debian on a laptop?

[Karen Lewellen]

Granted I have the desktop hardware sitting in my office for a Linux box, 
but am told no one in Toronto can do this sort of work from an access 
standpoint.
Debian does have some programs I would like to use, like lilly-pond, and I 
understand ebrowse can work with it, we are still working on this at 
shellworld.
My two questions are basic hardware specifications if I go with laptop 
instead, and what about speech?
I prefer tectalk speech if I can get it, which I guess? meaning I could be 
wrong, means an external synthesizer?
thanks in advance,
Karen