[rad1er]

I want to thank everyone who responded. Opensuse is a great release with an excellent community too.
I think using linux on laptops is quite a bit more complicated than running on a desktop. I am fairly hardware savy having built over half dozen computers and have used linux for over 8 years.
IMO configuring a laptop is too fussy and I realize most of the fault for that goes to the hardware.
Opensuse almost got this laptop usable and that's saying a lot for opensuse development. I'm defiantely selling this laptop and if I do get another pc laptop (I'm back using a mac for now-great battery life with them) I will probably only consider intel cpus and wireless cards. Carry on opensuse-you rock!