Hello Aniket,
thanks for your mail to our list. (I don't know if you're subscribed, if not, you should to it - otherwise no reply will reach you. Subscribing is possible at http://lug-dd.schlittermann.de/)
is there someone i can talk to?
Yes, all the about 180 members of this mailing list ;-)
i am thinking of hiring/buying a laptop on which i plan to put Linux RH flavour. i might need advise on purchase of laptop etc.
Best experiences I've made with IBM Thinkpads, the only (at my POV) drawback is their price. But on the otherhand - you get a good value for the money (superior keyboard, 3 years warranty (except for the low budget models), superior design (again: my POV)). [No, I'm not an IBM dealer, but I think, every new laptop will be again a ThinkPad...]
By the way - the two models I've used had have no problems at all with Linux, APM, suspend to disk/RAM and even resume(!) from disk/RAM. And there seems to be a broad user base... IBM is omnipresent ;-), probably in India too.
[Ok, some problems I encountered: o Sound didn't work reliable on my first ThinkPad, but I think it was my ignorance... o The hard disk of my first model has been changed two times (but I'm afraid, I motor biked the disk to death on several 1000 kilometers ...) ]
Best regards from Dresden Viele Gruesse aus Dresden Heiko Schlittermann