For high-end purposes, it's important to make sure dedicated 3D acceleration is supported under Linux so as to avoid taking up valuable CPU resources drawing 3D images. Nvidia offers a proprietary driver that can deliver full 3D acceleration with 24-bit color, while ATI's drivers are open source. Bottom line: It's definitely worth visiting the driver pages for , , and to make sure you get the right thing.

Keep in mind, too, that if you're into gaming, there's still limited support for Linux among most game makers. You may want to dual-boot and get the best graphics support you can. You'll also probably have to get a bigger laptop, incidentally, since heat-prone dedicated GPUs tend to require more space for cooling.

Sound

Most on-board sound cards should work just fine with Linux, enabling users to play MP3, WAV, and OGG files as well as ripping audio CDs and more. If you're eyeing something really high-end in this area, however, you should make sure all its features are supported.

Optical Disk