How is installing from a tar.gz considered to be evolved?

I think that's something to do with it using Clickonce. I've never seen a Clickonce app giving the option of going anywhere else, so it may be a limitation of Clickonce. I think the idea being that unprivileged users can install applications easily, so they have to be installed within a directory you have write permission to.

The only differences I've found between Chromium and Chrome are cosmetic. Chromium is pretty free - it's distributed under a BSD license

I don't see any 'beta' on mine...

http://twitpic.com/1r0t5g

That's not how it works. If you download the .deb file for Chrome 5 from Google's site, it does not get updated by the package manager. It also doesn't get updated the way the Windows version does. It really looks like you'd have to update it yourself. According to help, there should be a button on the about box to check for updates. The Linux version doesn't have this.

Why would I download Chrome when I already have Chromium which gets updated automatically by Update Manager, remaining consistent with everything else on my laptop?

Depending on what definition of "particle" you go with, it can be.

Google has the exact amount of barrels...

1 (mile^3) = 2.62170749 × 10^10 oil barrels

I'm with you on this one. I *DO NOT WANT* flash on my phone. TYVM.

The customers who bought the iPhone/iPad/iPod touch are customers that chose to buy a device that doesn't support flash. They wanted that device. There should be no shame involved.

You got that wrong... it's not about the general public, it's about the developers. Not having to splash out big bucks for Adobe's software, and not worrying if your web app will run on $RANDOM_DEVICE or $RANDOM_OS is definitely a good thing for the developer.

So only divorced, widowed or dead people can buy them?

This is why I told my gf to not buy an iPad yet... probably get a better one for half the price in another year.

If she needs it now, she needs it now. Waiting a year doesn't let her use it now, so why bother suggesting that?

I think you'll find that this is what most people use netbooks for... Web, e-mail, playing music, simple online games or solitaire.

It's really not surprising that the iPad is destroying netbook sales here as it presents that functionality in an intuitive and aesthetically pleasing way. Most people don't care about the keyboard... they wouldn't be using it most of the time on a PC either.

Sure, it isn't appealing to a lot of people on this site who like to mess about with computers, do coding, etc, but that's not who it's aimed at. I'm surprised at the amount of people here who don't understand that.

I regularly look up things on the web with my iPhone when I'm at home, or out and about. I don't *want* flash, and the keyboard (yes there is one... and it's actually quite easy/fast to use) tends to only be used for entering a search query, or login details.

Hardly a crippled device, apart from the screen size. It does everything it needs to do and saves turning on a computer or even having one in the livingroom.