I’ve been ranting enough about switching to Ubuntu for professional reasons, that I thought people interested in those posts might be interested in some of these items that I’ve come across today. Here’s a fun list that should be of interest to Linux lovers.

1. This is kind of funny. Dell has discovered a loophole to give customers afraid of Vista a way to get XP even after it has been officially pulled from the market. They’re calling it the Windows Vista Bonus – I can only assume that the bonus is that you’re getting rid of Vista.
2. Here’s another reason to favor an open-source OS, and at a minimum open-source software like OpenOffice. It seems pretty clear that Microsoft wants to switch to a subsription/rental option for their Microsoft Office Suites. They’re already starting to test drive it.
3. This study claims that Windows market share could fall below 90%. (Of course the share is shifting Mac. But this is still good news. The more shifting there is, the more likely there will be people who shift to an open-source OS)
4. Some of you may be aware of the recent trend with Internet Service Providers trying to throttle (i.e., slow down) traffic of their subscribers based on the kinds of activity the subscribers are engaged in. Linux has the resources (and Microsoft doesn’t evidently) to thwart some of these efforts. Here’s how to thwart your ISP in Linux.
   
5. I just watched an awesome tutorial on Linux MCE. Linux MCE is a free, open-source media center. Here’s the intro text from the website.
   

   LinuxMCE is a free, open source add-on to Kubuntu including a 10′ UI, complete whole-house media solution with pvr + distributed media, and the most advanced smarthome solution available. It is stable, easy to use, and requires no knowledge of Linux and only basic computer skills.

   Basically you take a desktop, load with with Linux MCE and you have a machine with a nice pretty interface that hooks up to your TV as your media center. You can browse the internet, navigate through your cable, watch regular TV, and record shows – it looks pretty awesome. If you watch the video, you’ll that there are all sorts of other cool things you can do. If you have a desktop to try it out on, the rest of the hardware costs seem negligible. At most, you might may have to buy a TV Tuner card for your desktop. (But I’m not sure you’d have to buy those to get started).