Recommended Linux Laptops, suppliers?

[Alex Martelli]

Nick Vargish wrote:

> aahz at pythoncraft.com (Aahz) writes:
> 
>> Actually, what I want is the 12" Powerbook to replace my 12" iBook.  The
>> whole point of a laptop is to keep the dang thing *small*.
> 
> For me, *small* is the point of a PDA. Each time I'm in the market for
> a notebook, I wind up going the "mobile desktop" route. I want my
> notebook to be able to play Unreal Tournament with a decent framerate,
> which I realize is not part of everyone's criteria... :^)

Right.  *MY* criteria are a bit simpler -- I need to be able to use my
notebook "comfortably" (relatively speaking...) to write and edit text
(program code, book chapters, articles, ...) while sitting in an
economy-class seat on an airplane.  This rules out PDA's (screen too
small, not to mention keyboard issues -- so far I haven't found "fold
out" keyboards satisfactory) as well as behemoths with 14" or larger
screens (I have a nice Dell Inspiron but in practice I hardly ever
take it with me on trips -- too large, too heavy).  If my old 12" screen,
1.8 Kg Acer Travelmate 345T had a better battery life (it's just about
3 hours' worth of useful work even with the most prudent use, alas),
I'd be looking no further.  As things are, I daydream about ultralight
ultrathin fuel cells far more than I do about any other laptop issue;-).


Alex