I will spend a minimum of one month using the system as bundled (and/or whatever is available int he default repositories from Ubuntu).

The main goal was to support Dell supporting Linux, rather than buying some other system that has Windoze (or nothing), and then putting on my own distro. This is in the hopes of encouraging Dell to continue supporting Linux. If you are considering a system, definitely consider buying a pre-installed Linux system from one of the larger distributors (Dell, Lenovo/IBM, etc.), to help encourage more mainstream adoption.

At the end of the first month or so, I will provide an analysis of my experience with the system and the os/desktop.

This is a maxxed out version of the system, I ordered as high end as could fit into this model.

I love the hardware so far, I'm mixed on the distro, but will stick it out. Maybe it will grow on me. I have had it for a week so far. The biggest pain has been the transition of all my data from other laptop running SuSE 10.3 with KDE and Kontact, into Evolution on Ubuntu 7.10 running Gnome. I knew there would be transition issues, and understand that, and will keep that all in context.

Check back in coming weeks for the review.