i agree, the thinkpad is solid. personally, i got a macbook pro because i wanted 2x+ the battery that even the best thinkpad could offer. however, this isn't linux (bsd at best).
i think that linux should work with most any laptop hardware with the exception of the new video cards that switch between the high end and low end for performance / battery - i don't know whether there is linux driver support for this yet. that said, i haven't checked the documentation, so the devs could have surpassed my expectations here. that said, since i just bought a laptop, when i was looking, i didn't check the documentation to narrow anything down. i went between a thinkpad x301 (iirc), alienware, and mbp. the alienware was too heavy, and the thinkpad was more than the mbp with half the battery. this made up my mind - not linux's hcl.
