If this is some kind of logic problem, I fail.

[effervescible]

I need to get a new computer. Here is my dilemma:

-I don't really want to get a laptop as my primary computer because I find them too squished together for desktop use, and I have a nice LCD monitor I want to continue to use.
-I like Macs but they are effin' expensive, and $1000 minimum is really more than I can justify. I have never in my life taken on credit card debt I couldn't pay off at the end of the month and I'm not going to start now.
-So I could buy a PC but there's the issue of Vista. Fucking Vista. I don't want Vista, and even if I get a computer with XP on it or install XP over Vista, in time, Vista's gonna be the way of things and I am not enthused about that.
-Linux. Let's just say "NO" and leave it at that. Besides, I don't have any pirated Photoshop for Linux.

So this leaves me in a position of...NOTHING is suitable, so I sit spinning my wheels and using the old computer. Which sort of sucks since the secondary hard drive died in, like, February.

WHAT DO I DO?

Comments

[jmcgarry.livejournal.com]

Ever thought of buying a refurb (from a major vendor obviously)? Or as others have suggested building your own? There are a lot of places that sell barebones kits that you just put together. It's annoying and might be a bit challenging, but you have a lot of technical people on your flist that can help.

Other options are that you can get Photoshop to work under Linux using wine (the Windows emulator), but there is a good deal of tweaking (there is also GIMPshop). I dual-boot Ubuntu and XP at home and Ubuntu and Vista at work. For the most part there really isn't a lot of difference between the two other than for complex applications, since more and more of what I do is web-based.

[jaina.livejournal.com]

Building my own is starting to sound more attractive, though the idea of doing so without real life supervision is sorta scary. I may look into it though.

My main issue with using Linux is...it sounds kinda over my head, from all the tinkering Char does with it.

[jmcgarry.livejournal.com]

You just need a live machine (to post) and a digital camera (optionally to take pictures to post). It's not rocket science. :-)

Char, is, how should I say this, a total, über-geek about Linux. You don't have to do the sort of granular configuration and tweaking she does; she enjoys the tweaking. Linux, particularly Ubuntu, is totally not over your head.