Comment No issues here with ubuntu (Score 1) 718
I am a sys admin, and I am running ubuntu. i have set up the laptop to duel boot into windows 7, but I very very rarley find myself booting there (once a month)... Mainly to update the iphone software.
I have had very few problems with ubuntu, much less than windows 7 (really struggles with drivers for the graphics card and turns the screen into garbage occasionally), and have never had any problems with SMB... Its just worked for me. \
I installed it on my sisters laptop (who has no interest at all in open source programming, she's a nurse), as we didnt have a windows licence for it, and I let her know that if she wanted to go to windows, we could do that, but we'd have to buy a licence, over a year on, she absolutly loves ubuntu, and now does not like windows GUI at all.... But then there are people who can not cope with the change from windows to linux, and if they were forced to change over ... it would not end well....
So from my experience... dell, you got it wrong.. I understand that the majority of people use windows... but you still got it wrong