The new generation of inexpensive netbooks may be wonderful, but for my main desktop I want a real machine -- something I can open up, clean, and add to. So I was extremely tickled recently to trade for a new LinPC, an economical personal computer that features PCLinuxOS MiniMe 2008 preinstalled and ready to go.

I didn't have any complaints about the way Debian Etch performed on my new/old Power Macintosh G4/466. The install went smoothly, the system performed better than I had reason to expect with only 128 MB of RAM, and I can unreservedly recommend Etch to anybody with a box of this pedigree (PowerPC) and vintage (circa 2001).

Download management is one of the larger categories on the Firefox Add-ons site, but while hundreds of extensions fall under this category, they are a mixed lot at best. Many have yet to release versions compatible with Firefox 3.0, and others are designed to work with Windows programs.

If you ever need to download an entire Web site, perhaps for off-line viewing, wget can do the job—for example:

Soon after they announced, I'd been hoping to take Google Chrome for a test drive. The comic book laid out a lot of interesting things, my favorite being the discussion of separate processes leading to detachable (and "retachable") browser tabs, something I have been touting for years as a long term Galeon user. My big problem though?

If your memory or mistyping leaves you without the right password to get into an account on a Linux computer, there's no need to reformat. Make Magazine's Hacks Blog gives a step-by-step account of the command line fix you can make by booting into "single user mode."

I've wanted to write this article for quite a while. Over the years I've noted that Java-based music and sound applications have increased in number and quality, yet no comprehensive list or summaries have covered these advances. And so at long last I present this survey of music and sound applications that require Java.