it doesnt even come close to being able to do what i need it to... not even close, in fact, it CANT do what i want it to do without hundreds of dollars in software.

I'd love for you to make your limited windoze machine do this simple task:

X -query <hostname> :1

Oh, and just so you don't waste your time trying, it's impossible on windoze... and that's about as basic a job as any useful OS should be able to do.

I would love to see you setup a single windoze pc as a router, firewall, dns server, dhcp server, dial-in server, and internet gateway without having to buy any special software. Guess what, you can do ALL of that with standard Linux.

Mmmkayy...

Since the thread has gone way offtopic I'm shutting it down. Please feel free to take it up in the "Distributions" forum (sorry jharris) or out by the bike racks after school.

<nag>futurist: You will find that you will only receive as much assistance from others in the forum as the effort you are willing to invest yourself. Also - please mind the language - this is a public forum and your mum could be reading this. Thanks in advance.</nag>