More Hardware questions

[Clinton MacDonald]

Dave:

--- dfro <dfro@umich.edu> wrote:
> Thanks for the advice. My computer is a 550 MHz > Ti
PowerBook G4 laptop with a 20 gig hd. It has
> two USB 1.0 ports and one Firewire port.

*Now* we're talking! You have a "PowerBook G4 (Gigabit
Ethernet)" according to Mactracker:

<http://www.mactracker.ca>

> > Since I can't afford to buy another computer
> > at the moment, I think I will get OS X and
> > install it on my existing 20 gig hd. Any
> > advice on  which version of X to get?

I assume you are in the market for Mac OS X. Your
PowerBook has a video card that will support Quartz
Extreme (Apple's technology to make the video card to
all the work in running the OS X eye candy), so I see
no reason not to purchase Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther).
Panther should run moderately fast on your 550 MHz
processor (online reports say that Panther is faster
than Jaguar on older Macs). Since you are affiliated
with a university, you can purchase Panther for US$69
through your school (a great price). If you do not
have at *least* 256 MB of RAM (and 320 MB or more
would be better), purchase more RAM (RAM prices are as
low as US$30 for a 256-MB "stick" -- buy two). Your
total investment would be around US$130 (less, if you
already have the RAM), and you will have a modern,
crash-resistant operating system with a world-class
user interface.

Any additional money you save can be put towards a
used 500-MHz PC on which you can install Mandrake or
Red Hat Linux, and do all your experimenting on that
"toy" computer. ;-)

(Of course, it won't be as cheap as I am proposing;
your biggest investment will be in purchasing --
repurchasing, in many cases -- new OS X applications,
tools, games, and shareware to match what you were
used to in Mac OS 9. It's like having to buy the White
Album, again. :-) )

> Let me know any more thoughts you might have

There you have my thoughts -- good luck!

Best wishes,
Clint

-- 
Dr. Clinton C. MacDonald | <mailto:clint DOT macdonald
AT sbcglobal DOT net>