Yup. And neither of us have any experience (perceived or real) with the actual terrorism and sabotage. I bet a determined pro can come up with three dozen workable plans within an hour.

This is what I don't understand about the whole debate. Why can't the browser vendors just build their tags to use the *built in* codecs that are available on the underlying platform? All users of (modern) Windows and Mac systems have these codecs. Built in. They are licensed to use them - full stop. They *paid for it* with their Windows & Mac OS license. Why do we need to even talk about re-licensing them? Just use the damn things, that are *already there*. If they are not there, show the user a nice page about software patents and how evil they are.

We don't argue about the fact that FireFox relies on the user having a graphics card that is probably patented from top to bottom to display the graphics FireFox renders. Or an audio card. Or an OS that can display windows etc. These all exist at the layer below the browser. So should the video codecs.

Just turn the monitors off, turn the iPad off and make it dark!!!!!

Citation needed. You're saying it's silly to investigate the likelihood of cell phones or microwaves causing cancer because you're more likely to get it from the sun. What is that based off of? Gut feelings about the relative likelihood?

In science and especially health-related scientific questions, you test a hypothesis, you don't just assume. At some point someone thought the question of "could the sun's rays be causing cancer" was silly because obviously the sun, giver of all life, could not be causing ill effects aside from some sunburn. We needed to investigate whether or not cell phones were causing cancer because we didn't actually know.

Furthermore, even if the sun did cause far more cancer than cell phones, you might want to take all the steps you can to avoid cancer, as most of us do. If cell phones -were- linked to cancer, you could stop using one and still reduce your threat of cancer, much like how we've taken steps to ensure we don't get skin cancer from UV rays.

While admittedly my cheap-ass netbook struggles a bit with videos, it's only the higher-def ones that trip it up. I don't use my netbook for "proper" TV watching (I have larger screened computers for that), and it handles YouTube et al just fine.

The more expensive ones certainly perform better, and I'd be willing to bet that you hit ones that can handle the full gamut long before that whole price difference is eroded.

Agreed, this works perfectly. In a room with no other lights I can easily dim my laptop screen as far as it goes (short of turning it off, ofc...) without problems.

And the man who has three or four watches looks at the majority and is pretty sure again. There's a reason the Space Shuttle has more than two flight computers.

BTW, was classifying this under "animal cruelty or abuse" ever explained in a sufficiently logical way, considering how many millions of animals we slaughter, kill as pests with various neurotoxins or outright drive to extintion?

How's this one?

But still has 768 pixels! What's your point? I see that you failed to mention that it is LARGER in the other direction! I'm sorry, but in general, a 10.1 inch screen is going to be larger than a 9.7 inch screen. The HP's screen is larger, has more ppi, and as a result, also has a higher resolution. Yes, you got me on the IPS display, but that's just one factor.

As opposed to the iPad's 256MB? I'm sorry, 256 is bigger than 1 does not work in this case. 1 GB is more than 256MB and as far as non-volatile memory, 160GB is much more than 16GB (though, you have me on the flash vs HDD argument), and you can upgrade to 250 GB while STILL keeping it under the iPad price point.

The largest keyboard you could fit on an iPad is 7.76 inches long. The keyboard on the HP is about 10 inches or at the very least, 9.5 inches. So it seems you think the keyboard on the iPad would be way too small to type on as well. Again, what's your point?

Be dubious all you want. I can just as easily say that I am dubious about Apple's battery claims. But I have one of these netbooks and they are pretty accurate from my own experience. I get about 8.5-9 hours of normal use with the 6-cell which is pretty close to their 9.5 hour posted value, and not too far off from apple's posted 10 hours. Put your fanboy hat away, and look at the facts. Apple products are overpriced because you are paying for the name and the reputation that comes with it. I'm not saying Apple products are crap, I just don't yet see the iPad as revolutionary. I'll wait til they enhance features or drop the price.

Funny thing - go to any Unix conference, filled with probably some of the nerdiest people ever, and check out the laptops people have. Hint: they aren't Dells running Linux.

Lenovo tends to be slightly more popular then Dell, mainly due to the fact that the hardware is rock solid, easily cooled for long periods of time and the keyboard/touchpad is far more comfortable to use for long periods of time. That and every model of Dell looks different.

When I spend 6+ hours on a plane, I'm glad I have a Lenovo and a spare battery. The nipple mouse is far easier to use when in a confined seat and the vehicle is prone to shaking.

First, an apology: I've really worked hard to keep this post from sounding confrontational, and it's honestly intended not to be. However, some of my wording might not express this as clearly as I'd like. None of this is meant to offend you, or to criticize your opinions or preferences in any way.

The ideal answer is to find a distro that fits your needs, then donate effort or money toward forwarding the project you agree with. I mean this without intending offense when I say that there are plenty of other excellent penguins in the sea, and you will find one that is right for you.

Canonical apparently is not, based on your own comments. They accept feedback, they react to it, but they also need to make decisions, and not all of those decisions are going to agree with what everyone who uses their product wants. Their stated goal is to be easy to use and support as much hardware and software (including codecs) as they possibly can. This is what they do.

Canonical is not made up of GPL purists, nor are they made up of OSS purists. They've never, ever claimed to be, and I don't think they should be. They are made up of a group that is trying to make Linux a viable, useful alternative for people who would have a stroke if they had to pull up a command line, and what everything they want to do supported out of the box. Their target market wants MP3. They want ATI/nVidia binary support. They want H.264. And they want it all legal and legit. Which means it's a perfectly logical decision for Canonical to license these technologies where they need to.

There are many hundreds people with varying levels of comfort with (pick your topic: GPL/binaries/FOSS/IP-protected stuff) who have their own distros, and they've refused to install all the stuff they don't like. Many of those folks also work hard on reproducing or even reverse-engineering open source drivers and codecs of their own to avoid closed source and patent-protected stuff. Much of that goes to clean up other distros, even Ubuntu, which to a Linux purist is a poxy whore from the wrong side of the tracks, but to the average Linux newbie is a safe haven from CLI hell. Neither is wrong.

Canonical is forwarding the Linux movement in their own way, which is to get a copy of something that non-techies can live with on their desktops. And that includes support for things that people want to use. Things like MP3, H.264, FAT, NTFS, Adobe Acrobat, Flash, and the list goes on. That means a dumbed-down desktop, lots of GUI tools, a "user privilege escalation" (SUDO) model, and a lot of things that give Linux or GPL or OSS purists the screaming heebie jeebies. And that is exactly as it should be - Linux is FREEDOM, and not everyone should be forced into the same exact model.

You don't. Unless you've somehow contributed, you don't have any leverage with someone who's given you something for free with no conditions attached.

Canonical is making what they think people want. They have a reporting system, and people use it a lot. Just look at the angst and gnashing of teeth surrounding the "moved window controls to left" issue. They do accept feedback on their decisions. But not everyone agrees on everything all the time. Sometimes, a lead developer just says "you know what? I'm the head asshole in charge, I'm doing the work here, and I'm going to wade in and shut down this long discussion because it's my project, and I occasionally get to call the shots, and this is the way it's gonna be."

Most of their target market is not going to be happy with what you are asking for. NOT including H.264 is in direct conflict with what Canonical is trying to do.

If you still like Ubuntu except for this, well, you can always install Ubuntu, strip out everything you don't like using the package manager, and keep getting updates and all the Ubuntu-ey goodness on the stuff you are comfortable with. It's not like H.264 is going to generate dependencies that stop you from uninstalling it. Or MP3, or wireless binaries, or anything else. You don't even need to fork, just remove the bits you don't agree with, enjoy the bits you do, and there you go. Free fully-functional operating system, yours to use forever, any way you want to. No strings attached.

To me, it seems far more likely that the author wants to present a particular narrative, rather than that he's honestly reporting misunderstood statistics. Keep in mind that all journalism is the work of humans, who inevitably bring their biases into play, no matter how hard they try to be objective and neutral.

It's entirely possible that they misunderstood the statistics, or it's possible that they know that this article will stir shit up and get them more pageviews (and ad revenue) than it might otherwise.

And Europe is the entirely of "the rest of the world"? I think other countries are rumored to exist than the European ones. And I wouldn't be surprised to see the EU countries adopt software patents.

The five bucks is so you can get the goods at all, can't reach www.aircrack-ng.org, it's terribly slow. Been that way for a while.

there was an 'os move'. 1-1.5 years ago. they had delivered various press releases and whatnot putting a friendly face to oss. made various moves at that time too. this was probably one of them.