'Road Warrior' grade laptop reccomendations?

[wandering_not_lost]

Anyone have any recommendations for a decent travel laptop?
I'm replacing an older Inspiron 850 so weight isn't that big of a deal, survivability and longevity are way more important.

I'd really like something that's got either an aluminum or stainless steel case. I'm considering a new MacBook Pro for that reason but have heard there are some compatibility issues between the current Ubuntu builds and the 5,1's.

Thoughts?

[wandering_not_lost]

bump

[Squid Spectre]

The apple pros are really expensive. For my buck I'd rather have a ThinkPad T400. Longer battery life, powerful, tough exterior (surprisingly tough) and excellent warrenty (better than that of the Apple Care plan if you actually read it.) Best of all the parts are generally standardized and interchangible with older ThinkPads so they can easily be replaced or upgraded if need be.

An Apple pro is built for people who want to do video editing and other graphics intensive activities on an OS especailly built for that audience. If you plan to drop that functionality in favor for Ubuntu's clear awesomeness the price tag on the Apple may include some expenses for features you really wouldn't use.

[howdidthathappen?]

I travel 5 days a week with IBM T41

no problems..........trust me it has seen a lot of hard times!

[StephenOK]

Anyone have any recommendations for a decent travel laptop?
I'm replacing an older Inspiron 850 so weight isn't that big of a deal, survivability and longevity are way more important.

I'd really like something that's got either an aluminum or stainless steel case. I'm considering a new MacBook Pro for that reason but have heard there are some compatibility issues between the current Ubuntu builds and the 5,1's.

Thoughts?

My MacBook Pro is priceless. Although I paid a ton for it, - close $2300 with a student discount when I was in grad-school - its a great machine and the apple care protection plan is invaluable: I had monitor failure on my Quad G5 and it was picked up, serviced, and delivered back to me within the same week. Had to wait a bit longer after I scratched the MacBook Pro glossy screen after a night of heavy drinking and not paying attention to what I was doing. In both cases, there were really no questions asked and both times the products was serviced expediently. I just had to wait a bit longer for the laptop, as the part was on order.
I'd toss up the extra cash, if you can afford it, and go for the MacBook - you won't be sorry.
I just maxed out the RAM at 2g.b. from Crucial, and have my G5 at 6.5 g.b. of RAM. Both machines fly, particularly the Quad.
You could also pick up some decent Dell laptops. From servicing them, the only problems I've encountered is overheating issues. However, I think most of those problems have been taken care with newer models. A simple fan driver, which keeps the heat-sink fan running constantly, seemed to take care of the issue for all servicing issues, but its still kind of a lame solution.

[StephenOK]

Just to add something: I went with Apple because I'm a musician/composer. I run several applications on both systems that demand high functionality: Sibelius 5 for notation, Max/Msp for audio processing and patch programming, Logic, Pro-Tools, etc.
When I was using Windoze, my system would crash on a weekly basis.
I spent more time fixing my machine than I did writing music!
Like the previous poster said, if doing graphical work or sound editing, a Mac would be the route you'd want to take.

[wandering_not_lost]

Thanks for the responses, I appreciate any insights I can get while I mull this over.

In my 9-5 I currently use a T41, and they've been in the running as well because they're tough as coffin nails and can take the road like only an IBM can. Their internal chassis is a big draw there, external plastics can still be a bit of a pain but they're heavily supported in the Linux community and work "out of the box" 9 times out of 10.

What's pushed me toward the MacBook Pro isn't so much the available software (as I'd almost certainly strip it down and rebuild it w. Ubuntu or at the very least dual boot it) but more over the casing and battery life. Apparently the new 17 inch can go 8hrs or so.

What I guess I'm looking for is a laptop that I don't have to think about the case getting cracked or the plastics degrading over time (both symptoms of my current 9-5 laptop) and that has a decently supported power management in Ubuntu. One that I could easily put in 8hrs writing code and not have my wrists fall off. One that I could hand off to the wife if she wanted to work on some photos or play WoW and not have to deal with ever looking at a windows partition again.

That's not too much to ask, is it? :)