Could you please help me appreciate OS X more?
mark_l_watson: Two comments: I think that the OmniGraffle and TexShop applications justify keeping an old Mac around. Excellent. Also, Macbooks run Ubuntu very well, especially models that are not brand new. I strongly recommend a dual boot OS X/Ubuntu setup: covers all the bases. That said, the Macbook could be a cheap used one, and spend your budget on a very fast i5 or i7 Windows/Ubuntu laptop.