I don't know about gestures on Linux. I've heard there is a package but never bothered with it. I basically do two things on my computer: I browse the internet

I don't know about gestures on Linux. I've heard there is a package but never bothered with it. I basically do two things on my computer: I browse the internet and I edit text (programming, writing, homework...). For both of these tasks--and most other things I do less commonly--I can just use the keyboard. All this means that I only use the mouse/trackpad if I really have to--it really slows me down. In my experience, Mac OS is not the most well-designed OS at all. Whenever I have to use it, it manages to annoy me fairly consistently. It isn't bad, of course, but all modern operating systems--especially Linux--have improved drastically in the last several years. CMD vs CTRL is not a function of Mac OS/Windows, it's a function of your keyboard layout and both proprietary solutions get it wrong: CTRL is actually the key labelled Caps Lock. Everything else you've mentioned is also present in Linux, at least with KDE--it's well designed, consistent and even lets you scroll windows off focus (I think the scrolling, as well as other window conventions date back to older Unix window managers that predate both KDE and Mac OS). KDE also lets you have some very useful key combinations. Particularly, I like being able to tile a window left or right with a single keystroke, which is trivial with KWin. That said, I'm going to take this idea to the next level and switch over to XMonad soon, which is a nice upgrade for OS X as well (a couple people I know have used it there successfully). Coincidentally, why would you need to get another notebook for Windows and Linux? As far as I know, you can dual/triple boot with a Mac, or you could just get a virtual machine. Ultimately though, the qualities of Mac OS are rather tangential here (and we're ignoring the philosophy behind it even more)--if you're not willing to use anything else, you're stuck with Apple. If, on the other hand, you're like me and see no reason to use it, the quality of hardware become important and finding the best lightweight notebook pertinent.