Since I couldn't get the trackpad I had to work with my Raspberry Pi I've been thinking about just giving in and buying a laptop, but since I can't afford what I want yet (a 13" MacBook Air with all of the trimmings) my girlfriend has given me her MacBook, which is cool and all but also kind of pointless since she's specified that I must try and make it run better before gutting it in the hope that the trackpad is a straight USB device...
So I've formatted the hard drive and installed Snow Leopard, it runs remarkably well for what it is, which is a 1.3GHz Intel Core Duo with 512MB of 667MHz DDR2 RAM, a screen with a busted backlight inverter, a dead DVD-RW drive, a battery that isn't recognised by the logic board (a logic board fault, that, since the first one died after a few years and the official Apple replacement died within a week) and a cracked case. She took remarkably good care of it in the 7 years she owned it (she got it in 2006, got a new MacBook Pro in November) but this is why you never buy the first wave of a new Apple product; the design flaw that led to cracks appearing in the front edge of the case was addressed pretty quickly, as I recall.
Anyway, even though I must keep it plugged in at all times (difficult thanks to the Magsafe adaptor, oh the sort-of irony) it might make a serviceable domestic use only laptop (the charger failed the PAT I had to submit it for to use it at college, so...), so it doesn't exactly stop me from wanting an Air.