One significant point that you made in your original post was that you did your Linux upgrades on your own schedule to meet your own needs. This cannot be overs

One significant point that you made in your original post was that you did your Linux upgrades on your own schedule to meet your own needs. This cannot be overstated. I understand David Drake's issues with Ubuntu 12.04 with the bloated GUI that comes out of the box - but there are less problematic alternatives, such as Xubuntu. Still, he was right about the time he spent searching for how to fix configuration issues. I would love to hear his take 6 months after he has been on MacOSX if he uses it for serious coding outside of the Apple ecosystem. I use Homebrew on my MacBook Pro and do just as much searching for how to get some code to port because of idiosyncrasies in OSX. Still, I do like my 2009 MBP on Mountain Lion.