First, a hello to all of you out there. Quick introduction since I'm new here before I ask my question. I'm a Computer Science major who has an unnatural love of operating systems. In fact, I'm looking on building a new computer that will have enough RAM to let me have some fun with several VMs at once.

So, here's my question. I've been using Linux for just over a decade and, over the last few years, I've been playing with other operating systems (BSD, OpenSolaris, etc). Most of these have been on my desktop computer, but I'm looking for a good primary OS on my laptop. It's a Thinkpad T61 with an Intel x3100 for graphics and an Intel 3945 wireless card. I'd like to be able to have my hotkeys, since I've gotten spoiled with them, as well as the scrolling feature of my touchpad. I don't mind working a little to get those working, though. Also, I have my home wireless network secured via WPA2.

I just wanted to get some opinions of what other people have found works well on laptops. I've already started trying out a couple differnet OSs (and am leaning towards FreeBSD) on this thing, but I'd still like to hear what ya'll find works well. Thanks!