I couldn't read the article as it was slashdotted, but there are many European GSM phones that are quad band and hence work in the US. There are also UMTS 3G phones that have the right bands, though there are more to support.
The only issue is that phones with the right frequency bands may cost a little more, but if consumers start demanding these the phone manufacturers will end up supporting them. In the worst case, buy a phone from Europe and use it with a US SIM card.
Not really... Some of the earliest computers used 'core memory', which was the only RAM and also non-volatile. You toggled in the bootstrap into this core memory, from your own memory or a cheat sheet (fortunately it was very short), and it was then used for multiple boots. Only if a really bad error caused a program to scribble over the bootstrap did you have to re-enter the bootstrap code.
I agree about going for OpenSolaris but that runs fine on commodity kit if you choose the hardware correctly - even a $75 Atom CPU+motherboard plus 2GB RAM is enough for a home NAS (as long as the Atom is x64 which many are).
Once btrfs is stable in a couple of years or so it will be fine as a ZFS replacement for Linux - however btrfs is another Oracle project so I hope they don't see it as conflicting with the more strategic ZFS.
The only thing that really matters to your business is whether it will make or lose money by open sourcing drivers. It seems that Broadcom was forced into open sourcing its drivers by the OEMs (Dell, HP, etc) who in turn were required to use FOSS drivers by some of their large customers requiring this for better Linux support. See http://lwn.net/Articles/404376/
If your company is going to lose money through not open sourcing drivers, the decision is obvious and the other issues can be resolved to make this happen.
I have had various corrupted PSTs over the years - strangely, more on Outlook 2007 than earlier versions. Most recently, Outlook managed to corrupt two files that are archives of previous years' emails, so no changes at all should have been made - quite an achievement to mess those up. One of the most annoying messages from Outlook 2007 is that the PST file is too full, and you need to delete some messages - I get this on opening the PST file and of course can't delete anything... nice Catch-22.
Exactly - I have far fewer problems with an elderly relative's PC since I switched them from Windows to Linux. I use Ubuntu 8.04 which has required almost no maintenance, with a simple VNC over SSH tunnel setup so I can fix things. Linux makes it possible easy to lock down GNOME and Thunderbird (though it could be easier) so that the inevitable messing-up of system or application state can be sorted out by a restart.
Yes - give the removable disk's partition a name - if it's ext3, use something like "e2fslabel/dev/sdg1 DRIVENAME" where the DRIVENAME is the name you want to use. Then you should find that GNOME will auto-mount your drive under/media/DRIVENAME, and it will appear in the Nautilus file explorer as well.
For NTFS drives, use ntfslabel with same syntax, and for FAT32, use "mlabel drive:label" - you will of course need to replace the 'g' in sdg1 above with whatever your drive uses (dmesg | tail -22 just after connecting your drive should tell you).
Try using http://lastpass.com/ for Chrome passwords - it encrypts the passwords on disk (of course), has a lot more features, and is a cross-browser plugin for Firefox, IE, Safari as well as Chrome, on Windows/Mac/Linux etc. It also has paid-for versions for iPhone, Android, etc, and syncs the passwords to the cloud.
Porting ZFS to Linux is only a mistake for those who don't like ZFS or Linux... I am contemplating a new Solaris / NexentaStor NAS just to get access to ZFS, but it would be much easier if it was available in Linux within the kernel.
ZFS is nice but it doesn't have an fsck, partly because of its design philosophy. I think this is an omission and http://www.osnews.com/story/22423/Should_ZFS_Have_a_fsck_Tool_ explains why (links to many examples where ZFS won't open a zpool after an abrupt shutdown, possibly due to ZFS bugs or disks that lie about flushing cache to disk).
For those who want a ZFS based NAS, have a look at NexentaStor (which has a proprietary GUI, free for up to 12 TB of disk) or Nexenta Core (just the OS without GUI, and open source) - NexentaStore has some nice features to get you started quickly, or you can use the open source napp.it GUI with the Nexenta Core. Nexenta uses a very recent zpool version (v24) and is based on OpenSolaris build b134 so it includes the above zpool reocvery feature.
Nexenta generally will move to using the Illumos fork of OpenSolaris when that's stable, so it should have a future as long as NetApp don't sue them. If they do get sued you could move to a more community-based distro based on Illumos.
Key question is whether the ZFS on Linux port will be updated to the Solaris b134 code to include this feature. Without it, you are in for some painful recovery using zdb (filesystem debugger) - but in any case you need up to date backups of your entire zpool. FreeBSD does have ZFS but using a much older zpool version without this feature - from my point of view, it's best to use the latest Solaris ZFS code to get the best stability, despite the limitations of Solaris hardware support.
ZFS is used in production on FreeBSD by some people and I generally like the ZFS features, but I don't view ZFS as really production ready on any OS.
This is because ZFS on any OS does sometimes lose all access to the zpool (i.e. you lose the entire set of RAID volumes and filesystems on them, all at once) due to ZFS bugs, and there is no fsck. I can't think of another filesystem where you can (a) lose all access to your files and (b) there is no fsck. Same goes for RAID - even if you use RAID-1 with ZFS you can still lose your entire zpool due to a ZFS bug.
Given that the "no data loss by design" (can't find the reference for this, perhaps Sun/Oracle has stopped saying this) hasn't really worked out for ZFS on Solaris or FreeBSD, there is still a need to have a complete backup of any ZFS zpool (as with any other RAID / filesystem). The checksumming, COW, snapshots, and self-healing data (for RAID) are very nice, but losing your whole pool due to a ZFS bug means it isn't really a high availability solution. On the plus side, it does make it very easy to snapshot in order to take a backup, and makes incremental backups easy with zfs send.
My point is not that ZFS is a bad idea, but it really needs an fsck (see http://www.osnews.com/story/22423/Should_ZFS_Have_a_fsck_Tool_ ) and anyone using ZFS must have full backups onto another server of the whole zpool, perhaps into a non-ZFS filesystem to avoid software bugs that hit both the main and backup zpool. The need for backups isn't unique to ZFS but I haven't seen other filesystems/RAID implementations promising "no data loss by design"
True, but you can use WINE bottles to get around this - install a WINE bottle, then move the steamapps directory somewhere else and do a symbolic link to it from the WINE bottle, and install one game in this bottle. For the next game, install a new bottle (with new WINE settings etc) but with symbolic link to the shared steamapps folder.
For extra point, the steamapps folder can be on an NTFS partition (but only if you have kernel >= 2.6.26, or your GCF files may get corrupted) - then you can multiboot into Windows sharing the same steamapps folder, for games that aren't compatible with WINE, or to check that a WINE game is working as it should under Windows.
ZFS is already available on Linux as a user-space filesystem (http://zfs-fuse.net/) - not fast but quite functional.
FreeBSD 8.1 has the best ZFS implementation outside the Solaris kernel at present - not as recent as the Solaris ZFS but it appears to work pretty well. People who want a really point and click install for evaluation or use at home should try PC-BSD 8.1, which is a repackaged version of FreeBSD with GUI installer and simpler package installation, and is still FreeBSD under the covers - see http://www.pcbsd.org/
However, no matter how great ZFS is, you still need full backups of your ZFS storage, because there are occasions where it refuses to open the storage (zpool) and it has no fsck, by design. I like the design and features, particularly the per-block checksums, media scrubbing and solving the RAID5 write hole (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_RAID_levels#RAID_5_disk_failure_rate), and low cost snapshots - but the 'no data loss by design' ignores the inevitable bugs that do occasionally cause data loss.
The solution for me is to use a PIN lock application instead - the point-smudges from this would be far less distinguishable from those left by normal touchscreen use. Android 2.2 (Froyo) includes this option, as does CyanogenMod (5.0+ I think), but unfortunately also makes it harder for custom lockscreen apps.
For those still using Android 2.1 or lower - any pointers to secure lockscreen replacement apps with PIN locks? There are many without the PIN lock, but I haven't found one that has a PIN lock and is not trivially bypassed.
Mod parent up - WDM is the correct term. Probably this is Metro WDM as opposed to the long-haul DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) - and yes, Coarse WDM does exist too.
WDM will also come to fiber to the home deployments eventually (there's a WDM for GPON being trialled in Korea I think).
You could also look at LastPass - http://lastpass.com/ - which works very well across Windows/Mac/Linux, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, etc, and on many mobile phones as well. Quite well designed and mature, and can be used offline though it's a browser addon, and syncs your password data to/from the cloud automatically, but also supports export to various formats if the cloud goes away. Now has a feature to manage non-browser passwords as well.
The answer is that consumers don't know about UMA, and most mobile operators are still very cellular focused, and UMA is only one approach (though for my money it works a lot better than some of the alternatives).
Mobile operators are seeing something of a bandwidth crunch, giving rise to the idea of 'data offload': put as much traffic as possible on WiFi, home broadband, etc - UMA is effectively 'voice offload' which is complementary, and is great for people with poor indoor coverage. Since the more advanced the cellular technology (HSPA, LTE, etc) the smaller the cells become, there will be more and more need for voice and data offload, including UMA.
See http://nokiaexperts.com/tmobile-nokia-e73-mode-uma-wifi-calling-killer-functionality/ for an example - UMA is a way of having 'standard cellular voice' (GSM based) delivered over WiFi - it's a bit like VoIP in that your GSM voice call goes over IP, but unlike VoIP in that it is not using SIP or Skype, and instead you roam between WiFi and GSM areas seamlessly (useful when off campus).
UMA WiFi phones are mostly for people who go between WiFi and GSM - one huge advantage is that the phone can automatically turn off the radio it's not using i.e. turn off GSM when WiFi is used. This saves a lot of battery life. Another big advantage is that you have one phone number and one phone service across GSM and WiFi, which is useful when you are off campus, and of course GSM mode will use less battery. T-Mobile offer this in the US, see link above. http://www.umatoday.com/ has general info.
UMA phones are thin on the ground but it's a useful feature - quite a few Blackberries support this. If you don't need UMA, almost any Nokia E-series phone with Symbian S60 would be fine. The Nokia phones are not the highest tech but they are very reliable, which is good if this is your only phone on campus - the E71 also includes GPS and other nice things, and I got it free with a great $40/month package. The N-series are more consumer oriented and also run Symbian, apart from the N900 which is Maemo.
Slashdot Mirror
I couldn't read the article as it was slashdotted, but there are many European GSM phones that are quad band and hence work in the US. There are also UMTS 3G phones that have the right bands, though there are more to support.
The only issue is that phones with the right frequency bands may cost a little more, but if consumers start demanding these the phone manufacturers will end up supporting them. In the worst case, buy a phone from Europe and use it with a US SIM card.
Not really... Some of the earliest computers used 'core memory', which was the only RAM and also non-volatile. You toggled in the bootstrap into this core memory, from your own memory or a cheat sheet (fortunately it was very short), and it was then used for multiple boots. Only if a really bad error caused a program to scribble over the bootstrap did you have to re-enter the bootstrap code.
On the PDP-8 I used, the bootstrap code was enough to read the OS in from paper tape - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDP-8 for background, the PDP-8/E picture at http://bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png also shows the toggle switches.
There's a good summary of bootstrapping at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootstrapping#Computing
I agree about going for OpenSolaris but that runs fine on commodity kit if you choose the hardware correctly - even a $75 Atom CPU+motherboard plus 2GB RAM is enough for a home NAS (as long as the Atom is x64 which many are).
Once btrfs is stable in a couple of years or so it will be fine as a ZFS replacement for Linux - however btrfs is another Oracle project so I hope they don't see it as conflicting with the more strategic ZFS.
The only thing that really matters to your business is whether it will make or lose money by open sourcing drivers. It seems that Broadcom was forced into open sourcing its drivers by the OEMs (Dell, HP, etc) who in turn were required to use FOSS drivers by some of their large customers requiring this for better Linux support. See http://lwn.net/Articles/404376/
If your company is going to lose money through not open sourcing drivers, the decision is obvious and the other issues can be resolved to make this happen.
I have had various corrupted PSTs over the years - strangely, more on Outlook 2007 than earlier versions. Most recently, Outlook managed to corrupt two files that are archives of previous years' emails, so no changes at all should have been made - quite an achievement to mess those up. One of the most annoying messages from Outlook 2007 is that the PST file is too full, and you need to delete some messages - I get this on opening the PST file and of course can't delete anything... nice Catch-22.
Exactly - I have far fewer problems with an elderly relative's PC since I switched them from Windows to Linux. I use Ubuntu 8.04 which has required almost no maintenance, with a simple VNC over SSH tunnel setup so I can fix things. Linux makes it possible easy to lock down GNOME and Thunderbird (though it could be easier) so that the inevitable messing-up of system or application state can be sorted out by a restart.
Yes - give the removable disk's partition a name - if it's ext3, use something like "e2fslabel /dev/sdg1 DRIVENAME" where the DRIVENAME is the name you want to use. Then you should find that GNOME will auto-mount your drive under /media/DRIVENAME, and it will appear in the Nautilus file explorer as well.
For NTFS drives, use ntfslabel with same syntax, and for FAT32, use "mlabel drive:label" - you will of course need to replace the 'g' in sdg1 above with whatever your drive uses (dmesg | tail -22 just after connecting your drive should tell you).
See https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RenameUSBDrive for a more complete HOWTO.
Try using http://lastpass.com/ for Chrome passwords - it encrypts the passwords on disk (of course), has a lot more features, and is a cross-browser plugin for Firefox, IE, Safari as well as Chrome, on Windows/Mac/Linux etc. It also has paid-for versions for iPhone, Android, etc, and syncs the passwords to the cloud.
Porting ZFS to Linux is only a mistake for those who don't like ZFS or Linux... I am contemplating a new Solaris / NexentaStor NAS just to get access to ZFS, but it would be much easier if it was available in Linux within the kernel.
Btrfs backrefs also make it easier to do an fsck (something that ZFS doesn't have) - there's a comment from the btrfs designer in the penultimate paragraph of http://www.osnews.com/story/22423/Should_ZFS_Have_a_fsck_Tool_
ZFS is nice but it doesn't have an fsck, partly because of its design philosophy. I think this is an omission and http://www.osnews.com/story/22423/Should_ZFS_Have_a_fsck_Tool_ explains why (links to many examples where ZFS won't open a zpool after an abrupt shutdown, possibly due to ZFS bugs or disks that lie about flushing cache to disk).
There is a new zpool recovery feature - discussed in http://www.c0t0d0s0.org/archives/6071-No,-ZFS-really-doesnt-need-a-fsck.html - the command is "zpool clear -F data" which is a very specific sort of fsck - it just unwinds the last few transactions, enabling you to have a valid zpool but losing a few recent updates, which is usually better than a complete restore from backups. The feature is mentioned at http://www.c0t0d0s0.org/archives/6067-PSARC-2009479-zpool-recovery-a.html (PSARC 2009/479) and is available since Opensolaris build b128 (ref: http://opensolaris.org/jive/thread.jspa?threadID=127689&tstart=0 )
For those who want a ZFS based NAS, have a look at NexentaStor (which has a proprietary GUI, free for up to 12 TB of disk) or Nexenta Core (just the OS without GUI, and open source) - NexentaStore has some nice features to get you started quickly, or you can use the open source napp.it GUI with the Nexenta Core. Nexenta uses a very recent zpool version (v24) and is based on OpenSolaris build b134 so it includes the above zpool reocvery feature.
Nexenta generally will move to using the Illumos fork of OpenSolaris when that's stable, so it should have a future as long as NetApp don't sue them. If they do get sued you could move to a more community-based distro based on Illumos.
Key question is whether the ZFS on Linux port will be updated to the Solaris b134 code to include this feature. Without it, you are in for some painful recovery using zdb (filesystem debugger) - but in any case you need up to date backups of your entire zpool. FreeBSD does have ZFS but using a much older zpool version without this feature - from my point of view, it's best to use the latest Solaris ZFS code to get the best stability, despite the limitations of Solaris hardware support.
ZFS recovery is an interesting topic given commodity hardware - see http://opensolaris.org/jive/message.jspa?messageID=292794 - there are other failure modes not addressed buy this zpool recovery feature.
The easiest way is to install Ubuntu Tweak, it has a specific feature to drag these buttons to the right hand side: http://ubuntu-tweak.com/
Very large RISC Unix servers may still be the way to go for DB servers, due to the I/O required, but for app servers you can scale out at very low cost with JEE clustering. x86 servers are now down to $20K or so for 48 cores (4 sockets x 12 core AMD CPU) - e.g. http://www.dell.com/us/en/enterprise/servers/poweredge-r815/pd.aspx?refid=poweredge-r815&cs=555&s=biz - enabling very high volumes.
Enterprise application vendors are seeing a lot of demand for Linux/x86 support from their customers, for this reason.
ZFS is used in production on FreeBSD by some people and I generally like the ZFS features, but I don't view ZFS as really production ready on any OS.
This is because ZFS on any OS does sometimes lose all access to the zpool (i.e. you lose the entire set of RAID volumes and filesystems on them, all at once) due to ZFS bugs, and there is no fsck. I can't think of another filesystem where you can (a) lose all access to your files and (b) there is no fsck. Same goes for RAID - even if you use RAID-1 with ZFS you can still lose your entire zpool due to a ZFS bug.
Given that the "no data loss by design" (can't find the reference for this, perhaps Sun/Oracle has stopped saying this) hasn't really worked out for ZFS on Solaris or FreeBSD, there is still a need to have a complete backup of any ZFS zpool (as with any other RAID / filesystem). The checksumming, COW, snapshots, and self-healing data (for RAID) are very nice, but losing your whole pool due to a ZFS bug means it isn't really a high availability solution. On the plus side, it does make it very easy to snapshot in order to take a backup, and makes incremental backups easy with zfs send.
Here are a few samples of complete zpool loss:
http://opensolaris.org/jive/thread.jspa?threadID=132089&tstart=120
http://superuser.com/posts/130822/revisions - FreeBSD
http://www.mail-archive.com/zfs-discuss@opensolaris.org/msg39578.html
My point is not that ZFS is a bad idea, but it really needs an fsck (see http://www.osnews.com/story/22423/Should_ZFS_Have_a_fsck_Tool_ ) and anyone using ZFS must have full backups onto another server of the whole zpool, perhaps into a non-ZFS filesystem to avoid software bugs that hit both the main and backup zpool. The need for backups isn't unique to ZFS but I haven't seen other filesystems/RAID implementations promising "no data loss by design"
http://breden.org.uk/2009/05/01/home-fileserver-a-year-in-zfs/ has some good info on using ZFS for a home NAS, with a separate backup server also using ZFS.
btrfs isn't mature yet, but its designer has said he will always make fsck a priority over new features: http://lkml.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0706.2/1284.html
True, but you can use WINE bottles to get around this - install a WINE bottle, then move the steamapps directory somewhere else and do a symbolic link to it from the WINE bottle, and install one game in this bottle. For the next game, install a new bottle (with new WINE settings etc) but with symbolic link to the shared steamapps folder.
For extra point, the steamapps folder can be on an NTFS partition (but only if you have kernel >= 2.6.26, or your GCF files may get corrupted) - then you can multiboot into Windows sharing the same steamapps folder, for games that aren't compatible with WINE, or to check that a WINE game is working as it should under Windows.
ZFS is already available on Linux as a user-space filesystem (http://zfs-fuse.net/) - not fast but quite functional.
FreeBSD 8.1 has the best ZFS implementation outside the Solaris kernel at present - not as recent as the Solaris ZFS but it appears to work pretty well. People who want a really point and click install for evaluation or use at home should try PC-BSD 8.1, which is a repackaged version of FreeBSD with GUI installer and simpler package installation, and is still FreeBSD under the covers - see http://www.pcbsd.org/
However, no matter how great ZFS is, you still need full backups of your ZFS storage, because there are occasions where it refuses to open the storage (zpool) and it has no fsck, by design. I like the design and features, particularly the per-block checksums, media scrubbing and solving the RAID5 write hole (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_RAID_levels#RAID_5_disk_failure_rate), and low cost snapshots - but the 'no data loss by design' ignores the inevitable bugs that do occasionally cause data loss.
The solution for me is to use a PIN lock application instead - the point-smudges from this would be far less distinguishable from those left by normal touchscreen use. Android 2.2 (Froyo) includes this option, as does CyanogenMod (5.0+ I think), but unfortunately also makes it harder for custom lockscreen apps.
For those still using Android 2.1 or lower - any pointers to secure lockscreen replacement apps with PIN locks? There are many without the PIN lock, but I haven't found one that has a PIN lock and is not trivially bypassed.
Mod parent up - WDM is the correct term. Probably this is Metro WDM as opposed to the long-haul DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) - and yes, Coarse WDM does exist too.
WDM will also come to fiber to the home deployments eventually (there's a WDM for GPON being trialled in Korea I think).
Gratuitous wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wavelength-division_multiplexing
Here's a direct link to the spreadsheet of routers, without the IFRAME so it's easier to read: https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=0Aupu_01ythaUdGZINXQ5Vi16X3hXb3VPYkszNXM0YXc&hl=en&output=html&widget=true
Google sometimes 'locks down' your account for up to 24 hours, due to various criteria that aren't very well specified - e.g. http://www.google.co.uk/support/forum/p/gmail/thread?tid=7226841f0bdafc8d&hl=en - hence it's a good idea not to have all your eggs in one basket.
It has also been known for Google to disable accounts - http://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-has-disabled-my-gmail-account/7871/ - for no clear reason. Of course, if you pay for Google Apps premier edition, you do get a support phone line for this sort of thing.
You could also look at LastPass - http://lastpass.com/ - which works very well across Windows/Mac/Linux, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, etc, and on many mobile phones as well. Quite well designed and mature, and can be used offline though it's a browser addon, and syncs your password data to/from the cloud automatically, but also supports export to various formats if the cloud goes away. Now has a feature to manage non-browser passwords as well.
The Nokia E73 has UMA built-in, most other Symbian phones don't seem to have this.
Android doesn't have UMA yet - you can get an Android app from Kineto Wireless ('Smart WiFi' is their term), or you can ask Google nicely to support this in the OS: see http://umatoday.blogspot.com/2010/05/stand-up-and-be-counted.html
Blackberry seems to have the best UMA support.
The answer is that consumers don't know about UMA, and most mobile operators are still very cellular focused, and UMA is only one approach (though for my money it works a lot better than some of the alternatives).
Mobile operators are seeing something of a bandwidth crunch, giving rise to the idea of 'data offload': put as much traffic as possible on WiFi, home broadband, etc - UMA is effectively 'voice offload' which is complementary, and is great for people with poor indoor coverage. Since the more advanced the cellular technology (HSPA, LTE, etc) the smaller the cells become, there will be more and more need for voice and data offload, including UMA.
http://www.umatoday.blogspot.com/ has some stories on UMA, from the consortium promoting it. Andy Abramson, something of a VoIP guru, also likes it: http://andyabramson.blogs.com/voipwatch/2009/11/my-t-mobile-uma-experience-and-my-cdma-data-experience.html - sounds like the UMA support in phones is maturing, perhaps due to RIM/Blackberry pushing this.
UMA is also a great way of roaming internationally with your cellular number, as long as you have WiFi coverage.
However, do check the quality of T-Mobile's UMA implementation and how UMA works in practice - some don't seem so good: http://www.orangeproblems.co.uk/mobiles/viewtopic.php?p=1409
See http://nokiaexperts.com/tmobile-nokia-e73-mode-uma-wifi-calling-killer-functionality/ for an example - UMA is a way of having 'standard cellular voice' (GSM based) delivered over WiFi - it's a bit like VoIP in that your GSM voice call goes over IP, but unlike VoIP in that it is not using SIP or Skype, and instead you roam between WiFi and GSM areas seamlessly (useful when off campus).
UMA WiFi phones are mostly for people who go between WiFi and GSM - one huge advantage is that the phone can automatically turn off the radio it's not using i.e. turn off GSM when WiFi is used. This saves a lot of battery life. Another big advantage is that you have one phone number and one phone service across GSM and WiFi, which is useful when you are off campus, and of course GSM mode will use less battery. T-Mobile offer this in the US, see link above. http://www.umatoday.com/ has general info.
UMA phones are thin on the ground but it's a useful feature - quite a few Blackberries support this. If you don't need UMA, almost any Nokia E-series phone with Symbian S60 would be fine. The Nokia phones are not the highest tech but they are very reliable, which is good if this is your only phone on campus - the E71 also includes GPS and other nice things, and I got it free with a great $40/month package. The N-series are more consumer oriented and also run Symbian, apart from the N900 which is Maemo.