Intel Recall 6-Series Chipsets

[fat jez]

If you already have a windows license, then Virtualbox by Sun is free

 

[TheMediaevalFighter]

FJ,

Thanks. Might have a gander at that. Have already tried the freeware VMX offering and WINE which are okay but slow.

Take care

TMF

 

[fat jez]

I've used Virtualbox and it's actually not bad at all, considering it's free. Probably because it was written to be used professionally (not saying open source isn't good, but it's often a one man band, written by a coder with no concept of what makes a good UI).

 

[AlexM]

In terms of laptops (and I'm prepared to get flamed by all the haters who have never used one), get a Macbook Pro. They keep their value well, as very quick compared to the same spec Windows machine, run Unix (so similar to the Linux you are used to) and have support for industry standard document formats (e.g. you can run MS Office).

I'm a 'convert' to the Macbook Pro, very hesitant to buy one initially but several friends told me how pleased they were with theirs and I took the leap and bought a 13.3" model. It is excellent (both in hardware and software), far better build quality than the Sony Vaio it replaced and the OS is surprisingly intuitive - there's also multiple good virtualisation options if you wish to run Windows on top of MacOS or bootcamp if you want to dual boot the two.

Have you considered replacing your SCSI drives with an SSD (for a boot drive at least)? They're not cheap but if budget is not really a consideration I highly recommend trying one out - I'm very impressed with mine, completely transformed the computer.

 

[Jen]

Blimey, didn't realise it was this complicated and difficult - I just went and bought a laptop