Is a Mac really worth it?

I've been toying with the idea of getting a Mac for a while now. I'd like both a MacBook as well as a Mac Mini. I'm not a normal computer user, so these would be the upgrades I'd get for each of them:

• 2 gb memory
• 7200 rpm hard drive
• Superdrive (aka a dvd burner)

Both the MacBook and the Mac Mini come with 1 gb of memory via two 512 mb sticks. Guess how many memory slots each one has? You guessed it! If you want to upgrade to 2 gb, you can't reuse any of the memory that originally came with the machines.

You cannot add a Superdrive a la carte. You must order the higher end model of each machine to get it.

The 7200 rpm hard drive is about a $100 aftermarket upgrade.

So all said and done, that $500 Mac Mini is looking more like $800 and that $1100 MacBook is looking like $1500.

Now I can upgrade my current computer to have a much faster Core 2 Duo processor than either of those Macs, along with a video card that easily beats them, for a grand total of $400.

"Yeah, but OS X has the best, most badass, eye candy interface ever!" Ehh. Check out this video of what is going to be included in the default installation of (K)ubuntu Linux (released in 10 days).

So now I gotta ask myself... is TextMate really worth $400 to $1100?