I'm looking for a laptop that can run linux smoothly, have 45min/1hr+ battery life, wifi (G,B,A), 10/100 lan, floppy drive or a USB port.

Can anyone name a few good brands/models? Thank you.

I'd only seriously consider the toughbook line from Panasonic. I bought 3 @ 200 bux a pop from ebay a year or so ago. Didn't have built in LAN or wireless for the generation it was, but they had PCMCIA slots. They came with touchscreens and one USB 1.1 port. I put something up about one in particular in the hardware compatibility section of the site.

You're better off picking up a model that's a year or two old for maximum Linux compatibility, unless you're in to hunting through tons of websites for very obscure information.

I have an older Dell C600. I am playing with Slackware now, very responsive. My current specs are PIII 850mhz, 256mb RAM, 20GB hd, built-in 10/100 LAN, 2 PCMCIA slots and an ATI graphics chipset. I get about 3.5hours of battery life under normal usage, with the ability to add a second battery in place of CD drive. I think I paid ~$250 a couple months ago on ebay. The quality is OK, not nearly as good as an old PII Thinkpad I have.

I also have a new Acer 3003LCi that does great, Sempron 3000, 512mb Ram, 60GB hd, onboard wifi/lan/modem, and a beautiful screen. It is pretty well made for being a budget system (under $700 new). The stock battery sucks, under 1.5 hours.