Please tell us the specs of your laptop... the usual problems with linux on laptops are the drivers for the video (seldom), webcam, audio (very seldom), and Wifi (too often).

My Lenovo Thinkpad X61 had problems with high-speed (draft N) connections on Ubuntu 8.10, that's why I'm hesitant to upgrade to 9.04 (I've given up on 8.10, but it's still installed, available if I need it).