I run Debian GNU/Linux on an IBM laptop, specifically a Thinkpad G40. It is a well supported platform, but it takes a bit of tweeking to get it working.
A good place to start for any GNU/Linux distribution on a laptop is linux-laptop.net; it has all sorts of information on many laptop models. What I have here should be thought of as an example of configurations created under the guidance of this site.
I have data on the following models: