Well this is all fine and dandy.... but: http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/23/1359259
been there, done that.

Unfortunately, We've already discussed the effectiveness of tinfoil hats. That would be likely to fry your noggin even faster.
http://slashdot.org/articles/05/11/10/1839224.shtml?tid=133

HEY!! Citing your source, complete with publication date and page numbers is not allowed! This is Slashdot, you're supposed to just spew rhetoric and car analogies.

Please rephrase in the form of a car analogy, or state number of Libraries of Congress per second.... or it didn't happen.

DON'T DO IT!! Trust me, man.. It sounded reasonable enough, but .. Oh god, what have I done? Don't do it!

uh, yeah. If I want to use ubuntu, or BSD or Whatever... I can. That's what great about having a choice. MY choice is to use Windows, like the other 90% of the world. In fact, I quite like the new build.

I can afford a copy of Windows 7, and have already ordered it. If I couldn't, there's always the less-than-legal ways of getting it. How's THAT for giving access to everyone? In a country where 2/3 of the population has a computer at home, I'm not sure that going FOSS would make that much difference in access. Anyone here who doesn't have a computer, probably doesn't want one, or at least has access to one if they need it. My PHONE isn't FOSS, and IT can check my email and smurf the internets..

You holier-than-thou 'EVERYONE needs to use open source' nutcases are the reason I don't. That and the few ubuntu boxes I've put together are collecting dust because they just don't work right, after weeks of tweaking and patching... All I wanted was to play starcraft, and a modern machine couldn't even do that at higher than .5-1 fps. What does THAT tell you?

Yeah, umm. about that.

Dell Inspiron Mini 9 ... 16GB SDD and 2GB RAM. Onboard Intel video. Runs quite nicely, with aero enabled, all the bells and whistles.

So, sorry to bust your MS hate, but give it a rest.
Have you tried Win7? ...Have you tried Vista with SP1 loaded? what about XP.

As far as disk space. in Oct 2001, the average PC was loaded with a 30-40GB drive. with an average XP install running between 1.2 and 1.4GB that would be .... 3.5-4% of a system's harddrive. Today, the average PC is configured with (at least) a 500GB drive, and windows 7 installs in about 10-12GB which is..... 2-2.4% of the system's drive. Wow, it actually takes LESS relative hard drive space to install. Shall we calculate the MEMORY usage next?

Give up the whole 'M$ sucks!!1!' and 'I want my windows 3.1' bullshit, and adapt. It's called evolution. There's a reason we don't use spears and rocks anymore.

Yeah, I know this well. I live 20km away from downtown Victoria, BC's CAPITAL city.. can practically SEE it. Yet, my old phone (Telus) would roam constantly. I had roaming turned off for 4 years, but eventually got sick of paying $70/month for service I could only use while I was at work, or in town.. about 9 hours/day during the week. Rediculous. When they called me to try and upgrade my plan, I explained this to them, and the fact that I know several people who have a similar situation, that their roaming charges get knocked off their bills. They told me no way, so I switched carriers (Rogers), and got an iPhone. no problem now. They will at least credit for roaming charges, as I'm on a border zone.

Moral of the story: If you don't like the service you're getting from someone, let them know, and then take action. Then let them know again. and again. and again.

Oh, and then tell everyone you know about how poor customer service they gave you.

Hey, I'm not trying to upset, I'm merely pointing out some facts and trying to clear up some FUD. Noone's 'forcing' you to do anything. If you don't want office 2010... DON'T install it.

The tutorial (Getting Started tab) is actually pretty straight forward. it shows the 03 menuing system. you click on the menu you would have used for whatever function you're looking for, then it shows you the 07 interface, and shows you what to clock. it does this via a flash webpage you can leave up in the background, until you get the hang of the new layout.

As far as the DOCX and XLSX new formats, save as gives you the option to save in legacy word documents, PDF, CSV, RTF you name it. For opening, there is a compatibility pack available for free to automatically convert the new format documents into the legacy formats when you open them, and I believe it gives you a link when you try to open a new file to the webpage with the kit download.

You say you would stay with your current version. Go for it. I'm not telling you to upgrade. Some people like the changes. I hated them at first, then I started to figure out how the logic works with how they grouped items. Now, I like it. I sit down with office 03, and have a hard time remembering how to get to certain things, others are automatic. Remember when File manager turned into Windows Explorer? Or how about when the DOS underneath evereything was ditched to make way for NTLDR? You can still run 98 if you really want to, but good luck getting support from the official channels. I ususally use Google as my first line of support when I need it.

Overall point of my first post was simply this: The changes are implemented. Either get used to them, try to embrace them, or don't. Stick with what you like. Personally, I've moved to 2007. But only becase I got a good deal on it, otherwise I would have stuck with 03. (additionally, in my experience, 07 is a bit easier to deploy via group policy)

and I say good day.

I bet CTRL+S still works.

Then you must not have used the ribbon with the keyboard. Hit the ALT key and EVERYTHING is available through the keyboard. direct to the function you're looking for.

Want to search a library for a citations to insert? SCL. 4 keys in total. who uses that function? I don't know. I'm sure someone does. it's a big button, which you DO NOT HAVE TO USE THE MOUSE FOR.

The only thing you have to take your hands on the mouse for now, is to play solitaire.

If you were looking for the file menu, didn't you notice the orb in it's place was glowing (fading to brignt orange and back) until you click on it for the first time?

Why does everyone have to hate any changes to something they think "is the way it should be?" I for one, have gotten used to the ribbon. sure there are changes, but there's also a fully interactive tutorial right there on the help tab that shows where options have moved to. "you used to click here, then here, then here.. now you just click here."

Not to mention the fact that now EVERY option is available through the keyboard? try hitting alt and see what happens! you can even script, or macro commonly used functions. and the quick access toolbar is even better... if there something ou use a lot, make your own shortcut! alt+4 is WAAAAY faster than "alt-f>p>r>tab tab tab"

Why is it that people fear change so much? God, people, grow some (proverbial) nuts and learn something new.

Wierd Al always asks the artists before doing a parody, and almost ALWAYS gets approval from them first. if he doesn't, he usually will not release the song. He does this all, even though he doesn't have to, because he respects the original artists. Now THAT is a man I can respect. ...sort-of.

(kidding, I love the man)

Oh come on, give us a situation that most of us would never be in. Pick up someone at the bar? Maybe if this bar had a Linux User Group meeting... and this ugly person is your mom, upstairs...

I've recently been lucky enough to do some serious driving in my roommate's new car.. VW Phaeton, W12 (2 of their VR6s stuck together in a sort of W shape.) In europe there are all sorts of engine choices available that we can't get here in North America.

The V10 diesel they offer in EU would outperform his 420hp W12 by a long shot. VERY efficient considering the weight of the car (5600lbs), and VERY powerful. And it gets better mileage than his '90 Westfalia and '04 dodge dakota.

A bit off-topic, but just wanted to throw that out there.