I had a Sony TX3 back in the day -- the predecessor to the Z -- and yes, it ran Ubuntu rather nicely (unlike many Sony laptops it had a sensible enough chipset that the only device that I couldn't get working was the fingerprint reader). Alas: the price was comparable to a high-end Powerbook, it was relatively gutless (especially when the Core Solo was ramped down for power saving), murderously hard to upgrade the internals (upgrading the hard drive ... I looked up the engineering FM, turned white, and cancelled the whole idea), and had Sony's inimitable approach to warranty repairs if anything went wrong (i.e. six to eight weeks and a fat bill if you want your laptop back).

(Oh, and the keycaps rubbed off the keyboard inside 18 months. Not just the letters, but the silver finish, all the way through to grey plastic. They did not build it for the long haul.)

If Sony were to focus on quality of after-sales service for the high-end laptops, and maybe ditch the bloatware installs, they could probably compete with Apple. Their design aesthetic is there. But they fall down on the whole experience thing once you get it home (or in the office).

Wow, that's nice looking specs. The higher resolution display and i7 I'm truly jealous of. I hope it works well for you. You should ping me and let me know how it works out for you or blog about it, especially your Linux experience. I'm very interested to know. Always looking to move back. The only thing I'm not too happy about is the Intel Graphics, looks good otherwise.