Steve

Most of the apps I use on my Mac are open source or cross platform. Things like Firefox, OpenOffice, Audacity I can use in Linux.

However I have been learning GIMP for the past few months as there is no Photoshop for Linux and that is something I use. I suppose I could run it under some virtualised state but I am not keep on that, plus I doubt the machine I get will be majorly fast.

So that is the occasion I would need to use Windows as I use it on my Mac at present. There are however times even now when I need to use Windows - even as a Mac user - such as the Sony Ericsson Software Updater.

As for suggestions, yes ThinkPads are great for Linux. I had a 600 and 600E a few months ago that worked fine - except the audio which need a little tweaking - and a 240X which worked no probs with Linux - however they were all too slow to be used as an everyday machine.

I am looking at P3/P4 ThinkPads like the T and X range. What ThinkPad did you get?

Simon

On Mon, Dec 6, 2010 at 9:30 AM, Steve Engledow <steve@offend.me.uk> wrote:
Id love a new Mac but cant afford it.

No you don't, that's just the conditioning talking ;)

So I am looking for suggestions. It will run Ubuntu or Mint alongside
Windows (for those times when you have to use Windows).

If you've had a mac for 11 years, what times do you face when need
Windows? Go the whole hog, you'll love it :)
Life without Gates, Jobs, or other corporate monsters with plural
nouns for surnames is far shinier.
In the REM sense.

It needs to be fairly small, with a built in CD drive, USB, PCMCIA
slot and built in sound. I know that all sounds fairly standard but
Ive had machines in the past few years without some of these.

It really needs to be at least a 1Ghz machine capable of 1GB RAM -
DDR preferably but PC133 would be ok.

I bought a low-end Toshiba jobbie a while back and it's done me
pretty well over the years. Anything brought out within the last 5
years or so is likely supported fairly well.

I now await the reply which shoots that down ;)

HTH, HAND
Steve

P.S. Sorry Simon, I blindly hit the reply button forgetting that I wasn't in mutt.