I do not think it is a good idea to make a rule out of the exception. I still believe in the cause--I want linux to reach more users. In order to achieve the goal of wider user acceptance I think it is important to make sure prospective users have realistic (bordering on pessimistic) expectations when trying linux out for the first time.
When a reasonably prudent consumer hears "OSX runs great on my macbook" they do not come away thinking that OSX will run great on any laptop. They know or have heard that "PCs and Macs are different."
When a reasonably prudent consumer hears "linux just works, well at least it works on my thinkpad" they might get the impression that the same can be said for any other "PC laptop." For the vast majority of the computer using population thinkpads and dell/acer/etc laptops are essentially interchangeable. Unless people know of the long and torrid romance between kernel developers and the thinkpad they will be oblivious to differences between thinkpads and every other major laptop brand.
You have to buy hardware that runs the software you want to run. This has always been the case, and always will be the case; it's just in the nature of things. I can't say of my own knowledge whether a ThinkPad is the only laptop that runs Linux well, but if that is true, then obviously you have to buy a ThinkPad if you want to run Linux, just as you have to buy a Mac if you want to run OS X.
When a reasonably prudent consumer hears "OSX runs great on my macbook" they do not come away thinking that OSX will run great on any laptop. They know or have heard that "PCs and Macs are different."
When a reasonably prudent consumer hears "linux just works, well at least it works on my thinkpad" they might get the impression that the same can be said for any other "PC laptop." For the vast majority of the computer using population thinkpads and dell/acer/etc laptops are essentially interchangeable. Unless people know of the long and torrid romance between kernel developers and the thinkpad they will be oblivious to differences between thinkpads and every other major laptop brand.
I take it that you are not a linux+thinkpad user?