Scotty speaks into the computer mouse, "Hello computer."

Engineer: "Just use the keyboard."

Scotty: "Keyboard?" *sarcastically* "How quaint."

Some initial info....

I am an IT manager of a group supporting faculty and staff of a large university in Washington DC.

Last year, over 70 percent of new students in my university brought Macs to school. We haven't seen hard numbers on this year's freshman class, but we expect Mac use to increase linearly as it has over the past 3-4 years (especially since Intel Macs).

This year, more than 50 percent of faculty who were eligible for a new computer chose Mac.

Linux users are blocked from using the VPN which controls access to the WLAN.

The main driver of faculty and student Mac choice in our surveys has been security (perceived or real) and flexibility. Faculty want the ability to run the OS best suited to the task. One Stat professor uses mostly Unix apps in Apple's X environment, web/email/Word on the Mac, and a few Win-only apps in XP on Parallels. Another prof in Physics triple-boots Ubuntu, Mac OS and XP on a MacBook Pro. A significant number of Mac users run XP in Parallels or Fusion. Several profs only run XP on their Macs, preferring the Apple hardware, and hedging they might use the Mac capability in the future.

To me, as someone who switched majors 4 times, and took tech electives despite my English major, the flexibility of a universal computing platform capable of running the two major desktop operating systems (one of which is Unix-based) plus Linux means all your bases are covered. Setup Mac OS and sandbox Windows and Linux in virtual machines, then use whichever OS best suits your current need. If you find later that you are mostly using Windows, or mostly using Linux, set that OS up as a default boot on its own partition.

Admittedly, you can do all I describe on a PC sans Mac OS, but even if you feel you will never use Mac OS, discounting the possibility that you might need or desire it in the future is shortsighted given Mac OS's current growth vector, especially in education. A less capable PC doesn't even necessarily cost less. I just the other day spec'd a Dell Vostro 13" against a 13" MacBook Pro and the Dell was $50 more.

So, again, hedge your bets. Buy the computer that can do Mac OS, Linux and Windows and use whichever OS you need when you need it.