You know, there are times when one needs to use a non-open source application when an FOSS solution just does not work. For me, I needed a scanner solution that just worked and Viewsonic was the only thing that I could find that met my needs and worked reliable. Linux and Open Source means choices not religion.

I for one am sad to see CC go. In this area (Mpls), the most always beat BB in prices. I thought they might shed their stores and only sell through the Web. But, that's gone as well. Shame.

I am impressed; your post was very thoughtful. For some years I tried to help a distant relative, who was in his late 80â(TM)s, use his computer. It was his connection to the outside world and was very important to him. His biggest problem was with Outlook â" it was a constant source of confusion to him and try as I might, I could never keep it going for him.

Here are some observations on the Linux desktop OS Experience, Well, my first attempt at Linux was to install Edgy Kubuntu on my Thinkpad t23 laptop. It's an old unit that had recently been replaced. Quite frankly, the install went pretty well and most things worked -- except for wireless. After fiddling around I got that to work by using the ndiswrapper. Getting the CUPS wireless printing also took some time but that worked as well. And, last but not least, to my surprise, suspend/resume to memory also worked like a champ. I was a happy guy. Then, when Feisty came along I upgraded. Everything worked except for the suspend/resume. I spent three weeks looking over blogs, support lists, etc trying everything including a kernel build. However, nothing worked (including a fresh Feisty install) so I reloaded Edgy. Since then I have been reading all the carp about suspend/resume and how to fix it. It looked like the 2.6.22 kernel was the place to go. So, again, a fresh install but now with the Gusty tribe5 release. Great, suspend/resume worked, I was much relieved -- until an APT update some weeks ago. Since then coming out of suspend results in either: it works the first time but not after that or, no back light, or no wireless network. Yes, I know it's a beta and I can live with that. My hope is that a clean install of the released version of Gusty will fix this problem. Along the way, I tried installing Feisty Kubuntu on my primary desktop WINXP system. However, I dropped it since I could not get the sound card (Sound Blaster X-Fi) to work -- due to a lack of Linux support by Creative Labs. But, it's all about applications stupid! I found OpenOffice to be a good replacement for MS Office I used Wine on a few MS only apps with some successes and some failures. But, mostly, the applications that I have used on Windows are not on Linux and or there is no migration path or the equivalent's learning curve is too steep. A few examples: Family Tree Maker Paintshop Pro Quickbooks Pro, Turbo Tax, etc. iTunes, for music downloaded from Apple Websphere Studio Lotus Notes Client Cisco VPN ZoneAlarms -- tried Guarddog but it blocked wireless printing Palm Desktop Visio Adobe Acrobat MS Project Summary: I will continue to use Kubuntu and try new things and use it for simple functions. However, when it comes to industrial-strength applications, regardless of its warts, WINXP is still the gold standard.