Without a doubt, Handbrake will do the job. I used it on an Ubuntu box in tandem with a Mac OS X box to rip my entire DVD collection.

http://handbrake.fr/

I only encountered one problem, with the third disc of the Monty Python Fly Circus set.

My O2 is running OpenBSD, now. Too bad I can't get the latest versions of IRIX. It was pretty impressive what that little O2 could do.

My Octane does a pretty good job of holding the carpet down.

I see people hang a pair of plastic testicles from the back of their trucks.

That might man your netbook up a bit.

Then I say kill it... ActiveX scares me, and it would be nice to have a more open solution.

Pardon my ignorance, but what ActiveX components are left? Vista and 7 have moved away from Windows Update in the browser and that's the only one I could think of.

I guess Flash is ActiveX, but they also distribute a non-activex version with Firefox, Safari, etc al. use.

Why no just kill ActiveX? Flash, Javascript, Silverlight... they all seem capable of the job.

I tend to stick with characters from Hamlet. It makes your servers sound epic.