Activity for November 14

Review - Ubuntu
7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Beta (Mar 23, 2007)

Having used Ubuntu since it first came into being, and followed it since, the constant work and improvement is amazing - easily the best Linux Distro out there.

Despite bring simplified, which is a plus for non tech users, it's also a VERY solid Debian implementation that has all the features of Debian, with a quick and easy install - along with some of the best update and customization features of any system.

Kudos for the Ubuntu people for putting out a system that simply blows everyone else out of the water, and is far better for both beginners and pros than anything either Red Hat or Mandrake have done.
Review - Mozilla Firefox for Windows (v2)
1.0.6 (Jul 19, 2005)

As always, fast, lightweight, reliable, and the best rendering available from any web browser.
Review - Mozilla Firefox for Windows (v2)
1.1 Alpha 1 (Jun 1, 2005)

Atfer using this for a few days (pre alpha builds and the current builds) all I can say is fantastic.

There are glitches and bugs that could cause some unpleasant experiences, so unless you like being on the cutting edge, and don't mind risks, don't use it... but if you're like me, and would rather get a look at the next generation, don't mind the occasional bump in the road, and are willing to troubleshoot a system when problems arise - go for it. It's an excellent preview of a very promising product :)
Review - Maxthon (Classic) Standard
1.2.3 (Apr 14, 2005)

Getting better... but it's still using a crippled rendering engine. Maybe it'll improve with IE7.
Review - Mozilla Firefox for Windows (v2)
1.0.2 (Mar 23, 2005)

Clean, Fast, and Secure... I love this browser

Opera has it's appeal, and IE makes OWA sites look fantastic, but they both have a long way to go to catch up to this little piece of engineering :)
Comment - PS3, Xbox to soon get Twitter, Facebook integration
1.0.2 (Nov 14, 2009 - 1:32 AM)

might be useful for people who don't own one of those computer things... both consoles make excellent media centers, both are amazing for gaming, and now they both do facebook?

last.fm might be cool... if you can run it as background music in games, but in my experience, moving computer tasks onto consoles is almost always cumbersome and annoying.
Comment - Microsoft's 'Have it Your Way' confronts Apple's 'Have it Our Way'
1.0.2 (Oct 23, 2009 - 2:20 AM)

A monopoly is a company that controls more than 75% of a given market - Apple controls 8-10% of the PC market, which makes them a small competitor. Their share of smart phones isn't much better.

To call them a monopoly would be pretty silly, given they don't have anything remotely close to the market share to be called one.

There are certain marketing tactics and bundling practices that are all perfectly legal, unless you're

a) In a monopoly situation (meaning you control the market)
b) Using those practices to stifle competition (eg. a competitor releases a product that competes with one of your own products, so you sell your product below cost in order to destroy their business - which was a pretty common MS practice prior to the lawsuits against them)

MS is a monopoly, when it comes to Operating Systems - They do actually have a really decent OS in Windows 7, and their behavior has improved a great deal... and no, Apple doesn't have to follow the same rules as MS does - with good reason. Monopoly laws exist to encourage competition, and avoid situations where there are no options or alternatives, which is where markets stagnate, and prices become inflated (if there's no competition, not like you have any other choice)
Comment - Apple declares war on the entire PC industry
1.0.2 (Oct 21, 2009 - 8:31 AM)

you're aware Darwin BSD is open source, and quite free to distribute, modify and install, right?

of course, the shell isn't, but OSX is Darwin BSD with a very refined shell - or UI... try installing the core of Windows with a different UI for free (you can swap the UI if you really want to... but you still have to pay for the OS to do so)
Comment - BlackBerry Storm 2 vs. BlackBerry Storm: The complete specs
1.0.2 (Oct 17, 2009 - 12:37 PM)

got this (the original) storm to replace a Treo 700wx... it's night and day how much better the blackberry is. Performance isn't nearly as good as the keyboard blackberry devices, but it's substantially better than anything WinMO (read: no crashing)

the storm 2 looks nice, and the added wifi and multitouch are great, but I'd imagine that Storm 3 would be the one to upgrade to...

can't compare this with an iPhone to be honest, yes, they're both touch screen phones, but the BB isn't designed as a toy, and was never meant to be one, it's a multitasking secure digital communications device, as opposed to a speedy pretty single task toy with 10 billion apps (only 9 million of which are fart simulators)
Comment - Steve Jobs returns to the stage with an overhauled iPod Nano
1.0.2 (Sep 10, 2009 - 8:28 AM)

depends on the Mac... clearly the Mac Pro (you know... the one in the tower, as opposed to laptops or odd form factors) can be upgraded as easily as any PC.

Odd form factor/laptop PCs are just as hard to upgrade - just FYI.