Quite true; so is my own laptop.

I can't stand Linux.

Interesting statement. There are many different flavours of Linux. Some of which look/act pretty much the same as windows. Me-thinks you have just had very little exposure to Linux and have preconceived notions as to how it acts.

That aside, you should probably start a different thread for the wooden laptop.

Eeems: No, I actually like the interface of what I've seen or used (Ubuntu, Mint, really old Red Hat) just fine, but what I can't stand is the kooky(aka not-ntfs or fat) file system, inability to run .exe files easily (it was continually trying to open programs as archives), and driver difficulties.

Erm, linux filesystems have way better permission control then FAT. NTFS itself is copying a lot of features that ext3/4 offer (Like the permission scheme). Windows executable are archives and are not actually able to run by default on Linux. You'd have to install wine and set it so that .exe files are opened with wine to work. Linux executables (not .exe, usually they have no extension) have the executable flag flipped and thus file managers know to prompt for how to run them. Your problems with Linux sound like user training issues

And yeah, I will start a topic about it after I get well started on the first prototype - I need to choose the wood as well - and while I'm at it I bet we'll need to make a new Linux topic

Sounds good, feel free to prod me to split this topic if you want the original thread as part of the new thread.

How I couldn't think about this before? --"
The calc was too expensive for me. I hope to see a 84+ like that! (And it'll be called Bender! :p)

So, I've just been informed that the package arrived at my house. I'll get pics when I get home tonight.