Best laptop for linux installation

[cando]

Hi everybody,

I am about to install SuSE 10 on a laptop computer. I have a laptop, but it's old, with keys missing.
It's time to get a new one. I have this feeling that Dell and Lenovo laptops may be more suitable whereas Sony/Toshiba etc are more appropriate for media playing and such. I realize I don't have any solid basis for making that assumption.
Hoping that others have walked this path before me and may be able to offer good advice - is there a certain type of laptop out there that works better than others with LINUX on it? Or should I just get one that's cheap and I am comfortable typing on?

[vitalka]

I have a Dell Inspiron 1520 and I have been using Suse 10.3 on it for the past 8 month. Works great. I only made sure that it had an Intel based wireless card.

[techieMoe]

I have this feeling that Dell and Lenovo laptops may be more suitable whereas Sony/Toshiba etc are more appropriate for media playing and such. I realize I don't have any solid basis for making that assumption.

Well, at least you realize it. The brand name of a computer means absolutely nothing. I have a Dell Inspiron 1520 that is able to run any Linux distribution I can throw at it. What you need to pay attention to is the hardware they put into it.

Wireless should be Intel 3945 or another Intel-based chip. These work out of the box with most Linux distributions, including SuSE and Ubuntu. Video should either be Intel integrated (if you're not a gamer) or Nvidia (if you are).

Dell, System76 and Lenovo offer laptops with Linux pre-installed which are pretty much guaranteed to work properly. Dell has the added bonus of a licensed DVD playing application with their Ubuntu systems (like the 1525N).

Hoping that others have walked this path before me and may be able to offer good advice - is there a certain type of laptop out there that works better than others with LINUX on it? Or should I just get one that's cheap and I am comfortable typing on?

Above all, look for something in your budget that has features you're comfortable with and won't want to change for several years. The downside to a laptop is they're generally harder to upgrade down the road, so get everything you want in it NOW (except maybe RAM, which is cheaper aftermarket). Wireless and video are really the only things that cause problems these days in Linux. Some more obscure sound cards can too, so just make sure it's a well-known brand.