Best Laptops/Notebooks for Ubuntu 9.04+

[Truefire]

Hi all,

I'm a long time Ubuntu fan, and recently, my trusty old Thinkpad T23 (yeah, it's a P3) bit the dust. One of my favorite things about it (besides the fact it was durable and had a built in KB light) was the fact that it was 100% Ubuntu compatible. That's right, no extra configing, nothin'. Everything just worked. Obviously then, I'm looking to move on to something a tad faster. I know we have a list of supported hardware, but it's often out of a date, and comes with a few caveats. System76, Zareason, and tuxmachines are nice, but whew, MacBook pricing is not appreciated

So, for those of you with laptops, preferably decent ones, what laptop/notebook do you have, and what do you like most about it?

I'm not picky, I just want at least the below:
o 99.9 % Ubuntu compatibility ( not afraid of a bit of cli, but not preferred.
o Durable, doesn't turn into a fireplace without a cooling pad.
o Preferably 15.4in screen or below.
o Anything Pentium Centrino (P4) or above is fine.

BONUS: o Tablet PC that won't break the budget.

However, for the uses of this thread, and the benefit of all Ubuntu-users past and present, feel free to mention any portables worthy of an 'honorable mention.'

To start us off, I'm aware that the Dell D600 series and all of the IBM ThinkPad line (before they switched to Lenovo) work great.
Leaning towards one of those now.

I await your replies

[bear24rw]

Everything on my Toshiba tablet works out of the box with karmic

[Truefire]

Everything on my Toshiba tablet works out of the box with karmic

Care to give us model, bear24? Really kinda need that. Thanks for the quick reply, though

A tablet would be ideal, too! I'm a bit of a GIMP guy myself.

[Truefire]

Wow, this forum isn't as active as it used to be pity.

[GoldenSun]

I have a dell xps m1530 and everything works. Only problem during 8.10 was the mouse pad being messy, but was easy fix. Also there is a separate forum for dells, so +1 for them again.

This business class seems to have best price / performance right now.

[gooddm]

Beware the Dell Mini (or any laptop that has a touchpad with the buttons integrated in to the touchy surface)!

Bought my kid a Dell Mini thinkin Ubuntu would be a snap to install. Turns out the synaptic driver is bungled on touchpads where the buttons are part of the touch surface. Result is stupid erratic movments, and a total inabilty to click-drag stuff.

There are a number of posts lurking about and a bunch of bug reports, but so far no solutions.

On the other-hand, my XPS rocks!

--Dave

[uHoptu]

Beware the Dell Mini (or any laptop that has a touchpad with the buttons integrated in to the touchy surface)!

Bought my kid a Dell Mini thinkin Ubuntu would be a snap to install. Turns out the synaptic driver is bungled on touchpads where the buttons are part of the touch surface. Result is stupid erratic movments, and a total inabilty to click-drag stuff.

There are a number of posts lurking about and a bunch of bug reports, but so far no solutions.

On the other-hand, my XPS rocks!

--Dave

I have a dell mini 10 running uBuntu 9.04 jaunty, I haven't experienced any of those issues. The only trouble I faced was getting the native resolution on the screen. With a quick search I was up and running. Plus a wireless mouse can be had for 15 bucks or less.

[pbateman]

I'm subscribing to this thread since I am in a similar boat. Not to hijack the thread but i am also looking into buying a new laptop to add (not replace) to my Thinkpad z60t which is working great with Ubuntu 9.04. I just need one more laptop since my gf is sharing the Thinkpad and we'd like to get an extra laptop for those times when we both would like to browse at the same time.
My requirements pretty much match True Fire's so hopefully I can benefit form the thread as well.
So far my main 'contenders' are:
* Thinkpad t400s (a bit too expensive though, might have to settle for regular t400) (heard just about everything works out fo the box)
* Sony vaio SR series (13.3") (again heard most things work out of the box)
* Lenovo ideapad U330 (a thinkpad lookalike with a bit more multimedia options and cheaper, but heard a few things like the camera and the switchable graphics do not work)

Thanks!!