Asus isn't too bad, they tend to give Mac/Toshibia level features. I'd just be a little wary as you can't just bring it back to a store. I've heard some bad stuff about the Lenovo since IBM dropped their name from it, but mostly on the level of "my battery aslpoded" around the time of the battery recall and some major complaints about overheating. Given all P4 class laptops overheat.

I wouldn't settle for anything less than a Merom based laptop with an nVidia and 15" screen, honestly. The only reason I bought the macmini and didn't wait and buy a MacbookPro, is because I want to wait for Merom in a MacBook. The MacBookPro's only came out a few days ago. Then I saw them in London Drugs and decided that I didn't like the keyboard design. It's not terrible, but the macbook's design I liked better. That's probably because of the smaller area, the macbook has a "full" keyboard layout. Still I could have got used to either.

I'd highly recommend against any gateway, emachine, or LG model. The LG's are so damned flimsy, though not as much as a few store brands. *shudder*

Ever consider just keeping the stock OS on a macbookpro? You can compile practically everything available on freebsd on it. It has a 802.11g (pre-n) chipset for wireless, and you can wardrive with it.