PowerBook Vs Linux Laptop

I have always wanted a powerbook. And with some "out of band" money coming in from a consulting assignment, I was planning to buy one. I actually wanted to buy one pronto and if I were not waiting for Steve Jobs's address tomorrow, I would probably have bought one.

After I got home I was reading some reviews of the PowerBook and came across this.

WTF?

I have to pay Apple a premium price so they can dump bad hardware on me? My Compaq Presario 2100 has been treated very roughly over the last 3 years and still works without a hitch.

I am now inclined towards getting a good Linux laptop and am now waiting for my friend (and Kernel Hacker) Mridul Jain to reccomend a good laptop for Linux. I particularly require hibernate (to disk not to RAM) to work well and flawless power management.

Later in the day I'll investigate the display problems in detail. I am hearing more and more horror stories about Apple's machines which makes me very leery of buying them in a country with terrible consumer protection laws.

Update : the PowrBook is definitely out of the picture. Linux forever!