I think you guys should debate the family topic in SD. (As previously stated, I think breaking your own computer is a terribly stupid idea.)

What's your status, OP?

I still disagree with you, because even a fresh installation of Windows takes up excess resources with superfluous services and settings that Ubuntu does not have. Ubuntu takes as much RAM as Windows 2000, whereas, XP takes at least twice as much to run as well. I think that the sheer fact that Ubuntu doesn't bog down the system as much as Windows is the reason that it runs just as fast, if not faster on Ubuntu, even if it's through a layer, which, BTW, is the same as Windows does, since StarCraft is a '95 game, and so newer versions of Windows must emulate older versions, just as Wine does.

Your parents are, from what I've heard on battle.net and in this thread, totally unreasonable bastards. The way I see it, you really only have two options: either you discretely modify your computers software to make it run poorly (and hope they buy a new one), or get a job and buy one yourself. The former is quite risky, as your parents may decide to just get rod of the computer and be done with it because "you spend all your time on the computer." That said propose you try the latter, and hope that your getting a job will appeal to your parents' desire to see you get off of your ass and do something. If that doesn't work, just conclude that your parents are total douchebags, give up, and cry.