Recommend me a sub $300 netbook/laptop for school with high linux compatibility

Madpanda

I will be starting community college soon and want to get some sort of portable computer for keeping notes etc. The courses will mainly be gen-ed/compsi/electronics so I really don't need anything beefy. Libreoffice and a web browser will be the main apps being run.

I'd like to run Ubuntu on it,hopefully saving some money on not having to pay for a windows license. I'd like to be able to type on it comfortably and having good battery life is essential ~8 hours is what I am looking for.

Donovan Puppyfucker

http://www.linux-netbook.com/

Darmak

You could look at a Chromebook perhaps

Quantux

I've been very pleased with this (not my video). Mine's all black, never seen the red in the video. Basically for any laptop, the one thing you have to look out for is wifi chipset. I can attest the Atheros chipset in this one has worked out of the box with (k)ubuntu and fedora with no issues (using OSS drivers, no extra packages needed). The HDMI out works great in Ubuntu 11.10. In fact, out of the box everything works, whereas with a fresh win7 install, the ethernet, wifi, webcam drivers were all MIA. FYI, if you end up getting this (or anything from acer) make your own recovery discs for windows. I ordered mine from them and they get caught in a loop after the final reboot trying to install crap for a webcam that doesn't come on that model... Luckily, clean win7 x64 home install + key on the sticker worked flawlessly.

Sorry, forgot the price point. Mine was $400 (physical retail), and I see it can be had online from $340. Really, if you go much lower in price, you're going to end up frustrated by performance.