Thanks for all the advice. I have found a reseller that claims to still do the MS Office Pro 2000 educational deal and have a moderately cunning plan for buying the same. (It probably bends Microsoft's EULA, but doesn't break the law---which is more than can be said for the EULA itself.) Of course, the machine will be getting a (SuSE) Linux partition and a copy of Star Office courtesy of yours truly and---next chance I get---I'll be starting my mum's computing rehab. Ian (Lynch), you kindly point out that you (I assume your company) do a decent machine for under 400UKP. Any chance of a spec/quote to my email? -- Damian COUNSELL http://www.counsell.com/