From this day onward only sub-notebooks will still receive updates for in my opinion one of the best operating systems Microsoft ever delivered (except DOS of course). Support for normal personal computers has officially ended. RIP!

This is what the first alpha version of Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex will look like. The 8.10 version of Ubuntu GNU/Linux won’t be a long-term support version, so Canonical will get a chance to test-drive some new features. Aside from the updated GNOME 2.24.0 and a new kernel version, kernel 2.6.26, the most notable feature currently is the long-awaited theme change. In the screenshots currently published on the Interwebz I can only see lots and lots of brown and I’m not liking it at all. How about you?

There has been a lot of debate concerning OLPC’s (or Negroponte’s) decision to load XO laptops with XP. I say it is a downright idiotic decision, and not because of RMS’ article about freedom (don’t get me wrong here, Stallman is my hero, but he develops his article in a completely wrong way in the XO case).

I for one believe this was all caused by a huge wad of cash sent Negroponte’s way. Negroponte just wants to get it done and go on vacation.

Why? Let’s take a look at some facts:

5) Windows XP will no longer be supported and useful when those kids are old/educated enough to get hired.

4) Windows XP is probably going to run the same interface as the Linux version, namely Sugar. That means the only difference will be the base system, and people aren’t really interested in that, especially some poor kid from Peru. Linux consumes far less system and storage resources.

3) Windows XP is not open source, so you’ll need some good localization support for even the most obscure languages. Mocovi, anyone?

2) OLPC will have to pay for every copy of Windows… and even if it’s $3 per laptop, multiply that by 50,000 and see how many kids stay without a laptop. Are we donating laptops to the governments or the children of third world countries?

1) After a while, this thing will get slower and slower. Try running an antivirus, a firewall, an anti-spyware suite, and a full-blown Windows environment. Then launch Photoshop and see what it looks like when a laptop throws up.

That’s my $0.02. It may be a bit extreme, but I wanted to express my outrage about this decision. It just ain’t right.

I got lots of emails from people asking me what are my favourite apps to install after I get a new Linux box up and running, so here they are:

1. Emesene - has support for MSN Plus nickname decoding, unlike Pidgin.

2. FileZilla - better than gFTP, can use it on my Mac OS X, XP and Linux box. Export/import your settings, and you’re good to go.

3. Mono and Paint.Mono - I hate the GIMP, but I don’t hate Freedom! So I take the middle road.

4. VLC - plays almost everything, be it sound or video. Screw Totem and Rhythmbox, this is all I need.

5. JDarkroom- my text editor of choice: a simple, full-screen editor. I don’t know why I’m so addicted to it. You can use Pyroom if you don’t like/have Java.

6. GTK Record My Desktop - If I’m making a screen-cast, this is my app of choice (GTK- stands for the GTK frontend, and recordmydesktop is the actual app, so there are many other versions too). It can record both video and sound and provides a high-quality OGG output.

7. Wine - Sometimes you just need it.

8. Google Earth - When you’re preparing to go to a foreign country or a place you don’t know, it’s much better to use Google Earth than a map. You see what the landscape looks like.

9. Kino & Cinelerra - Kino is a very decent app for making simple home videos and stuff. Cinelerra is of the more powerful type, as long as you’re OK with the interface you can do video-editing-magic. Believe me.

10. GNOME Bluetooth apps - I often transfer videos and images from my cellphone. The Bluetooth app packages that are part of the GNOME project are pretty fine for my needs.

The release date for Ubuntu 8.04, the second Long Time Support of the arguably most popular Linux distribution is approaching. Let’s do a little overview of what we have that0s new:

The Wubi installer will let Windows users install (a pretty retarded version of) Ubuntu onto the Windows partition. Even though it’s an interesting choice, it may create a lot of confusion!

We have GNOME 2.22, the new version of the default desktop environment. It will contain the Cheese web-cam recording app, GVFS, Telepathy and a multitude of other improvements and addons.

Theme updates make the new Ubuntu a very nice OS to look at by default.

Some new apps are the Transmission BitTorrent Client (which I use on my Mac and it’s as least as good as uTorrent), Brasero burning software and of course a few Compiz updates.

Are you ready for April the 24th? I know I am