Laptop suggestions?

I'm hoping to get some advice on what to look for if I want a laptop that'll play happy with the linux. So, I just quickly googled, also checked out the wiki for ubuntu, but I see such a long list of brands and models, I'm not sure where to start looking. I'm happily running ubuntu on my desktop, and I want to run the same on whatever laptop I get because I don't want to have to switch from one distro's quirks for desktop use, and then on over to another distro's quirks to use the laptop.

Really all I'm looking for is something that'll be okay for web browsing and website construction. I use emacs to build everything, and I'll occasionally need to whip up a place holder graphic in gimp. I've heard back and forth about wireless support, usually leaning on the side of don't bother unless you really know your stuff, though I do have a friend who a couple months ago said he had a pleasant surprise of something just working with the ubuntu. I think he has an IBM and I don't know dren about his hardware otherwise. *shrugs*

About the only thing that I'm thinking about trying that I don't know anything about, is setting up something with the php to allow me to test my pages as I edit them on my machine instead of requiring me to upload them to my server. I figure that can't be hard, but I haven't actually investigated it yet. Would that be something I can do on the laptop for a truly mobile web construction solution?

I greatly appreciate any help that you guys can provide so that I have a better idea of where to point my search when I really focus on this and decide to throw my money behind my brainstorming. Thanks in advance.