Ewww, I've seen Linux on a laptop. It doesn't do very well, especially with newer machines. Nor does BeOS, QNX, BSD, or NT. The best OSes for a laptop are Windows 3.1, 98 SE, or 2000, with 2000 being the best of the bunch. 2000 has a higher RAM overhead, but once that's out of the way, it's at least 25% faster than 98 because it's pure 32-bit, no 16-bit stuff left over like 98.

The best way to speed up a laptop is add RAM. Until recently, most laptops came with tiny amounts of RAM. You want at least 128M for 98, and 256M for 2000. That will almost eliminate disk swapping under normal use. ANYTHING you can do to avoid using the disk will help a LOT!

If your laptop supports it, upgrade to the new 5400 RPM IBM drive. Most laptop hard drives spin at a puny 4200 RPM! Considering desktop drives can hit 15,000 RPM, this is TERRIBLE! The new IBM drive should be about 25% faster!

Remove the PCMCIA cards when they're not in use. If you don't need the modem, no sense in leaving it in to chew up a few extra CPU cycles, and it'll squeeze a few more minutes out of the battery.

A FEW laptops can have the CPU upgraded. You might want to look into that, but unless you're a REAL master tech, let an expert handle it; replacing the CPU on a laptop is a real chore!

And of course, defrag and scandisk regularly. Again, anything to minimize disk access time will REALLY help on a laptop!