Personal preference: I don't like the OSX desktop environment. The global menu and the bar at the top are a no no for me. I remove them regularly from any Linux DE I use and if I can't I don't use that DE (no Unity here). I tolerated them on the very first Macs, the ones with tiny screens at the beginning of the 80s when we were always working full screen anyway, but IMHO they don't belong to 15" or larger screens.
Using OSX as a hypervisor to run Ubuntu in VMWare or VirtualBox seemed a waste of resources to me. Installing Linux as the only OS on a MBP doesn't always give optimal results, so no Mac. However MBP 15"'s 16:10 screen and the keyboard without number pad are good things (but Fn Backspace to Del, ugh). It would have been great to fit the ZBook 15 inside my old HP nc8430's case, plus the ZBook removable panel at the bottom. BTW, maybe the new keyboard has a better feeling than the old one but that was good too.
According to this interview from June www.businessinsider.com/linus-torvalds-qa-2014-6 he used a Mac Air but switched to a Sony Vaio because of the screen (no details given). Did he change again? Possible. Anyway, obviously Macs work with Linux. There were some little problems with Linux and the latest Macs when I made my research at the beginning of the year. That happened with the old ones too and were fixed along the months. I had to buy something pretty quickly in February (the old laptop was dying) so I went for a HP laptop I knew worked reasonably well with Linux despite being as new as those Macs. HP's cheap on site next business day assistance was part of the reason for buying from them again. Another reason is that I can open the back of that laptop without screwdrivers and swap RAM and discs. Apparently I can swap also the CPU but probably sockets will change before I'll need to do that.
Using OSX as a hypervisor to run Ubuntu in VMWare or VirtualBox seemed a waste of resources to me. Installing Linux as the only OS on a MBP doesn't always give optimal results, so no Mac. However MBP 15"'s 16:10 screen and the keyboard without number pad are good things (but Fn Backspace to Del, ugh). It would have been great to fit the ZBook 15 inside my old HP nc8430's case, plus the ZBook removable panel at the bottom. BTW, maybe the new keyboard has a better feeling than the old one but that was good too.