An update on my progress, of switching to GNU/Linux...

I now have a really stable machine, I had a few problems with the internal sound causing the machine to lock up when it would try and 'beep' at me - fixed this (for now) by removing the snd-powermac module from /etc/modules

I can now play all my music, still using free software, thanks to Rhythmbox and VLC.

Evolution is a really good email client.

Nautilus is my browser of choice.