I need a computer with a friendly Unix-based user operating system!

["ELLIOTT, TIMOTHY" <tielliot umflint edu>]

Dear Sir My name is Tim Elliott. I am a third year student with
disabilities,attending the University of Michigan Flint majoring in
computer science. Michigan Rehabilitation Services(MRS) ( they are a
federal and state agency) purchased a Ultra Laptop Computer.
Model#N30W-14 with 500mgh and 128 megabytes of memory with 6 gigabytes
of hard drive space, four years ago for me to use. U of M is changing
over to a Unix-based operating system using iMac G4 computers. I am
requesting MRS to purchase me an Apple G4 Powerbook with Mac OS X
which is an Unix-based operating system. This computer would enable me
to run assistive software an on screen keyboard, screen reading, Math
Type 4, Scientific Notebook or similar software of these types., but
before they will purchase the computer , they need to find out if they
can download an Unix-based operating system off the Internet like
Linux and install on my laptop. They have spent 7 months in trying to
do this to no avail. What I want to know is, is this a practical
solution? Even if they find one on the Internet, would it run the
software I previously mentioned?

Please communicate with me asap because I need a computer with an user
friendly, Unix-based operating system by fall, when I go back to
school. 




Sincerely Tim W Elliott