Ah, a bunch of new replies to old postings... :-)

Anyway, for a Linux laptop, I have to recommend www.zareason.com - they only sell Linux systems (many choices of pre-installed distributions). They have netbooks, laptops, workstations, and servers. They are located in Berkeley, California. Great folks, and will help you as much as possible to make your Linux experience a good one. All of their hardware will work "out-of-the-box" with Linux.

It's nice to see companies supporting Linux, but if you want a 17" laptop the cheapest one they have is $1500.00. It would be cheaper to purchase a laptop with Window$ installed and then install Linux instead.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne@WayneSallee.com

Well, a similar system from Dell (without Bluetooth) is about $1000. It also only has a 6-cell battery (vs. 9-cell), less capable video hardware, and lower resolution display (1600x900 vs. 1920x1080). If you upgraded the Dell to the capabilities of the ZaReason system, the prices would be similar, I would expect. Also, the time you would take to rip out Windoze and install/configure Linux would not be insignificant. With the ZaReason model, you are guaranteed that everything works out-of-the-box with Linux.

Installing Linux is extremely easy. Those graphics resolution differences would make no difference to me.
I would want blue tooth though.

I should also say that I have not found any laptops recently that I like. I'm currently dissatisfied with all laptops currently on the market. I wish I could just build my own laptop like I do with my desktop computer. I'll be glad when the day comes when I can build my own laptop.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne@WayneSallee.com

Well, fact is when your the largest PC manufacturer in the world (HP) you of course are bound to make some bad ones here and there. If you don't want an HP, Toshiba and ASUS make great products. Honestly if I were you I would check out newegg.com and tigerdirect.com for the best prices.

I ordered my Toshiba laptop from newegg. It was $399.00 USD with free shipping and no tax with the following specs:

2.6 ghz B940 intel duo core 64 bit processor, 500 GB HD,built in intel HD graphics good enough to play Fall Out New Vegas, 4 GB RAM DDR3, full size keyboard, built in webcam/mic, wireless & bluetooth and a DVD/RW with a 15" screen. The battery lasts me exactly 4 hours of constant usage running windows and Visual Studio, longer running linux and Libre-Office.

Newegg.com and Tigerdirect.com have the absolute best prices.

Mistakes are one thing, but gross dishonesty is another. Hp used to be great, but not any more. The only thing that I like about hp is that they still have the pdf service manuals easily down-loadable for all of their computers, but the laptop I have now (and will have to stick with for a while) that I recently got hp to give me in replacement for the defective one,,, the pdf was not how this computer was made. They made changes to this model, it's design stinks compared to the older design.

Yea, newegg.com is where I order a lot of stuff, and highly recommend.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne@WayneSallee.com