On Mon, 17 Oct 2005, ed stuckems wrote: > I'm going to buy my first laptop and I'm looking for advice. I would agree with comments by others. I previously had a Dell Lattitude that I dual-booted (3 years) and following that, now a IBM Thinkpad (3+ years). Turned out the Dell was a lemon design. Met a friend on the bus one day who pulled out the same model. We both had had multiple repairs to the LCD. I am _very_ glad I had the 3 year warranty on the Dell. I would have been screwed without the extra two years (which I think cost about $200). I got the optional, full 3 year warranty for the IBM and although it has been much better than the Dell, I am glad I got the extended warranty because I did use that in the last year. I would personally not get a laptop that I cannot get a 3 year warranty for, even at the extra cost. Laptops take a beating and it's not like you can fix them yourself... (well, you _have_ to with the Dell approach, where they will even send you a motherboard replacement and fairly good instruction book and you have to dis- and reassemble it yourself. Like building a Heathkit...) As mentioned by others, the IBM (now Lenovo) thinkpad does work very well on Linux. I do not regret paying the extra for a quality, compatible machine. Good luck. Brett