I tried Mint/Debian a while back, loved it, but it had one killer showstopper for me.. I use the OpenShot video editor on a daily basis, and try as I might, I could not get any repo install of it to Mint.. STFU anybody who says "Build it yourself..." I've been using Linux since late 1993, with Slackware, so I've DEFINITELY built a LOT of kernels/apps, but I don't have the time/inclination to do that anymore.. So I'm gonna stay with Ubuntu and just switch to MATE as I LOATHE Unity and Gnome 3. Not a big fan of KDE either, though either the X or L-buntu derivitives may actually wind up on my clean install of 12.04 I'm doing as I type this.....
Or, if you don't like Unity, just install Gnome Shell. It's pretty much the way forward as far as Gnome is concerned, so we might as well at least become familiar with it, instead of bitching about how different it is.
Or, if you don't like Unity, OR Gnome Shell OR Gnome 3, there's MATE.. I'm currently installing 12.04LTS on a laptop, and as soon as the base install is done, it gets MATEed... (couldn't resist)
Still have one, still works like the day I bought it... Paid around $800 for it as I recall, and it was the low end 8K version.. Dug it out and put a set of AA's in it, and it works great...
Last time I paid any attention to the Olympics was in 1972. I was in the US Army and stationed in West Germany. USAREUR (the US Army Command Europe) recieved a lot of tickets from the IOC to pass out to soldiers/airman stationed in europe. I managed to glom onto a ticket, which came with a 3-day pass to allow you to go to Munich for your event. After a several hour train ride, I arrived in Munich, found a gasthaus with a vacancy, and after making sure I had a place to crash for the night, hopped the Ubahn out to the Olympic venue. As I got off the subway and took the escalator up to the surface, all the sudden there was all sorts of shouting, people running. I finally found a cop who wasn't running one way or the other.. Asked him what all the ruckas was about.. By this time, you've probably figured out what the ruckas was all about... Needless to say, the event I had a ticket for the next day was postponed. I had to wait until the next day for that event, and then had to catch a VERY late train to get back to the base before my 3-day pass ran out...
K7DGF here.. Been licensed since 1976, ex-WA6QNW, got the Extra in 1998. Kinda been inactive, due to the Internet. BUT.. I may just get back into it to play around with Gnuradio/SDR/IRLP/EchoLink.. Had no idea there ever WAS an "amateur radio day".. Too bad its not Field Day...
Geez... That reminds me of the Delta 747 flight I took from Dallas to LA back in 1972, which was *right* after the 747 was introduced by Boeing (and Delta). It was their "red-eye", which left Love Field at 2am and got into LA at like 3 something... I was flying military standby and had been trying to catch a flight all afternoon and evening. Everything to LA or San Diego (which was my ultimate destination) between about 3pm and this red-eye had been full.. When it looked like I was gonna have to spend the night in the airport terminal, I checked with Delta one more time and the agent said "I pretty much guarantee you'll make this flight"... and sure enough.. There were 20... yes, twenty passengers on this flight, plus the standard ten person cabin crew... A brand new shiny 747... Today, that flight would MOST certainly be cancelled with only 20 pax... Hate to think how much $$$ that flight LOST Delta....
I'm sort of the default tech support for everybody in my church and neighborhood. I'm working my way thru the people in both area who have computers that: currently have XP installed, and are unhappy with the slowdowns due to malware infestation (which is essentially EVERYBODY with Windows XP on the system). IF their system is un-recoverable without heroic measures (and expenditure of time @ $65/hr), OR they have lost (or never made) their recovery disks, my fix for these people is to pop an Ubuntu LiveCD into their system and say "See how much faster it is, when you don't have any Microsoft cruft on it, and you don't have tons of malware.." and then backup/wipe/install Ubuntu/restore.. The first person I did this for, was a bit hesitant at first, but now that she's been on Ubuntu for about 6 months, she's a convert. About a month after doing her machine, her husband wanted to be converted also, and his XP install was not even choked with malware. Since then I've done 5 more systems, 3 of which were by word-of-mouth from the two original "converts", and expect to do several more in the next month or so... Most of these systems are 4-6 years old with a ram max of 1 or 2GB, so I really couldn't recommend putting Win7 on them, EVEN if the user was willing to pay for it (I don't pirate Windows.. I mean WHY WOULD I, WITH LINUX SO MUCH BETTER).... Everyone I've converted is astounded by how much faster the system is now...
No, I kid.. I'll be sticking with Linux.. Just for fun, and so that I can answer questions from friends about the "new thing from Microsoft" I installed the preview in Virtualbox, and geez...what a steaming pile of manure.. I can see having Metro on a tablet, but on a desktop??? Microsoft has indeed jumped the shark. Unfortunantly that "shark" has been jumped quite a bit lately, especially by what used to be my favorite Linux distribution, namely Ubuntu. Their "shark-jump" is called Unity, and it is equally a steaming pile of manure. Apparently Microsoft's insanity is catching.. Canonical/Ubuntu seems to have caught it...
What was wrong with the TRS-80? I quite liked them.
Not a doggone thing.. My first computer was a TRS80 Model 1 4K Level 1. Despite the limitations (integer only, only 26 numeric/string variables) and 4K of ram, it was unbelievable for the time. As I recall it was around $500, and I bought the first one available at the Yuma Radio Shack store, being I was stationed at the US Army Yuma Proving Grounds at the time. It wasn't long before I spent the $$$ to get it upgraded to Level 2 basic and 16K of ram, plus the expansion box and a floppy drive.
Hey you kids! get OFF my lawn.. damned whippersnappers...grumble
Please cite for us a single case where the Mormon Church has sued anyone in court for hate speech directed at them.
As a Mormon, I can tell you that the official Church policy to dealing with anti-Mormon hate speech is to ignore it. Haters have been spouting their vitriol at us for 200 years and haven't had an original insult to throw at us for 199 years. They're inevitably forgotten, while the Church just keeps doing its thing. There's just no point in getting into an argument with such people.
It's unfortunate that the parent stated this as AC, but as I am also a Mormon, I'll echo his statement. Please cite for us a single case where the Mormon Church has sued anyone in court for hate speech directed at them. This will be monumentally difficult, as there has never been a case..As AC said, the Church officially simply ignores it. The Church also strongly believes in freedom OF religion AND freedom FROM religion, if thats what "floats your boat". Our missionaries are nearly everywhere, and would love to tell you about our religion, BUT if you tell them to leave you alone, they do..
I've had a Froyo-based Samsung smartphone for just about a year now, on VirginMobiles $35/mo Prepaid plan. I previously had been using a dumb-phone on their PAYG 18cents/min plan, but wanted to be able to ssh into my servers from just about anywhere without packing a laptop around. I absolutely refuse to patronize any carrier who requires a contract. I *can* understand WHY they require a contract on heavily subsidized phones, but if you buy your own phone?? I experienced this b.s. first-hand, when I bought a Samsung phone on eBay which was branded "Sprint". Since I had intended on putting it on VM, I discovered AFTER buying it that it was going to be nearly impossible to get a "sprint" phone on VM, despite VM running on Sprint's towers. So, just for fun, I visited a Sprint store to see if they would do a month-month since I HAD MY OWN PHONE AND THEY WOULD NOT BE SUBSIDIZING A PHONE.. Nope, company policy... ALL accounts require a 2 year contract.. So, FU, Sprint.. I wound up selling the "Sprint" phone for a bit more than I paid for it, and bought a "VirginMobile" phone, of the EXACT same model. Was a bit miffed when I tried to install OpenVPN after rooting it, and found there was no tun.ko module for the Samsung froyo kernel. The fix was to "upgrade" it to one of the 3rd party Roms.. Happy ever since.. FU, Sprint/ATT/Verizon..
Geez.. I wish you hadn't posted this as AC.. I'd LOVE to know who has the SAME idea about these two abortions.. One, a suit, which is, howEVER you look at it, a uniform... I HATE uniforms.. After doing time in the US Army, I doubly HATE uniforms. And that demon-spawn from Hades, the tie.. Designed from the get-go to choke the living shit out of everybody who has the misfortune to work where they mandate them. Fortuantly, the tide seems to be turning away somewhat from them. I get a good laugh to see TSA bozos (and others) who wear those absolutely hilarious clipon ties. I'm the IT manager in a new startup, and the management team, being that is mostly people like me, who despise suits/ties, has ruled that our office wear will always be "business-casual", ie: polo-shirt/khakis. We REALLY hate suits/ties! In fact, when we schedule interviews (we're going to be hiring a fair amount soon), the interviewee will be strongly advised about "business-casual" dress for the interview. Since we're a startup, a discussion about stationary/business cards was held the other day, and the concensus on business cards was "waste of $$$"...
Here's a bit of a warning, mate: girls dig guys who use Apple gear.
Apple = cool user. Microsoft = corporate user. Linux user = nerd loser*.
* this comment is not aimed at unix on servers.
Then I am proud to be a nerd loser (Ubuntu 10.04 on both desktop and laptop).. Being 61 and happily married for 26 years I'm not gonna worry about "the girls not digging me" cuz I don't use rotten apple gear..
It isn't just hotels.. the free wifi at McDonalds is absolutely horrible. I used to take my lunch at a nearby one, and bring my personal laptop to do some stuff that I could not do on a company laptop, such as ssh into several of my consulting clients servers to handle day-to-day problems. Besides the fact that the attwifi signal itself dropped out completely every 5 min or so, the uplink was so bad, ssh was unusable. Press a key...wait 5 seconds.. get echo... I used to use the McDonalds wifi prior to it going free and it was nowhere near as bad as now.. Oddly, the Starbucks down the street (which is now where I go for lunch). which also uses ATT wifi, is good for ssh, although I think it was better when it was tmobile and a pay connection... Guess its true... you get what you pay for...
A tip: unless your fiance is a geek also, she may take a VERY dim view on geeky stuff involving HER wedding.. I hope you understand that the bride is the "commanding officer" of a wedding.. SHE is the driving force, and in essence, all the groom needs to do is show up in appropriate dress. Of course, this is a generalization, but women often dream about "their day" namely their wedding day, and take a really dim view to ANYBODY messing with it, even when its her fiance...
Let me predict what this regime's "official" response to this petition will be: "OUR OFFICIAL RESPONSE IS NO COMMENT".... And then you wonder why we so dearly love the "Dear Leader".....
I wish the rest of the pledged websites would go ahead and do the blackout as scheduled.. This is NOT a win, its only a delay.. You can bet your bottom dollar, the bill will be back under a different name, with possibly worse aspects to it than SOPA/PIPA. These crooks will not give up until either the American people bitchslap them silly (who AM I kidding...) or until they destroy the Internet as it is today...
Was waiting for one of the inevitable "Beck/Hannity/Limbaugh" haters coughing up his vomit all over the forum, and lookee here, I wasn't disappointed.. Hey Bozo! We understand you bat-s$$t insane liberals can't live without actively hating people who disagree with them, but why don't you just go over there in the corner and hate these gentleman privately.. Just another datapoint on liberals.. They absolutely CANNOT tolerate ANYBODY who disagrees with them and rather than simply saying "I disagree with you, so we'll just have to agree-to-disagree on where this country is going", liberals feel the need to actively HATE these people, using terms that would be classed as "Hate Speech" by the same liberals IF these Conservative voices were to use the same terms to describe liberals. Dr Michael Savage has the modern liberal classified perfectly as being afflicted with a mental illness...
Ok.. That does it.. Hell HAS frozen over... A statement from this administration that I 100% agree with??? Will wonders EVER cease?? I guess the old saw "A broken clock is correct twice a day" applies here... There IS no doubt that this administration is a "broken clock"...
In the case of a Linux server, you can configure your GUI to only run WHEN you want it to, via the tried/true "startx" command. In my last corporate job, we had a rack full of Redhat servers where the previous admin had decided that the default "runlevel 5" was just peachy for these number-cruncher systems. For those who don't know, on a Redhat-type Linux server, runlevel 5 means the GUI (usually Gnome) is running ALL THE TIME. I convinced the IT manager, who was a long time Windows admin type, but knew very little about Linux, that it would be FAR better, performance-wise, to change these to runlevel 3, and only start the GUI when it was truly needed. He was hesitant about this, as the only Linux he knew was basically via the Gnome GUI. I showed him how easy it was to switch the kvm to the desired box, type "startrun" and voila! there's your gui... Now when I set up an Ubuntu server, I use the basic server ISO, then after installation of it on the system, I install one of the light-weight GUI like Blackbox/LXDE or the like, and configure it to run only with "startx". Given the ease of this, I wonder if Microsoft intends this type of switchability in Windows 8.. I'm gonna go out on a limb and bet that its going to be an "either-or" configuration with Windows 8, either the GUI running all the time or no GUI functionality at all.
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I tried Mint/Debian a while back, loved it, but it had one killer showstopper for me.. I use the OpenShot video editor on a daily basis, and try as I might, I could not get any repo install of it to Mint.. STFU anybody who says "Build it yourself..." I've been using Linux since late 1993, with Slackware, so I've DEFINITELY built a LOT of kernels/apps, but I don't have the time/inclination to do that anymore.. So I'm gonna stay with Ubuntu and just switch to MATE as I LOATHE Unity and Gnome 3. Not a big fan of KDE either, though either the X or L-buntu derivitives may actually wind up on my clean install of 12.04 I'm doing as I type this.....
Or, if you don't like Unity, just install Gnome Shell. It's pretty much the way forward as far as Gnome is concerned, so we might as well at least become familiar with it, instead of bitching about how different it is.
Or, if you don't like Unity, OR Gnome Shell OR Gnome 3, there's MATE.. I'm currently installing 12.04LTS on a laptop, and as soon as the base install is done, it gets MATEed... (couldn't resist)
I bought one of the 8K units in 1984, and it was $800....
Still have one, still works like the day I bought it... Paid around $800 for it as I recall, and it was the low end 8K version.. Dug it out and put a set of AA's in it, and it works great...
Last time I paid any attention to the Olympics was in 1972. I was in the US Army and stationed in West Germany. USAREUR (the US Army Command Europe) recieved a lot of tickets from the IOC to pass out to soldiers/airman stationed in europe. I managed to glom onto a ticket, which came with a 3-day pass to allow you to go to Munich for your event. After a several hour train ride, I arrived in Munich, found a gasthaus with a vacancy, and after making sure I had a place to crash for the night, hopped the Ubahn out to the Olympic venue. As I got off the subway and took the escalator up to the surface, all the sudden there was all sorts of shouting, people running. I finally found a cop who wasn't running one way or the other.. Asked him what all the ruckas was about.. By this time, you've probably figured out what the ruckas was all about... Needless to say, the event I had a ticket for the next day was postponed. I had to wait until the next day for that event, and then had to catch a VERY late train to get back to the base before my 3-day pass ran out...
K7DGF here.. Been licensed since 1976, ex-WA6QNW, got the Extra in 1998. Kinda been inactive, due to the Internet. BUT.. I may just get back into it to play around with Gnuradio/SDR/IRLP/EchoLink.. Had no idea there ever WAS an "amateur radio day".. Too bad its not Field Day...
Geez... That reminds me of the Delta 747 flight I took from Dallas to LA back in 1972, which was *right* after the 747 was introduced by Boeing (and Delta). It was their "red-eye", which left Love Field at 2am and got into LA at like 3 something... I was flying military standby and had been trying to catch a flight all afternoon and evening. Everything to LA or San Diego (which was my ultimate destination) between about 3pm and this red-eye had been full.. When it looked like I was gonna have to spend the night in the airport terminal, I checked with Delta one more time and the agent said "I pretty much guarantee you'll make this flight"... and sure enough.. There were 20... yes, twenty passengers on this flight, plus the standard ten person cabin crew... A brand new shiny 747... Today, that flight would MOST certainly be cancelled with only 20 pax...
Hate to think how much $$$ that flight LOST Delta....
I'm sort of the default tech support for everybody in my church and neighborhood. I'm working my way thru the people in both area who have computers that: currently have XP installed, and are unhappy with the slowdowns due to malware infestation (which is essentially EVERYBODY with Windows XP on the system). IF their system is un-recoverable without heroic measures (and expenditure of time @ $65/hr), OR they have lost (or never made) their recovery disks, my fix for these people is to pop an Ubuntu LiveCD into their system and say "See how much faster it is, when you don't have any Microsoft cruft on it, and you don't have tons of malware.." and then backup/wipe/install Ubuntu/restore.. The first person I did this for, was a bit hesitant at first, but now that she's been on Ubuntu for about 6 months, she's a convert. About a month after doing her machine, her husband wanted to be converted also, and his XP install was not even choked with malware. Since then I've done 5 more systems, 3 of which were by word-of-mouth from the two original "converts", and expect to do several more in the next month or so... Most of these systems are 4-6 years old with a ram max of 1 or 2GB, so I really couldn't recommend putting Win7 on them, EVEN if the user was willing to pay for it (I don't pirate Windows.. I mean WHY WOULD I, WITH LINUX SO MUCH BETTER).... Everyone I've converted is astounded by how much faster the system is now...
No, I kid.. I'll be sticking with Linux.. Just for fun, and so that I can answer questions from friends about the "new thing from Microsoft" I installed the preview in Virtualbox, and geez...what a steaming pile of manure.. I can see having Metro on a tablet, but on a desktop??? Microsoft has indeed jumped the shark. Unfortunantly that "shark" has been jumped quite a bit lately, especially by what used to be my favorite Linux distribution, namely Ubuntu. Their "shark-jump" is called Unity, and it is equally a steaming pile of manure. Apparently Microsoft's insanity is catching.. Canonical/Ubuntu seems to have caught it...
What was wrong with the TRS-80? I quite liked them.
Not a doggone thing.. My first computer was a TRS80 Model 1 4K Level 1. Despite the limitations (integer only, only 26 numeric/string variables) and 4K of ram, it was unbelievable for the time. As I recall it was around $500, and I bought the first one available at the Yuma Radio Shack store, being I was stationed at the US Army Yuma Proving Grounds at the time. It wasn't long before I spent the $$$ to get it upgraded to Level 2 basic and 16K of ram, plus the expansion box and a floppy drive.
Hey you kids! get OFF my lawn.. damned whippersnappers...grumble
Please cite for us a single case where the Mormon Church has sued anyone in court for hate speech directed at them.
As a Mormon, I can tell you that the official Church policy to dealing with anti-Mormon hate speech is to ignore it. Haters have been spouting their vitriol at us for 200 years and haven't had an original insult to throw at us for 199 years. They're inevitably forgotten, while the Church just keeps doing its thing. There's just no point in getting into an argument with such people.
It's unfortunate that the parent stated this as AC, but as I am also a Mormon, I'll echo his statement. Please cite for us a single case where the Mormon Church has sued anyone in court for hate speech directed at them. This will be monumentally difficult, as there has never been a case..As AC said, the Church officially simply ignores it. The Church also strongly believes in freedom OF religion AND freedom FROM religion, if thats what "floats your boat". Our missionaries are nearly everywhere, and would love to tell you about our religion, BUT if you tell them to leave you alone, they do..
I've had a Froyo-based Samsung smartphone for just about a year now, on VirginMobiles $35/mo Prepaid plan. I previously had been using a dumb-phone on their PAYG 18cents/min plan, but wanted to be able to ssh into my servers from just about anywhere without packing a laptop around. I absolutely refuse to patronize any carrier who requires a contract. I *can* understand WHY they require a contract on heavily subsidized phones, but if you buy your own phone?? I experienced this b.s. first-hand, when I bought a Samsung phone on eBay which was branded "Sprint". Since I had intended on putting it on VM, I discovered AFTER buying it that it was going to be nearly impossible to get a "sprint" phone on VM, despite VM running on Sprint's towers. So, just for fun, I visited a Sprint store to see if they would do a month-month since I HAD MY OWN PHONE AND THEY WOULD NOT BE SUBSIDIZING A PHONE.. Nope, company policy... ALL accounts require a 2 year contract.. So, FU, Sprint.. I wound up selling the "Sprint" phone for a bit more than I paid for it, and bought a "VirginMobile" phone, of the EXACT same model. Was a bit miffed when I tried to install OpenVPN after rooting it, and found there was no tun.ko module for the Samsung froyo kernel. The fix was to "upgrade" it to one of the 3rd party Roms.. Happy ever since.. FU, Sprint/ATT/Verizon..
After all you may be a terrorist, citizen
After all you ARE a terrorist, U.S. Government..
Geez.. I wish you hadn't posted this as AC.. I'd LOVE to know who has the SAME idea about these two abortions.. One, a suit, which is, howEVER you look at it, a uniform... I HATE uniforms.. After doing time in the US Army, I doubly HATE uniforms. And that demon-spawn from Hades, the tie.. Designed from the get-go to choke the living shit out of everybody who has the misfortune to work where they mandate them. Fortuantly, the tide seems to be turning away somewhat from them. I get a good laugh to see TSA bozos (and others) who wear those absolutely hilarious clipon ties. I'm the IT manager in a new startup, and the management team, being that is mostly people like me, who despise suits/ties, has ruled that our office wear will always be "business-casual", ie: polo-shirt/khakis. We REALLY hate suits/ties! In fact, when we schedule interviews (we're going to be hiring a fair amount soon), the interviewee will be strongly advised about "business-casual" dress for the interview.
Since we're a startup, a discussion about stationary/business cards was held the other day, and the concensus on business cards was "waste of $$$"...
This is so pathetic... Both the idea and the patent system itself.
This is so pathetic... Both the idea and the patent system itself AND Microsoft...
FTFY
Here's a bit of a warning, mate: girls dig guys who use Apple gear.
Apple = cool user.
Microsoft = corporate user.
Linux user = nerd loser*.
* this comment is not aimed at unix on servers.
Then I am proud to be a nerd loser (Ubuntu 10.04 on both desktop and laptop).. Being 61 and happily married for 26 years
I'm not gonna worry about "the girls not digging me" cuz I don't use rotten apple gear..
Just a matter of time before theres a big announcement that the TSA is changing their uniforms from blue shirts to brown shirts....
Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it... Don't remember who said it, but is it ever appropriate here....
189ms from Nevada (Cox) to Sydney Australia via speedtest just now... Not bad..
It isn't just hotels.. the free wifi at McDonalds is absolutely horrible. I used to take my lunch at a nearby one, and bring my personal laptop to do some stuff that I could not do on a company laptop, such as ssh into several of my consulting clients servers to handle day-to-day problems. Besides the fact that the attwifi signal itself dropped out completely every 5 min or so, the uplink was so bad, ssh was unusable. Press a key...wait 5 seconds.. get echo... I used to use the McDonalds wifi prior to it going free and it was nowhere near as bad as now.. Oddly, the Starbucks down the street (which is now where I go for lunch). which also uses ATT wifi, is good for ssh, although I think it was better when it was tmobile and a pay connection... Guess its true... you get what you pay for...
A tip: unless your fiance is a geek also, she may take a VERY dim view on geeky stuff involving HER wedding.. I hope you understand that the bride is the "commanding officer" of a wedding.. SHE is the driving force, and in essence, all the groom needs to do is show up in appropriate dress. Of course, this is a generalization, but women often dream about "their day" namely their wedding day, and take a really dim view to ANYBODY messing with it, even when its her
fiance...
Let me predict what this regime's "official" response to this petition will be: "OUR OFFICIAL RESPONSE IS NO COMMENT".... And then you wonder why we so dearly love the "Dear Leader".....
I wish the rest of the pledged websites would go ahead and do the blackout as scheduled.. This is NOT a win, its only a delay.. You can bet your bottom dollar, the bill will be back under a different name, with possibly worse aspects to it than SOPA/PIPA. These crooks will not give up until either the American people bitchslap them silly (who AM I kidding...) or until they destroy the Internet as it is today...
Was waiting for one of the inevitable "Beck/Hannity/Limbaugh" haters coughing up his vomit all over the forum, and lookee here, I wasn't disappointed.. Hey Bozo! We understand you bat-s$$t insane liberals can't live without actively hating people who disagree with them, but why don't you just go over there in the corner and hate these gentleman privately.. Just another datapoint on liberals.. They absolutely CANNOT tolerate ANYBODY who disagrees with them and rather than simply saying "I disagree with you, so we'll just have to agree-to-disagree on where this country is going", liberals feel the need to actively HATE these people, using terms that would be classed as "Hate Speech" by the same liberals IF these Conservative voices were to use the same terms to describe liberals. Dr Michael Savage has the modern liberal classified perfectly as being afflicted with a mental illness...
Ok.. That does it.. Hell HAS frozen over... A statement from this administration that I 100% agree with??? Will wonders EVER cease?? I guess the old saw "A broken clock is correct twice a day" applies here... There IS no doubt that this administration is a "broken clock"...
In the case of a Linux server, you can configure your GUI to only run WHEN you want it to, via the tried/true "startx" command. In my last corporate job, we had a rack full of Redhat servers where the previous admin had decided that the default "runlevel 5" was just peachy for these number-cruncher systems. For those who don't know, on a Redhat-type Linux server, runlevel 5 means the GUI (usually Gnome) is running ALL THE TIME. I convinced the IT manager, who was a long time Windows admin type, but knew very little about Linux, that it would be FAR better, performance-wise, to change these to runlevel 3, and only start the GUI when it was truly needed. He was hesitant about this, as the only Linux he knew was basically via the Gnome GUI. I showed him how easy it was to switch the kvm to the desired box, type "startrun" and voila! there's your gui... Now when I set up an Ubuntu server, I use the basic server ISO, then after installation of it on the system, I install one of the light-weight GUI like Blackbox/LXDE or the like, and configure it to run only with "startx". Given the ease of this, I wonder if Microsoft intends this type of switchability in Windows 8.. I'm gonna go out on a limb and bet that its going to be an "either-or" configuration with Windows 8, either the GUI running all the time or no GUI functionality at all.