Thinking of a Dell Inspiron 9400 via dell.ca. Has anyone had good/bad experiences? Quality, support, bloatware?

Essentially I want this for some college courses in the IT field as well as general use. Thinking of the Core 2 Duo processor, 2gb RAM, all the rest so it will be reasonably future-proof. Seems expensive until I think what I paid for my 12.5 mhz Dell AT around 1991.

I like the ability to customize the configuration unlike other companies.

Would appreciate any advice on Dell laptops.