I've got a 14" iBook with combo drive. It's so much better than my dell. I tried to get linux on the dell, but it's too screwed over. I think i might have to try noacpi, nodma and that stuff. I hope the dell dies at the moment, it's an evil POS.
even if you're renting you've got more rights than if you're using windows.
512MB isn't much memory these days - hopefully the chip setup allows you to do a cheap and fast upgrade.