Just a thought, you may want to pick up a spare laptop in case you need to send something back for service. The nice thing about Linux, can get one laptop setup and then Ghost that to others without having to deal with keycodes. If a laptop fails, just swap the drive and send the problem child in for repairs.
Hopefully you can get Lotus not to charge you for the Win keycode. They maybe under licensing restrictions that force them to charge for the keycode, however.
Actually, I stand corrected. Apparently Lotus doesn't want our business. They won't e-mail back a quote despite being informed that time is of the essence. And, they won't answer my calls.
I checked my inbox before posting this, and... nothing...
If Lotus PC is representative of American companies then American companies DESERVE to fail.