Ubuntu should do just fine, XP being kinda OK for running Windows only apps, but Vista?

I’d disagree overall. Things like the ASUS EEE, with the soon coming 10 inch screen version, show how cheap laptops can be. Several months ago the closest offering was a TCL T10. With anything other than gaming apps not needing the latest hardware, and second-to-latest hardware getting really really cheap, I’m looking forward to very cheap, almost throwaway prices, for laptop hardware in the coming few months. And a decreasing premium to get higher spec stuff.

Apple always enjoy a premium for that bit extra quality they offer, and it has been valid depending one’s individual quality/price trade off, but the trade off is getting steeper, I think.

But then again, China’s consumer market is very fragmented: the price conscious and the totally price unconscious. Branding/premium may win again in Apple’s “we have money to throw away but we can afford it” niche. The 68000/68XXX advantage for apps is almost a decade expired.

I don’t think it’s a bad OS, and I think it’s not as bad as the press it’s getting. It’s not great, but I do think it is the PC OS for the next few years. So I want it, primarily to learn it. And to let my girlfriend use.

I’ll use Leopard most of the time.

I know a couple girls here in Shanghai who got macs because:
A) they’re cute.
B) it’s the fashionable thing to do. (news to me)

Poor girls are completely lost & one texts me once in awhile asking, “How do I do this?” and “How do I do that?” How should I know? I run XP on one comp & Ubuntu on another. No clue on Leopard. Good luck with that.

Yeah, Red Laowai is awesome. I wrote about him last week over here: http://tinyurl.com/3ey595

@Alex
The more I hear about that EEE pc, the more I think you may be right.
You know anything about a Nokia 810?