Yes, I'm going to keep an eye on Apple. Linux still has a much boarder base and runs on about any hardware including Mainframes. It has been embrassed by some major player like IBM, Sun, Dell, Oracle, and the list keeps growing. It also plays nice with about any other OS, like all the Unixs, Windows, Apple, etc. I think Microsoft support about 4 or 5 types of file system. Linux support more like 30 or 40 different file system.

I saw an article somewhere, maybe here on UT, that Redhat is going to develope a single Desktop Environment for its next release of Linux, instead of trying to maintain both GNOME and KDE. I hope RedHat gets it all worked out and improves the graphic of it desktop interface.

Also, have you every considered sun solaris OS. I think it will run on an X86 platform now. Also, Sun is going to offer a competitive version of it hardware at much lower than normal prices. I think you can choose either to run Linux or Sun Solaris on it. Boy, there lots of options. Of course Microsoft still owns the desktop and if .NET goes could end up owning the internet. Time will tell.

My objection to Apple is that it seems to always cost a couple of $300 to $600 more than a comparable X86 windows box, and although Apple is good, I don't think its that good.