I'd check your mfg of your laptop for any linux support or drivers. If there's none (most common) then expect a uphill battle with the wifi, dvd, analog modem (if yoy have or even need it) and the graphics chipset. Some well konwn chipsets are support by the distro makers and others by open source community. The same is true for DVD's, modems and less with wifi. i.e. the current linux kernel doesn't support the g standard or negotiations between a 11b device and a 11g device.
The hardware compatibility list (HCL) are way out of date so they are of some but little use from all distro developers I've seen, and the how to's are not up to speed on current hardware or to generic to work on a specific hardare item.
I don't recall but I thought there was atleast one mfg that didn't offer linux as a OS but did offer drivers thier hardware if you switched. Anone remember? HP, IBM or someone else? See here for new linux pc's:
http://www.linuxcertified.com/linux_laptops.html
As a side note/post, without the opensource community making free information available and even drv's/applicaitons to get hardware to work that the mfg's wouldn't linux and even software to run on linux for free, linux wouldn't be as developed as it is. We all owe a thanks to the programmers of the past in getting the linux ball rolling or we would still be using Windows with little choice at all. Sometimes I think of the definition of linux as the re-intoduction of choices for operating sytems and the software that run on it.
So i guess that means when they can be assed 
Linear Mode
