I tried Ubuntu on my 701 -- could not get wireless to work. Then I went to Mandriva spring 2008. Everything worked perfectly.

The suit is, of course, silly. The right thing to is to avoid doing business with the idea monopoly. Alternatives exist. Those who are tired of seeing their basic rights chipped away by creeping lobby-law and the vending machine at the USPTO must make the effort (and it is an effort) to avoid these companies. You know who they are. Read the EULA. Is it DRMed? Does it come with a root kit? Take a serious look at FOSS and see if you can get by now and help to advance it. Your freedom to think, innovate, and prosper in a free economy depends upon this.

Why is HP wasting development resources on a crippled front-end any halfway competent user is going to turn off as quickly as she can? That's what I did with my Meso (Ubuntu NBR). Spend the development money on a 5 second boot. That will add MUCH value. It will also make Microsofties squirm, and that is good for HP and everyone else. Having control of the hardware, HP could do this -- open source, of course.

Since you're groaning, you might want to check this out: http://www.litenverden.org/?p=18. Sadly, there's about zero chance Europe is going to do what it should do. There is just too much lobby money and influence. And that's my big concern. These parliamentarians are not thinking about principles or what's good for their people or countries. They are listening to convincing propaganda from global monopolies and IP law firms and selling the EU future in the name of WIPO IP treaty compliance and IP law harmonization. The fact is that it's time to chuck the treaties and start over with some ideas that did not originate in the WIPO Mob. But that takes guts. Don't hold your breath.