". Should Microsoft be afraid? Methinks so. "
Spoken like a true Apple fanboy! And for that sort of price it will remain an item for those with more money than sense.

Seriously though - most of my "media consumption" devices are streaming over my home network or via the cloud. If i need
portable storage - USB sticks come in very high capacities these days for a fraction of the cost. Not to forget many currently available Android devices
can be expanded via SD card or USB.

So other than wanting to be the envy of my friends (NOT!) remind me why i wouldnt spend my money more wisely?

N...

"I currently work in a call centre while I'm studying."

How do you concentrate?

Not sure about anyone else - but on my Ubuntu systems SSD made a significant difference to more than just startup times - Web Browsing for example is much snappier - im guessing this is due to the drive more readily capable of writing image / web page data and fetching from disk cache for rendering etc.

Any "runtime" performance that relies heavily on disk based caches will see a benefit here. I've used SSD for I/O intensive applications such as running
Solr / Lucene search engine the improvement here is also very significant. Applications that are heavy on writes will also benefit.

So i kind of disagree with you on that one i guess!

"And then when you update your Linux once and the entire thing crashes and burns, you'll go back to Windows. At least, that's what keeps happening to me when I try to switch to Linux."

I hear this comment a lot or variants of the theme - and i just dont get it - I've been using Linux since ~2000 - now back then things could be a problem and a comment like the above would have its place. But as an experienced Linux user - i find "it just works" (tm) . I dont have to screw around installing drivers or fanny
around with settings at all. Compare that with a windows box or a OSX and , if you've been using Linux as long as i have and plug say a (for example) midi interface into a windows or OSX box you be astonished to find yourself hunting for drivers etc like wtf ?. On a modern linux distro that sort of thing "Just Works" and thats the kind of experience I have with Linux. The same can be said for updates for the most part are pretty damn reliable - I have an ubuntu box thats running 12.10 and i've upgraded every time theres been a distro update over the last 3 years and it usually goes without a hiccup.

So whats the deal here? Im no Linux newbie but im not doing anything special - i mean - its been that long since i edited Xf86config i've forgotten what half of it does.

I would geniunely like to know what these Linux newbies coming over from Windows are actually doing to screw up there systems so badly - its pretty difficult do to that nowadays?

Anyone care to comment - im sure if we can get to the bottom of what is happening to these guys that we as a community can do something about it!

N.

why do none of these RPi alternatives have Sata? -- sure there are some high end - expensive ones - but is there something about SATA that add significantly to the price to make uneconomical ?

Get a Laser printer - they can be had for not much more than a cheap inkjet these days - and color ones can be had for the price of a full set of color inks these days!Ink jets are a waste of money and a false economy.

I recently bought a samsung laser printer .

http://www.samsung.com/uk/consumer/print-solutions/print-solutions/colour-printers/CLP-325W/SEE

had it nearly 2 years and barely made a dent in the toners. I wont go back to ink jets again as they always dry up
before having had chance to print more than a few things out.

If i ever need to print photo's ill get them done online.

N...

What i wouldnt give to read the transcripts of this!

The Compass or the Set-Square ?

About as much as Verity Treacle ?

http://www.muuta.net/KennyEverett/Img/BBC-S05E03.jpg

Wheres the first?

People in Glass Houses shouldnt throw stones - is all i have to say!

you need to be more selective about hardware purchases . that is key. its been a while since I brought non Intel chipset laptops and since then I've only every had "everything just works" experiences.

it s been a while since I used AMD or ATI for that matter. I'd still go for Nvidia for GPU if I were putting a desktop together.

its been a long time since I had the complaint about stuff not working since I was more careful!

in fact when I use other OS such as windows or OSX it always amazes me that you need to install driver disks to have new hardware work that seems arcane tho me!

This is the real problem. With the exception of a couple of films most are made in post production or made with disregard for how scenes should be shot and edited together. Anything not filmed in 3d just suffers greatly. Cameron took the time and care to learn how best to use and make 3D mind blowing. Of course the script and direction are of paramount importance too. But until film makers "get" the techniques 3D will be mediocre. I don't see how even holograms or a better technology could possibly change the plain facts that a good film needs a good director, script and art direction.

Not eating Honey is probably detrimental to he decline of the Bee population so Vegans might have a moral dilemma on their hands.

There is 1 potential difference with the Linux scenario that does not exist for OSX and that is that they plan on creating a Linux based console / "SteamBox" -- if that happens its success will depend on getting support from other publishers. Its a big IF - and a dramatic one should the console be the success that Valve want. (assuming games purchased for the "SteamBox" would be compatible with Linux desktop machines of course).