Cranking out news for the geeks, music buffs and gossip junkies, my way. -Greg

This article goes through the strengths and weaknesses of both OS’s. I’ve been very open to both sides, but I admit that I’m a regular Windows user and only play around with Ubuntu. I have a guy I work with that is a big time Ubuntu user and was actually the first one to turn me on to it. Here is a pretty quick and good comparison of both OS’s and for those of you who’d rather someone else tell you which to use, use Windows 7, wait I meant read this article. -Greg

Posted by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Over the past few days I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the differences between Microsoft’s latest Windows 7 and Canonical’s Ubuntu 9.10. Specifically, I’ve been thinking about the strengths and weaknesses of each of the operating systems. Is a free operating system really as good as one that you pay for?

Let’s take a look at several aspects of using operating systems and examine the various strengths and weaknesses of each OS.

Installation

Windows 7

• Pros
  - Install is quick, easy and painless.
  - After working through a few wizard screens at the beginning, the install is automatic
• Cons
  - None really

Ubuntu 9.10

• Pros
  - Option to “try before you install” using the Live CD feature
  - Can easily install as a dual boot or even inside Windows using the Wubi installer
• Cons
  - Unless you’re luck to get a CD, you do have to mess about with .ISO files and burn a disc. If you’re happy doing that, it’s not really a problem.

Speed/Performance

Windows 7

• Pros
  - Both are excellent
• Cons
  - None really

Ubuntu 9.10

• Pros
  - Both are excellent
• Cons
  - None really

Usability

I’ve thought long and hard about this one and I’ve come to the conclusion that while neither OS is perfect (far from it), both are also just as usable once you devote the time to figuring things out. I have years of Windows experience under my belt and a lot less with Ubuntu but I can’t say that’s a problem.

Software

Windows 7

• Pros
  - If you’re willing to pay, there’s a lot of software for the Windows platform
  - Equally, there’s a LOT of free stuff if you look around
• Cons
  - Bundled fayre is pretty poor

Ubuntu 9.10

• Pros
  - Comes complete with an excellent array of software
  - Access to, and installing, new software is a snap
• Cons
  - None really … just don’t expect to run Windows software (even if you do resort to Wine)

Media Support

Windows 7

• Pros
  - Excellent support for media formats, including DRMed media, out of the box
• Cons
  - Windows Media Player isn’t the best bit of software around

Ubuntu 9.10

• Pros
  - Good support for media formats
• Cons
  - If you want to play DVDs then you need to resort to “Restricted” codecs
  - Many media formats that use proprietary DRM just won’t work on Ubuntu because of DRM restrictions

Hardware support

Windows 7

• Pros
  - On the whole, Windows 7 offers excellent support for modern hardware right out of the box
• Cons
  - You might be out of luck with old hardware

Ubuntu 9.10

• Pros
  - Overall, hardware support is good, and getting better
  - On really low-end hardware you can substitute Ubuntu for Xubuntu
• Cons
  - There are no guarantees
  - There’s no “Works with Linux” logo that buyers can look for when buying new hardware

Final thoughts

There’s no doubt that Windows is the default OS for many users. In fact, for most users out there it’s the only OS and many of those aware that a different OS exists know about Mac OS rather than Linux.

That said though, Linux is a very good, robust and highly-usable operating system. It’s also fun to use and free. I understand how for many people operating systems are akin to religions, but there are huge advantages to being OS-agnostic. One advantage is that you can pick and choose the right OS for the job.

..READ THIS AT ZDNET

I’m one of those who sticks with what he knows until I have a really good reason to change. Welp I might have to start using Firefox with this nifty little feature. -Greg

The latest Firefox beta integrates much more fully into Windows 7, adding support for Aero Peek-enabled tabs, an enhanced Ctrl+Tab, and more. We’ll show you how they work, and how to enable or disable them.

Enhanced Ctrl+Tab (optional) 

The really awesome new feature is an enhanced Ctrl+Tab, but you’ll have to turn it on with a simple tweak if you want to use it. Once you’ve done that (detailed below), you can simply hit the shortcut key combination to flip between the tabs. Note that it only activates if you have 3 or more tabs open.

Read the whole thing here – The Illustrated Guide to the New Firefox 3.6 Windows 7 Integration

Just about anyone who uses a computer has opened a PDF document at some point. I found this PDF reader when I was looking for a smaller free alternative to installing Adobe 40+MB reader for my Windows Home Server. Found it on download.com (CNET) which is my favorite place to find freebies. Just go to download.com and read the comments. Its so very quick to open, its a small install and does exactly what I needed it to. When installing it thought, keep your eyes open as it wants to install a bunch of other, what I consider to be, crap that is not even close to being needed to open a PDF. So, if you want to save space and want your PDF documents to open a little quicker use Foxit Reader. – Greg

Info pulled right from their site www.foxitsoftware.com:

Overview

Foxit Reader is a free PDF document viewer, with incredible small size, breezing-fast launch speed and rich feature set. Foxit Reader supports Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista. Its core function is compatible with PDF Standard 1.7.

In the past, you’ve had to download a huge PDF reader from another software company, go through a lengthy installation process and wait for an annoying splash window to disappear just to open a PDF document. Moreover, if you want to annotate a PDF document, you have to pay US$299 to buy certain software.

Now with Foxit Reader, you don’t have to endure such pain any more. The following is a list of compelling advantages of Foxit Reader:

• Incredibly small: The download size of Foxit Reader is just a fraction of Acrobat Reader 20 M size.
• Breezing-fast: When you run Foxit Reader, it launches instantly without any delay. You are not forced to view an annoying splash window displaying company logo, author names, etc.
• Annotation tool: Have you ever wished to annotate (or comment on) a PDF document when you are reading it? Foxit Reader allows you to draw graphics, highlight text, type text and make notes on a PDF document and then print out or save the annotated document.
• Text converter: You may convert the whole PDF document into a simple text file.
• High security and privacy: Foxit Reader highly respects the security and privacy of users and will never connect to the Internet without users’ permission. While other PDF readers often silently connect to the Internet in the background. Foxit PDF Reader does not contain any spyware.

So, have you ever received a legitimate email about resetting your password for anything? I mean have you ever gotten and email from Yahoo, Facebook, Hotmail, or Bank of America that said your password has been reset without you initiating it first? No, you haven’t everything you get that has ever said anything close to this was a phishing attack, a spammer, simply put a scam. These emails have only 1 purpose, to get your password. I work for an ISP which 1 of the many services we provide is E-Mail and I see it everyday, some customer has replied to an email and given out their password. Their email account is used to send out 1000′s of spam emails asking if you want your member to be bigger, or would you like to see my neighbor naked, or well you get the idea. Folks, you have to get it in your head, STOP giving out your passwords. If a man came to your door and said he was from your Bank and needed to reset your ATM code by you giving him yours, would you give it to him? So, it looks like hackers have come up with another way, this time they are giving you your new Facebook password, that you didn’t ask for, in an attachment to an email they send you (check out the pictures below)saying, in turn it installs Malware and bam your screwed. Honestly people, if you weren’t expecting the email, then there’s a 99.9999999999% chance its FAKE! -Greg

Posted on – Mon Oct 19, 2009 12:35AM EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) –

Tens of millions of U.S. computers are loaded with scam security software that their owners may have paid for but which only makes the machines more vulnerable, according to a new Symantec report on cybercrime.

Cyberthieves are increasingly planting fake security alerts that pop up when computer users access a legitimate website. The “alert” warns them of a virus and offers security software, sometimes for free and sometimes for a fee.

“Lots of times, in fact they’re a conduit for attackers to take over your machine,” said Vincent Weafer, Symantec’s vice president for security response.

“They’ll take your credit card information, any personal information you’ve entered there and they’ve got your machine,” he said, referring to some rogue software‘s ability to rope a users’ machine into a botnet, a network of machines taken over to send spam or worse.

Symantec found 250 varieties of scam security software with legitimate sounding names like Antivirus 2010 and SpywareGuard 2008, and about 43 million attempted downloads in one year but did not know how many of the attempted downloads succeeded, said Weafer.

“In terms of the number of people who potentially have this in their machines, it’s tens of millions,” Weafer said.

It was also impossible to tell how much cyberthieves made off with but “affiliates” acting as middlemen to convince people to download the software were believed to earn between 1 cent per download and 55 cents.

TrafficConverter.biz, which has been shut down, had boasted that its top affiliates earned as much as $332,000 a month for selling scam security software, according to Weafer.

“What surprised us was how much these guys had tied into the whole affiliated model,” Weafer said. “It was more refined than we anticipated.”

(Reporting by Diane Bartz; editing by Gunna Dickson)