Why? I can't see a reason unless there is some reason that dictates doing so, like other OS's.

I have a ZX Spectrum in the loft I often see when I go up there. As far as RFI is concerned our regulations back then were non-existent. I once saw a BBC Micro for the German market, it was encased in metal and built like a tank. The ones on the UK market were plastic and caused havoc with my Amateur Radio gear until I quietened it a fair bit by coating the inside of the case with graphite spray and grounding it. TV's were another problem as they were susceptible to interference from Amateur radio transmissions operating within the legal limits and specifications and we had inspectors who audited our stations for compliance. It was all down to the manufacturers saving may be a penny or 2 by using a cheaper front-end transistor for TV's sold into the UK.

Definitely not just age. I was around 50 years of age when I started using Linux as my only computing platform. I saw its possibilities from the first kernel that Linus put up for ftp and I started experimenting with it on an old 2 floppy drive Toshiba laptop the company then issued. When I eventually switched to using Linux for all my computing needs both at work and at home I got lots of criticism from colleagues far younger. My company manufactured mainframe and SPARC hardware, supported IBM and Solaris operating systems and associated peripherals so we were positioned at the high end of the computing ecosystem, the pinnacle of the industry, yet very short sighted. My task to build a Linux mail server on a Sun E4500 eventually got terminated, though they began to take notice and tried to sell my services to customers already running Linux on mainframes but those customers were well ahead of our company and could support themselves. I was once introduced to a customer who wanted to install Linux on his mainframe as a Linux bigot. When the corporation eventually saw merit in Linux long after I did, at least my technical director had the humility to admit that when I was using Linux to do everything the job required, they thought I was crazy and gave me credit for my foresight.

Worked on the Univac 9700 which first came out with magnetic wire memory that replaced cores in earlier systems. Fixing memory errors was done by desoldering the affected wire, sliding it along and resoldering it. The wire memory was much faster than the core memory and was about the same speed as the early chip memory.

This evening I was asked to look at firefox for a relative as she was getting this Bing thing that wouldn't go away. I was puzzled and thought there must be a virus that caused it. However, tomorrow is the day when Pipex disappears as her ISP.

Thanks, I altered the type of network card in the VM and login was successful.

I tried logging in using 1 google and one googlemail ID and passwords, nothing doing - using VirtualBox.

It was someone from Airbus who said the ultimate aim was to crew an aeroplane with a dog and a pilot. The pilot's job would be to feed the dog and the dog would be there to bite the pilot if he touched any of the controls. I think Boeing got it right.

When you buy memory from an outlet, see how ESD damage is thought not possible if they grab the memory by the ends with thumb and forefinger. I have had to tell shops that they would be sacked on the spot if they were working on building or handling memory at the manufacturer. They proudly tell you they've never damaged memory, just because purchasers have not hot footed it back to the shop minutes later to say it's broken. The damage they've caused may not result in failure for months, but it will. With a large antistatic mat and a monitored wrist strap I have found memory is the most frequent failing component.

Neither this or moonshine work, sites still still invite downloading Silverlight in order to play content. I have .NET sources that won't build under mono 2.2, so it's usefulness seems limited to code specially written for it.

I quite agree. Recently I wanted a new laptop, all the ones I preferred were hardwired with Vista. I searched until I found one that wasn't all I wanted but that was also hardwired to XP. I blasted away XP as soon as I verified the laptop would boot and installed Linux instead. This 64x2 laptop crawled with XP, but flies with openSUSE. I have people using openSuSE and SimplyMEPIS as their only OS, doing everything they need on a daily basis, from surfing the web, burning CD's and DVD's, spreadsheets, wordprocessing, digital camera work, IM, Skype and more. One young lady has given up on her XP laptop and now uses her 80-year old dad's Linux box. Her sister just got a new Vista laptop and had asked me to install Linux on it for her, she's also used her dad's Linux box. That said, I'm just about to start upgrading that Linux box from openSUSE 10.0 to 10.3 for them. If I can get 68 year olds and 79 year olds with nil computer experience to use Linux desktops, bearing in mind the 79 year old guy had never used a keyboard of any kind before and had to be shown what the backspace, escape and delete keys did and the 67 year old only had a few months' computer experience with a donated old P166 with Windows 2000 installed, it can't be that hard. I get minimal calls for help, all with "How do I?", the rest they are able to figure out themselves, while Windows traumas are numerous to the point where I'm refusing to help. As the man said, "We don't want no stinking Windows".