new user question: debian on a Thinkpad T61

["Jimmy Wu" <jimmywu013+debian@gmail.com>]

Hello to the Debian community,

A question for Thinkpad Debian users:

I will be getting a Lenovo Thinkpad T61 in a few days, which will
become my primary computer for school/home etc.  I want to run Debian
etch on it, but am relatively new to Debian and Linux (I started with
Ubuntu about 7 months ago).  I have a few questions before I wipe
Vista off the laptop, specifically about the Thinkpad software that
comes preloaded.  Does Debian provide similar support for stuff like
the "Client Security" that manages the fingerprint reader, and other
stuff the volume buttons, the Fn keys, the blue "ThinkVantage" button?
 Also are there any glaring hardware issues I should be aware of?

Thanks in advance for your help,

Jimmy
-- 
Registered Linux User #454138