I installed Mythbuntu 9.04 on an inexpensive Acer box with an nVidia GeForce 8200. This seems to be the minimum hardware to get 1080 accelerated graphics. The accelerated graphics just worked with no muss no fuss. The motion is smooth. I am happy.

Apple does not do power management in the main processor. They use a separate little processor to do this. This little processor will tell the CPU to slow down. If the CPU does not slow down -- say because it is not running an OS that understands the commands, the little processor may halt the clock of the CPU for a while.

It makes sense that running Windows under VMware could give better results.

I wonder when someone will suggest we get DRM in our eyeballs to keep us from seeing any of this evil free content.

This will rip:

bronco@ubuntu:~$ dvdbackup -v -i /dev/scd0 -M -o Videos/

And this will burn what was ripped:

bronco@ubuntu:~$ growisofs -speed 1 -dvd-compat -Z /dev/scd0 -dvd-video Videos/[name of DVD]

If Bill Gates had used Synaptic or something equivalent he would have an even worse view of the Windows experience. He would consider the add-remove applet in control panel to be poor and the experience of downloading various installers from web sites to be downright horrible.

why did you buy it if the manufacturer has terms you dont like?

Any manufacturer's terms hidden from the purchaser at the time of purchase do not deserve being observed.

Why call "Vista service pack 3" "Windows 7"?

I can see 2 reasons
1) Microsoft can stop running bad adverts on TV telling people Vista is not as bad as they think it is.
2) They can charge people who already have Vista to upgrade to service pack 3.