Due to divorce my daughter has no way to do her computer related homework at my apartment. My laptop is for work only and my current internet connection is through my Blackberry which I have to have for work.

For Christmas my parents are hooking her up; they are getting her a stripped down laptop, printer and internet and I have to figure out the rest (OS, browser, etc.)

Since I’m newly divorced and squeaking by I’m thinking Open Source (or free) for the laptop is the way to go but I am somewhat clueless so I am asking for some help as to what I should use and what works together.

Since I have used and understand Open Office I am basing everything off what OS’s it can work in.

Operating System – Solaris Vs. Linix from what I have read Solaris wins and is close to Windows?

Office Suite – Open Office

Anti-Virus – Seems to be a joke with Solaris? Last article I found was from ’07 which list Avast and Clam as Antivirus providers while there is nothing I can find on which is better. Looking into it myself I am guessing Avast?

Photo Editor – Paint.NET use it love it!

Browser - I have used Firefox, in the past, there is a Firefox/Thunderbird for Solaris. It appears that Opera is no longer supports Solaris. So Firefox?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

Shawn

Can you not put some form of windows on it? Maybe you know someone with a spare Windows XP license, otherwise you could pick one up second hand very cheaply on ebay or similar or else just ask around some friends who have old laptops or computers that they have got rid of but have retained the Windows discs.

I really think that the added hassles of messing with Solaris or Linux is worth trying to avoid.

If this really isn't an option, I'd go for Linux Ubuntu http://www.ubuntu.com/ - I'm not a linux expert but from what I've tried, Ubuntu has been pretty good and the support and number of programs available for it is pretty good.

I installed Ubuntu on an old desktop I have. I haven't used it much but it is nice.

Ah, cool looks like Ubuntu has just about everything on my above list.

Thanks for the thoughts guys!

Linux is cool because it forces you to think in computer-scientific ways. Mac and PC go out of their way to make you NOT do that. Further, when your Linux works, it is rock-solid.

It's not as esoteric as it used to be, but there is still a learning curve. I have heard very good things about Ubuntu; my experience was with Fedora Core (formerly known as Red Hat.)

John