> Finally, can someone suggest a *BSD to evaluate? FreeBSD 4.8? 5.0? Is Apple
> a good choice? (I've heard it's based on BSD Unix)
I wouldn't recommend OSX for deployment if you're worried about performance. The hardware availiable and the settings to take advantage of it just aren't there yet, compared to the more established FreeBSD and Linux offerings.
Development on a tibook is another matter, I'd recommend it to anyone with an attraction to shiny things that do real work.
eric