A MBP running OSX is almost as good as a Linux laptop but with a better GUI. Just be happy they didn't give you a windows laptop. In the corporate world you would have to be a unicorn or rockstar to get a MBP. If you were a Linux sysadmin you might get away with running a Linux laptop but very doubtful. I love my Linux and my iMac 27inch no problem running brew to install things on OSX. Your MBP will be able to run vagrant and virtual-box which is Linux anyway.