An important aspect of any operating system is its support and available applications. In this portion of my review comparison with OS X Leopard, we continue where I left off in Part 2, regarding customization.

A few years from now, open source pundits may consider February 2008 the tipping point for Linux laptops. Why is that? Glad you asked. The open source world is buzzing right now about Everex’s CloudBook, an “ultraportable” Linux laptop available from Wal-Mart and several leading Web sites.

In some ways Dot Bomb 2.0 has already begun. Google is down 27% since the start of the year. Once solid niches like consumer health are starting to falter.

If Microsoft executes effectively on its new interoperability promises, it could repair its tarnished reputation in the technology industry and help the company get out of its own way to compete more effectively with Google.

As you can see in the photo, we are doing a little Home Improvement - new flooring. My tiny laptop has been a life-saver through the chaos. The big Mac is boxed up to protect it from the dust and debris until this is over so the EEE is both our primary entertainment and news source.

To be perfectly honest, I can think of several things I’d rather do than deconstruct yet another Linux vs OpenSolaris/Solaris flamewar. Including having a few of my fingernails pulled out. But given the volume of inbound requests for comment, both public and private, I feel obligated to comment in some capacity.

Canonical chief Mark Shuttleworth has revealed the name of the next Ubuntu release - Meeky Meerkat. Er, well, it's really called Intrepid Ibex and will likely arrive in Oct. as Ubuntu 8.10.

Connecting to GPRS using a Nokia Phone is not too tough in Ubuntu Gutsy. This is because the default udev rules does install the required drivers and map most of the Nokia devices to /dev/ttyACM0. But it can become tough if you need to retain the resolv.conf or making the pppd to add a default route to the connected device. We will see how it was done properly in the Saturn Labs.