Since it appears that your only goal is to avoid using M$ products, it would seem that running MODELSIM in its LINUX incarnation (assuming there is one), likely because XILINX and Altera both have LINUX versions of their latest www-based software and each of them is supported with a version of ModelSim.

What I've observed and what I've been told about LINUX on various platforms agrees in one respect, that being that whatever runs under Windows runs much faster under LINUX if there's a LINUX-version. Now, these vendor-specific ModelSim versions have hobbles to make the paid-for version of ModelSim more attractive, but I'd guess that the hobbles work faster under LINUX as well. I may even give that a try myself.

From what I've heard, UBUNTU is the Linux version most likely to support Windows programs best, too.

This problem you're attempting to address is the reason many people won't use a MAC, since the software-for-useful-work choices are still very limited.

RE