In May (or June, depended how much much snow mother nature decides to dump on us) I finally get to graduate from high school, which not only means that I will be on my way to adulthood, but hopefully will have enough cash stored away from graduation presents to get a new laptop.

I've been looking at every portable computer on the market for the past year or so (let's face it, that's how I spend a lot of my down time), and I have to say, I'm sort of disappointed with the current selection. When Intel announced the new "Ultrabook" category of computers I was thrilled. I've always really like the Macbook air, and thought I might finally find a computer that would fit my needs. My requirements for a laptop aren't that absurd, but you'd think so- only one computer meets it.

My criteria:

1) Battery life of at least 5 hours (using Ubuntu)

2) A SSD drive (don't care how big)

3) Less than 3 pounds, screen size 13" or less

4) Intel integrated graphics (I hate dealing with NVidia and ATI drivers, especially since I don't use PCs for gaming)

5) Aluminum case (no more plastic, and no more fingerprint magnets!)

6) Ubuntu works well (suspend, hibernate, etc.)

You'd think I'm looking for a needle in a haystack. Several Ultrabooks have hit the market, but they all have major problems. My favorite was the Lenovo U300s, but Stuart Langridge posted on Google+ that the battery life was only about 3 hours, and suspend doesn't work- neither of which will jive with me. The Asus UX21, in addition to having a terrible battery life, has a severely screwed-up Trackpad and poor Ubuntu support. To make a long story short, none of the Ultrabooks are even an option at this point.

No, there's only one computer that fits my criteria, but I have many reservations against it. The July 2011 Macbook Air is the exact machine I'm looking for, which is amazing to think of. Traditionally running Ubuntu on Apple machines was almost impossible, and the results were spotty at best. Now, out of all the laptops that fit my criteria, it actually has the best Ubuntu support (even though installation looks like a minor pain). 

It even has some other upsides, including the best-looking display I've ever seen, and a back-lit keyboard. I love the way it feels and the way it looks. On paper, it's probably my best option.

But it goes back to what I said in my book (which is still coming out soon, I swear): you vote with your dollar. As much as I love Apple's hardware, I find it difficult to support a company that is as anti-open and ruthless about software patents as Apple. I would rather give my money to a company that respects open technology and the freedom of information. I want to give it to a company that makes it easy to install Ubuntu, as opposed to the crazy methods you have to use to install an EFI bootloader and partition the disk.

On the other hand, I am willing to vote with my dollar for top-notch hardware that has everything I'm looking for. I want PC vendors to deliver the right kind of hardware for the right price. I want better quality and better specs, and I want things to just work. I don't want to buy from Apple, but if that's what fits my needs best, I'll do it in a heartbeat.

But that's where CES 2012 (Consumer Electronics Show) comes in. PC vendors are expected to showcase hundreds of Ultrabooks. Surely there would be one in that big list that would do everything that I need it to. I'm hopeful, at least. CES is where my decision will probably be made for me. Either laptop manufacturers find the mix of battery, performance, and price that Apple found three years ago, or I give my money to the dark side.

I guess we'll wait and see.