The point of this article has been true ever since the Win98 days (and probably before even then). A lot of normal users forget that the PC has not yet advanced to the point of becoming a "set it and forget it" type of device. It's not an appliance (like, say, your toaster oven); it's way more complex than that, just…

@xxdesmus: You are definitely correct; not many people make use of those filters. But the filters aren't the problem.

No a bad idea but, being an avid amateur guitarist for over 20 years, I can tell you that the Golden Rule still applies: crappy equipment == crappy sound (in most cases). Even a top-of-the-line amp stand isn't going to change the fact that your $50 pawn shop special still sounds like hell.

Another note about $2 bills: in some towns (like ours, for example) the stripper bars are infamous for making change in the form of $2 bills (where they keep getting these things, I have no clue). I guess it's a trick which is supposed to increase the amount of tips given to the waitresses and dancers, but the result…

Linux+aircrack-ng+properly patched kernel= one nasty wardriving machine.

Why is it, whenever I hear the words "root" and "easy access" in relation to a Linux-based OS, I always get really nervous?

@F3N4TiK: Every day I pray to the internet gods for HTML5 to unseat Flash as the de facto standard for presenting online content. Flash quality isn't always that great (sometimes it's downright awful) and it's still linked to a proprietary standard; at least, with HTML5, we can do away with at least one more plugin…

I think we've got to be careful when mentioning KMPlayer. There are actually TWO KMPlayers: one is a fork of MPlayer, and is a Linux video player for the KDE desktop environment; the other (which I believe is the one featured in the poll) is a Korean video player and is in no way related to the Linux KMPlayer.

@Dan Cardin: +1 on the Foxit upgrade nags. That was really the one thing about Foxit on Windows which drove me berserk. I always felt like, "just get the $%^ out of my way and let me work!!!"

@blackheart-uk: You can also edit PDFs by using the Gimp (I guess that makes since when you consider that PDFs are just image files). This is a trick I always use at the office: I open the PDF with Gimp, make my changes, save as a PNG or JPEG, and then use OpenOffice Draw to convert back to PDF.

@Learn4fun: I agree 100%. No bloat, small footprint, to-the-point. What's not to love about Kpdf?

LOL, I thought I was going to learn something new but this brings back memories!! Anyone here ever do a stint in the Navy? This is almost the EXACT way they had us folding our clothes in boot camp, but for an entirely different reason: there's not a lot of square footage per sailor on board a ship so one has to make…

Well, this isn't an online utility, but there's this app called Maltego which I've been playing around with for a couple of weeks now. Once you know how to use it, the information which can be gleaned from it can be downright *scary*. This thing will cross reference your phone numbers, forum posts, email addresses,…

Actually, if you're running KDE then a lot of this (really, *all* of this) was already possible through the use of Superkaramba (or Screenlets if you use Gnome). Great job, though.

I can't speak for Mac users, but I think the reason most Linux users are so "vocal" is because of all the FUD that's been circulated about the OS. Half the stuff people keep saying Linux can't do, I've been doing for years.

"...since Opera's headquarters are located in Finland Norway, they at least had an excuse..."

@Exilm: Oh, one has to deal with file permissions Linux-based OS's (in fact, that's the main reason operating systems running a *nix kernel are so relatively secure - NOT obscurity, as so many detractors like to say). The only difference is that Vista implements file permissions in such a poor and annoying manner that…

"...That's all somewhat of a bummer considering the whole widget craze generally went out the door circa-2006..."

Debian Lenny/Sid for me. They may consider it to be the "testing" branch but I've found it to be as stable as anything else out there.

I can't remember which reader said it but I remember someone posting that many Windows adherents (including longtime gurus) often confuse *familiarity* with *user-friendliness*. I could not have said it better myself; many of the people complaining that Linux isn't "user-friendly" are probably saying this because…