I purchased this laptop a while back, and I wholeheartedly agree with your recommendation. Having just convinced a friend to purchase it a mere few hours ago, I was very happy to have my suggestion affirmed. This is honestly the only computer I've ever used (including a Macbook Air) where I have positively enjoyed the hardware itself. As for your comments on the "last PC" part, I have found that the combination of the Zenbook and Win8 has been easy and fast enough to whip out and chat with as I'm walking through the hallways on campus. Call me crazy, but I think that the tablet/laptop hybrids (and perhaps the straight win8 tablets) are more than capable of filling that gap. I have considered getting a Nexus 7 for entertainment (all my TV and movies are through Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon instant streaming), but I'm afraid I won't be able to stand the screen after using this one. What's your thoughts on that particular piece of hardware? And yes, Win8 is the best OS in general I have ever used. There's still a few things I like about Linux, but most of those are just pieces of software written by *nix developers that don't bother to port to Windows (MeteorJS is the big one atm).