One other constraint: I'd like the thing to run as cool as possible....
Posted by bzbarsky at May 16, 2006 4:52 PMYou might find this helpful in making your decision:
http://www.notebookreview.com/
www.apple.com/macbook
Posted by: Robert on May 17, 2006 8:10 AMIf you're considering an IBM^H^H^HLenovo laptop, the definitive resource is http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkWiki
They have a list of all the models, even the latest T60 and T60p, with links to hardware compatibility for each of the components (like video cards and wireless chips, which are usually the biggest problems).
Posted by: Mark Pilgrim on May 17, 2006 12:36 PMI should mention, for sake of full disclosure, that I work for IBM and have since before we sold our consumer PC division to Lenovo. I almost bought a laptop a few months ago for the sole purpose of running Linux on it, and that site helped me immensely in my Thinkpad-related research. (I didn't end up buying any laptop, so no further recommendations, sorry.)
Posted by: Mark Pilgrim on May 17, 2006 12:39 PMI second those above who have said:
1. Apple! Apple rocks!
2. IBM! IBM rocks!
3. ThinkWiki rocks!
4. Notebook Review rocks!
I would like to add:
5. Consider Toshiba (probably Tecra series).
6. Consider Fujitsu.
I work in a computer repair shope, and I can assure you that Japanese makers have quality notebook construction down to an art. Panasonic, Sony, and NEC are the other big Japanese players, but I don't think they suit your needs.
7. Consider avoiding Dell. This may be hard, because Dell=ridiculous bargain. Beware.
8. Small and light generally goes hand-in-hand with long-lived and cool. You should keep in mind that it generally does not go hand in hand with powerful, expandable, and industry standard.
MacBook is probably not what you want then ... any laptop that you can't use on your lap has issues in my books.
Posted by: Mike Hearn on May 20, 2006 1:14 PMThe macbook pro with the new firmware is dramatically cooler, based on everyone's immediate reaction after the update. As for the "too hot to use in your lap" bit, I have seen plenty of MoCo people doing that just fine. If you're building mozilla, any laptop is going to get really hot, especially something that does 22 minute clobber builds. But that's when you put it on your desk, and hook it into your main display and your normal keyboard and mouse.
The ability to run oarallels and stick linux and windows installs inside is another huge bonus, since AFAIK builds and stuff run pretty fast.