Ubuntu vs. Mac OS

I'm hesitating about buying a new macbook pro laptop.

I just want to learn more about os and get more experience on *unix.

Is the Ubuntu enough to me?

What mac can offer me that Ubuntu can not?

It depends on whether or not you'll use the advantages of owning a mac. Being a Win->Linux->Mac->Linux user, I've established the following:

Buy a mac if:

• You have a mac store in your area. Problems that arise can be solved right at the local store, and are covered for free for a year through AppleCare. Otherwise, its the same as having a support plan from any other big name company.
• You will actually get use out of proprietary software (iLife, etc). I found that the only proprietary app I used was Garage Band, and that was for fun/free time, and there are definitely MUCH better alternatives.
• You're OK conforming to forced upon and immutable design decisions. Keep reading 'different style laptop' and 'ui customization' below.

Buy a PC if:

• Using Linux, you want to do anything. As some have mentioned, "linux is good for computer savvy people/developers." This is a misconception, as I have seen both smart and dumb users from age 7 to age 82 using Ubuntu with no trouble. On the other end, I've seen advanced users with fully custom systems that do everything they want, and usually for no financial cost(time cost though).
• You don't NEED apple software. There are as good or better alternatives to any apple software.
• You want more choices. By buying a PC:
  • You have many choices for different manufacturers and hardware. You can spend as much as you want to spend on a laptop, and don't have to pay a proprietary-software-tax to get it. (windows-preinstalled will have a slight added cost)
  • You can choose a different style laptop. I found my white polycarbonate/plastic macbook to be very uncomfortable, the speakers sucked, loud fan @ high CPU, and the plastic was cheap/got dirty. Basically, be ready to get angry at design-over-functionality choices that Apple makes. At least the MBP doesn't have speakers right in the fan bay ><)
  • UI Customization. Using Linux, you can literally make your user interface how you want it. Things like OpenBox and more allow you to fine tune your experience. Even windows has applications that let you modify your UI (to a degree). As of the last time I used OSX, you basically have to suck up the way Apple decides to design your UI.
  • Software!. Running an ubuntu system, you can install software over the interwebs with ease using Package Managers. (Fink for Mac will do this too, not sure how well it works with everything though).
  • You can dual boot w/Linux or Windows, and even create a hackintosh. I've seen OSX running well on a netbook. Nuff said.

In sum, and as some others have mentioned, buy a Mac if you NEED a mac(and, of course, if you really like the feel of the laptops/ui/etc). Either way, you should choose what makes you enjoy your computer, whether that be spending less, having tons of choices, or purchasing for proprietary software and fancy/trendy looks.

[edit] sorry for the long post, hope it answered your question sufficiently[/edit]

For me, OS X is the perfect blend between traditional, more user-oriented, graphically savvy world with a great interface (one can dislike it but at least it is consistent and powerful) and the UNIX world of command-line utilities and networking. I've been a FreeBSD developer for quite some years now and I can enjoy both developing and running FreeBSD systems (in a VMware VM) and using my computer for photo-managing tasks with Lightroom and other apps like that without having to switch.

It is also a great system to run on laptops, soemthing which is generally a pain with free OSes (some fare slightly better like ubuntu but I'm not a linux user).

If the goal is to learn UNIX, then something like Linux or BSD makes far more sense than OS X.

When I think of "learning UNIX", I think of something like Arch or Slackware where you start with a minimal base system and build from there. I don't think of a big OS where you install a one-size-fits-all base system with a large closed-source GUI system on top of it. I don't think of a base system where you don't update the packages yourself, but instead get updates rolled up in occasional point release updates of the OS in general (and even then, the updates lag far behind). I don't think of a userland where the accepted practice is to just leave it the hell alone and build your own packages somewhere else, as Fink and MacPorts do.

I type all of this on my brand new 13" MacBook Pro, which I adore. I love using OS X. I don't consider any of the above to be bad necessarily. But learning UNIX? No.

Perhaps the best way to learn UNIX is to throw together a cheap white box to experiment on. Something that you don't need to always be in a working state. Virtual machines are good for playing around with too, and certainly, you can run VMWare Fusion and experiment with other UNIXes in VMs 'till your heart's content.

There's a lot of reasons to like and use OS X, and UNIX is a big one of those, but OS X's UNIX is decidedly prefab. Plenty good for using, but not what I'd point to as an ideal platform for learning the underpinnings.

Get both.

Buy a Mac, use Mac OS X, get VMware, install Ubuntu.

If you are into playing and editing movies, you'll be surprised how excellent Mac OS handles video. And with VMware you have the option of visiting a Ubuntu desktop to change settings the Linux way while otherwise using Ubuntu from the Mac desktop, using SSH and X11.

I have been a Mac user since 1998 (I was actually a BeOS user back then), so I am obviously biased, but I think you will find that Mac OS X and Ubuntu running at the same time give you a lot more than just running Ubuntu.

Plus you will have access to standard end user applications like Microsoft Office, iTunes, Quicktime Player etc. and Apple's excellent multimedia applications.