Democracy is one kind of freedom; Open Source is another kind of freedom.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I think most would agree that the brownish theme was more than a bad idea. It's always the first thing to go when I install a new Ubuntu distro. The new theme is a big improvement, but I think they could have done better. But it will make a better first impression. However, the great thing about the Linux user interface is, you can change it to look any way you want. If you are one of the few who liked the old brown theme, it should take you less than a minute to get it back. And if purple and orange isn't your cup of tea, go for Clearlooks or whatever you like. You can download all kinds of custom themes. Again, what you have in Ubuntu (and other Linux distros) is total control over the visual appearance of your UI. Mark Shuttleworth isn't deciding what theme you must use, but what theme you first see. It's a suggestion, not a mandate. After that, it's all up to you. That's the freedom of Linux.

"Climate is what you expect, weather is what you get." — Robert A. Heinlein

Just my opinion for what it's worth. What gets me is the either/or evaluation of cloud computing. It's either good or bad, dumb or smart, the future or a dead end. What I see is the diversification of the technology landscape, not a monolithic movement in any direction. For some people, cloud computing is the ticket. It's all they need and they are going to love it. For others (like me), I like my island PC, enjoy tinkering with it, but will selectively use elements of cloud computing, such as Gmail. Others will have nothing to do with the 'cloud' for either ideological or need-based reasons. The technology is allowing us to do more things, not fewer things. What we will see is people doing more things differently as it suits them. I think the Chrome OS has a future, as does the Linux desktop, Windows and the Mac. The Xbox, the Wii and the Playstation are not the end of the gaming PC, but just an increase in the many ways technology will be used for people to amuse themselves. At some point in the future (in some Darwinian fashion) a selective pressure may simplify the technology landscape. There will be winners and losers. But at this point we are in a Cambrian explosion of diversification and multiplicity of options, and this is going to continue for some time.

Not perfect, but a good start.

Always worked for me.

This is someone spoofing Microsoft with a fake Ad, right? I mean, Microsoft couldn't be that stupid, could they? A corporation with that much money and access to the best marketing talent money could buy, wouldn't put out something out that lame would they? Someone explain this to me. Or do flying chairs cause cerebral damage?

I can't speak to the main issue of this story, but XP is anything but off the market. I bought a new copy of XP from New Egg last week for $90 and installed it on my daughter's computer. She has an older computer that cannot run Vista, and she lost her original XP CD. When her hard drive crashed, I replaced it and put the newly purchased copy of XP on it.

Well, if there is ever going to be a intelligent robot in my home, it better not be running Windows. I can see it now rummaging through my CD/DVD collection requiring proof that I purchased each one and then threatening throw chairs at me if I don't produce the receipts. If there was ever a case for Linux, this is it.

Is there an open source alternative?

Wish I had mod points. Someone mod causality (777677) up.

Meet the new boss; same as the old boss -- The Who

Ah, an advanced form of life using Linux.

The thing I really like about Dropbox on my Linux system is the ability to create symbolic links in my Dropbox folder. This way I can keep all my folders and files where I want them and just create symbolic links to what I want backed up. I am only using the 2GB free offering at the moment, but I've been so happy with it I am likely to shell out the bucks for the paid version and backup my entire hard drive.

Other things I have tried: I still use rsync to backup to a separate hard drive, but that wouldn't help if the house were to burn down. I tried JungleDisk and did not like it. I also use the Amazon S3 service --very cheap-- using the Firefox S3 Organizer plug in. But Dropbox is more simple to use.