Dell Vostro. go to the aussie website and look under Small Business laptops. they range from a little 12" (which I have. everything works except suspending twice in a row, and the dialup modem), to a larger 15" (which fran has and i haven't tried getting ubanto on yet). the keys on the small models take a bit of getting used to, but nothing too bad as you'd know from the XO. the large ones are not very light, but powerful enough to make up for it. they come to around $1500 with 3 year warranty
whatever you do, arm-wavingly warn against rocking into harvey norman and dropping $999 (plus cashback!) on a hp piece of garbage. other good options are toshiba and ibm, tho they may be a bit more pricey?
you could also suggest a netbook. the MSI Wind is the best out at the moment, but apparently the new Asus EEE 1000HE beats it. the MSI works out the box with Ubuntu, though you'll need to buy an Intel 3945ABG wireless card ($50) off ebay. the EEE has many wikis and a few pre-made distros specifically for it
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whatever you do, arm-wavingly warn against rocking into harvey norman and dropping $999 (plus cashback!) on a hp piece of garbage. other good options are toshiba and ibm, tho they may be a bit more pricey?
you could also suggest a netbook. the MSI Wind is the best out at the moment, but apparently the new Asus EEE 1000HE beats it. the MSI works out the box with Ubuntu, though you'll need to buy an Intel 3945ABG wireless card ($50) off ebay. the EEE has many wikis and a few pre-made distros specifically for it