A crunchbanger for 2+ years, recent convert to elementary: http://elementaryos.org , especially if you are looking for 'polish'. Do check it out once its out.
Thing is, it _does_ take away a lot of the "choice". It's very Mac influenced, and has a "convention over configuration" and "opinionated" view on how things should work.
This is not a bad thing, if it fits you (like it does for me!). However, a lot of hackers on here won't be keen, considering their opinions on Unity anyway ;)
Do give it a spin in a VM and see what you think, however!
Personally, I have a Samsung Series-5 ultrabook 13", running Ubuntu 13.04 - it's brilliant. I've used Linux as my daily on my laptops since 2005 :)