OK, so here's the low down, the lazy way:

After the install, most work great. Sound is up without a hitch, and though 3D support is not there out the box... just going into System Appearance and enabling visual effects automatically searches and downloads the latest nVidia drivers (not Intel though, so install with the switch set to speed.)

Networking and wireless also work straight away but Compiz is still not completely stable with the current nVidia drivers so leave the effects off for now. (We only enabled them to get the drivers installed... I did say the lazy way)

Before getting into settings I just want to list a few standards for software I've come to like (again, this is only those extra to the standard install):
gThumb - for picture managing and web album creating
Wine - compatability layer for Windows apps
fortune - what's Linux without this awesome app ;)
mPlayer - may seem reduntant but Totem handles the music as well, so both are needed down the line
VMWare Player - Prefferably with Workstation but if not possible, as long as the player is there
Blender - 3D design
Some games - Armagetron, Pengupop, Tux Racer, and through Wine - Eve-Online and Guild Wars as well as the simpler Steam games
Some educational stuff.. Celestia and the like.

Ok, next will be some work.