linux friendly laptops

[Matthew Kuiken]

Duncan Lithgow wrote:
> Having looked around on the net I couldn't really find much about
> whether any manufacturers of laptops are more linux friendly than
> others. I have to buy a new one, good specs, so I'm trying to do the
> right thing and support good manufacturers. The only useful things I've
> heard are that ATI have opensource drivers - good, and I can see that HP
> have started selling laptops with linux on. Is that a few extra points
> for HP?
>
> Anything to make my laptop hunting mission easier would be appreciated.
> At the moment I can't really narrow the field enough to start checking
> specs of individual components.
>
> Oh, and I'm not in the US, I'm in Denmark, so I want a major brand not a
> US only one <http://www.linuxcertified.com/linux_laptops.html>.
>   
You asked more about manufacturers than about individual laptops, but I 
only am familiar with the one that I bought.  I have a Sony Vaio TX650P, 
and it is working very well under Dapper.  It was a bit harder to get 
entirely working under breezy, but I attribute that to the relative 
newness of the hardware.

FYI, it has:
Intel HDA sound
Intel i915 graphics
Intel IPW2200 wifi
Bluetooth,
Firewire,
PCMCIA

The only thing it has that I haven't gotten working is the Memory Stick 
port, but I haven't really tried all that hard...  It also has a 
cellular modem, but I don't feel like subscribing just to see if I can 
get it to work.  I did see a forum post by someone who did so on Breezy, 
though.

-Matt