Jewbacca

Shame the important things like stability and security still haven't been fully addressed. There's no point having a nice looking forum if someone is going to get into your CP all the time.

- Don't use IE, or even better, don't use Windows.- Don't visit any stupid sites and just download everything they offer you.

I chose to install Ubuntu 7.04 a couple of weeks ago because:- I couldn't run Office and another program without Windows crashing and the computer rebooting for some reason. This was particularly annoying when I wanted to copy and paste something from Firefox but simply couldn't. On Feisty, I can use any number of programs with OpenOffice at the same time without problems, even though I'm only running 512MB of RAM.- Microsoft keeps adding validation to everything, as well as keeping a validation process running in the background which calls back every so often just to make sure your copy of Windows hasn't suddenly become illegal. At first I didn't mind but now it has gotten over the top and I don't want to support it any more.- Security threats. Although I managed to keep Windows safe by using the firewall in my router and keeping up to date, I didn't want the risk to be there when I just want to browse the net. With Ubuntu updates for all your software come automatically if you install them using Synaptic which is a real time saver and the kernel is simply more secure and, if a security flaw is found, the community works together to fix it asap.- And finally, I've used Windows since I was 5 years old and I simply got bored of it.

I'd say Forza 2 with the steering wheel. . . but it' s too realistic for me personally. . . .

It's a nice idea, but it won't be long before theives take the technology out of the cash register and put it into a small handheld device which others can use.Most retailers only keep cases on display and have the discs stored in draws at the counter anyway so wouldn't it be a waste of time? The only people with access to the draws are the staff so it wouldn't take long to figure out who is stealing the stuff anyway.

Whenever you watch the news and see a mentally unstable kid go on a killing spree, the parents always ultimately blame video games. Personally, I think it's just an excuse for poor parenting. . . although it doesn't work as they expect since they must be poor parents if they allow their children to play violent video games if they think it's turning them into a psychopath. . . I dunno, it's a complicated subject, and I'm going to steer clear of it when I go to do my psychology coursework this year <_<Also, when you see people trying to explain why people drive / talk / whatever more aggressively, they usually go for video games, despite the fact that our behaviour is governed by our genetics and chemical imbalances, and fine tuned by learning from our superiors and our peers. Video games are none of those, unless you really do have a mental disorder, in which case the parents should be more vigilant towards their children playing video games if the signs of them becoming more aggressive after a game of Gears of War are obvious.

[quote name='Simba49' date='Jun 10 2007, 02:27 AM' post='104967' In my opinion i think nod23 would work the best. It has more features then norton, mcafee, avg, pc tools antivirus and many othe rpopular brands. This company works around norton and mcafee to make there program even better. They test out viruses and use them aginst there program before letting them out on updates! They have a very easy to use interface and also is a very "lightweight" program that runs smoothly and dosent take long to start up. I recomment this program to everyone!! mike I echo that. Shortly before I converted to Linux I used NOD32. Unlike Symantec and McAfee, the NOD team doesn't believe they need to add a load of fancy gradients and graphics to sell new versions of their software. It's a basic interface, and while there are some advanced options which most people wouldn't want to touch, the software documentation is very detailed yet concise and you could learn quite a bit.

Yes, it's expensive, but you really do get what you pay for. It is many many times more secure than other message board solutions, and it runs a lot faster and more efficiently on servers. . . Although I have heard negative reports about their support (but I can't personally comment on that since I have yet to experience it for myself). . . but for most people, the free alternatives such as SMF and MyBB are perfectly capable of doing what they want.

No, the main developer is Brandon, but the other administrators (with the possible exception of Brian, Brandon's brother) do play a role too. Some of the support staff are involved also as some of them have coding/graphics/skinning skills which are obviously vital for a service with millions of hosted boards spanning 15 servers. Zetaboards was annouced a ridiculously long time ago and hints dropped by staff members that the system will be released to the public anytime soon have been taken back between the date of that post and now . . . The general concensus is that it will most definitely be released by the end of this year but I personally can't see it happening - we've waited this long, why should it come out now? I mean, I'd like it to be released, because InvisionFree is based off ancient software, hasn't been updated for ages, and as someone said earlier, is very limited in its options. Judging by the public beta and the features promised by the staff, ZB is going to change all that, and will bring a fresh new meaning to freely hosted message boards and will (hopefully) force competitors to become more, well, competitive.

I really like Simple Machines. . . It really is simple enough to install, has enough features preinstalled for you to run a basic community, and has a handy automatic mod installer if you're not too confident editing the source code to add your own mods (I know a couple of people who have found that exceptionally useful when they were trying to build up their own community. . . unfortunately it didn't work out, but that's another story ). . . and best of all, it's totally free. IPB is great and all but many of its features are frankly unnecessary, and its targetted by hackers far too much for my liking (although in fairness to Invision Power Services, 2.2.x and upwards are significantly more secure than 2.1.x and below)

Yes, it matches Vista, but it looks almost lost on XP (if you are even bothered about aesthetics, of course). . . Microsoft needs to consider the vast proportion of its users who are still on XP rather than force them to pay 100 quid for what is basically a new theme and not much else. . . They better not keep doing it until support for XP officially runs out. . . .

I love Pidgin. . . I used it on Windows and now I use it on Linux. It's very user-friendly and, while it feels minimalistic, it doesn't use ridiculously small text or windows which got on my nerves when I used Miranda. Additionally, you don't need to constantly patch it to remove adverts like you do with other IMs, which is a real plus, especially as sometimes the patching process can screw up if the release isn't tested sufficiently enough. . .

9.5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . It loads fast It's never down It gives me relevant results each and every time It doesn't bloat the results page with javascript/AJAX - it lets you search for what you want and nothing else Its Pagerank system is fair You can use it as a calculator, a dictionary, and as many other useful things

Put simply, yes, I hate IE. However it's not the worst browser for Windows. I always thought it was since everything else seemed to be more secure, more stable, more compatible with web standards and more user-friendly, and wouldn't keep interrupting you with pointless security messages, and would free up more resources for other programs to use, but that's when I bumped into the Safari 3 for Windows that was released just the other day.Everything about it is like IE, except worse. And the animation they've put into the tabs is just more bloat which you just don't need. And the interface just doesn't fit in with any of the Windows interfaces (Classic, Luna, Royale or Aero) which is pathetic. Some people argue that it's still in beta, but when you consider how Apple said "built to be secure from day 1" only for something like 15 vulnerabilities to arise within the first 24 hours, and the poor compatibility it has with a wide range of hardware, you have to question whether the move will help or hinder Apple's goal to increase their marketshare in the browser business (especially since the some of the vulnerabilities found in the Windows version affected the Mac version as well). They couldn't have done much internal testing for the alpha stages, a problem which was also evident in iTunes.