A neighbour put blue laminate in her son's room and a greyish oak effect stuff in the other rooms of her flat. I think that was in about 1998 or 1999. It looked very modern at the time, but, in all honesty, the blue in particular looked like a novelty child's flooring than it did sexy, even before the themed furniture started going in there. It was also icy cold underfoot, despite thick underlay and her heating on all the time.
I used vinyl offcuts to do the hall and bathroom of my flat and found it much warmer and softer underfoot, compared to the laminate in my living room. The key to cutting vinyl if you can't afford to pay somebody (my offcuts set me back a tenner and 'if you can carry it love, you can have it - cue me walking back with a small troupe of children proudly carrying it on their shoulders) is a hairdryer - warm the edges and you'll get it right under the skirting boards and it'll cut easily with a brand new Stanley blade.
I've got a mixture of laminate and vinyl in my house now. Because it was cheaper than paying the amount quoted for carpeting an open plan/weirdly shaped downstairs and bedrooms too long for the standard carpet - it's nearly 4m long and over 3m wide. Except for the stairs, which I bodged did myself with three seagrass runners from IKEA, a load of carpet tacks and a £15 offcut of carpet from another shop.
In all honesty, though, I'd far rather have fitted carpet, as it just feels so much nicer, keeps the place much warmer, deadens sound and is just lovely to kick your shoes off after work and let your feet sink into.