I would ask the vendor about the Linux, more specifically Ubuntu, support.
Do they know anyone running Linux? You probably are going a negative but in
a round-about-way you are telling them that folks want Linux and they are
probably loosing sale from the lack there of.

You probably know Dell sales Ubuntu laptops.

A nice thing to have when you are getting a compute without Linux support is
a second harddrive. One for Windows and one for Linux. The Windows HD never
has Linux installed. Then they can't blame Linux for messing up Windows and
voiding your warrenty.