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1. Comment - The Black Screen Syndrome, or, Tech news in search of the apocalypse

   (Dec 3, 2009 - 5:38 PM)

   According to Information Week, Black Screen Of Death Hits 50,000 PCs ( http://www.informationwe...tml?articleID=222000502 )
   
   For its part, Microsoft insists it's not behind the KSOD glitch, but to date has not offered an explanation or a fix of its own.

2. Comment - Uh-oh, netbooks -- not Windows 7 -- will lift 2009 PC sales

   (Nov 23, 2009 - 4:53 PM)

   Joe,
   
   I've recently read on slashdot that "Getting a fair-price refund from Amazon or Asus after declining the Windows XP EULA appears to be a thing of the past. In contrast to reports from the US and the UK from earlier in the year, Amazon simply refuses and provides information to contact Microsoft. Asus is offering US$6. Despite being confronted with publicly available information about the real OEM price of Windows XP Home Edition being $US25-US$30, Asus replies, 'The refund price for the decline of the EULA is correct in it being US$6. This price unfortunately is not negotiable. I do apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Please be assured that it is not ASUS intentions to steer you away in any which way.'"
   
   http://yro.slashdot.org/...d-For-Declining-XP-EULA
   
   Do you know if $6 is how much Asus and other manufacturers pay to Microsoft for XP? That's a *huge* discount to keep Linux away from the netbooks!

3. Comment - Acer ships updated Aspire One, with Windows but no Linux

   (Feb 9, 2009 - 7:03 PM)

   I have just made an experience in my MacBook:
   
   I downloaded a disk image from XUbuntu (a lightweight version of Ubuntu) and installed it in a virtual machine with 512Mb RAM.
   
   The installation was easy, and in a few minutes I was playing with this simple and good-looking desktop. It looks like a modern operating system, without the bells and whistles.
   
   I opened Firefox (browser), Thunderbird (email client), Abiword (word processor) and Gnumeric (spreadsheet), and the system continued to run fine.
   
   That was strange, since I was using only 512Mb of RAM in a virtual machine.
   
   Then I opened the system monitor to verify memory usage. XUbuntu and all the opened applications were using, together, 200Mb of RAM.
   
   That's impressive!
   
   For sure, XUbuntu doesn't have all the features of Windows 7 or Mac OS X, but I wouldn't mind to use it as my netbook operating system.
   
   Now, don't take my word for granted. Download a disk image and experiment XUbuntu in a virtual machine with 512Mb RAM:
   
   http://www.xubuntu.org/