Laptop recommendation

[cguy]

Hi!

I have done some research to buy a laptop, but the offer is so varied that I have a hard time deciding.

First: is this the right time to buy a laptop, or is there a new generation just around the corner, so the current laptops will soon get cheaper?

I will be using it for
- programming
- surfing the internet
- reading
- the occasional movie

I am a heavy multitasker so I want something that can handle my typical session.
(30 tabs in Firefox, a session of Eclipse,
a few VIM instances, Pidgin, a music/movie player and
an Openoffice instance in the background are fairly common.

I'd sometimes run a VM, but not as many apps.)

I could upgrade the memory after the purchase, so the preloaded capacity is not a deciding factor.


I want:
- Linux compatibility, of course
- a capable processor for fast compilation & to handle the multitasking (virtualization extensions would be great)
- a better keyboard (generally, it is nice to have a numpad, but it would place the rest of the keyboard off-center, so I don't want one)
- a nice screen (color-wise and good [not super-duper] viewing angles)
- a satisfactory touchpad (I don't plan to buy a mouse)
- low heat generation
- if it can handle 1080 HD & KDE's desktop effects, an integrated video card is enough
- about 250GB of hard-drive space
- HDMI and VGA ports (S-video would be nice), 3 or more USB ports (one USB 3.0 would be awesome), Ethernet port, DVD writer
- good enough speakers
- wireless b/g/n
- webcam and mic would be nice to have, but would be rarely used
- a long battery life is, of course, nice to have, but I don't plan to carry it around much

Price tag: under $500

Thank you!

[hollowhead]

In our family we use Toshiba. Pretty much everything works out of the box, with the exception of the mic for the webcam on my satellite although on my daughters it works fine. Battery life is rubbish but I think it is for everything at that price....

[Elludium_Q-36]

Seems there are difficulties on loading linux on laptop hardware....