Looking for my next linux laptop too, I'm loving this thread. A tangential yet very much related question: In the past when I've purchased a computer and put linux on it, I always had to keep Windows on it (dual-boot) in case there was a probable hardware problem and I had to walk through the tech supporter's manual with her doing Windows things to make the determination. So if I get a laptop from dell and it has linux only installed on it by them, can I still get tech support from dell for their hardware? Has anyone been down this road yet?