I went to a mac reseller and told him I wanted a mac laptop for $200 if he had anything, even if it needed a repair, like a hard drive. He did. In September 200

I went to a mac reseller and told him I wanted a mac laptop for $200 if he had anything, even if it needed a repair, like a hard drive. He did. In September 2006 he had a late 2004 ibook G4 for $200. The hard drive was wearing out but still usable. Ended up replacing the hard drive for another $100, and put another 1GB ram in it (for a total 1.25GB ram) but totally worth it. Upgraded to Leopard and it's even better. Firefox 3, and it's even better. Total of ~$550 and I've got a pretty decent laptop. I got my wife a Dell under the Tulane student discount, loaded Ubuntu dual boot, and she chooses Ubuntu. I wouldn't recommend a Dell, but it sure attests to the usability of Ubuntu. I'm not sure I would get a macbook simply because I can't stand the short screen, glossy or not. MBP is definitely not a budget buy. Thinkpads seem awefully nice. Since you can run linux on a mac now, I would think the question comes down to do you or do you not want OS X? I have to say though, I have never been more please than getting a $200 iBook. It used to get deadly slow if you leave firefox 2 open for days, but with firefox 3, it got a new breath of life.