[PD] Conference laptops - advice please

[Jamie Bullock]

Dear list,

Following on from a recent thread, it seems that a lot of the folks at 
the PD conference were running Demudi on their laptops. I am looking to 
purchase a new laptop specifically for using PD live. I am interested in 
what audio hardware people were using. Looking at the archives, there 
have been several threads about this, but things are moving very quickly 
and I would appreciate a fresh perspective.

I will definitely be running some flavour of Linux, but reading around, 
I am unsure about what audio hardware to go for. What are people using? 
I need something with 8 ins and outs. It doesn't matter whether the I/O 
is analogue or digital so long as PD can control the routing between ins 
and outs. I don't need MIDI either. Anyone using the RME PCMCIA card 
plus Multiface? If not what works?

Thanks,

Jamie

P.S. I know that pretty much any card with decent ALSA drivers will work 
with PD, but I want to know what people are actually using on a day to 
day basis.