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After all, Microsoft wants to ease the minds of consumers and investors.

It's just as possible that the leak is part of an intentional PR stunt, just like large government bureaucracies do. There's a lot of ego involved and you can't just close up shop overnight without softening up some of the bigger egos. I can think of several reasons why it would make economic sense to leak.

• Free publicity at a time where F/OSS, especially Linux, is gaining lots of positive attention.
• MS is failing to force NT and 2000 users into the unfavorable prices and licenses surrounding XP and 2003. Publicity of a leak can help scare those currently on the fence into signing before they finish evaluating Linux, OS X or BSD.
• MS just suffered the loss of the trademark lawsuit. Windows is a generic term like post or door or lintel. This prevents coverage
• MS would rather no one notice that they now have appointed one of their own lawyers to chair the U.S. Bar Association's anti-trust section.
• There is yet another set of serious exploits loose for NT+2000+XP+2003.
• MS needs to keep the press from covering more secure OS's and tools.

This is just one example of the increased power of automated pattern recognition. Once computers reach a level of vision close to humans, we will se an explosion in automated tasks. Other examples include Sony Aibos vision, lip-reading software that helps in speech recognition, 'robot scientists' and the next generation of speech recognition with the potential to revolutionize human computer interaction. HAL, is that you?

This is just one example of the increased power of automated pattern recognition. Once computers reach a level of vision close to humans, we will se an explosion in automated tasks. Other examples include Sony Aibos vision, lip-reading software that helps in speech recognition, 'robot scientists' and the next generation of speech recognition with the potential to revolutionize human computer interaction. HAL, is that you?

5% of 63000 is 3150.

(c.f. Bugfest! Win2000 has 63,000 defects! :-)

After asking what Gartner has to say, the next question will be 'So who else has done this?'.

According to Bill Gates, Windows is more secure than Linux because it (Windows) has more security holes. That's Microsoft logic for ya.

"Short answer, Opera is closed source and payware. Nobody wants to see some small company in Norway get control over the browser market."

Opera is actively involved in W3C activities, one of the CSS creators works for Opera. It is not the enemy.

"Lastly and to go back to my first statement Opera costs money. Its been ingrained in consumers heads since the 90's that browsers are Free. If Mozilla costs money you could bet that it never would have stood a chance and IT Press would not be rooting for it."

"Frankly Opera just don't have much of a future for general Internet browsing."

Opera also has a loyal following, since it has existed for nearly ten years. It hasn't just been thrown out there. It started out as a geek browser for advanced users, and has gradually moved out into the mass market.

Sales are increasing, and it's receiving lots of praise.

So while Mozilla no doubt has a place in the /. editors' hearts since it is open-source, Opera definitely has a future.

"how many times does it have to be repeated: there is absolutely no reason for anyone to ever pay anything for a web browser."

Opera happens to be small, fast, and with a lot of features that are tightly integrated. You don't have to go looking for extensions to do a lot of the stuff Opera does out of the box as you do with FireFox. Yes, FF is flexible and you can make it do just about anything, but you have to download extensions, and they can slow down the browser, and different extensions may not integrate well with each other.

Snap out of your dream world please. Just because you happen to like FF better doesn't mean that others cannot prefer Opera and even pay for it.

Remember, even RMS encourages people to charge for software - free as in libre software. Opera is closed-source, but it is different from FF, and some people think that Opera's way of doing things is better. Don't be so narrow-minded!

"opera IPO??? if you're thinking of buying opera stock just send the money to me, you'll end up with the same ROI."

Please, stop spreading FUD, OK?

Sun's Java Desktop System seems to be doing quite well.

10,000 to the United India Insurance Company, 500,000 to 1,000,000 per year to the China Standard Software Co, and approval from the UK government for a 5 year purchase agreement.

Downloadable Java applets seem to be doing quite well on the internet, including for games, custom user interfaces, security applications, etc.

At the company I work at, one of our main design tools is a java application that you just copy from the server (essentially download) and run. The developers came from another company where they were doing the same thing.

NASA is using Java to control the Mars Rovers, and track satellites.

More and more tools built by Computer Science researchers are in Java, like this Bayesian Network tool, or are switching from other languages to Java, like this static program verification tool.

In short, I think you completely missed it with your answer.

As well as RFID jamming technology being in development, the makers of the tags themselves want to find a decent compromise, such as a kill command.

Linus Torvalds has auctioned off the right to name the next Linux kernel

It could have been worse I suppose... ;)

[root@Linux233 linux]# uname -a
Linux Linux233.linicks.net 2.6.2 #1 Wed Feb 4 13:55:28 GMT 2004 i586 unknown unknown GNU/Linux

Nick

to cool their new Prescott blast furnaces. An Intel D875PBZ w/Prescott 3.2GHz burns 69W more power at maximum load than an ASUS K8V Deluxe w/Athlon 64 3400+, and lacks the Cool 'n' Quiet power-saving modes of the AMD chip. The Prescott burns 61W more than its Northwood predecessor. Comparing an ASUS P4 board to an Athlon 3200+ the results are even worse! AMD's upcoming desktop Athlon 64 CG core will increase that gap (.pdf file, see page 9).

Good grief, California should ban these things before they overload the power grid, between the power wasted by the chips themselves and the additional air conditioning they'll require. All this for performence that's rarely better and frequently worse!

BTX: Big Thermal eXhaust

The Indian President is tech-savvy and has on earlier occasions tried to promote Linux. He was really a rocket scientist before he was appointed the President.

In May 2003, he gave a speech in which he said "said it is 'unfortunate' that proprietary software - such as Windows - is so popular and has called for broader adoption of open source products." More details here - ZDNet UK - News - Indian President adds salt to MS wounds

From the article, notes on a conversation with Bill Gates:

President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam recounted a conversation earlier this year with Microsoft chairman Bill Gates. "We were discussing the future challenges in information technology, including the issues related to software security," Kalam said, according to a transcript of the speech. "I made a point that we look for open-source codes so that we can easily introduce the users built security algorithms. Our discussions became difficult, since our views were different."

Wasn't good ol' Bill just extolling the virtues of Windows Security in comparison to other 'unnamed' operating systems the other day?

He was busy being "knighted"

Before US /.'ers start idolising Ricky Gervais, I think they should be made aware of this

David Brent still working...at Microsoft!
Brent fever hits Microsoft UK
David Brent gives his office tips to Microsoft

Enron, Worldcom, Tycho, Parmalat, Microsoft.

This doesn't just apply to the UK. The e3 (2) per cd hike also applies to Ireland... grr!

More info

After the initial frustration and perplexity I thought "this can't be true".

I remembered reading the alleged letter and the first thing that surpirsed me is that it was not addressed to any person in particular. Strange in my book.

Although I did not read the full thing (it made me physically sick, as other /.er also noted) it sounded as a plausible thing for Dear SCO's Leader Darl to put in writing (indeed I recollect he has said more or same the same stuff in diverse occassions, he is nuts) as anything else he has ejaculated before.

But this morning I thought, who are these OSAIA guys? I went to their website and apart from their grandiose home page statement (" The Open Source & Industry Alliance (OSAIA) represents the interests of the broad array of companies, organizations, and individuals that comprise the open source community. We are our members' eyes, ears and voice in legislative, executive and judicial forums throughout the world") I could find very precious little.

Well, then where is a membership list? Nowhere to be found.

The forums? All empty.

The topics? All empty.

Explanation about the source of the fax? Nowhere to be found.

Then I decided to dig a bit more:

Part of the WHOIS search:
Domain ID:D96754855-LROR
Domain Name:OSAIA.ORG
Created On:23-Apr-2003 19:31:13 UTC
Last Updated On:17-Sep-2003 20:17:44 UTC
Expiration Date:23-Apr-2005 19:31:13 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:R91-LROR
Status:OK
Registrant ID:GODA-02937029
Registrant Name:Edward Black
Registrant Organization:CCIA
Registrant Street1:666 11th St., NW
Registrant Street2:Suite 600
Registrant City:Washington
Registrant State/Province:District of Columbia
Registrant Postal Code:20001
Registrant Country:US
Registrant Phone:+1.2027830070
Registrant Email:eblack@ccianet.org

Now go to ccianet.org and look at the membership: Read Hat, Sun, Oracle, Kodak, Yahoo and somehow mistifyingly Time Warner

So I googled for OSAIA and found this. Vapourware organization?

I will email them later on tonight in order to try to confirm where did they get the letter, but this certainly looks very interesting. If these people are in the side of OSS it is good news, but I wish they will be more careful about how they go about debunking SCO. Publicizing letters out of thin air without proper attribution or explanation is not a good tactic IMHO.

Software giant threatens mikerowesoftZDNet.co.uk,UK-8 minutes agoMicrosoft has set its lawyers onto a 17-year-old software writer from Vancouver, called Mike Rowe, because he has registered MikeRoweSoft.com, which the

Microsoft not pleased about mikerowesoft websiteAnanova,UK-3 hours agoA Canadian teenager called Mike Rowe who added the word soft to his name for his website title, has been ordered by Microsoft to hand over the domain.

Microsoft won't go soft on Mike RoweLondon Free Press,Canada-4 hours agoVANCOUVER -- Like any good fledgling businessperson, Mike Rowe knew

Microsoft lawyers threaten Mike Rowe (17)The Register,UK-5 hours agoIn what could easily be mistaken for an Onion story, Microsoft has unleashed the full fury of its lawyers on 17-year-old Canadian high-school student, Mike Rowe

Mike may be Rowe, but 'soft' is troubleSeattle Times,WA-7 hours agoBy The Associated Press. VANCOUVER, BC - Mike Rowe knew he needed a catchy name for his Web-site design company. But the folks

Big bully Gates targets teenTimes of India,India-8 hours agoVANCOUVER: No matter what Shakespeare said on the theme of nomenclature, Microsoft has thought it fit to sue a teenager whose domain name is a lot like the

Microsoft vs MikeRoweSoftIndependent Online,South Africa-10 hours agoVancouver, British Columbia - Mike Rowe thinks it's funny that his catchy name for a website design company sounds a lot like Microsoft.

Microsoft takes on teenNEWS.com.au,Australia-10 hours agoMIKE Rowe thinks it is funny that his catchy name for a Web site design company sounds a lot like Microsoft. "Since my name is Mike

Langford student battles tech giant over use of his domain name: Canada.com,Canada-Jan 17, 2004Mike Rowe, a Langford high school student who does Web site design part-time, is locked in a legal battle with one of the world's biggest companies.

Microsoft vs. Mike Rowe SoftWIS,SC-47 minutes ago(Vancouver, British Columbia-AP) Jan. 19, 2004 - It's Microsoft versus Mike Rowe-soft. Mike Rowe, 17, wanted a catchy name for his Web site design company.

Support CD Babyp2pnet.net,Canada-1 hour agoBecause Mike, who lives in Victoria on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada (and a short drive from p2pnet.net's thriving central base : ) makes a

Microsoft Talk Legal to 17 Year-Old Owner of MikeRoweSoft DomainShortNews.com-2 hours agoMike Rowe, 17, from British Columbia, Canada decided to start up a small web business and called his domain MikeRoweSoft. Smart

Microsoft Corporation vs MikeRoweSoftOfficialSpin-3 hours agoVictoria, British Columbia -- (OfficialSpin) -- 19/01/04 -- A 17 year-old high school student, Mike Rowe, who just so happens to earn a few extra bucks...

Microsoft demands teen to give up domain nameSalem Statesman Journal,OR-7 hours agoVANCOUVER, British Columbia - Mike Rowe knew that he needed

Well spoken. It's nice to see some clear examples instead of "AMD sucks".

But, being the AMD fan I am, I must say that perhaps your problems are more due to bad luck than anything, since RMA rates for motherboards are significantly higher than other components.

And so this brings me to a question... is there a site that gives statistics on RMA rates?

- - - - - - - - - -

P.S. - The following riposte is a cut and paste of a previous slashdot post:

Pentium Floating-point division bug [ku.edu] (it's close enough, isn't it?)
Invalid Operand Instruction crashes original Pentiums [iss.net] Pentium crash codes
Pentium Pro/II still having problems with floats [ddj.com] Unable to convert to int
Pentium III can't even start up [bbc.co.uk] You went faster with an 8088
SSE is great for when you want your PIII to crash [zdnet.co.uk] Pretty blue screens abound.
PIII Xeon, quality you can count on, except at high CPU usage [macworld.com] Watch the task manager, Phil.
Yay, PIII MTH crashes! [com.com] Does MTH stand for Meth?
Total Recall 2: PIII@1.13GHz [com.com] Fastest crashes ever.
Total Recall 3: PIII Xeons@800/900Mhz [com.com] More Xeon quality in a box.
Total Recall 4: CC820 [techweb.com] How many defects? Can't recall...
Pentium 4 overwriting data [zdnet.co.uk] Hope it wasn't something important.
Pentium 4 chipset bug [com.com] Fast video performance? Naaa.
P4 Oracle/Sun problems [indiana.edu] More workarounds than work
Itanium shipments halted [theinquirer.net] That's an expensive oops.

Just so nobody gets any ideas that Intel is perfect...

Well spoken. It's nice to see some clear examples instead of "AMD sucks".

But, being the AMD fan I am, I must say that perhaps your problems are more due to bad luck than anything, since RMA rates for motherboards are significantly higher than other components.

And so this brings me to a question... is there a site that gives statistics on RMA rates?

- - - - - - - - - -

P.S. - The following riposte is a cut and paste of a previous slashdot post:

Pentium Floating-point division bug [ku.edu] (it's close enough, isn't it?)
Invalid Operand Instruction crashes original Pentiums [iss.net] Pentium crash codes
Pentium Pro/II still having problems with floats [ddj.com] Unable to convert to int
Pentium III can't even start up [bbc.co.uk] You went faster with an 8088
SSE is great for when you want your PIII to crash [zdnet.co.uk] Pretty blue screens abound.
PIII Xeon, quality you can count on, except at high CPU usage [macworld.com] Watch the task manager, Phil.
Yay, PIII MTH crashes! [com.com] Does MTH stand for Meth?
Total Recall 2: PIII@1.13GHz [com.com] Fastest crashes ever.
Total Recall 3: PIII Xeons@800/900Mhz [com.com] More Xeon quality in a box.
Total Recall 4: CC820 [techweb.com] How many defects? Can't recall...
Pentium 4 overwriting data [zdnet.co.uk] Hope it wasn't something important.
Pentium 4 chipset bug [com.com] Fast video performance? Naaa.
P4 Oracle/Sun problems [indiana.edu] More workarounds than work
Itanium shipments halted [theinquirer.net] That's an expensive oops.

Just so nobody gets any ideas that Intel is perfect...

Of course Ballmer's upset, even late comers like HP are raking in sums like $2.5bn on Linux. That's not even counting the extra productivity from having a more secure design.

Even the regular employees know the gig is up and more than half have cashed in their options, even Uncle Fester himself cashed in. I'm sure the fact that the options come out of your U.S. taxes (in the form of a write off) has something to do with the accounting as well.

Parmalat, Enron, Worldcom, Microsoft.

Actually, no you can't, at least not anymore with Photoshop CS (the latest version) which contains technology to stop this very thing from happening.

Wasn't it the Australian MS office that screwed up the annoucement that Outlook Express was no longer being developed, and then backed it off a week later?

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh; [ln];LifeWin

Unless MS just hasn't updated this, the date of June 30th has been there for months, and it's only the on-line support. It actually says: Extended hotfix support for this product will end on 30-Jun-2003. After 16-Jan-2004, this product will be obsolete and assisted support will no longer be available from Microsoft. Online self-help support will continue to be available until at least 30-Jun-2006.

Seems like no big deal...this has been this way for months.

Wasn't it the Australian MS office that screwed up the annoucement that Outlook Express was no longer being developed, and then backed it off a week later?

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh; [ln];LifeWin

Unless MS just hasn't updated this, the date of June 30th has been there for months, and it's only the on-line support. It actually says: Extended hotfix support for this product will end on 30-Jun-2003. After 16-Jan-2004, this product will be obsolete and assisted support will no longer be available from Microsoft. Online self-help support will continue to be available until at least 30-Jun-2006.

Seems like no big deal...this has been this way for months.

Great. Now we can sick our robot dogs on Japans running robots.

Will WW3 take place at Robot Wars?

http://insight.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,390 20457,39116671-2,00.htm

The total number of viruses unleashed upon the Internet in its relatively short history is about 63,000. The total cost of these acts is estimated at $65bn (39.24bn).

• It's hardly sold.
• It was recalled because a low battery could cause riders to fall.
• It's mostly fodder for jokes on TV shows like Frasier.
• Despite all this, I asked Santa for one for Christmas and he let me down.

There is no mention that this will be tailored to Windows in the article, but MS's hearty endorsement is a suspicious indicator of such. If so, would this simply become a matter of the BIOS not allowing anything but "acceptable" OSes to boot? That's where my nickel gets bet.

...on the issues involved in deregulating this part of the spectrum can be found here.

Here you go Genuinely important and interesting article that I submitted to slashdot about 3 days after it was published. Rejected. I guess naked nerds is more important.

The criminal arena. The first ever "felony" spam arrest, followed by two more spammers surrendering.

A cybersquatter goes to prison for pr0n linking to mis-spelled children specific sites. Not trying to be redundant, but this article is informative.

My personal favorite, "DVD Jon" acquitted.

Everyone in the IT community already knows what a poor reputation that company has actively worked hard to earn. Articles like the above serve only to provide free marketing and distract from active development rather than pump-n-dump.

Rather than doing free security and sysadmin work for Chairman Bill this holiday season, and rather than providing free publicity for his portfolio, could we please give it a rest and have a MS free week, weekend or at least just a MS free friday? i.e. no articles or press releases about the lastest vaporware, thneed, fud or spin, inlcuding news relays via MS-owned sources like slate, msn, msnbc, msnpr, newseek, etc. It seems every day there is a shameless, uneccesary plug or two. Now that international investors have divested and even their own emloyees have offloaded it is as irrelevant to the stock market as it is for the IT sector. The pyramid scheme has maxed out, if you weren't already bailing, then it's too late.

As far as security goes, businesses and home users alike are finding Gnome and KDE easy to use and the plaforms (Darwin, OpenBSD, Linux, QNX, etc.) more secure, more stable, and easier to maintain. So looking back at MS-Window [lack of] security in 2003, we can say good bye to the terminally insecure and hello to modern technology.

So, what you're saying is that uploading is legal, but downloading isn't. Funny, here in Canada they just ruled that downloading is legal and uploading is illegal.

So why don't you we Canadians make a trade with the Dutch: you let us leech MP3's (which would be totally legit given the laws in our countries) and we'll send you maple syrup, all the beavers you can handle, hockey players and Celine Dion.

Think about it.

Soon to be outsourced to China and India, however...

IBM escalates outsourcing to India and China

As always, RTFA, or here (from a previous Slashdot story), or Canadian Copyright Law.

Indeed, it appears to be legal to download copyrighted songs in Canada, even according to copyright experts and internet law experts. It hasn't been tested in court yet, but it seems prosecutors believe it is legal too so they won't prosecute.

But as the article states, uploading (broadcasting) is clearly illegal. So as long as we Canadians just leech, we're fine (legally speaking).

No matter the relative market shares of the two platforms, Mac + Windows > Windows Only.

See also Metcalfe's Law in other contexts.

Have someone seen O2 XDA 2? Truly amazing gadget.

It's Microsoft-powered, but cool anyway.

"I can assure you that we are expending significant amounts of resource and money to combat this activity," Carlon said. "In doing so, as a result of these attacks, we have to spend money that we might not be able to spend elsewhere."

It's costing them money and bringing them on our turf instead of their preferred battleground (the media). Next we target their sources of funding, like Microsoft, HP, and the Royal Bank of Canada. Make it so nobody wants to associate with them and the money will dry up (since their media shenanigans apparently aren't enough for some investors). The benefits of a DDoS on their web site also include pissing off their ISP. I'm sure they're already considered high risk byo any prospective ISP.

Keep fighting the good fight...

Maybe a true hoax but I would suspect any company would jump on the "hacker" bandwagon when something goes wrong. It's easier to blame some voodoo internet cracker then blame yourself, probably much harder for someone to prove you wrong also.
MS did the same thing recently. Remember the Blaster worm? Before the worm was to officially attack www.windowsupdate.com MS was already having DOS issues and instability with the update sites. Inital reports of DOS were being looked into by investigaters. The Blaster worms programmed DOS scheduled for later in the week had very little effect on MS directly as they rerouted the site elsewhere. Do you think that just maybe they were having a real issue trying to support thier users actually using the update service? That is not what I'd call a DOS attack. Funny also how they farmed out the update site to Akamai shortly after for "security reasons" (there is no mention of needing it for load levels) and no more was ever heard about the inital investigation by authorities from the inital "attack". I use Windows update almost daily at work and I noticed severe slowdowns that entire week and sometimes connections were refused entirely, not just during the the time frames of the two claimed DOS attacks either. I threw out the BS flag for that DOS claim.

• Here's a link
• and here
• and here
• and here

Kevin Mack's Top 10 Linus SCO quotes (in reverse order):

[thanks to Dee-Ann LeBlanc for the link.]

10. Not About IP"None of the SCO accusations have anything to do with IP rights; they're all about contracts between IBM and SCO. All the IP rights blathering by SCO was just that -- blathering"

9. Custody Battle"SCO is claiming parenthood of that child and now wants to make money off the earnings of that child. Even though SCO has refused to undergo the technical equivalent of DNA testing, and even though my (and other people's) DNA is probably all over Linux."

8. Lottery

"we have to sadly decline taking business model advice from a company that seems to have squandered all its money (that it made off a Linux IPO, I might add, since there's a nice bit of irony there), and now seems to play the US legal system as a lottery."

7. Copyright Law"So . . . when he attacks the GPL as being somehow against 'financial gain', that notion that the GPL has of 'exchange of receipt of copyrighted works' is actually EXPLICITLY ENCODED in the US copyright law. It's not just a crazy idea that some lefty commie hippie dreamed up in a drug-induced stupor."

6. Raelians

"SCO is playing it like the Raelians [the organization backed by Clonaid's founder, known as Rael], saying, 'We'll show you proof in a few weeks, through an expert panel that we trust.' Let's see if there is any baby or not."

5. Jerry Springer"Quite frankly, I found it mostly interesting in a Jerry Springer kind of way. White trash battling it out in public, throwing chairs at each other. SCO crying about IBM's other women. ... Fairly entertaining"

4. Stealing Cars In Bright Daylight

"Do you steal a car in the bright daylight with a lot of people around? Or do you steal a car, go for a joyride at 4 am in the morning when there aren't a lot of people around. With open source, there is a lot of daylight. A lot of people looking at the code. You don't really go around and steal things."

3. Constitution and Marriage"If Darl McBride was in charge, he'd probably make marriage unconstitutional too, since clearly it de-emphasizes the commercial nature of normal human interaction, and probably is a major impediment to the commercial growth of prostitution"

2. Smoking"They are smoking crack."

And number one, according to Mack...

1. Please Grow Up"we find your references to a negotiating table somewhat confusing, since there doesn't seem to be anything to negotiate about. SCO has yet to show any infringing IP in the Open Source domain, but we wait with bated breath for when you will actually care to inform us about what you are blathering about."

What do you think? Join the Feedback to this item.

Here's another article about Linux based robots.

Linux robots sounds like a project I would like to explore in the near future!

There are hotels in Scotland (and probably elsewhere) that jam cellphones so that guests think their in a dead spot and use the hotel phones. It sounds like the sort of thing Basil Fawlty would do

The same economic benefits apply to rich nations as well as developing ones. However, I'd expect several orders of magnitude greater benefit.

Really? I just consider it one of the many forms. Most of the UNIX installations are high end hardware. IBM for example hinted that AIX will be replaced with Linux for its RS/6k line.

Read deeper.

From the article: "Over time, Linux and Intel and Windows will catch up to where we were yesterday (with AIX). When they catch up, we'll be two steps down the road."

Don't be so hasty with putting this memory in your computres and MP3 players. The way from idea to stores is quite long and a lot of ideas don't go beyond the project stage.
There still are Polymer Memory, Ovionics Unified Memory (OUM), Magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM) and ferro-electric RAM (FeRAM) There is a lot of intresting memory-related projecs in progress, only time will show which of them are actually useful and will be installed in our future computers.

"Will there be Windows-specific APIs in the BIOS? Are they available to other operating systems? Are these APIs cryptographically hidden from reverse engineering? Legally, do these APIs belong to Microsoft or to Phoenix? Is this a loophole with respects to the anti-trust settlement? This raises a lot of questions about the ability of hardware that includes this new Phoenix BIOS to run non-Microsoft operating systems. Would they run? Would they be crippled it they run? Would Microsoft customers switching to Linux have to change hardware as well, if their PCs run this BIOS? "

Tread very carefully.

My position is based on nothing more than simple counting:

• Intel achieved 250nm process technology (deschutes) in January 1998
• ... 180nm (coppermine) in October 1999, although availability was scarce until January.
• ... 130nm (northwood) in January 2002
• ... 90nm (prescott) is not out yet, although it is supposed to be out in fourth quarter 2003. I'm going to go out on a limb here and predict January 2004.

While plextor was the first to release this, they are no longer the only one! Philips DVDR824P is available as well as Memorex's 8X entry.

Sony is also releasing the DRU 530A in Decemeber at about the same time as the Pioneer DVR-A07 and Cyber Drive 8X DVD+R drive.

Pretty soon we'll see 16x DVD recording speeds.