I have been using Linux for over ten years. My first induction in the “cult-o-Linux” was with Caldera OpenLinux 1 and Red Hat 4.2. Back then it was a completely different Linux. If you wanted to install an application you most likely were going to install from source or, if you were lucky, you could find an rpm package for your Red Hat installation. But so many day-to-day activities were handled from the command line. You mounted (and unmounted) floppy disks from the command line. Most likely you started your dial-up modem from the command line (and even had to write a bash script to get it connected – remember Minicom?)

Today, Linux is an all together different beast. But what makes it user-friendly? And what, in specific, makes Ubuntu so appealing that it could easily become the flagship Linux distribution? Let’s take a look.

Familiarity: As much as I hate to say it, in so many instances, you have to mimic Windows in order to gain a level of comfort with new users. In many instances, Ubuntu has done just that. But it’s not overt mimicry, it’s subtle. It’s changing the way users have to deal with removable media. Now you can plug in that USB key, write something to the key, and remove the key. Of course you should be unmounting the key before removing it (just like you should in both Windows and Mac), but at least it has become possible to, quite literally, plug-and-plug. Is this unique to Ubuntu? Not completely. However, Ubuntu has pieced together a system that is much more consistent with the methods of the “market share”.

Software management: Ubuntu has, and continues to have, one of the simplest tools for managing software. Open up the single tool, search for what you need, select it, and install it. And with Ubuntu 9.10 coming out, this task includes commercial software. What this does is, in many instances, keep the user from having to search the web endlessly for commercial-grade software for Linux. The next step – ease the adding of repositories.

Sudo: This is a very sore point for many old-school Linux users. Most see this as a security risk. But with regards to user-friendliness – why would you want to make the new user have to learn about a “super user” or “root” account? Most average users cringe at the thought of doing anything administrative to a computer. So you remove the idea of their needing an administrative user and you take one step towards giving the users what they want. With Ubuntu your user has administrative rights through sudo, so the worst thing they will have to do is enter their user password when handling administrative tasks. Most users can handle that.

Choice made simple: A lot of distributions have chosen one desktop over another. And let’s face it, the desktop ultimately will determine how user-friendly a distribution is. I can take a user-friendly distribution like Ubuntu, put AfterStep or E16 on as the desktop, and that distribution is no longer user-friendly. The desktop is the make or break for Linux and we all know, for user-friendliness, there are two serious choices: GNOME and KDE. Ubuntu makes this very simple: If you want GNOME you download the standard ISO and burn it. If you prefer KDE, download Kubuntu. Ubuntu goes even further than that by offering Xubuntu and Edubuntu versions of the distribution. So instead of having to download and install a distribution with one desktop and then install the desktop you want on top of that, you just download the version of the distribution that includes the desktop you want.

Installation: How much easier could it be than booting a Live CD and then clicking the install button once it is up and running? Not much. Of course many Linux distributions have a Live CD version (some only do Live DVDs) which is great. But the Ubuntu Live CD offers a cleaner, easier start up and installation than most. If you’ve ever tried the Elive Live CD you know EXACTLY what I am talking about.

Boot time: Ubuntu Linux has one of the fastest boot times of all the Linux distributions. The goal of Ubuntu is to reach that elusive 10 second boot time. They are coming very close. Along with boot time would be a clean boot. By clean boot I mean not giving the user more information than they need. Long gone is the boot up process that tells the user every single process, system, and sub-system that is starting up. The only users that want to see that are the old school users trying to debug various issues.

Remove the clutter: I am a big fan of virtual workspaces. I love (and use) the Linux pager. Most people, however, do not. Ubuntu has the right approach to this tool, strip the virtual workspaces down to two to appease the old school users AND not so easily confuse the new users. In all honesty, I think for the standard release, the pager needs to be disabled all together. Sure, leave it there so users who depend upon it can enable it, but why have more clutter than the average user can stand? Ubuntu is on the right path.

Final thoughts

Of course what you really need to do is define “user friendliness”. For many people that means “just be Windows”. But for some it’s much more than that. If you say “Just be Windows” – doesn’t that include Vista? And Vista was not the most user-friendly OS. User-friendly, to me, is an operating system (as a complete whole – not in pieces) that does not interfere with the user. A real user friendly operating system will allow the user to do what they need to do without confusing road blocks or cumbersome sub-systems. And, finally, a user-friendly operating system should be secure from the threat of viruses and malware without the inclusion of third-party software. Linux has that in spades.

What do you think? Is Ubuntu the most user friendly Linux distribution?

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1) Saturday is wrong day of the week to try to pass out software and hold events.

2) Where is the publicity?

So in light of that, I am going to do my part here on Ghacks to help out the community learn and understand FOSS. For this article I will highlight outstanding sights where you can become involved with open source as well as other informative sites and ideas. I hope, upon reading this, you will have a better understanding of why open source exists, why you should give it a try, and how you can help.

What is open source?

First and foremost I want to set aside the whole Linux vs. Windows debate for this article. Why? Two reasons: 1) it is counter-productive to the very heart of open source and 2) there is open source software for both platforms.  Open Source is a not just a type of software, it’s a philosophy that says the source code to software should be freely available to the public. Being available makes this source code open for modification, forking, etc. The most obvious benefit of open source is that if you want to change (or fix) the way a piece of software behaves you can. You do not have to wait for the developers to release bug fixes or updates. If you have the ability, you can make those changes yourself.

Of course open source is only a type of software that has unlimited access to code guaranteed by a license (GPL). Open source is also a movement with the purpose of fostering open standards, heterogeneous environments (and accessibility), non-monopolistic practices, and world-wide acceptance.

Benefits of using open source

• Cost effective.
• Huge variety of software.
• User-friendly graphical tools.
• Avoids lock-in.
• DRM free.
• Avoids monopolies.
• Freedom to alter software to fit your needs.

And much more.

How/where to learn more

There are so many places where you can learn about open source. Here is a listing of the best places to start:

Open Source Initiative.

Linux Foundation.

Go Open Source.

How can you help?

There are many ways to help the open source movement. First and foremost you can help others learn about open source. Many people do not even know about the alternatives to proprietary software. Education is the best tool. One issue many people fight with is the idea that open source, by nature, is less secure or less user-friendly. It is that cross section of users that efforts need to be focused on. Educate them so that they see the validity of open source software.  Of course education goes way beyond trying to spread an “ideal”. Other ways to help the open source movement include:

Install Fests: Although, for the most part, the install fest is a thing of the past it was a great idea. LUGs all over the country (and world) would dedicate certain days of the year to help people install Linux on their machines. That was, of course, during a time when installing Linux was not an easy task. Linux installation is now quite an easy task. But that doesn’t mean the install fest has to go away. Instead plan a Linux fest where people can see how it works, bring their machines to be tweaked or have Linux installed on, or show off Linux networking tricks, etc.

Hand out open source software: Download OpenDisk, burn copies onto CD and hand them out. OpenDisk is a collection of open source software for Windows. But don’t forget to burn copies of Linux and hand them out as well.

Create a LUG: If your area doesn’t already have a Linux User Group start one. This is one of the best ways to foster open source among a community.

Of course there are plenty of other ways to help spread the word of Open Source. Do you know of a way? If so, share it with Ghacks.

Final thoughts

I would like to see those who have developed Software Freedom Day do a better job of promoting this event. Eventually this day should become more widespread, adopted, and celebrated. I hope this has inspired you in some way to celebrate software freedom.

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But it looks like those enthusiasts have given life to Be in the form of Haiku. The Haiku OS has been releases as an alpha  and is installable on x86 hardware. It is an open source project and, from the looks of it, has a lot of promise. I have installed the alpha and have worked only briefly with the desktop. From what I have seen it has promise. It’s far from ready for public consumption, but if developed correctly, could be something special.

The Haiku projects’ aim is to create an operating system focused specifically on personal computing with features like:

• Custom kernel designed for responsiveness.
• Fully threaded for multi-core CPUs.
• Database-like file system.

Figure 1

I would like to say Haiku is something most Ghacks readers should download, burn, and try. If you have a VirtualBox installation up and running it would certainly be worth the time. If you do decide to do so I will warn you not to go directly to the installer when you boot up the ISO image. You will want to first run from the desktop and then the installation from the clickable icon on the desktop (see Figure 1).

The installation will require you to partition the drive, but the Haiku partition setup tool is quite easy to use.

Out of the box, under VirtualBox, Haiku could not use my network. It took some digging around but eventually I found the solution. With the virtual machine stopped and closed you will want to go into the Settings of the Haiku VM and then take care of the following configurations:

• Change the adapter type to Intel Pro/1000 MT (82540OEM)
• Make sure it is attached to NAT

That should get you up and running with networking. There is also a strange issue with using Haiku in VirtualBox in that it can not write the boot loader properly. I believe the only solution to this is to use a VMWare image under VirtualBox. To do this you will need to create the VirtualMachine (using “Other” operating system as the type) and then mount the VMWare image (You can find an image on the Haiku Download Page) through VirtualBox.

What can you use Haiku for?

If you can imagine the Windows operating system installed with nothing more than what it ships with, you can imagine what you can do with Haiku. The applications that ship with Haiku include:

• Wonderbrush: A bitmap image editor.
• BePDF: A PDF viewer.
• BeZillaBrowser: Web browser.
• Pe: Programmers’ editor.
• Plenty of system tools.
• Plenty of media players (Including Television viewer).
• Teminal applications.

and more.

Figure 2

To Haiku’s credit, the applications all run smoothly and quickly (even in  a VM). Some of the applications are rather hard to find however.  There are two menus: Right click mouse on the desktop and then the Main menu in the upper right corner. To get to the entire list of applications click on the Main menu (upper right hand corner) and then click Applications (see Figure 2).

Final thoughts

I like where Haiku is going. I was a fan of the BeOS when it initially appeared and was disappointed that it didn’t find traction. I hope Haiku can fully bring back to life what BeOS promised. What do you think? Have you tried Haiku? Did you ever have the chance to run BeOS? Let us know your thoughts.

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I’m usually favoring the “second-best” part or device over the best, e.g. not the latest and greatest video card for $600+ but one for $300 that is not super fast but still fast enough for everything.

Usage:

I need the PC for blogging and research on the Internet mainly. I want to view movies and listen to music. I also want to work with Visual Studio and play some games with friends every now and then.

Components:

CPU: Intel I7 9xx or 8xx. If you have other suggestions or favor a specific processor let me know
Computer Memory: 8GB or more
Motherboard: No favorite yet. Do not need a lot of extras like firewire, bluetooth, infrared connections on the board. Should have a fast network connection build in.
Video Card: No idea. Do not want to pay more than $300 for the video card. I currently have a ATI 4870. Are there any DirectX 11 cards out there yet? Video card should not make a lot of noise.
Hard Drives: I need at least 2 Terabyte. No more than two hard drives. Currently thinking about getting two 1.5 Terabyte drives. Hard drives should not make lots of noise. More important than speed to me. I do not need Raid but I though about having a faster boot hard drive and two slower data drives. Would you favor a fast hard drive (or two in Raid) or SSD drive for that task?
SSD Drives: I’m not sure if I want an SSD drive. Are there any next gen SSD drives out there that do not get slower over time?
Sound Card: Not necessarily needed but if there is a good one for little money I take it. Otherwise it should be onboard sound.
Case: Mid-tower is fine. I do not care about color but it should have a few connectors on the front (e.g. USB)
Power Unit: It has to be quiet. Should supply enough power though for the computer system.
Computer Monitor: Do not need one

Did I leave anything out? I’m keen to read your suggestions. I also do not have a problem waiting another few months before I build the system in case some ubercool hardware comes out in that time that is worth waiting for.

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Believe it or not, there are a number of CAD applications for Linux. Some of those applications are far too basic for the professional-level CAD user. Some, however, are just as feature-rich and complex as the insustry standard AutoCAD. So hopefully, within this article, you will find a CAD application that will meet your needs.

So, let’s get our Linux CAD on!

Installing

All of the software listed below can be installed on Ubuntu Linux by following these steps:

1. Open up the Add/Remove Software utility
2. Search for “CAD” (no quotes)
3. Select the software you want to install
4. Click Apply

QCaD

QCaD is a powerful 2D CAD application that began in 1999 as a fragmentation of another application (CAM system for engraving and LASER cutting). QCaD includes DFX standard file format and supports HPGL format. QCaD’s biggest advantage over many other CAD applications is its ease of use. Most CAD applications are overly complex. QCaD, on the other hand, has a user interface that is clean and easy to use.  QCaD features:

• Layers
• 

  Figure 1

  Blocks

• 35 included CAD fonts
• Metric and Imperial unit support
• Print to scale
• 40 Construction tools
• 20 Modification tools
• Construct/Modify points, lines, arcs, circles, ellipses, splines, polylines, texts, dimensions, hatches, fills, raster images
• Entity selection tools
• Object snaps
• Measuring tools
• 4800 parts library
• Scripting interface
• and much more

QCaD is modular with extensibility being its focus. As you can see, in Figure 1, the interface is very well thought out and easy to use.

Misfit Model 3D

Misfit Model 3D is an OpenGL-based 3D modeling application for Linux that uses triangular-based models. Misfit features:

• 

  Figure 2

  Multi-level undo

• Skeletal animations
• Simple texturing
• Batch processing (via command line)
• Plugin system for adding new model and image filters
• Create rectangles, cubes, ellipsoids, cylinders
• Translation, rotation, scaling, and shearing
• Multiple skins for models
• Frame animations
• and much more

Misfit does not have the best support available and doesn’t seem to support the largest amount of file formats.

SagCAD

Figure 3

SagCAD is another 2D designer for Linux. Upon opening SagCAD, your first thought will most likely be “Whoa, where do I begin?” SagCAD was not created for the inexperienced user. With SagCAD the interface is filled with clickable buttons and no menus. Unless you are familiar with CAD you will look on at the array of buttons and finally have to mouse over each button to know what it does. And to make matters worse, all support is in Japanese! Does this make SagCAD a bust? Only the well-versed CAD user will be able to tell. The good news for SagCAD users is that it is has been around for some time and is still developed and supported. Just make su

Wings 3D

Figure 4

Wings 3D is a 3 dimensional subdivision modeller that has outstanding support and features.  Wings 3D is available for Linux, OS X, and Windows and features support for numerous import/export formats. Wings 3D has yet to reach version 1 so it is very much in beta. But that does not mean Wings 3D is not already quite usable. Take a look at the small gallery of images created by Wings 3D.

Wings 3D offers a users manual and tutorials for those who aren’t sure where to begin.

Blender

Blender is probably one of the most popular of all the CAD applications for Linux. Blender features:

• A revolutionary UI
• 

  Figure 5

  Rigging

• Modeling
• Rendering
• Animation
• UV Unwrapping
• Shading
• Physics and particles
• Imaging and compositing
• Realtime 3D game creation
• Numerous file format support
• Multiple platform support

If you take a look at the Blender Gallery you will see many reasons why Blender is on of the most popular CAD applications in Linux. I should make mention, however, that Blender does not work well in Linux when full desktop effects are turned on. There are issues with the UI and unless you turn off desktop effects, you will have a lot of trouble using Blender.

Final thoughts

Let the tests begin. I have listed five different CAD programs, each of which serves a different purpose. I would like those of you with CAD experience to test them out and see if any of them meet your needs. Does Linux have a decent CAD application? The answer lies in your hands.

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To combat this problem, I’ve decided its time for me to buy an external hard drive. I figure 500 GB is more than enough for me right now. What’s confusing me though is choosing which hard drive to buy. I’ve settled on a 2.5″ drive that draws power from the USB port so I won’t have to worry about an external power source. After a fair amount of research and considering my budget, I’ve narrowed my choice down to these two:

Seagate FreeAgent Go
Transcend StoreJet 25M

I’m getting a lot of conflicting reviews about both drives which is why I’m asking the Ghacks readers to help me make my decision. Here are some of my queries:

Multiple OS support: My primary computer runs Windows XP but I also own a laptop that’s running Ubuntu. I’d prefer something that works out of the box with both but I’m not averse to a little tweaking if necessary.

Partitioning: Would I need to partition my drive? I’m planning to segregate the data according to its format but can I just copy everything on it or should I create dedicated partitions? Should I leave some space free in case I want to install a portable version of an OS?

Durability: What’s the point in spending all that cash if my HD’s going to conk out after a while? Is build quality a factor and how long can I expect the drive to last?

What do you think of my choices? Have I missed anything out? What are you using for external storage and are you happy with it? Let me know in the comments.

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I, too, was torn. I vowed never to buy an iPhone, on account of their price and lack of certain features (saying that, I too vowed never to run Windows XP but I ended up using XP about 3 years after its release, in 2004). I was strongly considering a Symbian-based smartphone, generally seen as a phone of someone a little more tech-savvy than an iPhone user. When I got my iPhone, I was shocked. iPhones are actually very good.

Whilst they do have many little annoying flaws, such as the fact you can’t use a landscape keyboard to compose an email or SMS (not until the next version of iPhone OS, anyway), they are remarkably user-friendly and after a little jailbreaking pretty flexible. I have yet to find something I would like to do, but I can’t do.

LCARS theme on iPhone

Another popular complaint people have with the iPhone is the lack of hardware keys. However, I soon became accustomed to the touch screen, because it has somewhat of a LCARS feeling – especially after you install a LCARS theme! There are some hardware keys though: volume control, a switch to turn it on or off silent mode, the ‘home button’ and a lock button.

Still, the most popular complaint is the price. I find myself paying 35GBP a month and about a 100GBP lump sum. For that, 600 minutes and 500 texts. Pretty expensive, but I am quite satisfied with the data plan that is also included in that price.

So, do you have an iPhone? If not, why not?

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Personally I like sidebars, but for some reason I don’t use them. I have a pretty wide screen and a system which has plenty of memory to eat, but to me the cleaner my screen, the less stuff I have to focus on, the better. I never really liked the Vista sidebar, it’s just too “big”, it looks a bit clunky sometimes, but there are some good widgets you can put in there, so it’s not all bad.

I pretty much like Google’s sidebar, and it also has some good widgets, the best feature is probably the integrated hard drive and email search, which really can be a savior sometimes. It also seems that there are better widgets for the Google Sidebar, but that might be just my perception. In my case I don’t really find the widgets so useful that I would need to see them permanently on a sidebar, what’s your take on all this, do you perhaps use another sidebar?

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There are two problems with movies and games alike, the first is that I think both are way overpriced (although games more so), the second, what if you try it and you don’t like it? First of all, it’s difficult to decide if you don’t like a movie until you actually finish it. With games this is a bit easier, but the ending can make or break a flick completely. In this case if you don’t like the film you probably wouldn’t buy it, although you did see it through to the end, so this is a bit unfair for the publisher. However, this would spur movie makers to make better stuff, since their income relies on people liking their stuff, at least more than it does now.

So do you think this business model would work? I think that it could in the long run. The problem is that many customers would consider this to a be a free ride, and wouldn’t think about the future quality they may get from paying now. If combined with a lower price I think the demand would be very high and could be as lucrative, or even more so than the standard model, what do you say?

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However, my new laptop has Vista, of which I downloaded a copy, installed it, and found that my key doesn’t work. While the label on my old laptop just says Windows XP, this one says Windows Vista Home Premium OEMact, so I guess this is the problem. The first question here is, does any of you know how to legally get a working version of Vista which is not full of unneeded things?

The second questions is, do you guys use the OS installs provided by the laptop maker? I find that there is a lot of ‘everythingware” in these systems from tiny vendor specific utilities, to large pre-installed vendor stuff, trial apps like virus scanners, Office products, and just boatloads of stuff I will never-ever need. For basic users, or for people who just don’t care this may be ok, what do you think, do you use your pre-installed OS?

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Basically what I am asking this time, is do you use POP3, IMAP, or webmail, or maybe even something else? POP is the “oldschool” way of doing thigs. You download the messages from the server, but you are essentially making a copy of your real inbox on the server, the message structure, messages, etc are not changed on the server, no matter what you do in your email client (Outlook, Thunderbird, etc).

IMAP is the method of directly accessing your server real-time from a different application. If you delete an email from your client (Outlook, Thunderbird supports IMAP as well) you selete it from your server too, and vice-versa. Webmail is of course directly accessing your server on a nice graphical interface, like Gmail, Yahoo Mail and all the others.

There are many ways to manage yourself using any of these methods, but which do you think is best? POP is great for managing emails as tasks, and to keep backups, in fact, I think it is the most productive, but since it doesn’t modify your server too, it means your server will be a mess. IMAP is great for not doing double work, but is at times a bit inflexible and harder to use if you also want advanced features like labels, tags, folders, etc. Webmail is probably a mixture of the two if you have a good interface like Gmail. So which do you prefer, how do you manage your email?

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I used to use MSN exclusively in the good old days, but now I mainly use a combination of Skype and Meebo and in some cases,  Digsby. I am not permanently signed on to any network, I do not like distractions, and I either see most of my friends every week, or email them or call them. For clients and firends abroad we also usually use email, or Skype, if any other networks come up, I use Meebo.

However, I like Digsby a lot, since it supports a lot of networks, has email and twitter built in and some nifty added extras which make it the best all round IM client out there in my opinion. Overall though I am a solitary kind of guy, especially when I’m working, so I don’t really need it a lot. Which is your favorite client, how do you use IM networks? Let us know in the comments!

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The current configuration of the laptop is a little slow though so I’ve decided to put in some cash and increase the RAM. Now, all that’s left is to figure out what to actually do with it. The first thing that popped into my mind was to use it to learn Linux. I’ve been a Windows user my entire life and although Linux appeals to me, I’ve never actually tried it out. My desktop is used by other people besides me and I wasn’t allowed to install Linux on it.

I have a vague idea of what Linux is and its running but I’m still pretty unsure about other things so I decided to ask the Ghacks readers for their advice. Here re some of the questions I’m searching for answers to:

Should I consider dual-booting?
I’ve heard stories of Linux not being able to recognize drivers and such so I don’t want to have to find that my system won’t work without having some way of going back and fixing it. My graphics card is a NVidia GeForce 4 420 and I also have a Linksys WPC11 Network Adaptor card.

Can my laptop handle it?
Even after upgrading, my laptop will have a configuration of 1.8 GHz with 1 GB of DDR RAM. Also, my hard disk has a capacity of 40 GB. Assuming I leave about 10 GB for the Windows partition, is 30 GB enough to run Linux comfortably?

What distribution should I choose?
If I do go ahead and install Linux, I’m tending towards Ubuntu. It seems to be the most popular distribution and has a lot of support available for it. Another distro that appealed to me was OpenSuse but I’m not too sure about it.

How important is it to have an internet connection?
My laptop won’t really be connected to the internet (unless I can figure out a way to get a connection). Is this a drawback to using Linux?

For now, that’s about it. I’m looking forward to all your answers. Have I missed out any other important questions that need to be addressed? Let me know.

Update: Thanks for all your suggestions. I’ve decided to try Ubuntu as a LiveCD for some time and see how I feel before I install it. Wish me luck.

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I have been using a lot of different ones over the years, but I never really came to like any of them because I either missed features, found them too complicated to use, and I never ever managed to maintain a we ll organized collection, especially with ratings.

I have used Foobar, Media Monkey Winamp, iTunes, and just as in last weeks post, I returned to the most simple one, Windows Media Player 11.Yes, Foobar is simpler, but it is a pain to get to look nice and WMP 11 is built in from the start. I actually like Media Player 11 a lot, I thnk it looks great and handles great, although there could be better features, and frankly, it’s video capabilities are really bad, but I like it for music. So, how do you use your media player?

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The question now is if there is a way to lock the DVD drive in Windows Explorer. Locking meaning that it will not be accessed in any way when a user opens Windows Explorer, a file browser or any other means of accessing files on his computer system. Ideally the program should be able to determine direct DVD access and allow that from happening.

The only viable solution so far is to create a disk image of the DVD in the drive and mount it using a software that emulates CD drives. This is however not a perfect solution. It would be much easier to have a on and off button for the DVD drive or a program running that would automatically perform the operation. Actually there is one additional solution which would involve removing the DVD from the drive whenever it is not needed and putting it back in whenever it is needed.

Question is: Do you know of a program that can lock the DVD drive so that the DVD will not be accessed when accessing Windows Explorer?

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DEG’s figures aren’t just for outright sales of DVDs, but also include DVD rentals and Blu-Ray disc sales. Rental revenue stayed nearly constant from previous year’s figures but sales pretty much took a nosedive. While it’s easy to blame dismal sales on the old monster of piracy, I personally think there are a lot of factors for this loss. Here are some of them.

Economics: There’s no denying that DVD sales have in part been affected by the recession. With money starting to get tight, fun spending is the first to be cut and DVDs are definitely not ‘essential’.

Content: For me, barring 2-3 flicks, I can’t think of many movies that I found memorable this year. So I don’t see the point of owning them on DVD because I certainly don’t want to watch them over and over.

Digital Downloads: Nowadays, plenty of TV shows and movies can be legally purchased in a digital format of your choice. In the case of TV shows, consumers have the option of purchasing only the episodes they want. This is a definite advantage over buying an entire season on DVD for a few episodes.

Transition to High Definition: Falling prices of HDTVs, Blu-Ray players, and discs means that a lot of people no longer prefer to invest in standard-definition media like DVDs. It’s similar to tapes dying out once CDs became more affordable.

I’m not much of a DVD person myself. If a movie catches my fancy, I’ll watch it in a theatre. If not, I can just wait a few months and catch it when it’s broadcast on cable. What about you? Have you bought less DVDs this year? Why do you think sales are down? Let me know.

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Since this is Ghacks, there’s a pretty good chance that your ‘must-have’ is tech-related. If it is, why not share your wish with the rest of us? Maybe you want a new souped-up computer for your gaming needs, or that fancy new mobile phone. How about the latest portable media player?

Another point of interest is whether you envision yourself owning the desired gadget soon. If not, what’s stopping you? Is it the lack of finance, logistical difficulties (like the product not being available where you live) etc. Or is it that you simply can’t justify buying the gadget because you already have a similar one in perfectly good condition.

I’ll start the ball rolling on this one. One thing I really want to have is a good portable media player. I was supposed to get one this Christmas but things haven’t worked out as planned since the person who was bringing it has been unable to do so. Now, I’m starting to have second thoughts.

What about you? What’s on your wishlist for the holidays? Let me know.

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Recently though, I’ve decided to invest in an mp3 player. I knew about the standard players available but after doing some more research, I’m more confused than ever. So I decided to ask the tech-savvy readers at Ghacks to help me make my decision.

Now I’m looking at hard-drive based players with a minimum capacity of 60 GB. Here are some of my thoughts on the different players so far:

Apple iPod Classic: Good battery life (30 hours for audio) and file storage capacity (120 GB). I’m not too keen on it though because it’s very restrictive as far as supported file formats are concerned. I don’t want to spend hours just converting my videos. Also, I’ve read that new versions of iTunes place a lot of restrictions on the machine.

Zune 80/120: This one is last on my list. Battery life is decent but that’s about it. Video format support is really poor.

Archos: Not bad but not great either. Battery life and file format support is just about okay. Storage capacity is good. The player itself is a little on the bulky side as well.

Creative Zen Vision W: The sort-of runner up. Creative had decent battery life (13.5 for audio and 5 for video) and supports a good-sized number of file formats. However, the player doesn’t seem to support videos encoded with the H.264 codec or those in the Mpeg-4 format. Also, at 60 GB, it’s the lowest in terms of storage capacity.

Cowon A3: If I had to choose a player based on features alone, this one would be it. The A3 has 80 GB of storage and plays virtually every audio and video file format you throw at it. In fact, the only format that it doesn’t play is AAC file with DRM and Quicktime movies, both of which I don’t use anyway. Besides this Cowon’s A3 can be connected directly to both standard and hi-definition TVs and can even record from the TV. It’s perfect. The only drawback is the battery life. The official site says that the A3 can play 7 hours of video and 10 hours of audio. In practice, I have no idea how long it lasts.

So now I’m stuck between the Creative Zen Vision W and the Cowon A3. They cost almost the same. Should I be concerned about the lesser battery life on the Cowan? I assume I can also hook it up to an adaptor and play it when I’m at home. If I do take my player out, it’s probably not going to be used for more than 5-6 hours.

Please help me out with this. What portable media player do you use? Are you happy with the storage capacity, file formats supported, and battery life/ Any advice for me? Let me know in the comments.

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It would not be Ghacks if we would not ask you to contribute to that list. The only requirements are that the software has to be free. It does not matter if they are Open Source, freeware or donation ware. If they are free they have a chance to make it on the list.

Asking for names for any kind of software program would make it very hard for us to turn the information into a list. We have therefor decided to divide the process into different articles which will only accept programs of one specific category.

We start with security applications. This can be anything from antivirus programs to antispyware, firewall or process monitors. Yes, some applications fit in more than one category. Name them whenever they fit in so that they can be included in the list.

Please include at least the name of the application. A link to the program’s website would be great and helpful as well. The results will be published at the Computer Software Recommendations article.

So come on. Let us create the best recommended software article ever.

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First of all, size. I mean the iPhone looks great (why they left 3G out of the first one is a mystery), it performs great, but personally, I have about as much use for it as my old Nokia 3310. Whatever people say, I can’t browse the web properly on a monitor the size of my palm. Sure, some apps are great, like Remember the Milk and whatnot, but I have no chance of working from an iPhone, the only thing it can be used for efficiently is some light browsing and movie playing on the go. For me the iPhone is an extremely cool phone, but just a phone.

Laptops have been getting smaller and smaller as well, with the new mini Notebooks. However, these aren’t really powerful, and the monitor is again, very small. I can’t help but look upon these notebooks as travel accessories, better they steal my $350 EEE PC, than my $1,500 Thinkpad. Don’t get me wrong, these notebooks are great as well, but they don’t serve such a general purpose as their bigger brothers.

So where is the industry going to go? People like me who work on their laptops and need at least 12″ – 14″ will be left wanting for a while. Short of wiring the thing into my brain (I’d love to type with my thoughts) I think the “easiest” way things will become smaller is they will be foldable. They’ve already made some advances, sheet thin monitors you can roll up and so on. I mean 50% or my laptop is the monitor, the other 30% is the keyboard. I’ve already seen projected keyboards, coupled with a foldable monitor you could put the thing in your coat pocket.

My other question is, how fast can the internet get? There is only such a speed at which speed actually matters. After internet bandwidth (and laptop speed) surpass human perception speeds the bandwidth won’t matter for the average user. However where will they take this next? Will we be using the internet to transport objects Start Trek style? Will we have holo-projectors instead of webcams? In the end you wouldn’t need a laptop, you can project the image of one (as small or as big as you want) and coupled with motion sensors, use it without it actually being there.

Also, where will Google be in 20 years? Will Sergey Brin and Larry Page be sitting on Mars in a throne dedicated to their wisdom? I doubt it, but how far can they expand? It seems like whatever they touch turns to gold, 90% of all their products are awesome, surpass any other commercial producer, and they give us all these things for free. Will they keep their position as the rulers of the search engine market, will someone come up with something better? With microtagging and web semantics building up, I think they just might face some opposition, although I think they’re working on their stuff all the time, and they don’t seem to be afraid of change, so they’ll be tough to crack.

What do you think about all this? In 20 years will I be typing on the head of a needle and looking at a monitor the size of my left kidney cell? Will I be teleporting out of an internet connection near you? And finally, will I be paying my bills to the all-ruling Google?

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