Linux laptop questions

[Mark Phillips <mbp@geomtech.com>]

I'm in the market for a fairly high-end Linux laptop.  So the
first question is: any recommendations?

Specifically, I've had a Dell Inspiron 3000 (with Windows, not Linux)
for several years and have liked it a lot, so I was thinking about
getting an Inspiron 7500 from Dell, preloaded with Linux, so that I
don't have to spend much time setting it up, and because of my good
experience with Dell in the past.

The problem is that for reasons that no one at Dell can tell me, 
they won't sell a Linux laptop with a hard drive larger than 6GB.
The same laptops with Windows can have hard drives up to 20GB
or maybe 30GB.

Other vendors that sell laptops preloaded with Linux do offer larger
disk drives.  Does anyone out there have any idea why Dell might have
this restriction?  Are the Linux drivers for larger laptop hard drives
less stable, for example?

A couple of related questions:

   1. If I got a Dell Inspiron 7500 preloaded with Windows (and with,
      say, a 20GB hard drive), and then tried to install Linux on it
      myself, can anyone tell me what kind of experience I'd be in
      for?  I've installed Linux on a lot of desktops and servers but
      never any laptops, so I'm OK with putzing with it a bit, but if
      it'll take me a week to get X up and running, for example, then
      I'd rather pay someone else to do it.  Also, I don't want to
      have to spend a lot of time in advance checking and
      double-checking the specs to make sure that all the hardware
      will work with Linux.

   2. Does anyone have any experience with support from some of the
      other Linux laptop companies, such as ASL or Tuxtops?  Are
      they dependable?  Can I be confident that they'll still be around
      to service the thing if it develops problems in a couple of years?

I'd appreciate hearing any thoughts about any of these things.  Thanks!

--Mark

Mark Phillips @ Geometry Technologies, Inc.
Suite 550, 413 Wacouta St., St. Paul, MN 55101
Phone: 651-223-2884  Fax: 651-292-0014
mbp@geomtech.com       http://www.geomtech.com