I use Linux, or more specifically Ubuntu, because for one it’s free, and almost all of the software for it, is also free.  Virtually every program for Windows or Mac has some sort of a counterpart which is either free or much cheaper.   For example, though I do have Microsoft Office 2007, I usually use the free counterpart OpenOffice.org which is fully compatible with all Microsoft formats, as well as having features that are not included in Microsoft’s products.  There are times when there is no good alternate program to use, in which case there is always WINE, which stands for Wine is Not an Emulator.  WINE is a useful program, as it does not emulate Windows, but creates a compatibility layer that runs many programs, though unfortunately not all.

Linux is also the most customizable operating system around.  As Linux is also open source, it’s easy to customize it to make optimized for yourself, though I choose not to use a custom version, I am still able to customize the interface beyond just a wallpaper.  Linux offers multiple desktop environments, the most prominent being GNOME, and KDE.  Each one offers it’s own advantages and disadvantages.  Some environments will resemble each other, such as Gnome and XFCE, while others like KDE look drastically different.  What’s also a nice feature, is you don’t have to chose just one environment, many people including myself install more than one for testing purposes.

Linux is also faster and more streamline than Windows, even faster than Windows 7.  I will admit that Linux is a bit more basic than Windows while taking a fraction of the hard drive space after installed, but that doesn’t make it any less speedy.  You can boot up Linux, login, and launch your favorite web browser in the time it takes Windows to boot up.  Many processes such as encoding and decoding video for adding to your music or video player, or converting to upload to Youtube is also much faster.  I have converted video before on my desktop, which is much much faster than my netbook, however when I tried to encode a video file to mp4 so I could upload it to Youtube it took a fraction of the time.

I use Linux by choice, not because someone told me to try it.  For me anyways Linux is my choice in operating systems because it’s entirely open and free, as well as super customizable, as well as being faster and lighter weight than Windows.  Don’t get me wrong, I still use Windows a great deal,   as I run both Linux on Windows on my netbook.  As a PC gamer, I am still bound to Windows, but aside from that, school work, office work, web browsing, and even some basic gaming, can all be done from Linux.

Pros

Touch screen (yes- personal preference…but virtual keyboards w/o this are not at all useful)
OLED screen is brilliant
Browser/internet access
Apps
Size (finally comfortable in a shirt or pants pocket)
Durability (flash storage, not HDD)
HD radio
HD video
Battery life
‘Cloud’ sharing

Cons

NO Speaker
only about 15 Apps(vs the 1000′s of apps in the apple app store)
and thats about it

now i love the Zune HD despite the few apps but i dont care for apps its a MUSIC PLAYER not a PHONE. also i love the Screen, Microsoft perfected the touch screen its just the best of the best. I also love the HD radio and that if i like a song that is playing on the radio i can add it to my cart and download it from the marketplace later, which is my favorite part about the Zune HD since i have a zune pass i get unlimited music downloads for 14.99 a month. the only thing i dont like about the Zune is that there is no speaker and i was really hoping it had one, but i learned to work around it. Also one thing that is really cool is the Wireless sync, i can just drag songs from the program to my Zune icon then on my Zune i click “Wireless Sync” and bingo its syncing my music wirelessly!

Well i guess thats it for this Review, hope you guys buy this amazing product too

I’ve been sick of these commercials for a while now, but they need to stop.  These sites are spreaders of rouge and fake anti virus software.  Something I actually just noticed is that these commercials will air for a few months, and then will be replaced by another one.  I also noticed that many of these same websites are run by same couple companies.   Ever notice that these sites always seem to have terrible reputation when you view their rating on mywot.com or other website rating software?  Enough is enough, it’s a shame that there are so many people who fall victim to these companies.  I’m lucky enough to have never had to clean up the mess these sites/programs leave on a system, since everyone I know comes to me first to do anything with their computers.  If you’ve ever been browsing the web, I’m sure you’ve come across a site that is made up to look like Windows Explorer (most commonly Windows XP’s version, and tells you that you are infected with a virus.  Many of use “tech geeks” know that it’s fake and giving false results, these sites do as well as other rouge antivirus programs all give false results to lure you into buying their program.  The word needs to get out that these commercials and rougeware as I like to call it, can’t be tolerated.  I have myself been a victim of Rouge antivirus software, or rather my mother managed to get antivirus pro 2009 installed onto a computer which we had just hooked up not 10 minutes before. What can be done to spread the awareness of these scams?  I honestly have no idea, if you have any ideas, or comments, post a comment below, I will post the facebook discussion boards, and our forums when ever I get those up.

Jailbreakme info:
Requires Wifi or 3G connection (I did it off of my iPhone’s 3G connection)
Must be activated or hackivated

The jailbreak is in my opinion explanatory since there is only 2 steps, but below I am including screenshots from when I did it

1) go to jailbreakme.com from the Safari web browser (iPhone or iPod touch’s browser). or follow the QR code from a QR code reader (such as quiQR from your iphone, and open that link in safari.

2) Slide the “Slide to jailbreak” slider

3) Site tight and let it download the jailbreak

4) Wait a little longer for the jailbreak to run.

5) Your now jailbroken, you can now close the tab in safari and exit the browser.

6) Check your second page for Cydia, and you can launch that to start adding repositories and 3rd party apps.

The ASUS G51JX-3D is one of the duo and has a configuration centered around the Intel Core i7-720QM central processing unit. This CPU is backed up by a solid 6GB of DDR3 memory. Furthermore, the NVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M discrete GPU is present, which has 1GB of GDDR5 VRAM and unrestricted control over the 15.6-inch HD display.

The Clevo W860CU 3D is the second mobile PC that AVADirect has on hand. It features the same screen size as the one from ASUS but its graphics card is the GeForce GTX 285M, also with 1GB of GDDR5 memory. At the heart of the machine lies an Intel CPU, either a Core i5 or Core i7. Other than that, end-users actually have full reign over what their laptop is outfitted with, custom paint being the least of them. For example, enthusiasts can opt for solid state drives and up to 8GB of 1333 MHz DDR3 RAM. Needless to say, the product, like the G51JX-3D, comes bundled with the 3D Vision Kit and is compatible with any 3D Vision-ready desktop projectors and monitors.

“Thanks to this impressive 3D technology, and our commitment to innovation, we are able to offer our customers the ultimate mobile 3D experience,” says Misha Troshin, CMO and Co-Owner of AVADirect.

The ASUS G51JX-3D is priced at roughly $1,600, whereas the Clevo W860CU 3D starts around $1800.

Mozilla has made Firefox 4 Beta available to the public.  Now it does not have the Tab Candy feature that is in the custom build (that build is a beta 3 pre-build).  New features in Beta 2 are.

• Tabs are now on top by default on Windows and OSX – Linux will be changing when the theme has been modified to support the change.
• You can turn any tab into an “App Tab” by right-clicking on it and selecting “Make into App Tab” from the context menu.
• Web developers can animate content using CSS Transitions.
• Responsiveness and scrolling improvements from the new retained layers layout system.
• JavaScript speed improvements due to engine optimizations.
• Changes to how XPCOM components are registered in order to help startup time and process separation.
• See the complete changelist from the previous beta.

Features from Firefox 4 Beta 1

• You can search for and switch to already open tabs in the Smart Location Bar
• New Addons Manager and extension management API (UI will be changed before final release)
• Significant API improvements are available for JS-ctypes, a foreign function interface for extensions.
• The stop and reload buttons have been merged into a single button on Windows, Mac and Linux.
• The Bookmarks Toolbar has been replaced with a Bookmarks Button by default (you can switch it back if you’d like).
• Crash protection for Windows, Linux, and Mac when there is a crash in the Adobe Flash, Apple Quicktime or Microsoft Silverlight plugins.
• CSS Transitions are partially supported.
• Full WebGL support is included but disabled by default at this time.
• Core Animation rendering model for plugins on Mac OS X. Plugins which also support this rendering model can now draw faster and more efficiently.
• Native support for the HD HTML5 WebM video format.
• An experimental Direct2D rendering backend is available on Windows, turned off by default.
• Web developers can use Websockets for a low complexity, low latency, bidirectional communications API.
• Web developers can update the URL field without reloading the page using HTML History APIs.
• More responsive page rendering using lazy frame construction.
• Link history lookup is done asynchronously to provide better responsiveness during pageload.
• CSS :visited selectors have been changed to block websites from being able to check a user’s browsing history.
• New HTML5 parser.
• Support for more HTML5 form controls.

Download it yourself and tell use what you think:
Firefox 4 Beta page

NOTE: The Tab Candy feature in the last firefox post did not make the deadline for this beta, I would expect to see it in Beta 3.