Hi Gerd,
I can highly recommend the Lenovo E320. It's screen is 13 inches from memory so that makes that entire machine about 14". I have had no issues finding support for hardware and from memory almost everything worked out of the box on a recent distro. The battery life is great for a laptop that size. I have made a few modifications to my OS to increase the battery life and I can get around 6 - 6.5hrs.
I purchased mine just a few weeks ago at MSY for $599.. I'm sure they'll either do the same deal or a better one.
Good Luck,
Tom