Any suggestions? I need it to be powerful enough to run and display some digital video content.

After reading all these comments I'm stuck by some fatalism and maybe some Stockholm syndrome.

It takes a lot of energy to go a different route sometimes and demand more of vendors. For awhile people were pushing the TCO view to reveal that the cheapest priced PC isn't really the cheapest to own and keep functioning, but a certain Wal-mart psychology of "Always the lowest price! Don't ask us how!" has dominated a big segment of the market.

Lots of people don't want to or can't effectively calculate the real cost of things. Somebody else picks up the slack.

I like the thought processes behind the one guy who has 300 folks to support. Interesting calculation. Of course SOMEONE pays, but at least we can see the cost for what it is. Compare that to more staff you can also get a dollar figure. Compare it to 150 teachers and 30 student volunteers spending hours not teaching or learning but fixing their computer. How do you measure that cost? What other "costs" aren't built into that model?

We keep spending all this time fixing our friends and relative's computers. In previous years we might have spent the time fixing their cars. It makes us feel smart and useful.

Why isn't their much more pushback? Are the demands and/or attempts to financially punish a big vendor a waste of energy? I think that part of it is because for us smaller buyers we feel like our demands fall of deaf ears at the vendor level. Or when we do speak up we get good advice as well as crap from our own community on how to avoid the situation or just accept it "Get Lynx! It's your fault for not using all Microsoft! Their is nothing you can do. Globalization is inevitable, it drives down the price and no one can fight it, just get over it."

We also get some help but also lip service from the vendors. Externally they say, "We value your time and are working to provide you the utmost service." But when they look at people's actions their behavior is, "They only look at the bottom line cost, they bitch about service but the bitching doesn't really hurt as much as the lack of sales at a higher price point." Why? A bean counter mentality when buying and not enough Total Cost of Ownership people who have to pick up the spilt beans complaining.

What will it take to effect change? More defections to Linux? A huge buyer demanding more or refusing to buy? More education from consumer advocates? BTW, Who ARE the consumer advocates? The Action 7 on your Side, guys aren't going to take on this problem. Government isn't. Is everyone counting on the invisible hand of the market to punish the monopoly players?

Be prepared for a long wait, because at least one monopoly player has used the bank to buy the refs and is not going to jail, but is definitely collecting their 200 dollars. (Wow, I just impressed myself with my own metaphor! Excuse me while I look smug for a second.)

Well I'm going back to working at a smaller scale since the process of effecting change on a large scale is wearing me out. Maybe one of you out there will be the snowflake that breaks the branch or the 100th monkey that figures out how to wash the oysters.