I cant imagine running full ubuntu on less than 1gig.

I run it just fine on a P4 with 512MB RAM. It's very smooth and fine for day-to-day use.

When we were trying to plan our wedding from two different countries, collaborative documents were extremely useful. We could both add things, review what the other was doing, and keep everything in a single place. It kept everything simple and easy.

While not everyone needs collaborative editing, it is extremely useful in some situations.

The big speed difference I notice between Opera and some other browsers isn't so much in the HTML/JS performance but in overall responsiveness. Opening a tab is nearly instantaneous, even on older systems. The browser just gets out of the way and lets me work. That speed difference won't be shown in most benchmarks.

Did you install it as an upgrade of your previous version, or as a separate install?

I believe the alpha/beta versions default to a separate install.

The current version is still 9.64, with 9.7 in beta testing, so it will be some time before 10 comes out.

I don't believe there is a 9.7 beta. The Opera 10 beta was released recently, and this builds upon it. They are definitely working towards a v10 release in the relatively near future.

Offhandedly, I've had iTunes remove songs and complete albums on several occasions, actually deleting the files. This has occured under both OS X and WinXP. And an iTunes "upgrade" recently deleted my entire library (again, deleting the files, not just removing their entries in iTunes). Quite a pain in the buttocks.

I much prefer working on a Mac, but I wouldn't trust iTunes with anything of value. It's the only program I've ever had which has done things like this. Windows is annoying, but usually not actively destructive.

Hurray for backups.

In this case it's option three: Still locked, but simply not bound to a contract. You still can only use it on AT&T, but are not locked in to a specific monthly plan.

Not always. Facebook on Opera 9.6 is painful to load, even with JS & plugins turned off.

My car battery died this morning. Who'd have thought that thing had a clock in it?!