I am currently looking into moving away from Windows XP as my primary OS. But, I am a picky computer user that wants everything to work, and work quickly. My current computer is three years old, but should be much faster than it is. It is a tablet laptop with a 1.6Ghz CPU, 1.5GB of RAM and will have a 7200 rpm hard drive when I switch out my current 4200 rpm one. The hard drive speed alone will make some difference in responsiveness. The main reason I am switching away from Windows is the poor memory management (Firefox is also to blame) and slowdowns I experience. I am a demanding computer user that pushes the computer hardware to the limit.
I am currently looking at Fedora 7 with KDE3/KDE 4 (alpha), Debian, Suse 10, or Mac OS X 10.46. Yes, all of those will work on my computer as I have run Mac OS X as a test to see if it would work. Fedora 7 should be released this week in 5 days. Debian and SuSE have also been installed, but it's seems like something is missing, and getting the last 10% of my requirements takes way too long. Some of them may require an emulator like Parallels, Boot Camp or Wine.
Now here are my requirements, I am making this list for myself to check off when I switch to the next OS. It will be easier finding it on-line than on some USB hard drive that might not work.
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Required
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+ Wireless Internet (atheros chipset)
+ Wired Internet
+ USB (high-speed)
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.......... Mouse
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.......... Wireless Keyboard
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.......... USB external soundcard
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.......... USB Hard Drives
+ SD card slot on laptop
+ Docking station with VGA cable & USB ports
+ iTunes 7 (for Nike + sport kit)
+ Microsoft Money 2007
+ Microsoft Streets & Trips with USB GPS receiver
+ Google Earth
+ Java Programming IDE (Oracle JDeveloper 10g)
http://developer.apple.com/tools/jdeveloper.html
+ BitTorrent
+ DVD player
+ Flash player (youtube/google video)
+ Media player that plays WMV, MPG, AVI, Divx. Also needs to have a ability to create a playlist. (Will this work?
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloa...gnosysreq=True)
+ Thumbnail view file manager for pictures
+ 1920x1080 resolution preferred (37" LCD monitor) 1024x768 should be there for using it as a laptop. The ability to easily change resolutions without rebooting is a plus.
+ Open Office (have to wait for the alpha Aqua version for Mac OS X, but I don't do anything complicated. The X11 port isn't very good)
+ GIMP Photo Editor
+ Nice default photo viewer
+ Adblocker/PithHelmet for whatever browser I pick
+ Ability to get to every website (even ones that require IE)
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Bonus Points
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+ Pen based tablet functions work (Run Microsoft Office OneNote in an emulator?) Use pen as a mouse.
+ Buttons on computer work
+ Photo organization program (Mac has this, although I would need to buy it, Need to find a good one for Linux)
+ Cell phone software
+ Kismet/Netstumbler or similar wifi programs. Ability to crack WEP passwords a plus.
+ Ethereal
+ Video capture program (I currently have Pinnacle Studio 9)
+ Program like GetRight that can resume downloads and pause them
+ Parallel port on docking station (Okidata OL600e laser printer) (doesn't work currently in Windows)
+ Quicktime
+ Half-life 2 (I would be able to switch back to my current HD to play it)
+ Car mp3 support (Linux has it, might be able to work in OS X)
http://www.empeg.com/support.html