Wouldn't you know it, after all that, I bought the freakin' refurbished 15" Powerbook. I figure if I"m going to shell out $1300-$1500 for a well-built PC laptop, I might as well go the extra mile and get something I really want. I will definitely have a million questions for you Mac guys once it gets here, but as long as it's got a bash prompt, I should do okay.

Thanks again for all the input, everybody.