Support for Optimus is horrible. Even if you get it all working, you still can't use both the LCD and an external monitor seamlessly. (i.e. you can see a desktop on both, but you can't move windows from one to another)

You CAN do this if you turn off Optimus and just use the NVidia card... but it cuts battery life down by 40%... :-/

That's really nVidia's fault, for not providing proper drivers. Intel and AMD's integrated GPUs are well supported with few issues.

Absolutely, but it is a counter-example to the "runs great on modern hardware" statement.

I am a huge Ubuntu fanboy (I am even installing it on my old Vaio as I write this), but I would love to have it running on hardware that was designed from the ground up for Ubuntu instead of having to patch together various drivers and troll through forums looking trying to find out how to get the mic and camera working (etc...).

Get an all-Intel Thinkpad. Everything works out of the box except the fingerprint sensor, which works with a single apt-get install...