I think John B hit the nail on the head, which better explains my confusion.
* 90% of the time I just look at what comes out of op-amps and similar basic stuff. My old Rigol works okay-ish for this, though I'd wish its response/redraw time was much faster. E.g. when a voltage changes, it takes the scope "forever" to update the voltage display, while my Fluke DVM does that instantly (and apparently also much more precise; I trust the Fluke more than the Rigol).
* But sometimes I need to see what happens during a 20min cycle - over and over again, and that's where my scope falls short (and/or my patience). That said, 20 minutes is 20 minutes, which I reckon is still the same 20 minutes on a $10k scope.
Tautech: that E-X's webbrowser is mighty impressive indeed. But my main Mac is 5m away from my electronics bench.
rsjsouza : I've been a Mac fan since day one (artists, you know), but I admit that they're stretching my believes with their latest soft- and hardware. I'm up for a new pro laptop, but €3.5k is simply ridiculous. If I'd update my work-Mac to the latest OS, it would break almost all of my expensive music software.
Yes, that's the problem with slow capture on the Rigol: it takes forever to start showing the waveform in the middle of the screen. I'll try the scroll left trick.
masterbuilder : I'm not so much worried about direct Mac compatibility, but I really want at least to be able to use a USB stick to exchange data, though amateurish it is. This used to work with the Rigol, but since a few Mac OS updates, there's no chance I can read/write on either side. I guess that happens when a OS maker dumbs down its OS at every update, in order to please the largest crowd. The Rigol still runs the first firmware, but I'm completely unable to update it.
I'll ask the Digilent people if my old PB Pro (but with a non-reflective 17" screen!) would run AD 2 smoothly.
Again, thank you all - this has been really helpful so far !
Cheers,
_g