While I certainly haven't had the same experience when it comes to the hardware or installation issues, I couldn't agree more with the first part of your post. I moved over to the mac for a long time, but I find myself more at ease in Linux.

In fact, I never understood why the RoR guys insist on macs for development - I've found development much easier on linux. On the other hand, I'm also not trading in my mac any time soon - it's by far the best music recording platform out there.