I'm considering purchasing my girlfriend a new laptop for her bday/xmas.

I have one major requirement...

I must be able to dual boot it with linux.

What types/brands of laptops have AO members sucessfully loaded/run linux on?

Thanks for the advise in advance.

My price range is $1200-2000. I want it to last a couple of years and have all the bells and whistles that my desktop has. The less expensive, the better.

2+ghz
512MB RAM
CDRW/DVDROM
Integrated 10/100
Integrated w/less either 802.11b or g, but preferrably both
USB 2.0
Firewire
15inch XGA TFT
32-64MB Video

It will be used mostly for Office apps and internet use. But I want to be able to take it with me when I want to play an occasional video game and do anything else I really want to... within reason.

Everyone and everything I've looked at nobody seems to know if linux will work.
I'm lucky if they even know what linux is....

Maybe I'll just bring in a knoppix disk to see if it works in it... if knoppix can do it, then other distros will be able to too...