I’m off to the mall (ick!) at lunchtime to pick up the latest version of Mac OS X (Panther). I’d really like to be running the GIMP at home, and my options are as follows:

• continue running OS X version 10.2 and spend about 6 hours compiling and installing X11 and an old version of GIMP (1.2 instead of 2.0)
• spend $100 on OS X 10.3 and get pre-compiled versions of X11 and the GIMP
• wait ’til January for Mac OS X Tiger to come out
• buy a full version of Photoshop for my current OS (at $600, not a pleasant prospect)

Since I’ll use GIMP for a bunch of stuff this fall (photo editting & portfolio stuff), seems like spending $130 to get the latest version of everything running without a headache makes the most sense.

The hardest part of the trip is gonna be resisting the urge to buy the pretty toys they have at the Apple Store.