@Elope: Except you can almost guarantee Apple's "store" won't let you add your own software sources like Debian's apt. That's one of the best features of apt, and sadly the one least likely to be implemented by a control-freak company like Apple.

I don't know if I'm just lucky, but the last two notebooks I've had have both gotten similar battery life in Linux and Windows (XP on old one, 7 on current one).

@geekworking: easier: acpi -i

@fwjs28: My favourite is Substrate under the "Gadgets & Simulations" section. It draws perpendicular lines with trails of coloured sand that, while not particularly exciting, give the screen a calm and art-like appearance while active.

@fredcadete: Agreed, I like the look, but they have a slight functionality problem. Specifically, they look like the entire button will be a link, so you have to hover around and try to find the part you can actually click.

@brianblank: Good find. Most of my extended family loves that and will appreciate the link. Thanks.

@klevin: I found that Perl sniping unnecessary and unrelated, too. If there's only one right way to solve any problem, we wouldn't need more than one programming language, either.

@sebastian_rooks: I've always liked that saying, and it's a great example of how taking minimalism too far can be a problem.

I found it amusing that the editor's note starts out saying, basically, "minimalism is a way, not necessarily the way" and then the article itself does nothing to address this.

@Cheshire Cat: I consider it only fair, since I tend to encourage people to try Linux. I would sound like a jerk if I told people "Try linux, it's awesome! Oh a problem? sucks for you" ;)

@imito: No problem. As a rule, Source engine games run great, DRM tends to ruin otherwise flawless games, and Unreal Engine 3 games run terribly because Epic hates PC gamers now. The company defected and made consoles its primary focus so the engine tends to be buggy and troublesome even in Windows :/

@Cheshire Cat: Sorry I can't help more, I'm not actually an Ubuntu user (Debian on all my machines) so I don't know what to suggest, other than to keep trying to get help out of the community. Give as much info as you can, mention what you've already tried and haven't, and show that you've been working to…

@TheFu: Double reply, sorry, but I wanted to say thanks for the blog entry. What you set up is similar to what I wanted to do with dmcrypt, it looks like. I wanted to have a Win7 partition for OS and binaries, a Debian partion for the same, and a data partition that would be linked to my user account (symlinks to…

@TheFu: TrueCrypt uses its own license (here) which is open source but apparently makes many* larger distros nervous. A search on google.com/linux turned up this link explaining Debian's rationale on rejection. The ending says it well: "this seems like a fairly pointless and dangerous but not clearly unfree license"…

@TheFu: Yeah, the complexity of it is another reason I never acted on the idea. I may have a couple extra user accounts but the bulk of a system's use is by me, so just keeping a separate home partition is simpler and still sufficient.

@infmom: That's why you use duct tape. Any self-respecting nerd will have some tape around.

@Marand: I should probably add a warning to anyone unaware: it's a huge pain in the ass to get the software removed if you ever install it for any reason. When I removed the software after the trial was over, it completely screwed up the notebook's modem. It messed with the drivers and did some kind of f'd up…

@Whitson Gordon: Those things saved my life once. I'd just moved and it was taking forever to get my broadband installed so I dug out one of the discs and used the free trial.

@Firesphere: One missing comma completely changed the meaning of your sentence (for the better, I think).

AOL discs (otherwise known as "coasters") would be perfect for this project.