For most uses, KOffice works well (Windows or Linux); GNOME Office (AbiWord, Gnumeric, GIMP, etc.) also work well, but I don't think there is a Powerpoint analog. For Windows computers, the best office package I've found yet is Ashampoo Office -- it's not free, but it's cheap and frequently discounted. Ashampoo being a German software developer, they don't get many writeups in the US, but the few reviews that exist are generally quite positive, and my own experience with their software is extremely positive. I prefer Ashampoo Office to Microsoft Office -- it has nearly all the functions (including Track Changes) yet is much simpler to use, has a cleaner interface, and takes up much less space on whatever hard drive it is installed on.

When you get it done, it's great. The upgrade is not fixed yet... I always find that waiting two days for the bugs to be ironed out is best (and rarely wait myself). I upgraded from Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.04 today. It's supposed to load Unity (replacement for UNE interface). It still hasn't. But it did load Gnome Desktop, which I'm quite comfortable with (except that my notebook is supposed to be too old and have too few resources to run Gnome -- but it does, and better than it did 10.04). I have installed Unity. It does not run. The dialog box says there is a driver missing, but neither tells me what driver it is nor makes it easy for me to find and load it. But I'm still a n00b, I'm sure more experienced hackers could fix this. Now I'm wondering what HackToLive will put in for SuperOS 10.10 and how long it will take him to do it?

I used to see DOS as my second language. I have yet to learn enough bash or cshell to blow my nose with. The books I have tried to learn from are as abstruse as if they were written in Hmong. Any suggestions? Right now, I'm running Ubuntu simply because I rarely need to go into Terminal -- and when I do, I can usually find someone in ubuntuforums.org to tell me what to type, which is not really a learning process (other than learning how to ask the question to get a good answer).

Um, considering the cartoon was Rankin-Bass, yes, it can be beaten. Rankin-Bass demolishes everything they touch, although "The Hobbit" and "The Last Unicorn" were mangled less than their usual.

I would further state that UbuntuForums.org is much more helpful than any single site you can find about Windows. I agree that a new user would be as likely to enjoy Ubuntu as Windows, but it would be harder to explain to them why this or that download from the Internet doesn't work on their Ubuntu system... and I still submit that OpenOffice.org is NOT as good as MSWord, dammit. I wish it were (being a professional editor who has had several files totally dicked up by OOo).

"Actively despised" seems more to fit Windows Mobile. On my phone, I can only synch anything if I have access to a commercial server with Outlook -- won't even think about using Outlook on my PC. I'd love to load Symbian (or just about anything else) onto my Pantech Matrix C820.

Calling Launch #6 a success is not paying attention to SpaceX's own press release. It was a guarded success, in that it got off the pad, but did not meet all the specifications of the flight.

The only problem with this is that SpaceX has yet to have a fully successful launch -- so all the money they've spent to date is money down the drain, or chalked up to experience. Their last launch was "successful", even though it fell off trajectory early on and the "payload" never reached its intended destination. This is fiduciary efficiency?

What isn't new? KDE is still slower than a virus-infected Vista installation.

The article linked showed battery life using different models of the Eee. Maybe I'm blind, but I did not see ANY listings of battery life under different OS. I know that UNR 9.10 does not get the battery life of ASUS' remix of Gentoo that came with my Eee 901, but the added functionality is more than worth it. I would assume the bloat of Windows 7 would also eat more juice -- or be handicapped, the way the version of XP that came with some 701 and 901s was. I will be upgrading my Eee soon to UNE 10.04 (Ubuntu changed the name, from Remix to Edition).

In have a different experience. Intrepid and Jaunty had sound issues with me, but Karmic did not. I don't use KDE because KDE sucks, and don't have a problem with GNOME. I don't know WHY KDE sucks, just that it does, and until I have a problem with GNOME I'll keep using it. Hardy worked out of the box one time and didn't others; Intrepid seemed to suck; Jaunty was better but still had problems; but Karmic has done everything I've asked of it, on several netbooks (Netbook Remix) Asheville Homeless Network owns and lets homeless peeople use and on my aging Gateway E-6100 (Full version).

In my experience the Astak EZ Reader 5" is the best deal out there. No, it does not have wireless connectivity. No, it does not have its own repository. But you can buy books from anybody and have no problem whatever. It runs Linux, has 8-shade grey-scale (not 4 of the cheaper ones or 16 of these $700 jobs). You download the book to your desktop or notebook, then transfer it via USB. The price is a winner too, you can find it some places for $199 - $230. (There's a used one on eBay for $189 Buy It Now, claims only 2 weeks' use.) They also have a 6" model for not much more.

Perhaps we would not have the problem if all staff used OOo. But many of our works have to be submitted in RTF, and VERY often we find that converting from DOC to RTF causes major problems in formatting: font changes and font size changes as well as justification, with repair of same being hours-long difficult. Mind you, the services which want RTF are eReader services, not POD. ODT to DOC causes major problems in Word, which most of Staff uses; DOC to RTF withint OOo is horrendous.

We publish ebooks, although we also publish Print On Demand. Our books are published in every ebook format we are aware of, including Kindle, Nook, Mobipocket, and others. We have found no easy work-around to OOo's bugs other than, as I said, converting to TXT and starting over with the fonts and formatting, which we do usually after hours of tearing our hair out trying to get rid of the hidden formatting and codes in OOo. Again, I have reported the bugs, and OOo states they are not interested in fixing them.

I think that your estimate of the population who will be happy with OOo is overrated. I personally know at least 30 people who are not happy with it, and am not happy with it myself. I have reported 3 bugs (one critical for my work, one moderate, and one minor) since 2.2, and have been repeatedly told that OOo is not in the least interested in fixing them. I work for a small ePub company, and when we get documents in from someone using OOo, often the only thing we can do is convert them to TXT, open them in Word, and redo all the formatting. Granted, a publisher has more need for cross-compatibility than most businesses, but in these days of Internet publishing, there are a lot more of us than the .0001% of users you referenced.