Suggestions for lightweight laptops?

[Chris Pemberton]

  ...so things like good battery life and hibernation support are 
critical...

When you do get your machine, look into an application called "powertop".

http://www.linuxpowertop.org

It allows you to see which processes are consuming the most power based 
on interrupts.  I'd also suggest a minimalist linux distro with the 
fewest processes running.  I would imagine a distro like Ubuntu, which 
has many processes loaded at startup, would consume more power that say 
a more minimalist disto such as Crux.

I run Crux on a Lenovo dual-core laptop.  I thought I had my machine 
running as lean as possible; then I used powertop.  Using the 
suggestions it gave, I was able to lower my "Wakeups-from-idle per 
second" down from 45 to 12.  This is with X up and running, wired 
ethernet, alsa, etc.

Hope this helps.

Chris