I would suggest a visit to HP's website, and search for machines that
already have Linux on them.

Why install Ubuntu if it can come already pre-installed? All I hear
now days in my community is how unhappy people are with Vista, You
would think that the computer manufacturers would be quick to supply
all there systems ready for people to change over, but then the
highest computer return rate is on Linux machines according to stats.
Most likely the reason this is true software porting of names people
expect to find. To bad most games use the directX interface making
game writing harder without it. Of course directX is one of the back
end security issues in dose, so do you really want it?

The manufacture that wants to have Linux compatible machines, make
models that use equipment known to work with it. There are to many
manufacturers trying to get windozes approval to be sure all equipment
works well on both systems.

My Toshiba L305 has cousins that were make to work using Linux, but my
full model number search on the Toshiba site has no compatibility for
Linux, what I needed to make it compatible was a WiFi USB adapter that
listed Linux as an OS. The WebCam is also an issue. The biggest
problem making things work on such a system is the tooth pulling
effort getting what model number and make parts are in the thing. You
can read how I felt at my blog simplyrv.imnugget.com You can save
yourself the search for a compatible card because I put up the link to
the product there that is PnP. Or just get a system known to work,
that is the simple way to do it.

I am also a newbie only used Ubuntu for a couple of months, but
Windoze is off my machine completely. I like the Open Source programs
available to us and no longer look for doze compatible programs. I
just update the package manager and look for something listed there,
unlike all packaged software, I can try all projects if I want to find
a fit, how can you do better than that?