laptop compatibility

You generally can't go wrong with Intel Inside.

As Hazel pointed out, Broadcom wireless chips can be problematic, but can usually be got working. I've had good luck with Dells and Asus. My current laptop is a Zareason, which is a native Linux vendor (as are System76 and ThinkPenguin).

I've had good luck with almost every Lenovo I've tried.

T420, T420S, W520, P51, P51s, a Yoga Chromebook 11e...all worked well and right out of the box.

I think will eventually end up with an older Carbon X1.

James

Would a HP RTL8723BE with a Radeon processor be compatible with Slackware?

sorry it has a AMD A10-7300

I don't know if it would be supported on 14.2 considering how old it is, but I suspect it would work with -current, but that has the potential to bring other instability.

As long as Broadcom WIFI requires broadcom_sta driver, anytime you upgrade your kernel you get to recompile the driver separately. I replaced my Broadcoms with intel 7260 which has been working great in my house. The 7260 can be configured as master mode so your laptop is its own access point for exchanging files with other local wifi devices when an Internet connection or other servers & routers aren't available.

Thinkpads w/Intel wifi. Can't go wrong, in my experience.