If there were a Linux laptop with the same physical characteristics as my rMBP, I'd swap in a heartbeat.
For me, its all about unibody. Screen quality. Trackpad touch and feel. Keyboard comfort. The rMBP fits the bill for all of these things - I'm NOT content with OSX as an operating system, however, this is just something I put up with (and since I run my Linux dev environment in a VM, big deal anyway). I'm certainly not a typical Mac user - I spend 99% of the time in the terminal.
I've looked at the Google Pixel series, and some of those look like they come pretty close - except I have no desire to use a Google operating system, of course .. and they're just not available locally, like the rMBP's are. But if there were a manufacturer who puts together a machine that has the physical characteristics of the rMBP, I'd happily abandon Apple hardware in an instant.
I really did look around at OEM laptops when I was deciding what to buy. I wanted a laptop which would run Unix, but besides of Dell I could not find any. I was afraid that Chromebook would not have provided the hardware I wanted and I did not to pay extra for Windows license, which I'd never use anyway. After that, I think there were still Lenovo Yoga 2, Samsung Series 9 and rMBP on my list. However, after reading articles about the laptops, I found that Lenovo had bad battery life and buying Series 9 or rMBP would basically pay me the same. At this point Apple's aesthetic product won my choice, given that Series 9 could have problems with Linux drivers and it still had the unused Windows license shipped with it.
So now I have Windows/Ubuntu on dualboot on PC and a Mac laptop. I feel like the Mac is basically the Unix I wanted, without the crappy window manager of Ubuntu. However, the single thing I've loved so far has not been a hardware or aesthetic manner, but rather how Mac opens windows as it boots up from where I left. I never even knew that was possible, but I feel like it has increased my productivity a lot.
When I was shopping for a new labtop I initially settled on the Series 9, but when the 2013 rMBP's came out they really trumped the Series 9 in the hardware department so I returned the Series 9 and got a rMBP. The good thing is that the Series 9 was just as good build quality, and had excellent battery life. Also it was priced well and I think its part of the reason the 2013 crop of Macbooks had to come down in price the way they did.
I think shortly we will see the monopoly that Apple has on high end well designed laptops will come to an end.
I was in a similar situation a year ago and decided to go with the Series 9 with Full HD screen instead of a MBPr.
The weight advantage of the Series 9 and the screen are nice, but battery life, keyboard and trackpad are way behind Apple's quality. My next laptop will come from Apple and i don't see any competitor coming close any time soon. Samsung will drop out of the laptop market in 2015 alltogether btw.
For me, its all about unibody. Screen quality. Trackpad touch and feel. Keyboard comfort. The rMBP fits the bill for all of these things - I'm NOT content with OSX as an operating system, however, this is just something I put up with (and since I run my Linux dev environment in a VM, big deal anyway). I'm certainly not a typical Mac user - I spend 99% of the time in the terminal.
I've looked at the Google Pixel series, and some of those look like they come pretty close - except I have no desire to use a Google operating system, of course .. and they're just not available locally, like the rMBP's are. But if there were a manufacturer who puts together a machine that has the physical characteristics of the rMBP, I'd happily abandon Apple hardware in an instant.