I didn't check the link but I have to bet my gripe is in there, somewhere;

Ubuntu has tried to winohsify gnu. While I don't mind what distros do to simplify, modify, spin etc what is offered in our software, I do get peeved when bloat finds it's way into MY distro. And I do blame canonical. In an effort to compete with canonical, MANY distros have adopted bloat. Debian hasn't been too bad but I still have seen a lot more silly dependencies show up. (If I didn't run minimalistic, I'm sure I would be more pissed)
And does anybody remember when canonical 'asked' debian for 6 month freezes? That was utter bull. Debian should have told them to take a hike. I'm sure some wallets were made happy. If debian weren't so great, I'd have been off like a prom dress. It's like a Springer episode- debian laid down with slime but I just love her so much...
I really did come this close || to moving back to slackware during that mess. I'm still content with that option. I've been kicking it around, actually.

Since it was a 'business' machine and there is no start button, there must be restrictions on it. I think the app you want to get going is poledit.exe which is a policy editor. You need to be admin on the machine to start it. (if it wasn't done over the original network) Can one mount that disk in another OS and fiddle with that stuff? I'm not a windohs guy, so hopefully someone can chime in with more about that.
Otherwise, that OS install will probably have to be nuked to start over.

I'm surprised Mr. R. Trout hasn't tried to push some linux.

What are the specs on the box? Maybe it'll run xpee if you have one of those disks lying about..?

Well, it made me chuckle.

Does anybody lan party anymore? I think the kids are linkin up their X stations and play boxes over the internet, nowadays.
But if you're ever in the area and want to kick my bottom in a good ol fashioned game of heretic, dook nookem or doom over a lan, lemme know.

Oh, yes! HUGE peeve!
Switch car on, switch brain off.

Plus, the ones that appear to have a synapse or two still firing just to cause trouble- i.e. go like hell to get in front of everyone just to stop for oncoming traffic because they suddenly want to turn left.
If I weren't such a patient and caring soul, I'd jerk em out of their sanctuaries (cars) and beat em silly.

Cmon, man... Really?!

Standing out & tracking-
Superheros haven't a reason to remain anonymous. It can be surmised that superheros are quite vain in that respect, "Hey, look at me! You can't touch this cause I'm a superhero!" If you were a superhero, would you want to hide it? I think NOT! Ever notice any superheros with mingle accounts? Nope. They don't need one.
And do you really think Superman wouldn't notice anyone trying to place a tracking device on him? I bet if you asked him, it would go something like this- "If I had a nickel for every time someone tried to place a tracking device on me..."

Capes-
Aside from actual functionality for some superheros, it is part of the uniform. Would you trust a carpenter without a tool belt? How about a mechanic that wears a leisure suit? So, then, how about a superhero without a cape? Makes sense, now, doesn't it?
And why a cape? I'm sure you'll have to agree that they are the only ones that can pull that off. Put a cape on George Clooney; he's even more cheesy than usual. Put a cape on Superman; now, that just works.

But then you dogg Batman and the Boy Wonder. That's the cherry that makes me think somebody is just a little jealous. What they do on their off time can't be anything less than legendary.
Just imagine a night where Batman lets you use his bike. If a pile of bras and panties aren't holding your broken bed off the floor the next morning, you are in the same league as The Penguin. It wouldn't be difficult to research, I'll bet Batman has a running tab at the furniture store.

I hear ya, man. My mythbox used to be this ga-8i875 that I'm now using as my mainbox. It did a dang good job at what I threw at it. Games were a walk in the park but socket 478 just started falling behind of what a media box could be.
Now, I can transcode a video in less than half the time it took on this board. I can fullscreen game emulators without a hitch, record 'processing' from multiple tuners happens while the record happens.
The 2x2 cores, 8 gigs o ram and a strong vid card is what the rave/ brag post was about. I've reached a level of performance that I'd dreamed about several years ago.

Might try to fit that one into the lyrics of your next big hit. The stupid chicks will eat it up.

Been upgrading the mythtv box over the last few months and I think I'm at a point where I can pretty much say I'm done building it to where it might last me until I die. Most notably;
ga-ep45-ds4p w/ Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4 GHz
GIGABYTE nVidia GeForce GTS 450

I know, it sounds like overkill for just a pvr but I have multiple tuner cards and do some 'post processing tasks' in real time, now. And holy cow, does that rock!
HD video plays to my TV without a hitch, even while a record is happening.
It can double as a game box, if I'm so inclined, but I just don't get into video games like I used to.

Ha! It said "crouch rocket". Being in Travel & Transportation, I kinda thought it was going to be about a bad gastric experience abroad, squatting in some bushes.
Me and my dang skoolin.

Better detailed (if you don't mind, cause it sounds like you'd never tried this) you could assign a main/ favorite install that would take care of bootloader chores. You can then NOT install and even remove grub from the other installs. That should keep everybody behaving by not clobbering the bootloader every time you (re)install or update another linux installation.
For the guy that is forever installing, removing, repartitioning and otherwise switch, changing or re-arranging (i.e YOU ) a small /boot partition can be a good idea. That way you always have grub on MBR and it'll find it's modules in the boot partition (you'll always have a boot loader on disk)
The downside is just that you have to enter the main grub OS each time you (re)install or have a kernel/ initrd update and run update-grub for everything to show in the grub menu correctly.
If a guy wanted to get really slick, he'd use a flash drive for his boot disk and /boot partition and have a grub command shell available no matter what happened to the hard drives in his box.
One more note- if the update-grub os prober doesn't find all your installs on every disk, you can manually tell grub about them to get them on the menu, saving you from entering bios to change boot disks. (as long as there is an initrd in /boot for everybody, I think it should find em, tho)
Hoping this saves you much time and effort.
Cheers, man!

KDE and gnome are the big two 'desktop environments' in the linux world. They aim for feature richness and pointy clicky ease of use. They run on top of the X window system (xorg, right now) which is the base of gui heaven. Some see them as bloated resource hogs and opt for something lighter, such as xfce or lxde. Still, others don't see the need for the silliness of an 'environment' and use a simple window manager such as icewm or, my favorite, fluxbox.
It's true that linux is linux (pretty much). So, simply put, a guy could make a debian install look and act like a mepis, with time and patience. Distibutions put their own little tweaks into their kernels, modules, software apps all the way up to the look and feel of whatever gui they might offer.
I think one of the best bits of advice you could take is don't be in a hurry. Play with some live CDs and get a feel for what YOU like/ dislike about what they offer.
Have fun!

74Drew is probably on the right track. Windows is horrible at memory management and relies on the swap file quite a bit. Make sure your hdd isn't getting full. When I used windows, I would set a fixed swap file size, which kinda would prevent it getting pinched.
Best thing, though, is buy more ram.

Depending on which grub you want, just install the distro with that one. You can always opt not to install a bootloader on the subsequent installs.

Ballmer made a (the?) press release that was supposed to assure current skype users not to worry about any changes.
I think he's said stuff like that before, though.

If I had a crystal ball here, I wonder what it would say?
*wawawawa...wooshwooshwoosh* -cloudy, wavy image coming through-
Sign up for the new Micro$soft Internet Phone! Compatible with Facebook tracking, Google tracking, Twitter tracking and every other social networking/ marketing tracking and research information gathering entity. If you don't need a shower now, you'll sure need one after wading through the filth that is Micro$oft Internt Phone! Klik here to sign up!

Yeah, crap. It sounded better in my head.
But... you want some candy?

VERY true. There is a drama factor.


Hey, cutie... want some candy?

Um,
Yummy, smart and if she must fart, I'll revel in her amusement at least as equally. I just don't want to smell it.

I know I'm not the only male that desires a yummy chick with more than half a brain.

I'm willing to put money on this; be your witty, intelligent self and the guy you're looking for will happen right into your life when you least expect it. Maybe not tomorrow, but the wait will be worth the struggle through the dipwits that you deem 'maybes'.

Smart IS sexy, too!

Ditto! I hear ya, man!

Hey, have a nice day!

Not that I'd used it all that often, but it was handy to have.
I have $14 worth of credit to burn up before they ruin it.

apt-get purge skype... *sigh*

Adblock+, noscript and ghostery are first for add-ons here.
No qualms about it. All body parts still intact.