the below-$600 range. I would like to buy one, remove the ugly Vista (if necessary) and install Ubuntu. I expect that there will be some tricks to getting things to work under Ubuntu, but some laptops are probably better than others. So my question is this: Which new laptops are best for Ubuntu? Have any of you tried the Dell laptops with pre-installed Ubuntu? This machine looks nice... http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0295188 ...but I don't see any info here... https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LaptopTestingTeam/Gateway ...so I don't know it it will be tricky to install Ubuntu on it. Dell has Ubuntu 8.04 laptops, and after appropriate customizations, the price is pretty close to that of the Gateway above. Here's the Dell: http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=dncwpl1&c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&kc=segtopic~linux_3x Adding these options... Intel Core 2 Duo T5800 (2.0GHz/800Mhz FSB/2MB cache) $50 (I think the T7250 has Intel's "Virtualization Technology" added -- is that worth $100?) 3GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz $50 ...brings the price up to $639 (after $15 in "instant savings"), but I'm guessing I can add the 1 GB of RAM myself for less than $50 because Crucial seems to sell 2GB for $22: http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=Inspiron%201525 The system appears to be 64-bit, so I am assuming they will install the 64-bit version of Ubuntu 8.04. So maybe Dell's Inspiron 1525N with preinstalled Ubuntu 8.04 is the way to go right now. Getting something that just works would be a huge pleasure. Mike