@Scott: thanks. Good to know people are running Arch successfuly on MBPs :)
@Eric: I don't want to buy a MBP, but sadly I haven't been able to find a better machine anywhere. The ThinkPad comes close, but Lenovo doesn't sell the model I want here in India. The optical drive issue is annoying, but (a) I don't use the optical drive enough to care and (b) Apple replaces the drive whenever it fails, no questions asked. -- Ankur Sethi
