Posted 12/01/2008 at 06:03:28pm

I can definitely see the use of netbooks for in-class note taking and travel if you don't need to run anything resource-intensive. Using it as a primary PC? Hell no. Considering how cheap they are, who cares?

Posted 12/01/2008 at 05:56:21pm

" I had to go get a plug-in for everything I wanted to view..."

Huh? Examples, please.

Posted 11/26/2008 at 10:19:56am

"And ghot: Linux is nothing more than an elitist toy for nerd snobs. Even the distros that are almost as user friendly as Windows are just as bloated (or more so) as Windows, and you still can't run any of your favorite (even open source) software on it. And since 2003 it hasn't even been useful for servers."

Ah, ignorance. How charming.

Linux is the standard for a range of server applications. I've been in IT for 10+ years, and the three companies I've worked for over those years have all used Linux for everything that matters - Web, Oracle, DNS, etc. The exception generally being email since most companies still tie themselves to MS Outlook, and an Exchange server often makes most sense.

Posted 11/26/2008 at 10:08:29am

no.

Posted 11/25/2008 at 04:04:34pm

You don't need to look any further than Red Hat Linux to see the open source business model. It's all about service and support. The problem is, this doesn't really apply to consumer-level software. You can't sell a $35 tech support contract for personal finance software or some such. Well, ok, you probably could, but not nearly enough of them to make up for the revenue lost by giving the software away for free.

True open source militants would have very little sympathy for a company that tried to milk years or decades worth of revenue out of an ancient code base. If free products are able to do it better, then so be it. Survival of the fittest - software style.

Bottom line from a consumer's perspective...who cares? As long as a market exists for software, someone will fill it either for free or at a reasonable price. The actual delivery method doesn't much matter, The quality of software does.

Posted 11/25/2008 at 02:49:45pm

Is there really a big market for watching feature films through a crappy little flash player on your PC? Makes sense if you're stuck on an airplane, I guess. Assuming that airplane had broadband.

Posted 11/25/2008 at 12:31:41pm

Gah! I thought they had gone out of business. Just bought a cheapo SATA Lite-on yesterday to replace my old Plex.

Oh well.

Posted 11/24/2008 at 11:44:41pm

Whoa, easy there tiger. If you'd been using Linux since the mid-90s, you'd know how much progress toward GUI-izing the OS has been made. I don't think we're more than a couple of years away from a Linux distro that any slobbering idiot can install and use without the teensiest bit of actual Unix/Linux knowledge.

Pretty soon, we'll have a *nix that runs just as slow and sucks just as many resources as Windows... Joy!

Posted 11/24/2008 at 03:07:25pm

"The world's out to get you! Buy our crappy security software!"

Posted 11/24/2008 at 03:05:50pm

Google Chrome... the solution in search of a problem.