[OLPC-Chicago] Comfortable portable development machine

[DeanG]

My linux boxes are all desktops and I realized that in considering a
laptop for this kind of development,
I 'm unaware of the sweet spot for the specs on a good laptop/portable
for this kind of development.

Would you trust a $600 14/15''  (1200x800) laptop with 1gig (or 512?)
of RAM, or suggest not spending less than $1000?  Would you rather lug
an iMac or LCD and mini?

Which brands are the least headache (proprietary drivers alright,
rebuilding the kernel is pushing it.)  for getting a comfortable (not
necessarily ideal) Linux development box?