There are lots of potential problems you can run into and some are hard or impossible to avoid. Here are a few of the most common.
Here are a few: 1. wifi The only laptops with compatible wireless are those with an atheros chipset. 2. DRM on wifi slot Some companies place digit restrictions on the Mini PCIe card slot so that users can't replace the card except with another like card from the same manufacturer. This is in practice so that companies can profit from after-warranty sales of replacements parts which are generally due to parts dying. 3. graphics The only free software friendly graphics are from Intel. AMD doesn't cooperate with the free software community. What they have done for political reasons is released a driver that is partially free. This then loads a non-free component. NVIDIA doesn't cooperate at all either. Neither sufficient specs nor sources have ever been released. What support exists is due to reverse engineering and you won't find support for years to come. Most likely any support you get will only be available after you've replaced the laptop. Five year old graphics cards are only now sufficiently supported and even that is a stretch. 4. Trusted Execution Technology This and the AMD equivalent gives third parties control over your machine. They can prevent you from recording videos, etc. It adds a form of digital restrictions. You can read up on the CPU on Intel's web site. Avoid any CPUs that include Trusted Execution Technology. 5. vPro / AMT This technology is a potential security and privacy nightmare. It makes it possible for third parties to spy on you without your knowledge. Depending on the system it may even be possible to spy on you when your not "connected" to the Internet through a GSM module. For the time being you can avoid the CPUs with vPro by checking Intel's documentation on its CPUs.
