Thanks for your thoughts guys.
The benefits I can see with the mac laptop is that I have the option of XP, OSX and Ubuntu (triple boot). After comparing the specs for the mac and the dell, the mac comes out cheaper (student discount). As you point out though, you have to consider the expense in the long run with the ability to upgrade/customise...
Dell gives you the option of XP or Vista pre-installed with the XPS, but for how much longer? Right now if I had to make a decision about a commercial OS for the future (post-XP) then I would have to say OSX. I haven't had heaps of exposure to Vista, but aside from the hardware compatability issues, what I've read suggests that all the security means that the performance is not even that much better than with XP. If more people are switching away from Vista, then surely they'll have to sort out the lack of software for mac.
I haven't spent heaps of time trying to configure Jack and Ardour, but if nothing else I think the future for Linux recording looks promising.
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