In these days of high definition videos everywhere (even YouTube), only the truly geeky would decide to watch their movies in ASCII text in a terminal window. The surprising thing is that some videos are even fairly watchable.

Ubuntu 9.04, the next version of the Linux desktop due in April, will definitely feature the new unified, transparent desktop notifications. But non-bleeding-edge Ubuntu users can get them now.

The main chore that you'll want to be handled via the GNOME Do is opening applications. Summon it with Super+Space, type a few letters and in a blink of an eye it will start guessing the program you want to launch.

Recently I was this review at danlynch.org and is it just me or is it overly negative, I suppose that is what we get for being reviewed by a Debian fan. He does raise some points that I would like to address however...

Mandriva is another friendly, popular distro that you should take into consideration when thinking about using or trying Linux. Like its counterparts, it aims to deliver a complete experience to the user.

This time around I tried the daddy of many desktops, Debian Lenny, and compared it with Mepis 8.0 on my notebook. I am pleased Debian has made itself easy to install and use. However, Warren has spelled magic onto Debain through his much tested Mepis.

What can I say but Knoppix is a great distribution! Always has been. Even back when I was in college I used to use Knoppix on the Microsoft Windows 2000 client desktops just so I can remain somewhat sane and continue to work.

The Gentoo Qt maintainers have been doing a fantastic job of getting cutting edge Qt software into shape. Recently they bumped the Arora ebuild to version 0.5. Arora is a lightweight browser based on Qt and WebKit.