Laptop large screen without optical drive

[dargaud]

Hello all,
I'm in the market for a large screen laptop, but all those I find have an optical CD/DVD drive. I find those useless nowadays and can always use an external one in the rare cases I need a CD. I'd rather save the weight and the thickness like on ultrabooks. So, double question:
- are there any large screen laptops (17~18") without optical drive ?
- in case there aren't, is there anything useful that can replace the drive in its slot ? Secondary battery and extra HD are secondary to me because the main use is at home and internal SSDs are big enough nowadays.

Suggestions welcome, particularly if it runs Ubuntu fine !
Thanks

[mips]

Well get one that can take a hard drive caddy or additional battery in the space of the optical drive.