I am very tired of windows and I am looking to purchase a new laptop for my self. In my job I am a Linux Systems Admin but I am also forced to manage windows and I have to run some windows crap apps. (Using WINE might work but if I run in to compatability issues it could really hurt my job so I do not want to go this route.)
At my previous company I was able to try out a MacBook Pro and really liked it. Had a nice gui, had BSD built in and ran windows beautifully when run under VMware Fusion. Problem is the cost of a good MacBook is in the $2000 range.
For about $1500 or less I can get a brand new high end laptop with faster CPU and more RAM then the Mac. Then I could install either BSD or Linux as the base OS. For the windows apps I could run them in VMware or VBox or something else. The big question is which Linux OS or BSD OS would be the best for a Laptop. I am concerned with PowerManagement, hardware changing (when I move from home to work) and being able to put the laptop to sleep with out the os going crazy.
In the past I tried this with RedHat ES and failed. The same with Fedora (one of the early versions) and RedHat 8, 9. I have heard Ubunto is pretty good but I have not tried it.
What recommendations do you have. Yes I know one of the most important things is to make sure the hardware is supported by the os and make sure it does not have and WINdevices (like a winmodem).
