Linux users who are not very skilled have a big problem: If they want to buy a new computer or new hardware, it is very difficult for them to find out if something works or not. I'll give you some hints how you could find it out:
Debian device driver check & report
This site checks your whole system. You only need to boot a Linux system (e.g. via LiveCD) and execute:
lspci -n
in the terminal (which pops up if you type Ctrl + Alt + T). Copy it, paste it into the provided form and you will get a list of your hardware and simply "Yes" if this component works with Debian.
Linux HCL
The Linux HCL provides a lot of hand-written reviews of users. Here is my review of my notebook.
UbuntuUsers
German users might want to take a look at the wiki-article "Hardwaredatenbanken".