Hi Simon, I don't know if I recommend switching to a netbook for all computing tasks, even the larger screen versions (10" say) are limited in terms of resolution and the keyboard becomes a chore for heavy use. Also the clockrate might be higher but the Atom cpu isn't great and the difference in overall speed may not be what you think compared to your G4 I have an acer aspire one which is pretty good as far as they go but I find myself using my laptop more. Also netbooks now are edging on the entry level of laptops in terms of cost, I think I would be looking towards something there rather than a netbook unless netbook levels of portability are important. Memory wise of course more is always nice but I find 1GB acceptable for most common tasks on my laptop, Like John I am in the Ubuntu camp. I have no idea what they are like but if funds are tight ebuyer now do an own brand machine for just over £300 inc that actually looks quite reasonable, http://www.ebuyer.com/product/174473. The spec looks nice. No idea about things like battery life or reliability though. In fact it sort of looks like an HP chassis. It's a GL40 intel chipset which should give you no problems in Linux, comes sans OS. I would however possibly try and stretch my budget to a brand name if it was me. Simon Royal wrote:

Hi.

I am thinking of moving to Linux.

I have been into computing for about 17 years. In 2000 I switched from Windows to Mac. For the past few years I have followed the Ubuntu development.

Just lately I have lost my enthusiasm for the Mac platform and have been thinking of switching permanently to Linux. I currently have a PowerBook G4 15" and love portable computing. I was thinking of downsizing to a small netbook running Linux.

I have played around with DSL, DSL-N, Vector Linux, Corel Linux and played quite a bit with Ubuntu. I dual booted it with OSX for a while and quite liked it.

My only requirements are built in wifi, built in bluetooth, built in webcam and USB 2. My current Mac is only 867Mhz and maxxed at 1GB of RAM, so most of the netbooks should run a bit faster than my current machine and I would like a higher limit that 1GB of RAM. I don't want a silly size screen like 7", as this will be my everyday machine.

I also don't want a cut down Linux distro as I would still need a machine capable of web, email, writing web pages, ftp uploading, editing pictures and Skype. I would also like to be able to hook up flash drives and external drives, my mp3 player and printer as well as possibly convert videos and music files between formats.

Any suggestions or help would be gratefully appreciated. I might be very experienced in computing, but too much in Linux.

Regards

Simon Royal --- Site: http://www.simonroyal.co.uk. Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal. Skype: Simon-Royal. (PowerBook G4 867Mhz, 1GB RAM, 80GB HD, SuperDrive, Mac OSX 10.5)

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