While I can't speak for the zenbook, I can speak for Asus every laptop I had so far is Asus, never had any problems with them. My current one is an old V1S (about 5years old) and still works pretty well, I had it with linux and windows, no problems at all with linux drivers. Call me a fanboy if you want, but I try to buy asus when possible and have no regrets so far. About macbooks, for me its just overpriced hardware, I buy something because it works not because of its design, and comparing my laptop with a friends macbook I have seen no diference except the OS, nearly the same specs with his monitor being smaller. (maybe thats just me, I was never a fan of apple stuff)