ibook for linux power user :P

I know this must be getting pretty redundant.. the same old 'to mac or not to mac' question, but here's my twist: I don't use windows! No matter which review I read or which forum I go to, there's always the assumption that pc=windows . But, I have been a dedicated linux user for the last few years and I don't have the same stability, spyware, virus woes as the typical windows users do. Now, I'm going to but a laptop for college soon, and I can't decide whether I should opt for the mac, because I will be using linux or FreeBsd on my laptop if it isn't a mac anyways. I will use my laptop for the usual wordprocessing: OpenOffice.org! , intenet, e-mail, and the occassional photo/video editing. I will also want to do some programming and compiling on the machine. So, my question is, in your sincere opinion, do you think I should buy an ibook or should I go instead for a pentium/AMD based laptop?
I think the PB is still a bit out of reach for me.. how much will it be with a student discount anyways? Well, there are still a few months till I have to buy the laptop, so may be the prices will come down a bit then.
Any opinion?

 

my choice of OS

Thanks for the reply ExoticFish. I plan on using OS X for the most part, although I might get nostalgic for linux once in a while (yellowdog and ubuntu liveCd should do the trick!). I think I'll be comfortable in a unix based environment. So, how is OS X for development? By the way, my current PC is an old weakling and I still do image editing and all the other stuff on it. So, will the ibook or powerbook be not good enough to do somethings? I don't usually play games, so that shouldn't be a problem.
Hey, I didn't know Gentoo supported PPC. Any one compiled the distro on an ibook or PB? How long did it take? I think this will give me the general idea of their power.