Opinions of local OSX dealers?

[jc at trillian.mit.edu (John Chambers)]

For the usual various reasons, I'm strongly contemplating getting  an
OSX  laptop  and  start  comparing & contrasting it with my two linux
boxen.  A bit of research has resulted in the general impression that
the  various  online  sources  don't  have  any  discernable price or
support advantages  to  apple.com,  though  I  probably  missed  some
evidence.   There's  still  the  question  of whether any Boston-area
retailers would be better than ordering via the Net.  So does  anyone
have any comments pro/con any local Apple outlets?

The advent of  OSX  does  seem  like  a  challenge  to  the  historic
separateness of the Mac and Unix crowds. I suppose it's just a matter
of time until we start seeing a merger.

Of course, that's not nearly as odd as  seeing  IBM  jumping  on  the
linux bandwagon.