Laptop recommendation

[rlk at alum.mit.edu (Robert L Krawitz)]

   From: Jerry Feldman <jerry.feldman at algorithmics.com>
   Date: Thu, 4 Jan 2007 17:06:19 -0500 

   In my experience the HP laptops that I have had have adapted to
   Linux quite well. Most everyone in my former group at HP have
   laptops running Linux. I have an nx6125 that is certified by SuSE,
   but it does not meet your graphics requirements. Additionally,
   Thinkpads have traditionally run Linux well.

   The only drawback to both Dell and HP is that they use the Broadcom
   Airport chips, so that NDISWRAPPER may be necessary. I just
   upgraded my laptop to SuSE 10.2, and Linux loaded a driver by
   default, but it classed the chip as Ethernet rather than
   wireless. I just didn't have the time last weekend to muck with
   it. I would avoid Gateway and Toshiba.

I have a wireless card for the few times I actually use it (I use
ethernet in our house), but admittedly it might be nice to have it
built in.  That's another advantage of a lot of the Inspirons; they
take a miniPCI card.

   Note that AFAIK, Dell warranties are 90 days, HP and Lenovo are 1
   year.

   Part of the problem is that nearly all consumer laptops and
   desktops in the US are made to Windows specs with virtually no
   regard to Linux. I know that HP works directly with Novell and Red
   Hat to certify it's business class laptops, and that both IBM and
   HP have very significant Linux businesses where none of the other
   computer vendors in the PC space have as significant Linux
   business. Of course, IBM no longer makes laptops, but they
   influence Lenovo. I have not checked Ubuntu for hardware
   certification.

I should say that I have no problem with a used laptop (that's what
I've been doing all along).

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