Laptop recommendations, please?

[chicken]

I'm thinking about buying a second laptop because my G4 Tower is now completely dead.

Obviously I prefer OS X, but I'm thinking some linux-y OS on cheaper hardware might be, well, cheaper.

1.) Does anyone have hardware recs? I can search eBay until doomsday and not find anything concrete if I don't really know what's good. Intel? AMD? Thinkpad? Dell? Etc?? (I realize I'm Apple & Oranging it by mixing chipsets and brand names here, but I really have no clue for what might work best.)

2.) linux-y OS recs? Debian? SuSE? Ubuntu? What's your favorite flavor and why?

3.) eBay? Fer sure? Are there better options for cheap hardware?

My usage requirements are almost all simple and easily fulfilled:

Software:

a.) openSSH.
b.) Web browser. (lynx, plus Firefox or Opera.)
c.) emacs 22.
d.) libxml2 (and libxslt)
e.) The GIMP.
f.) VLC.

Hardware:

a.) A wireless card.
b.) Not too damn heavy.

And finally, not so simple:

c.) It would be nice to use my existing LaCie Firewire external hard drive for backups. However, I realize that maybe older model cheap used AMD and Intel laptops don't generally have Firewire ports. So, meh. I suppose this isn't necessarily a deal-breaker if the price diff. between a laptop that has a Firewire port and one that doesn't is just huge.

Thanks.

Comments

[sarekofvulcan.livejournal.com]

I'm hardly an expert, having one computer with Windows XP installed, but I ordered CDs from Ubuntu for free that included a LiveCD so I could boot into Ubuntu Linux and check it out without actually needing to install it.

http://shipit.ubuntu.com/

Here's an idea!

[kaydee23.livejournal.com]

Consider ordering a custom built computer from this business in Houston. There's the link to their website. They ship all over the country. Their website is too techy for me. But you can call them and talk to them and tell them exactly what you want, and they'll build it for you. I hear very very good things about them all the time.


http://directron.com/

[saifai.livejournal.com]

Blah, blah, blah. *woosh* Sooo over my head. But I'm here with uh... hugs? Hugs I can do. *gr* Good luck with the search for new gadgets.

[paulv.livejournal.com]

Ubuntu. Like debian, only more pretty. Most things just work. And they release more frequently, too. (My laptop is debian unstable from, uh, a while ago, but I'll probably install Ubuntu the next time I do a desktop machine for myself). I likey because it's just debian and I use debian every day anyway. Plus, if people start using Ubuntu, I can start answering their questions. I dont know shit about SuSE or Redhat these days.

Don't fear the Ubuntu installer. It gets *much* prettier after you reboot.

emacs 22? Xemacs? GNU emacs is at 21.4. I dont know what VLC is. It might not be in Ubuntu. Everything else on that list should be. FF, not Opera.

Wireless. Hm. Good luck. Hopefully ubuntu will help you here.

[coaxme.livejournal.com]

who what what?

I just wanted to let you know I pay attention even if I don't get it ;)