I challenge you to give Linux Mint a whirl. Unless you require OSX software or someone else is paying for your hardware, you're probably just throwing money at having sexy hardware.
I've used Ubuntu as recently as 13.04 and I've used multiple iterations of Mint. For me they are fundamentally unpleasant to use. GNOME is an eyesore with visually unappealing applications sorely in need of UX help; KDE is worse. Oh, yeah, and OS X handles four monitors on two graphics cards without breaking a sweat, on a Hackintosh. Ubuntu and derivatives can't handle that without multiple X sessions and the couple hours every other month I have to spend updating my Hackintosh are worth the time for that alone. Even Windows isn't as crippled as Linux is here.
I haven't touched on software, either. Audio software is a mess on Linux. (Ardour, against the combination of Logic and Ableton and Reason? Ever having to configure jackd, versus Core Audio which literally just works? Why spend the time?) Programming software honestly isn't a ton better unless you find "live in Vim" fulfilling and while I used to do that, I'm much more productive in more modern software. Swing apps--i.e., IntelliJ--look like garbage on Linux and there's nothing on Windows or Linux that comes close to Xcode for C++ development.
Perhaps you should reserve your "challenges" for folks who haven't been there, done that.
> Perhaps you should reserve your "challenges" for folks who haven't been there, done that.
Not looking to get into a flame war. You obviously have good reasons to stick with OS X, so I wouldn't try to get you to use anything else. Others, especially web developers, would find Mint more suitable than you do.
"Especially web developers"? I was a web developer (at a fairly you've-heard-of-them company) until August of last year. I do ~10 hours of it a week in my spare time today. Web development was exactly why I mentioned the train wreck that is Swing apps on Linux.
I'm having trouble taking you in good faith if your definition of "web developer" is going to continually shrink in the way it is.
I do PHP and Python as well as Java/Scala. In IntelliJ. Because it's a more comfortable environment for me. Like I said: I used to do the vim-and-terminal thing. I've gone
