My brother, my sister and I all have Acer laptops. They are great.

I've worked on many Dell laptops outside of work and other than user caused issues, Dell was always very helpful.

At work we use a kaleidescope of laptops, mostly IBM, some acers and toshiba's. Worked on a sony and gateway here an there too. IBM's are great, but then I've got the company backing so they are probably more forgiving. We get nice prompt service from them.