If I were pointing somebody in the direction of Linux, it would certainly be on the Ubuntu road. However, I fully agree with Paranoid Randroid’s position, especially regarding printing. And all this has assumed that the OP has an ethernet internet connection, rather than a pesky dialup or USB ADSL modem.
Oh, my, yes. Modems are terrible to get working under linux. And we’re assuming that the OP doesn’t use some proprietary way to dial up in the first place - no NetZero or PeoplePC or AOL, none of which, it is my understanding, one could get working under linux.
Here’s how I did it:
-
Install Mac.
-
Hook up Ethernet cables.
-
Set entire WinMe drive to be shared
-
Mount WinMe drive from the Mac and start entire drive copying
-
Go have dinner and watch a movie
Piece of cake. Then, just leave the old system sitting there (sans monitor, keyboard, etc., since those are all connected to the new Mac), and you have a network backup drive with no extra expense whatsoever.
Not.
I run XP Home ($100 at Staples) on a 600mhz 128mb RAM laptop and it works just fine. My desktop ain’t much younger and it’s fine running XP Pro.
If you’re just using a computer to access the internet and print stuff you don’t need much.
If you can’t get at least six years of good use out of a Mac, you’re not trying. 
(Currently using my six-year-old Mac to work on a moonlight web development job worth five figures. 
)
Cool. Nice that Mac can pick it up. SMB?
I would still personally opt for a USB drive (or the USBified old drive), but if those directions are sufficient then by all means.
A list of linux supported printers.
I hate WinXP. Mainly because of the constant need to update everything, or else I got viruses, spyware and adware. I switched to Linux for about a year. And now I am on a Mac, an iBook, which actually replaces my desktop completely. I have never had any problems figuring out what to do on a Mac. And the lack of adware, viruses and spyware (which means i no longer require anything to “protect” me from them) are a godsend!
A comparison of Mac vs. PC processing power is here.
My sister went for an iMac laptop for no better reason than her b/f and family use them a lot. Supposedly something to do with the way they handle music files, but to be honest I can’t any difference.
Switching to a Mac you’d have to get used to quite a few new things that you’d not have to get used to switching from Windows ME to Windows XP. I went from Win 95 to XP and it was comparatively painless, the only loss to me is a few DOS games
I think that when someone comes in asking about surfing the net, it’s not good to mix in a discussion of Linux. It’s gotten steadily better, but IMO there’s still too much of a learning curve. A consumer-oriented computer with plug-and-play and other helpful set-up wizards is more appropriate, and Linux still has too much of a learning curve.
Get a Mac. The only worries about spyware and viruses will be if you worry that your XP-using friends will resent your not having any. The “Apple markup” is so they can spend more money making the hardware reliable and pay to have good software people develop the best OS currently available. “Good software” is as available for the Mac as for XP – office applications (both OpenOffice (free) and MS Office (not free) are available), Movie-, DVD- and music authoring, web browsing and the like. I have an EyeTV set up so I can watch and record cable TV on my second monitor. My favorite applications are Animation Master and Matlab (available for both platforms), and note how I haven’t mentioned the Unix command line interface underneath it all. Most people get by without ever opening up a console window; I assume this is the same for XP.
I’m on blindingly fast XP machines at work and blindingly fast Macs at home. Both OS’s are reliable, the Office documents are interchangeable, and switching between the two several times a day is trivial (of course, I’m a triple-black-belt-ninja-typist; YMMV).
Don’t even bother with the one-button mouse; Macs are no longer coming with them; they come with the multi-button Mighty Mouse (except for the Mini – you have to buy a generic mouse for $10-$50, depending on your personality).
As for converting over, you can use any ethernet cable between your ME machine and the Mac – the Mac will autodetect and switch the lines to crossover internally, and as long as you’ve set filesharing up on your ME machine, it’ll just appear as an available network volume.
I think that Apple has done an admirable job of making computers that are essentially commodities – you open up the box, turn it on and start working (or playing), instead of scouring the internet for drivers and tweaking registries and worrying about the viruses-du-jour.
Possible hardware compatibility issues aside (of which I have personally encountered none at all), there is less of a learning curve switching from Windows to Ubuntu than there is switching from Windows to MacOS, because the Gnome desktop environment is more or less a clone of Windows.
Yes, but the installation involves more actions than opening the box and plugging it in. The OP might as well download the Ubuntu installation and try it; it’s found here. (However, the OP may not have DSL or a CD burner, and he used the phrase “… sick to death of Windows …”)
Dunno; I’ve tried out a number of Linux distributions and my recollection of Ubuntu was that it was an easier clickthrough than a typical Windows install. You’re probably right though, that the OP wants a machine that just works out of the box and this is pretty much the definition of a Mac.
I’m a switcher (as of last Sat.), and apart form a few things I haven’t had many problems going from XP to a Mac. I love this iMac! There was a rebate of $100 back going on for printers bought with an iMac, so I bought a new one that has a scanner - so that compatibility problem is gone - and my digital camera works great with my new computer.
I do miss having MS Office, but as soon as I can scrape up the $$ I’ll buy a copy for Mac.
The only real disadvantage seems to stem from the fact that all my software is for Windows, and I need to shell out $$ again for Mac versions - photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, an FTP program, Office, and so forth.
If all of your hardware is supported, and the installation process detects it correctly, then yeah - it is easier than a Windows installation. But that’s not always the case, and I posit that it’s usually not. The moment something goes wrong, it’s a downward spiral of attempts to figure it out - and there’s a lot of hardware that’s not supported.
I’d encourage the OP to get a Mac if he’s not hurting for money; if he is, then get the Dell that I linked to above. Either way he can try Linux later. But let’s not count on it. Linux has a way to go before even above-average users can have a trouble-free linux installation, without stepping around eggshells to get the right hardware.
(As to what distro, if the OP does want to try linux: Kubuntu! All the goodness of Ubuntu, with KDE instead of Gnome. Its UI is configurable and wonderfully consistent.)
There’s a Mac version of Paint Shop Pro?
You don’t need to buy an FTP program unless you’re hooked on GUI interfaces. Just fire up a command line window and use the built-in FTP. That’s what I do most of the time.
RBrowser Light is a freeware FTP app that should keep you going until you can afford a full-featured replacement (assuming you even need one).
NeoOffice/J is free (and compatible with both MS Office X and the Windows version of MS Office). GraphicConverter is highly-worthwhile shareware and makes a good replacement for most of PaintShop Pro features, and The GIMP, in the X11 environment, is free and will substitute not only for high-end PaintShop Pro but also low-end Photoshop.
Lots of free or shareware FTP programs for the Mac.
…and have never heard of Filezilla
If you must have Office, try wrangling for the lower-priced Student Edition. Same features, but requires some proof of student ID (though most folks don’t check).
I am a student; it is cheap, but still more than I have right now. I’ll look into some free ones for now.
I applied for a free copy of Fetch - I guess that is free for students. I don’t know how to open a command line window…argh.
I guess Paint Shop Pro is only for Windows :(.I have been using it for years.