[guitarbill]

> because Apple is still shipping it with that godawful 1440x900 screen

This. The MBA is fine for most things I do; in fact I prefer a slower CPU if it gives me more battery life. But the screen is so bad I regret getting the MBA anytime I look at a different screen, including phones.

edit: however, I recommend the MBP. I've only had bad experiences with Linux on laptops, which I have to use for work. HiDPI sucks on Linux. You'll get conflicting advice, most of which is useless because maybe the person telling you <Linux dist> is the best" really likes tweaking <Linux dist>.