I find that whatever environment you're most comfortable with is the best way to go. I find that XP/Ubuntu are more comfortable for me than other environments.

I find that whatever environment you're most comfortable with is the best way to go. I find that XP/Ubuntu are more comfortable for me than other environments. I can use a Mac, but I find myself working against it (probably due to experience) in times when I really need things to be straightforward. It's a bit like learning Emacs for me, I can see that there's some power behind it but I find it too different to vi to bother. In this case, my vi would be Linux or Cygwin. I'm not keen on Vista at all and would much rather use XP or even 2000. I suspect I'll avoid it till Windows 8 comes out. I also don't think that the price difference between a Mac and PC laptop is justifiable, but different strokes for different folks I guess.