I recently installed Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty on my Inspiron E1705/9400 laptop, which is my workhorse computer. I tried several different distros: PCLinuxOS, OpenSUSE, Mepis, Fedora and KNOPPIX, before deciding on Ubuntu. At this point I am using nearly 100% open source software. There are a few Windows programs I can't live without, namely Quicken and Photoshop. WINE didn't work for me when I tried to install Photoshop CS2. Also, problems were reported running Quicken through WINE. There isn't any open source software that can compare to Quicken when it comes to accounting. The Gimp - although an excellent photo editing program - just doesn't have all the tools necessary for a web developer. One of the biggest drawbacks to using the Gimp as a replacement for Photoshop is the lack of Save for Web functionality. Photoshop does a much better job of optimizing/compressing images for use on the web.
In order to use Quicken and Photoshop on Ubuntu, I installed VMware and threw a Windows XP install into a virtual box. Now I can run Windows XP nearly flawlessly in a Window without having to reboot. There is also the option to run Windows full-screen. No need to set up partitions and waste disk-space. And if I ever decide to get rid of Windows, I can just axe the Virtual install.
I will be writing several tutorials soon covering some installation tips and issues I encountered after installing Ubuntu. I'll also put together a full report of what is and isn't working on this particular laptop. Here's to open source web design!