I've got a gaming laptop, and I am really happy with it for now.
If you are ready to pay an additional ~400 euro for a laptop compared to the same components fitting inside a standard case, go for it.
I never regret my choice of buying a laptop and I will never consider buying another stationary computer, ever.
As for the OS, I am running ArchLinux on mine and everything worked out of the box except for the NVidia drivers...
