Have a look at GIMP as an alternative to photoshop.

If you want to play the latest Windows games, use specialized business applications that are made for Windows, need a full release of Adobe Photoshop for your work, etc. then this solution probably isn’t for you.

The 2nd goal is spending as little as possible. If you want it to be the easiest most effortless experience and money is no object then buy an Apple.

Craigslist and eBay are probably option for somewhat cheap PCs but I’d never recommend getting one of these without wiping the drive and reinstalling Windows (or Linux.) You never know what kind of viruses or malware (or killie porn!) might be on the hard drive. It’s just not worth it.

Linux works great for basic tasks if you aren’t computer savvy. It also works great for very complicated tasks if you are computer savvy and/or are willing to spend the time and effort to learn and experiment. (Linux is BEST for the person who considers working on their computer a true hobby.)

If you fall into just need “basic tasks” group then have a friend download the Ubuntu CD image (or better Linux mint; linuxmint.org) and burn a CD for you. If you are buying a PC you can boot from one of these CDs and make sure it works without finding special drivers, etc. and you won’t damage Windows or alter the hard drive at all.

If the PC is free to you, then do this once you get home. If you have problems you aren’t out any $.

Keep in mind that it will run quite slow since it’s running from CD and not the hard drive. (Installing it later at home will fix that.)

In the past year I’ve acquired two PCs. Both of which were owned by someone who considered their PC to be “old junk.” Each of them were throw-aways I got for free when the owner bought a new PC from Dell. No fiddling with putting parts together in this case.

One had a nice wide-screen LCD monitor already but since the new PC came with a monitor I got that free too. (Trent’s comments about using your social network is spot-on.)

The first thing I did with each was boot up and see if Windows was usable. It wasn’t on either. One wouldn’t even boot (some malware had wiped out most of stuff under C:\Windows.) The 2nd did but was almost unusable despite the fact that Adaware and antivirus didn’t find anything wrong.

Ubuntu booted up and ran just fine on each. No drivers to search for, no searching forums for help. In fact, in the past 2 years I’ve had less issues with hardware drivers under Linux (ubuntu, Fedora or CentOS) than I have had under Windows XP or Vista (with the exception of when the OS was pre-installed before purchase of course.)

I ran the “Install” icon from the desktop and let it wipe out the hard drive (the default on both Ubuntu and Mint is to share the drive and give you a choice between Windows and Linux when you first turn on your computer.) Other than my timezone, a login name and password I accepted defaults for everything during the install.

I gave one PC to my parents (NOT computer savvy at all) and they love it. Faster (by far) than what they had. They both surf the Internet and use email, etc.

Frankly the most “technical” parts were downloading the CD image and creating a CD and then setting the system BIOS to boot from CD. (The later is something you’ll have to do if you want to install XP home too, btw.)

I’d just shop around for used complete systems on Craiglist or eBay. Something with 3Ghz processor and 1GB RAM with Windows XP preloaded. You ought to be able to find something in that range for $100-150 ballpark. That will give you a complete system with no extra work required and it will be powerful enough so it won’t be obsolete within the year.

Or you can go up to $200 for a new Lenovo desktop or $200 for a refurbished Dell.

For a monitor you should be able to find a used 15″ or 17″ CRT for $5-20 on Craiglist pretty easy.

Jim

Yes, Ubuntu may be a bit technincal, but linux has grown up over these years. Yes, you will have a learning curve, but trust on this, Ubuntu is a great starter distro and there are more than enough online commmunities out there for help

but the most important aspect of going with Ubuntu is that the learning curve is NOT big and by the time you have a working knowledge of the OS you will have had at least 30 hours of practical training time.

this translates into a newly aquired technical skill thereby advancing your base computer knowledge from windows/Mac centric to a more traditional model of computing, the *nix system

people stop whining about not wanting to learn a new OS, if you can point and click you can figure Ubuntu out yourself and if and when your skills are beyond the Unbuntu interface, you will now have a heavy base knowledge in *nix systems thereby allowing you to explore a more technical distro, Gentoo, CentOS, RedHat, Fedora, you get hte point and when it is all said and down, by exploring and working through this new landscape you have jsut passivley padded you technical skills in the area of *nix systems and the differences between linux distros, so there, win!

I use Photoshop CS, and while it takes noticeably longer to start up using WINE (maybe 2-3 times longer than in Windows, especially if you have a lot of plugins), once it’s running it behaves well, including all the plugins I have.

1. You can get a decent PC from Surpluscomputers.com for a hundred bucks
2. I have found that Ubuntu works best on DESKTOPS. There are two major issues with Linux: Wireless connectivity isn’t easy and Video editing software is terrible (and gaming if you are into that). If you surf and word process and youtube, Ubuntu is better than windows (more secure). As long as you have a wired PC connected to the internet, you probably won’t have to do anything to Ubuntu once it installs.
3. If you want more windows like programs and viable replacements:

http://www.howtoforge.com/the-perfect-desktop-ubuntu-8.04-lts-hardy-heron

I migrated six months back to a refurbished macbook and have not since looked back. I never wanted to use a vista OS.

I sometimes need to do powerpoint, I use VMware Fusion and use office from my earlier laptop running XP.

Sometimes I need to do Fortran coding, I have Ubuntu virtual machine intel compilers for free for ncommercial use.

I work seamlessly between the different OS and just focus on my work.

Is this the lowest cost solution? Not in terms of $. But that’s a huge advantage in terms of not letting any distracting thoughts of making thing which are not working.

I just focus on getting things done now.

Seriously.

Yes, they’re expensive. But they are hands-down the easiest computers to use, not to mention they last FOREVER.

Plus, every Apple store has the Genius Bar- free tech support.

Buy the extended warranty- you won’t be sorry when 2.5 years into your purchase, something happens and Apple covers it.

Macs are fast, don’t get viruses, and are the most visually appealing computers around.

Likewise with games. Most modern games won’t run on Linux, and can’t be run through Wine because they require 3D graphics acceleration or they are just too CPU intensive. But like Trent says, Linux is perfect if you just want to surf the web and watch vidoes.

As for Adobe Photoshop — Trent, Trent! The GIMP does everything I have wanted out of Photoshop, and faster :) It just takes some learning.

Bare Minimum requirements

It should be possible to get Ubuntu running on a system with the following minimum hardware specification, although it is unlikely that the system would run well. You should use the Alternate install CD to attempt such an installation.

* 300 MHz x86 processor
* 64 MB of system memory (RAM)
* At least 4 GB of disk space (for full installation and swap space)
* VGA graphics card capable of 640×480 resolution
* CD-ROM drive or network card

Recommended minimum requirements

Ubuntu should run reasonably well on a computer with the following minimum hardware specification. However, features such as visual effects may not run smoothly.

* 700 MHz x86 processor
* 384 MB of system memory (RAM)
* 8 GB of disk space
* Graphics card capable of 1024×768 resolution
*

Sound card
*

A network or Internet connection

Note: All 64-bit (x86-64) PCs should be able to run Ubuntu. Use the 64-bit installation CD for a 64-bit-optimised installation.

For more information:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/SystemRequirements

I believe Ubuntu would be a very wise choice for a small business that does legal documenta preparation. Once familiarized with Ubuntu, ironing out all the kinks with hardware it’d be a really wise choice.

However if you haven’t a clue about using a computer, installing software, it might be wise to hire someone to come in a train employees/staff in the ways of Linux.

Also recommended would be the Ubuntu Linux Bible:

http://www.amazon.com/Ubuntu-Linux-Bible-William-Hagen/dp/0470038993

It will really get you up to speed on how to use Ubuntu effectively.