Greetings and salutations kernelKurtz.
I share your feelings. Most laptops sold today really are garbage.
Ridiculously glossy, 1998 resolution screens, disgusting 'chiclet' keyboards,
that horrible 16:9 ratio, and most recently, soldered on RAM and solid state
storage (muh storage).
You know what I did? I bought a 4 year old Thinkpad T61p for 200$. It has
good, free 3D support in GNU/Linux, an unbeatable high resolution screen (you
can get other T6x thinkpads with the venerable, and IMO, superior 4:3 aspect
ratio), and a god-tier keyboard. The only caveat is this- you need to install
a custom BIOS which will allow you to install a freedom respecting wifi card.
No fuss, no muss. Just general computing the way it should be: cheap,
powerful and most importantly, liberated. Don't think you have to spend in
excess of 1000$ in order to get good GNU/Linux support.
I can't speak for TP, but I know Chris is doing an important and noble job. I
can only hope the quality of their laptops will improve (this isn't the first
time I've heard of the RP's lacklustre keyboard).
