Linux Laptops

[Nefarious]

I've been using a Dell XPS L421X with Linux for a number of years and it's not been a great fit, but I believe this is largely because the laptops itself has a number of issues*.

I had a quick look on the Dell website, they only seemed to offer 13" and 15" these days and it looks like they only sell their Ubuntu specific laptop over the phone.

I like the metal body of my current laptop and the shameless rip-off of the Apple design but it's time for a change - any suggestions?

* noisy fans, even when just browsing, wifi sucks big floppy donkey parts, the track-pad is all over the map and the battery is terrible.

 

[Nefarious]

I know that Linux is very good at providing nearly universal support for a lot of hardware but was hoping that there would be recommendations of laptops that had better support.

Ideally I would like to have a laptop ship without OS but I'd especially prefer without Win 8 because it's an appalling mis-step by M$ and I'd rather not give them any encouragement but am well aware that the laptop market is geared towards bundled sale.