My old HP laptop finally gave up the ghost and totally refused to startup. I had been expecting this for a while as some time ago it badly overheated and various sub-systems have been failing since then. The soundcard failed first followed by the wired network port and finally the DVD drive.
As a replacement I ordered a Dell 15R with a Core i3 processor. Not the best machine in the world but totally suited for my laptop use cases. The machine came with Windows 7 and I am going to use this for general tasks; Internet, e-mail, documents etc. I have created an Ubuntu 10.10 VM under VirtualBox for those software development tasks that Windows just can handle.
So far I am liking Windows 7 on the Dell, it is pretty, stable and fast. I have moved to the taskbar to the left of the screen as this makes best use of the wide ascpect radio of the display. With the taskbar at the bottom the screen felt very cramped vertically but with it at the side there is still plenty of space horisontally. I have downloaded some very nice visual themes from the Microsoft site; Lightening and Blue Water are particular favorites.
I have only had the machine for a few days but so far so good.