the empty calorie

Considering that HD-DVD is an inferior format to Blu-Ray, I don't see HD-DVD really catching the following that Blu-Ray will. I heard a rumour that Blu-Ray wasn't going to catch on for the sake of no backwards compatibility with DVD media, but I doubt that's the case, as say, the PS3 is still going to be backward compatible to play PS2 discs...And those discs just happen to be DVD media...enough said.

Why not use Workbone? It will do the trick. It might be in your best interest to just install a new version of Debian on there and start fresh.

Windows is not going to be dominant forever. It may be a while, but soon enough, Windows will have gone the way of CP/M, but with less of a hobbyist community behind it than CP/M. I can easily see Apple taking the market from Microsoft, and I really think they deserve it. Who wants a computer that doesn't work, honestly?

We all go through various decisions being GNU/Linux users...one of the biggest ones we must each make, is what Window Manager to use. Some people go the way of a Desktop Environment, such as GNOME or KDE. Well, those are not Window Managers, they are desktop environments. They contain a Window Manager of some form, but come on, when it comes to monitor real estate, (and resource usage) less is more. For the daring (not really that daring) people who are happy with just a Window manager, what do you use?To me, that window manager is WindowMaker. It's just so much cleaner..second, would be AmiWM, and as strange as it may sound, I do have a soft spot for TWM. I tried many, but I will use no other than these two.

xboxrulz-Actually, you have it completely backwards. Red Hat and SuSE are the GNU/Linux distros for Windows users. The distros I mentioned, are the GNU/Linux distros for UNIX users. Debian's package management system is the best that I have come across, period. RPM is absolutely HORRIBLE. Debian's system is great, unless you're scared of a command line. Next, do you REALLY think Slackware and Debian are actually competing with Hed Rat and SiSE? I'm sorry, (actually, I'm not sorry in the least) that you feel that the quality of a distro depends solely on how similar to Windows it is. And by the way, Ubuntu may be debian-based, but IT IS NOT DEBIAN. Ubuntu is for newcomers to GNU/Linux, l and is not meant to be configurable. Slackware is NOT meant for people who can't compile their own programs, or people who are scared of CLI, and it actually uses a pure, untainted Linux kernel. Hed Rat and SuSE are NOT designed for expert users. Debian is meant for expert users who like a bit more organized system than say, slack (but is the easiest to mold into whatever you want). See, that's the beauty of GNU/Linux. Different distros are meant for different purposes. But at least get your facts straight. (Debian is lightyears more expert-friendly than SuSE)And sorry, but "1337" really means either wannabe or one thousand thirty-seven, not elite.But enlighten me, kid. Amuse me, how is Debian and slackware OLD? Oh, let me guess...no graphical login? This has got to be good. Tell me why these are OLD? They keep developing and releasing the distros, don't they? You may not like these distros, but understand that it's not the fault of the distro, it's the fault of the SiSE user who secretly is still devoted to the MS way of doing things.I hope you've learned something about yourself now.

Hed Rat, er, Red Hat is bad. I wouldn't exactly call Red Hat or SuSE an "elite" distro whatsoever. I've installed SuSE and Red Hat several times in the past, and they just felt much too crippled. Now, Slackware, Debian, and Gentoo, those are more "elite" than any Red Hat/Fedora or SuSE distro that will ever release.

Let's just hope someone's smart enough to use a unix server if we're using neural networking.

I remember something being mentioned about a lot of different versions of Vista being released, like Level 2 and Level 5 and such...as well as yearly charging users to be able to continue using their OS? Some of the things Microsoft is doing are starting to make me wonder about what direction they are going these days...My outlook on this is, (If still around) the price of Windows will be even more outrageous in five-ten years, and if they ever decide to actually go through and create an all-new operating system from scratch and drop all backward compatibility (come on, you can only do so much based on obsolete operating systems like DOS and VMS, so they'll have to do it eventually to keep up), there is going to be a large shift either to Apple, or free open source software, as they will have more available software.

Actually, I think he was referring to the widow. Acer makes junk.

Mainboard: Intel D850MVProcessor: Intel P4 soccket 478, 1710MHzRAM: 256M Kingston RDRAMGraphics: ATI Xpert2000+ (Rage128Pro, 32M)Sound: AD1885 onboardDrives: Teac 1.44M floppy, WD 160G hard diskCase:1988 IBM PS/2-M55 caseOS: Debian GNU/Linux 3.1, kernel 2.6

Over the course of years of working with computers, I have noticed that some people tend to develop an attachment to some peripheral devices )even after ten years of use), such as (but not limited to) keyboards and mice. If you are one of these people, then what are your attachments, and what about that device keeps you attached? (and if you want, how old are they?)Here are mine:The IBM 1391401 keyboard. The best keyboard ever made, period. Long detachable cord, buckling spring keys, easiest keycaps to change (great for Dvorak typists like me who don't want to fork out lots of money just for a keyboard), and no windows keys! Oh yes, and it's the heaviest keyboard i've ever seen, so it stays put and doesnt scoot around.Then I also have my Logitech Trackman wheel..It's only five years old. Feels perfect in the hand.

Gut the thing, and put the happy hacking keyboard in it, ATX board, slot-load DVD-RW mounted behind the opening for the tab stop adjust (or whatever they're called).Today, I managed te stuff the insides of my ATX full tower into a 1988 IBM PS/2 model 55, and it's come out quite nicely...rigged the flip-up power switch to function with the soft-power, the HD's LED space to the power LED, and managed to coax a standard floppy drive into having the blue "1.44" button and fitting just like the stock drive. from the front, it appears untouched, but the all cables connect to the sides of the case, rather than the back as usual.

Well, here's one I use for my avatar on my board, But it's too big for here. Inspiration hit when I woke up from a dream of owning my own IBM S/390 system running debian, I'd paint this on one of the cabinets if I actually had one.

I will have a PowerPC system built up that looks like this someday...new computers and case designs just don't look good anymore..(except for Apple's)

Sound card with TV-out....no, you're probably thinking of Creative's old DXR2 decoder, or a video card. As far as gaming goes, I woldn't worry so much about soundcards, as practically every motherboard comes with onboard sound, and practically every sound card since the SB16 is capable of 44100kHz PCM playback, which is how the sound on most games these days is played, so don't expect it to sound different. The main ups about an outboard sound card, is that it uses it's own dedicated processor (in most cases), so that takes a small load off the main processor. Another difference is 5.1 output, but even many onboard sound chips support 5.1 playback (personally, 5.1 can toss my salad, I think stereo sounds better). Another, and probably the most profound difference, is in MIDI. This is where it can make a night and day difference, depending on the card. MIDI isn't used too much anymore it seems, other than for music production. Another upside, is that most soundcards include a MIDI/joystick port, which for gaming, will probably give you more benefit than any of the other features. Just rememeber to disable your onboard sound before installing your card. An ens1371 and intel ICH2 sound trying to run at the same time can make both of your cards undetectable. (personal experience)Hope that helped.

xbox 360..oh boy...don't waste your money.Now, first, the 360 does NOT have three separate processors, it has a three-core, 3.2 GHz version of the IBM 970FX, which was a stupid idea in the first place, considering its problems with heat. (Haven't you noticed a lot of pissed off 360 customers with their systems overheating after 30-45 minutes?) Now, take this into consideration, as the Cell Processor has SIXTEEN cores on the chip, and runs much cooler than the 360's Xenon processor. And as far as the delivery of the PS3...Spring 2006. Not late 2006. Not 2007. The 360 is a flop in the making, and when the PS3 is released, the 360 will be pretty much forgotten. This scenario between the 360 and the PS3 sounds very similar to the demise of the Dreamcast. Except the dreamcast wasn't NEAR as problematic as the 360 is.And to tell you the truth, I have no intention of buying a PS3 at all. I'm going with the new Nintendo system. This is going to be the system that rewrites the book.And as far a the PC vs a console...the console is better. More comfortable to control, it's actually a real 64-bit system (the current x86-64 processors are NOT true 64-bit processors), and not to mention, consoles can't give you a BSOD ('m assuming the PC gamers are also running Windows, most likely).

Currently, I am using Debian...And I see that so far, I'm the only Debian user on the poll...But, you are missing slackware on your poll...and now I have a great idea for a topic...

You know, you shouldn't REALLY have to do that. You really shouldn't even have to defragment your hard drive, either, but people have gotten used to low qulity software. At least I know what i use is better.

Hands down...get a Macintosh. I'm quite familar with Mac OS X, and Windows, (as well as Linux and OpenBSD). Apple pays a LOT more attention to product quality than Microsoft does, and ever will, and takes much better care of their customers. The hardware platform of the Macintosh, combined with the UNIX base of it, makes a system that is much more stable than Windows could ever offer (anyone here that is telling you otherwise, has obviously not used a Macintosh computer enough to know this). At Apple Computer, what they do is not so much a business as it is a "spiritual experience" (in the mind of Steve Jobs). I use Mac OS X, as well as Debian Linux every day, several hours a day. For the programs you mentioned, Picking up a Mac mini and a copy of iLife Suite '05 would suit you quite well.

Actually....What I'm doing is a little different, but gives similar results. Now, I don't know for sure, because I don't dual-boot, but I would assume that GRUB wants to be first to boot, seeing as it is a bootloader. I'm not familiar with GoBack at all though...one possibility is that GoBack might run after GRUB only when you boot Windows. I myself would prefer this to goBack running before GRUB. A possibility though..is that if GRUB goes on your MBR, and you install GoBck, which I'm guessing goes on your MBR, it might overwrite GRUB. I'm not sure myself..But..here is what I do that yields a somewhat similar result:I'm running Debian Linux, and it takes up my whole drive, and I have GRUB written to my MBR. I run Windows 2000 in VMware within Debian. VMware has a feature that allows for "snapshots", which if something is going wrong with my Virtual Windows installation, I can load a snapshot for it to fall back on to return to a working state. (Surprisingly, Windows seems to run a lot better in a VM than natively...)Just my 2 cents.

I'm not familiar with those iMacs, but I have a few G3 iMacs, and they all have VGA-out connectors built in. But don't forget about the Mac Mini, now...

Won't do much for me seeing that I swear by the Intel board in my computer...But I can't say I've been having any problem running at normal speed, but I do understand the urge to push the envelope.But really, how easy is it to take a screenshot and modify it? This doesn't convince me.

My first computer I built was just a motherboard laying on a table. It won't just "short circuit" cause it has no case. Now, maybe if I decided to our a glass of water on it, or run it outside in the rain, that's another problem.

More and more, Microsoft keeps shooting themselves in the foot. The whole deal with the Xbox 360's product steps (expensive core system, or ridiculously expensive "real" system) isn't going to be that great for Microsoft, especially since a lot of Xbox 360 systems are having overheating problems...which is funny as hell, considering this...The PowerPC 970FX processor has major heat issues when clocked over 2.8 GHz (and at that speed, Apple was having to liquid-cool the Power Macs using it), one big reason why Apple is switching to something else. So what does Microsoft do for their game system? They contract IBM to make a three-core version, clocked at 3.2GHz, and voila! Xbox 360 systems are overheating everywhere after 45 minutes! It didn't surprise me much when I stopped by the local Electronics Boutique AND Gamecrazy shortly after the release of Xbox 360, to see that all the in-store floor models have a sign on them saying "This Xbox 360 is out of order". I busted up laughing in the store, to say the least. And now that I hear about more things, like having to pay a yearly fee to continue using your copy of Windows Vista, and now the Vista level whatever stuff...Microsoft's user-base is heading for the toilet. The prices are getting ridiculous for products that haven't really seen much improvement. I've been waiting a long time for this day to happen. Bye-Bye Big Brother....

Oh man...and I thought I've used odd cases..Once I built up a liquid-cooled 486 system..inside a fishtank. Now, I don't know how liquid cooling works as far as traditional liquid cooling, but I actually had the circuit boards sumberged in the liquid itself, and properly functioning! I just took the motherboard, video card, sound card, network card, and I/O card, and put them in a fishtank that was about 5 inches deep full of vegetable oil, and mounted the drives and power supply on a board that rested atop the tank.My next project will be quite interesting indeed. I have an old IBM selectric typewriter that I am going to turn into a computer once I obtain an ATX PowerPC motherboard to shoehorn inside it. I will put a slim, slotloading DVD-RW drive on it, and somehow incorporate a keyboard in place of the original typewriter keyboard. as far as expansion goes, simply just open the top cover like you would to change the ink ribbon, and there are your expansion cards! (however, you'll probably have to take the metal mounting plate off the card to fit it), and hopefully, although I doubt it, find a way to make the stock On/Off switch turn it off and on. I once saw online a nice little project that was similar, but using an Atari 800 computer, and the keyboard was non-functional. Another project, if I can find just the case for an Apple II, will be to do the same using the excellent Apple II case. To plug things in though, You'lll have to actually open the computer, with maybe the exception of putting USB ports in place of one of the apple II's ribbon cable holes.