But to be fair, there ARE some usability problems with Linux. For example, how can I share _CDROM_ for the local network?
In Windows you are used to the concept of mounting a CD in the drive and sharing it via the share folder functions. You are limited by the number of CD rom drives you have.
In linux, you make an ISO of the CD and put the CD away. While your at it, make ISO's of many CD's. Mount the ISO's and share them. It's not hard.
Your choice, share a CD which anybody walking by can simply eject without privilages by pushing eject, or sharing several read only ISO's on a hard drive. I know which I prefer.
It has a license.. Please read it carefully. Making copies and distributing the software is permitted in the license. The license does have some restrictions including leaving out the license in your copies.
Downloads: 607 Developer: Edubuntu Team | More programs by this producer License: GPL (GNU General Public License) Price: FREE Last Updated: March 23rd, 2007 18:13 Category: MAIN:: System:: Operating Systems:: Linux Distributions
Experts are united in their opinion that Linux can be used only by technically skilled people with an extensive computer knowledge
Unfortunately the facts are starting to bust the myth. With new distro's out that are very easy to install, have working applications and much easier to keep bug free, the myth is quickly dying. I am a Linux novice. I had to crack a book to find out how to create a directory from a prompt just last week. This is inspite of having been a Ubuntu user for almost a year. From the GUI several distributions are just easy to use.
After playing with it on one machine and learning how to install codecs, burn CD's and such, I could do more with installing less software than I could on a Windows machine. (Windows doesn't burn ISO CD's out of the box in any version through XP) Unlike Windows where most everything is cryptic and undocumented in the registery, finding my my way around in Linux is much easer.
Linux does have it's share of snags. I'm still trying to learn to set up group permissions to get a Creative Zen to connect properly on USB. That is this weeks project. On XP that project is much easier than it is in Linux.
'We felt we were addressing the social aspect of music, and the research we've done has shown that people understand the concept that wireless enables sharing... but the tagline, while provocative, hasn't meant a lot to consumers.'"
The consumer is all too familiar with incompatible file formats. They also understand the reduced value of restrictions on their squirted tunes. It's easy to notice that this is broken as manufactured. It won't connect to your home network. You can't sync it wirelessly on your home network. You can't access music from a public hotspot... etc. It just doesn't work is why it hasn't meant a lot to consumers. It has a featured connectivity that won't connect. MS didn't even address this flaw.
f you use Firefox, snag Adblock Plus and the Filterset.G Updater. If you're using Internet Destr-- Er, I mean Internet Explorer, woe is you, but at least snag the Google Toolbar, which I think blocks DoubleClick ads.
Try one of the easy to get hosts files. Not only does it getting ads from doubleclick, it also prevents software on your machine from calling home from an app other than the browser. The hosts file is compatible Windows and Linux systems. Google toolbar works in the browser. A hosts file works for IM clients, P-P, email, etc all at once. If we knew the IP domain, we could even block Media Sentry from your KaZaA connections.
When the MPAA tried to push the "superdmca" bill here in TN, one of the most egregious provisions was that people who were caught with unauthorized devices connected to their cable service were *required* to be criminally prosecuted.
Because I like to tinker and see how things work, I realised that a cable subscription was a large legal liability when they passed one of the telecommunications bills a few years ago. I dropped my cable subscription. I refused satelite TV for the same reason. I tried to get DSL since it's pretty much not hackable but couldn't so I stayed on dial-up for a very long time. (fantastic broadband at work for distro downloads) When the kids needed to do an online class, dial-up was just too slow for the flash class materials. I reluctantly got cable internet, but absolutely refuse to permit any kind of TV connection. The temptation to look into the rest of the signal is too high and too much a liability, so absolutely no cable TV.
It's the super high deterent is keeping from subscribing. No connection, no liability.
The copyright fines are also astronomical. It's why I no longer buy music.
When I was in the military many years ago, we traded tapes of LP's. That was my peak LP buying years. I found music I liked and bought the best copy (LP) I could find.
Now the liability it super high because it has moved online. I don't find new music, I don't buy LP's (CD's now).
They killed downloads to a point. They also killed their best consumers in the same stroke.
I like the fact that he likes sports, baseball, football, basketball, boxing..... I know what baseball and such is, but I wonder what sports he is referring to. Maybe the good sports that changed the graphic he fetched from another site.
Guess that doesn't apply to me. I can't fly techs around the country to copy my hard drive and dance the hokey pokey and do other bullshit.
This could be a poker faced bluff. My client has nothing. When you come out at our expense, and then lose, I'll personaly bill you all the the defense expenses in the case.
Who knows, maybe the drive is loaded by a family member. Maybe not. We will never know.
Personaly I think this little tidbit near the end is a real zinger which finishes off the RIAA team.
Procedurally, we need to address how best to move the case to the Fresno Branch so you can enjoy our new Courthouse and avoid Judge Levi's wrath for filing in the wrong court.
Read between the lines. The lawyer knows the judge personaly. The Lawyer implied the Judge dislikes mistakes and maybe dislikes dirty tactics. The lawyer implied the judge will be quickly brought up on the technical holes in the case. If the RIAA proceeds the lawyer will drive an expensive SUV through the flaws in the case to show how big they are. The RIAA will be billed for the cost involved in providing the demonstration. There will be no getting away with BS in this case. All shakey data will be exposed for errors.
The laywer didn't need to say it, but it was implied loud and clear. They got the point.
Sorry dudes, we realize that your client is a litigeous idiot and general bully but if you don't drop this case we're coming after you anyway. Capiche. Oh yeah, don't forget to pay our legal bills on the way out. Get lost."
The best part in my opinion which finished this off is the point of Dudes, you have it in the wrong court. It needs to be close to the defendant right in my back yard. By the way, the Judge (named by name) is a real nice guy. We have a golf game on Saturday and
You read between the lines and figure the chances.. It is not looking good for the RIAA. They ran off to pick some other low hanging fruit.
I don't understand why it's necessary to offer a copy of their hard disk to the RIAA representatives as evidence of innocence. If they're essentially accusing pseudo-random people of piracy, then isn't the onus on them to prove it? (I realise that in civil cases it's balance of probability, but even so...)
Did you read the part of the letter stating the conditions for the inspection? They even offered to provide the RIAA technicians a plane ride and a ride to a local computer store to buy a hard drive which has never been formatted. The letter is very much a we know there is nothing to find, come see for yourself, but, you don't get to surf the drive unattended. It will be under our direct supervision. It implies any exposure of data unrelated to the case will be a direct liability to the RIAA.
This move alone may prevent a fishing expedition to see if the defendant has more than one computer, if any of the defendant's family have computers, etc. By up front offering an inspection, and setting limits to what can be found, may shield family members from exposure. My network neighborhood data would be off limits. My Documents and My Music are fair game for music files ONLY included deleted files. The program directory is limited to evidence of file sharing programs ONLY. (I'm making assumptions based on the limitations imposed by the offer of a drive inspection.)
even if that's an old device, even if it is obscure - that is the only way to get a sane support in future.
I visited the sane website. They now support the scanner. I was in a hurry and had another scanner at hand. I plugged it in and it worked and didn't bother looking further. It was simpler to tag one as plug and play on linux than to update 3 installations to support the hardware. Due to desk space, the scanner lives in a drawer and is used by any one of the PC's as needed.
While you're at it, quit counting gas pumps, cash registers, truck scales, dry cleaner retrieval systems, toll booth RFI readers and passenger car engine computers amongst PC sales and we'll see some really different deployment ratios of PC/Mac/Linux.
I don't mind as long as they count the number of Linux deployments in the same way. You will need to count my Linksys router, 3 Hawking Technologies print servers, 2 SimpleTech SimpleShare NAS drives, and one GPS Nav unit in addition to my 3 Ubuntu installations.
So - no, none of the machines I've used linux on in the last 5 years have ever been install and use.
I threw Ubuntu on 2 Windows 98 machines and one Windows 2000 laptop. They are all install and use. Even the extra buttons on the HP keyboard works automatically. In Windows I had to install a keyboard driver. In Ubuntu, it worked out of the box. Volume up/down, Mute, Internet, Email buttons all work. The internal card reader works, the CD and DVD burners worked, Onboard video, sound, network all worked. USB thumb drives work without installing drivers unlike Windows.
My aftermarket wireless lan card for the laptop didn't work, but it didn't work in Windows 2000 without loading a driver either.
The only thing that didn't work out of the box was a HP Scanjet 3300. The Cannon scanner on the other hand worked without installing anything. It was true plug and play. Even "Found new Hardware" wasn't used. It was literaly plug it in, fire up Gimp, use acquire, and use the Sane scanner dialog box. New scanners plugged into a Windows machine are not that easy to plug and play. Windows almost always takes time to try to find a driver and add the new hardware.
If the "hit" costs $8 and you like 3 other songs for $1 each, you'll gladly pay $10 for the album.
Umm No. Raising the single to $8 would kill any chance of me buying the single. Actualy for me raising the price makes no change.
There are four things that limit my purchases of the singles.
1 DRM -- It's incompatible with all my players except a Windows PC. In CD format, it may break your computer. Even my flash player will not play any WMA DRM format or iTunes files. Anti-rip copy protection simply means it's incompatible.
2 Quality -- Audio is compressed to sound loud. Dyanamic range is killed.
3 Price -- Lack of value. There is a market for used CD's. DRM downloads are worthless.
4 Competition -- I don't mean piracy (a factor), but I can spend my entertainment dollar on a new flatscreen TV, new graphics card, new Core 2 Duo PC, Broadband Internet, Cell Phone, Pocket PC, DVD's, better Car, Gas,... We just don't have any cash left lying about for an impulse purchase of high priced music.
There is no need to use Windows anymore, Ubuntu does everything I need/want and more! It's truly an amazing (and very stable) OS. In fact it's easier to use than Windows.
Unfortunately I have some hardware where the application is Windows only. It isn't worth trying to get working in WINE for as little as I use it. There just isn't a replacement for the map uploading program for my portable GPS nav unit and a couple of my other toys. It is why one machine is still dual boot (Windows 98 SE not alowed online).
Since VMware player is now free, I may finaly ditch dual boot and run Windows 98 in a VMware window just for those applications.
Since there isn't any real sales figures, I thought I would go to see if the online chatter is increasing. The Ubuntu forum is growing rapidly. "We register over 14,000 new accounts each month"
"IDC offers the following recommendations for services providers:
Open source will become business as usual in two to three years, so act today and create direct open source services offerings and embed open source in your solutions where you can"
and
"The study also reveals that open source is moving up on the investment agenda of companies worldwide, as services providers (mostly services arms of technology companies) have formalized support, training, and certification services to encourage adoption of open source (principally Linux) on their products. As open source software goes mainstream, IDC finds that services vendors must further develop open source capabilities in order to meet their clients' needs and attract new customers."
People with 2000 or ME are at a point now they really need an upgrade. With 95 and 98 no longer supported people may be looking for a new version now.
And I'm really glad someone showed me Ubuntu. 2 Windows 98 machines and 1 Windows 2000 machine are now running Ubuntu. It's a major upgrade. No more hunting for drivers to make a thumb drive work. Power Point presentations display properly. There is lots of neat desktop toys. DVD support is better. CD ripping and burning is better. Photo editing and video editing is easy without buying any new software. The SIP phone which will also work with MS Netmeeting is a nice touch. The chat program which can use several services without an ad window is great.
Since I've found the new upgrade, I've been sharing it and showing it off. The new 3d desktop toys are lots of fun. Some people assumed I was running Vista, and wanted to see the new OS, so I let them.. Lots of fun.
In short, It's the applications stupid. A general lack of malware goes a long way.
Slashdot Mirror
But to be fair, there ARE some usability problems with Linux. For example, how can I share _CDROM_ for the local network?
In Windows you are used to the concept of mounting a CD in the drive and sharing it via the share folder functions. You are limited by the number of CD rom drives you have.
In linux, you make an ISO of the CD and put the CD away. While your at it, make ISO's of many CD's. Mount the ISO's and share them. It's not hard.
Your choice, share a CD which anybody walking by can simply eject without privilages by pushing eject, or sharing several read only ISO's on a hard drive. I know which I prefer.
4. Licensing - what licensing?
It has a license.. Please read it carefully. Making copies and distributing the software is permitted in the license. The license does have some restrictions including leaving out the license in your copies.
Downloads: 607
Developer: Edubuntu Team | More programs by this producer
License: GPL (GNU General Public License)
Price: FREE
Last Updated: March 23rd, 2007 18:13
Category: MAIN
http://linux.softpedia.com/get/System/Operating-S
GNU license is here;
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
Please read your license.
Experts are united in their opinion that Linux can be used only by technically skilled people with an extensive computer knowledge
Unfortunately the facts are starting to bust the myth. With new distro's out that are very easy to install, have working applications and much easier to keep bug free, the myth is quickly dying. I am a Linux novice. I had to crack a book to find out how to create a directory from a prompt just last week. This is inspite of having been a Ubuntu user for almost a year. From the GUI several distributions are just easy to use.
After playing with it on one machine and learning how to install codecs, burn CD's and such, I could do more with installing less software than I could on a Windows machine. (Windows doesn't burn ISO CD's out of the box in any version through XP) Unlike Windows where most everything is cryptic and undocumented in the registery, finding my my way around in Linux is much easer.
Linux does have it's share of snags. I'm still trying to learn to set up group permissions to get a Creative Zen to connect properly on USB. That is this weeks project. On XP that project is much easier than it is in Linux.
I wonder how much the liability of running pirated MS products will now be an incentive to move to Linux?
Most distro's have a Russian language version and don't come with the litigation risk.
'We felt we were addressing the social aspect of music, and the research we've done has shown that people understand the concept that wireless enables sharing ... but the tagline, while provocative, hasn't meant a lot to consumers.'"
The consumer is all too familiar with incompatible file formats. They also understand the reduced value of restrictions on their squirted tunes. It's easy to notice that this is broken as manufactured. It won't connect to your home network. You can't sync it wirelessly on your home network. You can't access music from a public hotspot... etc. It just doesn't work is why it hasn't meant a lot to consumers. It has a featured connectivity that won't connect. MS didn't even address this flaw.
The hosts file in windows will *not* block certain micosoft sites. Guess how long before double click is added to that list?
Thanks for pointing out another application where linux users have full control of their PC instead of someone else.
f you use Firefox, snag Adblock Plus and the Filterset.G Updater. If you're using Internet Destr-- Er, I mean Internet Explorer, woe is you, but at least snag the Google Toolbar, which I think blocks DoubleClick ads.
Try one of the easy to get hosts files. Not only does it getting ads from doubleclick, it also prevents software on your machine from calling home from an app other than the browser. The hosts file is compatible Windows and Linux systems. Google toolbar works in the browser. A hosts file works for IM clients, P-P, email, etc all at once. If we knew the IP domain, we could even block Media Sentry from your KaZaA connections.
Presumably Slashdotting not only their site but also the GPs own! Better still!
The graphic is small and low res. A slashdotting for that small piece of data should only be a small dent.
When the MPAA tried to push the "superdmca" bill here in TN, one of the most egregious provisions was that people who were caught with unauthorized devices connected to their cable service were *required* to be criminally prosecuted.
Because I like to tinker and see how things work, I realised that a cable subscription was a large legal liability when they passed one of the telecommunications bills a few years ago. I dropped my cable subscription. I refused satelite TV for the same reason. I tried to get DSL since it's pretty much not hackable but couldn't so I stayed on dial-up for a very long time. (fantastic broadband at work for distro downloads) When the kids needed to do an online class, dial-up was just too slow for the flash class materials. I reluctantly got cable internet, but absolutely refuse to permit any kind of TV connection. The temptation to look into the rest of the signal is too high and too much a liability, so absolutely no cable TV.
It's the super high deterent is keeping from subscribing. No connection, no liability.
The copyright fines are also astronomical. It's why I no longer buy music.
When I was in the military many years ago, we traded tapes of LP's. That was my peak LP buying years. I found music I liked and bought the best copy (LP) I could find.
Now the liability it super high because it has moved online. I don't find new music, I don't buy LP's (CD's now).
They killed downloads to a point. They also killed their best consumers in the same stroke.
Thanks for the link.. Seeing your graphic is nice. Slashdotting their site is priceless.
I like the fact that he likes sports, baseball, football, basketball, boxing..... I know what baseball and such is, but I wonder what sports he is referring to. Maybe the good sports that changed the graphic he fetched from another site.
Guess that doesn't apply to me. I can't fly techs around the country to copy my hard drive and dance the hokey pokey and do other bullshit.
This could be a poker faced bluff. My client has nothing. When you come out at our expense, and then lose, I'll personaly bill you all the the defense expenses in the case.
Who knows, maybe the drive is loaded by a family member. Maybe not. We will never know.
Personaly I think this little tidbit near the end is a real zinger which finishes off the RIAA team.
Procedurally, we need to address how best to move the case to the Fresno Branch so you can enjoy our new Courthouse and avoid Judge Levi's wrath for filing in the wrong court.
Read between the lines. The lawyer knows the judge personaly. The Lawyer implied the Judge dislikes mistakes and maybe dislikes dirty tactics. The lawyer implied the judge will be quickly brought up on the technical holes in the case. If the RIAA proceeds the lawyer will drive an expensive SUV through the flaws in the case to show how big they are. The RIAA will be billed for the cost involved in providing the demonstration. There will be no getting away with BS in this case. All shakey data will be exposed for errors.
The laywer didn't need to say it, but it was implied loud and clear. They got the point.
Sorry dudes, we realize that your client is a litigeous idiot and general bully but if you don't drop this case we're coming after you anyway. Capiche. Oh yeah, don't forget to pay our legal bills on the way out. Get lost."
The best part in my opinion which finished this off is the point of Dudes, you have it in the wrong court. It needs to be close to the defendant right in my back yard. By the way, the Judge (named by name) is a real nice guy. We have a golf game on Saturday and
You read between the lines and figure the chances.. It is not looking good for the RIAA. They ran off to pick some other low hanging fruit.
I don't understand why it's necessary to offer a copy of their hard disk to the RIAA representatives as evidence of innocence. If they're essentially accusing pseudo-random people of piracy, then isn't the onus on them to prove it? (I realise that in civil cases it's balance of probability, but even so...)
Did you read the part of the letter stating the conditions for the inspection? They even offered to provide the RIAA technicians a plane ride and a ride to a local computer store to buy a hard drive which has never been formatted. The letter is very much a we know there is nothing to find, come see for yourself, but, you don't get to surf the drive unattended. It will be under our direct supervision. It implies any exposure of data unrelated to the case will be a direct liability to the RIAA.
This move alone may prevent a fishing expedition to see if the defendant has more than one computer, if any of the defendant's family have computers, etc. By up front offering an inspection, and setting limits to what can be found, may shield family members from exposure.
My network neighborhood data would be off limits. My Documents and My Music are fair game for music files ONLY included deleted files. The program directory is limited to evidence of file sharing programs ONLY. (I'm making assumptions based on the limitations imposed by the offer of a drive inspection.)
even if that's an old device, even if it is obscure - that is the only way to get a sane support in future.
I visited the sane website. They now support the scanner. I was in a hurry and had another scanner at hand. I plugged it in and it worked and didn't bother looking further. It was simpler to tag one as plug and play on linux than to update 3 installations to support the hardware. Due to desk space, the scanner lives in a drawer and is used by any one of the PC's as needed.
While you're at it, quit counting gas pumps, cash registers, truck scales, dry cleaner retrieval systems, toll booth RFI readers and passenger car engine computers amongst PC sales and we'll see some really different deployment ratios of PC/Mac/Linux.
I don't mind as long as they count the number of Linux deployments in the same way. You will need to count my Linksys router, 3 Hawking Technologies print servers, 2 SimpleTech SimpleShare NAS drives, and one GPS Nav unit in addition to my 3 Ubuntu installations.
run mainstream software that is available to the average user.... Can Linux do that? No.
e Wine
Mainstream software like MS Office? Runs in WINE.
http://www.pclinuxonline.com/wiki/InstallingOffic
World of Warcraft?
run mainstream software that is available to the average user.
Or even running Windows XP and applications that run on XP?
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=183209
So - no, none of the machines I've used linux on in the last 5 years have ever been install and use.
I threw Ubuntu on 2 Windows 98 machines and one Windows 2000 laptop. They are all install and use. Even the extra buttons on the HP keyboard works automatically. In Windows I had to install a keyboard driver. In Ubuntu, it worked out of the box. Volume up/down, Mute, Internet, Email buttons all work. The internal card reader works, the CD and DVD burners worked, Onboard video, sound, network all worked. USB thumb drives work without installing drivers unlike Windows.
My aftermarket wireless lan card for the laptop didn't work, but it didn't work in Windows 2000 without loading a driver either.
The only thing that didn't work out of the box was a HP Scanjet 3300. The Cannon scanner on the other hand worked without installing anything. It was true plug and play. Even "Found new Hardware" wasn't used. It was literaly plug it in, fire up Gimp, use acquire, and use the Sane scanner dialog box. New scanners plugged into a Windows machine are not that easy to plug and play. Windows almost always takes time to try to find a driver and add the new hardware.
I can't envision listening to a number of songs without hearing them in their sequence from good albumcraft.
You mean like Abby Road, Sargent Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Dark Side of the Moon, and The Wall?
If the "hit" costs $8 and you like 3 other songs for $1 each, you'll gladly pay $10 for the album.
... We just don't have any cash left lying about for an impulse purchase of high priced music.
Umm No. Raising the single to $8 would kill any chance of me buying the single. Actualy for me raising the price makes no change.
There are four things that limit my purchases of the singles.
1 DRM -- It's incompatible with all my players except a Windows PC. In CD format, it may break your computer. Even my flash player will not play any WMA DRM format or iTunes files. Anti-rip copy protection simply means it's incompatible.
2 Quality -- Audio is compressed to sound loud. Dyanamic range is killed.
3 Price -- Lack of value. There is a market for used CD's. DRM downloads are worthless.
4 Competition -- I don't mean piracy (a factor), but I can spend my entertainment dollar on a new flatscreen TV, new graphics card, new Core 2 Duo PC, Broadband Internet, Cell Phone, Pocket PC, DVD's, better Car, Gas,
and Who is Four Dog Night anyway?
http://www.threedognight.com/
There is no need to use Windows anymore, Ubuntu does everything I need/want and more! It's truly an amazing (and very stable) OS. In fact it's easier to use than Windows.
Unfortunately I have some hardware where the application is Windows only. It isn't worth trying to get working in WINE for as little as I use it. There just isn't a replacement for the map uploading program for my portable GPS nav unit and a couple of my other toys. It is why one machine is still dual boot (Windows 98 SE not alowed online).
Since VMware player is now free, I may finaly ditch dual boot and run Windows 98 in a VMware window just for those applications.
Should Linux and Mac sales have also doubled?
/ screenshot3524/
4 7206
Um they have, but in the last couple months, not over 6 years ago sales figures..
Mac sales... From the financual page..
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=AAPL&annual
Income Sept 30 2006 19,315,000 All numbers in thousands.
Income Sept 24 2005 13,931,000
Income Sept 25 2004 8,279,000
In two years from 2004 to 2006 the income went from 8 Billion to 19 Billion. It's not all iPod and iTunes sales.
Picking just one Lunux distro which is popular..
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=2276320
Since there isn't any real sales figures, I thought I would go to see if the online chatter is increasing. The Ubuntu forum is growing rapidly. "We register over 14,000 new accounts each month"
If you want a pretty graph of Linux installed base from 2000-2006, take a look here.
http://linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reports/6065/1
A casual glance seems to indicate more than a doubling of the 2000 installed base figure.
Here is what a market analist has to say;
http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS201
"IDC offers the following recommendations for services providers:
Open source will become business as usual in two to three years, so act today and create direct open source services offerings and embed open source in your solutions where you can"
and
"The study also reveals that open source is moving up on the investment agenda of companies worldwide, as services providers (mostly services arms of technology companies) have formalized support, training, and certification services to encourage adoption of open source (principally Linux) on their products. As open source software goes mainstream, IDC finds that services vendors must further develop open source capabilities in order to meet their clients' needs and attract new customers."
People with 2000 or ME are at a point now they really need an upgrade. With 95 and 98 no longer supported people may be looking for a new version now.
And I'm really glad someone showed me Ubuntu. 2 Windows 98 machines and 1 Windows 2000 machine are now running Ubuntu. It's a major upgrade. No more hunting for drivers to make a thumb drive work. Power Point presentations display properly. There is lots of neat desktop toys. DVD support is better. CD ripping and burning is better. Photo editing and video editing is easy without buying any new software. The SIP phone which will also work with MS Netmeeting is a nice touch. The chat program which can use several services without an ad window is great.
Since I've found the new upgrade, I've been sharing it and showing it off. The new 3d desktop toys are lots of fun. Some people assumed I was running Vista, and wanted to see the new OS, so I let them.. Lots of fun.
In short, It's the applications stupid. A general lack of malware goes a long way.