To be perfectly honest, for learning Linux, etc, you could do much worse than to obtain a good condition second-hand or refurb'd model. Unless you're absolutely sure that Linux is the route you want to go down, I wouldn't spend big bucks if that was me.....nor would I take a risk with a relatively unknown manufacturer. Not until they've had time to build up a 'track record' of sorts.
There's a ton of good-condition second-hand models out there that will do an excellent job for what you want. The Dell Latitudes are a good choice - these are 'business-class' models, and as such tend to be more robustly built than the average 'home-user' ranges. The IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads are also highly thought-of. With either of these, a good condition second-hand one will often outlast a new model aimed specifically at the home user!
Both the Latitudes and the Thinkpads are known for "playing nice" with Linux. Anyway; to start you off & get you in the right frame of mind, you've really GOT to install your own OS of choice.....none of this mucking-about with a pre-installed distro (like with Windows)!
It's gonna be a learning curve from the word "Go", so you may as well start as you mean to go on.
Just my two-penn'orth, FWIW.
Mike.
