Although once upon a time I owned a couple of Mac SE's, I have been a Wintel user for the last several years. I build my own PCs, and am generally pleased and impressed with XP Pro (my current OS for both household desktops). Having said that, I still chafe at being being in more or less constant servitude to Redmond and have been looking at alternatives. Although I have dabbled in Linux, I still don't feel the desktop is ready for primetime (I will use it for servers ANY DAY.) Now to the point of my question: I understand that just about any Open Source (*nix) program can be compiled and run on the new OS X, since it is roughly BSD-based. This and this alone is what has turned my head toward Macs. My problem is I don't know if I can successfully integrate a Mac into my network (and I don't trust the salespeople for a straight answer). Here is my setup: Cable modem, Linksys Router/Firewall/DHCP Server, Samsung ML-1210 laser printer hooked up to my current desktop, HP Deskjet color inkjet hooked up to my wife's desktop, Canopus ADVC-100 video capture device hooked up to my machine via firewire, Microtek Scanmaker 3600 hooked up to my machine via USB, external USB 2.0 hard drive, old HP Netserver running Mandrake 8.2 in the garage. Does anyone see any huge problems in getting this all to play nice with a new iBook? I would REALLY appreciate your thoughts/comments.

I have a Powerbook G4 which talks to a Linksys WAP which plugs into a Linsys router (now just a switch) which then plugs into a FreeBSD box running on a PC which bridges to the Internet via a cable modem. (Say that in one breath!) The setup has worked seamlessly. The only drawback is that the Linksys WAP can't pass AppleTalk packets...for now. I can't vouch for integration into PC networks but I have read many other favorable accounts and it truly seems like Apple has bent over backwards to insure network compatibility across platforms. They really have no choice and compatibility is very likely only going to get better. hth, Damien

I have an ibook and I love it,but I can't upgrade it,if you want a mac that's gonna grow with your network,buy an older g3 tower! Under the hood it's pretty much is an ibook except you can add hardware to it. If you have the cash a powerbook g4 could do the job it has all the ports a portable should have and more! As for your linux question I had the same one here's a link that pickle suggested. http://fink.sourceforge.net/

As far as getting the iBook on the internet, there shouldn't be a problem. As I'm sure you know, all *nixes have TCP/IP native, so just make sure the Mac's set for DHCP (unless you assign static IPs, of course) and you should have any problems. Printing could be an issue. If Mac OS X drivers are available for your printers, it may be possible to share them off of the PCs. I've not really tried to do this yet, but it may work. You could always connect to one of the XP boxes (X connects beautifully to SMB shares), transfer the files, and print them from that machine. It's not as convenient, but it may be easier than making the other way work and cheaper than buying new printers. The video capture, scanner, and USB HD should also work as long as Apple Drivers are available for them. In fact, between iMovie and iPhoto, you may not even need any other software for the first two devices. OS X should also connect to your Linux machine without a problem. As I said, SMB shares can be used, TCP/IP is native, and it's *nix to *nix, so users/groups should work fine as is (if you are using them, that is). -Chad

NO usb 2.0 on ibook,no upgrades,no drivers,no word if apple will make it available to the ibook,as for connecting via 10/100,that will work for sure!.on almost any compute.r

True, the iBook does not have USB 2.0, but most (at least many) 2.0 devices are backward compatible. You can use them, but you won't get the throughput you would get from a 2.0 device. Also, Andy, what "upgrades" are you looking for? Memory can easily (though not exactly cheaply) be upgraded, and you're most likely stuck with the slower USB 1.1 until the next major overhaul of the iBook, but what else would you want to upgrade? You can drop pretty much any capacity hard drive in there that will physically fit. And yes, memory tops out at 640Mb, but for the iBook's target audience, that's more than adequate. Yes, the TiBook offers far more flexibility, but it's also significantly more expensive. With Macs, you usually get what you pay for. -Chad

Not that USB 2.0 is useful for anything right now... p