[LiberationIT]

An article in today's Wall Street Journal recounts how Dell is getting beat by HP. IMO - Dell started losing it when they started selling extended warranties. It shifted risk from Dell to the customer; the quality department hid behind the extended warranty revenues and quality went to heck.

I'm switching to, most likely, HP and advising my friends to do the same. In my little circle of friends I'm the Alpha Geek so they ask my opinion.

BTW - I'm starting a non Microsoft project - It'll be build a PC or Laptop without any Microsoft products, then use it for more secure web access. Should be fun.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Get the latest Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop....not available in the retail stores.....the Conix Desktop is absolutely the best thing yet for serious browsing ., cutting and pasting,...will take some horsepower though,....AMD X2 3800+ drives it nicely.....

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Reference item:

Conix 3-D Explorer

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

See this:

Development Release: SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 RC3

There is some effort to get the OpenGL Desktop working and it requires a Video Card that responds to Open GL 3D commands....I have a Nivida Ge 6200 Turbo I think....but I think the later models of ATI are supported also.

[leilani]

My first PC was one of my Mom's homemade castoffs (she's was always a total ahead-of-the-curve computer geek; while other moms were baking brownies, she was cooking motherboards,lol) My first desktop replacement laptop was a souped-up to the max Dell Inspiron. Had it for 8+? 100% trouble-free years until I spilled coffee on it a couple of years ago and drowned the hard drive (no, I was not surfing FR at the time). Replaced it with a fully loaded HP Pavilion my brother talked me into for the reasons you mentioned -no major probs,just minor glitches but I still miss my faithful old longhorn-blooded Dell terribly.It was my first, I guess, & they're hard to get over, as we all know.HP'll should ok by ya tho', just don't expect to share the same kind of passion.;-)

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Found this business oriented presentation,...does show the 3D cube Desktop ....:

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10...Demo and presentation

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Check out this :

AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor 4200+ Socket AM2 & ECS NFORCE4M-A ATX Motherboard

Outpost #: 4924251

PLU#4858890 - AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor 4200+
for TRUE Multi-tasking - ADA4200CUBOX - Box CPU - Socket AM2

• Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core
• Model: 4200+
• Ordering P/N (PIB): ADA4200CUBOX
• Frequency: 2200Mhz
• Thermal: Power 89W
• L1 Cache: 128KB + 128KB
• L2 Cache: 512KB + 512KB
• CMOS Technology: 90nm SOI
• Socket: Socket AM2

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• Supports Socket AM2 AMD Athlon™ 64 FX/Athlon™64 X2/Athlon™64/Sempron™
• NVIDIA® nForce™4 Chipset
• Supports DDR2 800/667/533/400 DDR2 SDRAM & SATA

Limit 1 per Household.

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Detailed Description |  | Warranty Info

Price:

$

229.98

[NZerFromHK]

I agree. Dell is getting downhill. The first computer that I really used extensively was a Dell Optiplex made in 1996. Pretty decent machine at the time but not for home users, the hardware components used were already not top quality back then, and the device drivers were a nightmare to work with. But when I bought the second computer I did not hesitate to go for a Compaq Presario and on average it has less software config problems (which had nothing to do with the OS, but rather, drivers, BIOS, etc) than my older Dell.