Mixed emotions about this. I bought a Dell Inspiron 1525 last October (it didn’t actually arrive until November). I have no complaints with the hardware. Honestly, I only have two complaints with the software, because I wiped Vista and installed Ubuntu Linux. But those complaints were just too much to overcome:

• I never found an email client I could stand
• There’s nothing like Accordance, which I need for too much of my work.
• I never found the time to get my Wacom tablet working.

To be sure, if I had a Mac, that would enable me to use other great software as well: MacSpeech Dictate, Address Book and iCal, and the iLife and iWork apps. And Pixelmator. (Which isn’t quite as capable as Gimp, but which works with a Wacom tablet.)