Believe me, I'm all for diversity, but Usacomp2k3 is absolutely right.
"Joe Sixpack" will never _ever_ switch to Linux unless there is a standardized version. Period.

The problem is that none of us here are Joe Sixpack. We actually give a rat's ass about customization. Believe me, Joe does not. He wants a computer that he already knows how to use. He will _not_ take the time or effort to learn multiple programs that do the same thing (multiple spreadsheet programs, etc.) Typically, he will just learn the bare minimum needed to scrape by in the program that came with his PC, never bothering to become an expert in the program, and never even caring that alternative programs exist.

However, all is not lost. Just give Joe Sixpack the Ubuntu he wants, and give him the option of using other distros (or rolling his own) if he actually wants to learn what the hell "Linux" is. He probably won't, of course, but it won't hurt to add links to websites about other Linux distros.

They really need to standardize on a distro for this to work, IMHO. Or at least on an desktop manager if they want Joe Sixpack to use it.

Slackware works well on my cheap ass Aspire 5315. The fan works, got the Intel drivers running the G965 chipset and the video stuff. It is pretty well working with everything but sound. That I'll fix soon.

Ubuntu and Fedora 9 work pretty well too although the video driver requires some "alignment". Sound works with both of them.

Slackware is my favorite so I'll stick to it. Just wanted to see where the other distros are with respect to laptops. You could get pretty near anything to run with the modern kernels if you want to beat on it a bit.

Just to share my two cents: I don't think that a single distro is needed to push acceptance. I think the prevalence of GNOME in many of the distros works well, given that it bears just enough resemblance to Windows and Mac OS X that people can grasp it.

I think more manufacturers pushing it is only a good thing. This means a wider spread of machines will be available that are fully compatible with Linux, no funky driver madness required, or that more devices will become compatible with it so that device manufacturers can continue to push those parts to OEMs. Either way the result is the same: better compatibility and more work being done on improving open source software.

I would agree with that.
Each company pushing their own distro is preventing the more widespread usage, IMHO.

As many other people have pointed out with regards to the EeePC et al, you can get full size laptops for under $500 these days. If Windows is going to be 20% of that cost, then they could be $400 laptops...

whoops wrong place