So, I saw that lot of you are agreeing that basically just a standard CPU is needed. The problem is that in some cases its not enough. Some years ago I bought a very small Lenovo Miix 320 (not a thinkpad) and it was not compactible with free software at all. The audio and webcam crashed all the time with any distro that I tried. For this reason I asked this question, I had the impression that in the last years it became more difficult to make a laptop work with free software but I cannot judge it just with this experience.
So, I saw that lot of you are agreeing that basically just a standard CPU is needed. The problem is that in some cases its not enough. Some years ago I bought a very small Lenovo Miix 320 (not a thinkpad) and it was not compactible with free software at all. The audio and webcam crashed all the time with any distro that I tried. For this reason I asked this question, I had the impression that in the last years it became more difficult to make a laptop work with free software but I cannot judge it just with this experience.