my parents first bought me my own computer when i was 6 or 7, i think. Like 1996-97ish. And then a laptop when I was 11. And then from then on, I paid for part/most/all of the computers that were for me from then on. (you might consider me spoiled, but that's fine with me. my parents knew i loved computers, but they're not exactly cheap, so they'd skimp on everything else like birthday gifts and allowances to get me a computer for christmas...plus, i think they got tired of trying to figure out how to use Linux after i'd install it, hehe)
Right now my main machines are a 12" iBook (1.2ghz G4 from like a year ago), a desktop PC with gentoo linux (a64 3500+, whee! 😀 ), and a laptop someone gave to me a few days ago that I installed ubuntu on...it's like a 500mhz amd k6-3 or something completely insanely old that's about 2x my iBook in terms of size and weight.
most definitely waiting for intel 'Books before I buy one for uni 😉 🙄 😎