It is beyond time for Ubuntu to quit pussyfooting around and partner with ASUS or some other competent hardware manufacturer* and sell Ubuntu-branded laptops on the Ubuntu website. The Linux desktop (in various incarnations) has been in "testing" for over 15 years. Shuttleworth created Canonical and hired designers and developers to put together a 1st-class desktop system. Time to double down. Try and get some real customers who acutally pay for things.
It's still not perfect. I had a ThinkPad T520 this summer for work with 11.04. This is one of the highest quality ThinkPads.
To make Unity and the DisplayPort port (as opposed to just VGA) work, I had to go into the BIOS and change a graphics setting to make it not automatically switch between the integrated and better graphics card. This made unity work, but it also made something terrible happen when I actually plugged in a monitor with DisplayPort. I believe that both the laptop screen and monitor went to 1024x768 and couldn't be coerced out.
The next step, to get full resolution on our 30" monitors, was to install some different video drivers. That was going to be harder to reverse, so I just gave up and dealt with nonoptimal resolution via VGA.
I also had a terrible time disconnecting monitors. Half the time when I unplugged the VGA it would just give me a blank screen.
Also, a few times when listening to music, the entire machine froze and it played the last ~2 seconds of audio repeatedly, with no sign of escape besides restarting.
We've come a long way from when several hours of work to make wifi work was a given, but I still don't think I've ever owned a Linux laptop where all hardware worked perfectly.
This would be an amazing duo. Lenovo as a company hasn't been great about supporting Linux on desktop/laptop machines, but Linux OSes tend to work great on their hardware. Many "Linux is my only OS" users I known use Thinkpads for this reason.
If Canonical could handle the technical support for Lenovo machines with pre-installed Linux I think that would be a match made in heaven.
I would buy this. Even if Acer would come with Ubuntu instead of their Linpus thing, it would be a huge win. Knowing I get a 100% Ubuntu certified laptop would make me ignore the brand.
*No, Dell's half-assed shitty Ubuntu machines don't count.