recommendation for a 64bit laptop

[Alan Cox]

> Also keep an eye on the videochip/GPU that the laptop is equipped with.
> Compiz or Beryl only work well with nVidia GPUs, older ATI GPUs (I think

The Nvidia requires a huge great binary driver which means you won't get
any support from anyone but Nvidia (because only they have all the code).
The earlier ATI is well supported (R200 etc), the R300 is despite ATI,
and latest ATI is not supported at all (even 2D) properly because ATI are
actively blocking it.

> up to and including the R400 family) and (I think) Intel GPUs. If you

The intel stuff just works which has something to do with the fact Intel
employee/contract with people to make sure this happens and their staff
includes various X developers.

Not speaking for my employer here but personally, right now I'd recommend
the Intel setup for a quiet life and for just about anything but heavy
gaming. The 3945 wireless requires a little bit of fiddling as its not
entirely free software yet but that is all being fixed right now.

Alan