I think I'm gonna get a laptop.
Has anyone here had any experience installing linux on an HP zt or ze series?
If so what distro?
Any issues?
How about compaq?
Dell?
Sony

How about http://www.linux-laptop.net/ , will it help?

I have a HP N3450 850mhz duron 256meg ram, has ran all distros of linux I have put on it except for Mandy(had some probs with the DVD drive being accessed)

Slackware, RH7.*, LFS, have all worked great. Sound works(maestro3) NIC works(tulip) video works(cyberbladeXPm)

I also have a Dell Cpi A 266mhz
works great all distros I have tried.

And a toshiba 340cdt 120mhz
Cant boot from cdrom drive, and not enough ram to run redhat7.3, so I did a minimum install of slack, worked ok.

I have an HP pavilion that I bought a couple of months ago (Duron 1GHz), so far I have manage to run RedHat 7.3 and Slackware 8.1. Other distros like Vector LInux and Lycoris have given me a lot of problem with the video card. The only problem that I've has had with RedHat and Slack is that It does'nt recognize the conexant modem, but I was able to configure X using the savage driver. Just make sure that all the devices are supported by Linux before buying it. Like neo said consult the Linux-Laptop website, and also try the HP and manufacturers (eg. www.S3.com, if the video card is a twister or s3 compatible, conexant website, if the modem is a conexant compatible, ...) websites for aditional info.

Compaq, I woulnd't buy Compaq laptop, desktop, or anything that has the name compaq in it.... As a pc repair technitina I have seen more compaqs being repair than any other. But againg, thats just my opinion.