I was interested in getting an Ibook as a linux box,but I want one that I can make the case clear. I heard that there were different kinds of ibooks, like some that are painted on the inside and some that are painted on the outside and some that dont have any clear plastics.
Anyone know the difference?
There were two kinds -- one had clear plastics painted white from the inside, and the other used solid white plastic. Where the cutoff from clear plastic to solid white occurs is hotly debated, but generally the 700 - 800MHz series machines were the crossover. No matter what, though, the G4 iBooks are all of the solid white variety.
To identify a painted iBook easily you can look at the top/bottom corners with the screen open. There are the rubber bumpers in the top corners and you can see the screw holes going through the shell about 1/2" below them in the edge or 1/2" up from the bottom for the lower conters. If it is solid white plastic, you'll only be able to see the screwheads on the side and won't be able to see the holes in the edge. If you get a decent shot of the screen on some place like an eBay auction you should be able to tell if it is solid or clear.
This auction shows a solid white ring around the outside of the screen.
This auction barely shows the lower coners where you can just make out the screw hole, and you can see that the ring around the screen is not white, but translucent.
That should help in verifying if one is painted or opaque, even if you can't get a hands-on look at it.
IIRC, Apple also switched from translucent keys to solid white ones when they switched case plastics. Just looking at the keyboard (assuming it's the original one) should tell you which plastics your iBook has.
They switched to solid-white keys with the iBook G4.
The easiest way to tell if an iBook is painted or opaque is... *drum roll* if the top case/display bezel are silver. If they are, it's painted. If they're off-white/light grey, it's opaque.