Upon further reflection, I am going to give OS X at least another revision, i.e. Tiger. I want to go ahead and get myself a G5 tower and experience the next release of OS X; after that, however, I am going to start looking heavily at options. Here are some considerations:

OS X Benefits

Hardware Detection: OS X detects things like my Firewire drive and Sony digital camera without incident, i.e. I do nothing to make them work. When I get to that point in Linux, it’ll be time.

PDA/Phone synchronization: I’ll need my Linux box to work with whatever uber-device I’m using at the time as seamlessly as could be accomplished on OS X. When that’s possible in Linux, it’ll be time.

Nifty Interface Perks: I’d be lying if I said that certain things like Expose and the overall GUI feel didn’t appeal to me. They do. This is a significant, albeit minor, advantage to OS X.

Linux Benefits

No lame DRM crap: I’ll be less inclined to subscribe to services such as iTunes music store that fail to reward the artist and at the same time limit what I can do with what I have purchased. I’ll find superior models for rewarding artists while getting unpoisoned content in the process.

The Squeaky-Clean Feeling: Call it ego, the desire to condescend, or whatever — there is no feeling like running an open, free operating system. It makes everything seem more pure, from the participation in forums to the simple act of using email. I guess I need to explore whether or not this is completely ego-based, but regardless of the reason — it’s very real.