I'm posting this on behalf of my colleague David Webster:

I'm David Webster --the guy "deep in the ranks" who dreamed up the Mojave Experiment. Today we updated the website with a few new videos, including sharing with you the fiercely debated demos that the participants were shown.  We encourage everyone to take a look at the videos, ask questions or air concerns (or even compliments). First I wanted to provide some context and clarify a few things.

It's been a couple weeks since we launched the Mojave Experiment, and the reaction in the blogosphere has been fascinating to watch. You should see my inbox - some of you really liked how the experiment helped you say "I told you so" to haters who'd just jumped on the bandwagon without trying for themselves. Others thought it was interesting but were skeptical about the validity of the project's methodology, and others still questioned our sanity (not the first time) for doing the experiment in the first place. There were lots of questions - some wondered if we rigged the results, cherry picked videos or even brought in actors to pose as consumers.  Fair enough. You should be skeptical. After all, the basic message of the Mojave Experiment is decide for yourself.  In that spirit, don't take my word for it either.  Go ahead and check out the new site for answers to the most frequent questions we got over the last few weeks.

We've also heard from supporters loud and clear that we needed to do more marketing around Windows Vista to regular users, and that is exactly what we are doing with the Mojave Experiment. As we have discussed, we're working to get the Mojave message out to consumers through website updates, retail activities and ads on cable stations. However, I do want to stress that while the Mojave Experiment is part of Microsoft's broader effort to talk about the value of Windows Vista, it is separate from the Crispin, Porter & Bogusky campaign you may have heard about in recent weeks. Stay tuned for more details on that one...for now I'm just here to discuss Mojave.

Well, here's why we went ahead with Mojave in the first place.

It should surprise no one that we believe Windows Vista today is a great product; it may surprise some that most current Windows Vista customers agree. In fact, we researched satisfaction levels among existing Windows Vista customers - the survey found that nearly 9 of 10 (i.e. 89%) of customers are either satisfied or very satisfied with their Windows Vista experience. And, satisfaction is increasing over time - customer sat level is 92% satisfied/very satisfied among those who bought Windows Vista during the last 6 months. More than 180 million Windows Vista licenses have been sold (as of June 30, 2008), and, as analysts have reported, corporate adoption rates are consistent with Windows XP rates in similar timeframes. So looking strictly at customer satisfaction and sales data, things are going very well for Windows Vista.

At the same time, we recognize that noise in the market created by a vocal minority can discourage regular people from trying the product for themselves. We're confident these people would find a lot to like about Windows Vista if they spent even 5-10 minutes taking a closer look. We wanted to confirm that hypothesis and see what happens when people get a second chance to make a first impression.

This led to the idea that led to the test that turned into the Mojave Experiment. And the hypothesis was confirmed when across the board, participants concluded that they needed to take another look before simply accepting what they'd heard. In fact, we had plans for a fun section of the site that highlighted any test subjects who didn't change their minds about Windows Vista. But we didn't get any.

The Windows Vista operating system delivered big changes in security, performance and graphics capabilities. These were long-term changes designed to bring customers forward and they are paying off, but it's true they also created near-term pain for customers immediately following launch - notably, some applications and devices didn't work (or work well) on Windows Vista. The product has come a long way since then. We and our partners have worked extremely hard to fix incompatibilities and optimize drivers for increased performance and stability. We shipped SP1 and countless other Windows Updates that have significantly improved Windows Vista over the last 18 months.

Again, we know from lots of user and non-user data that the closer they look the more they will like it. We just needed to give them a reason to take another look.

For a breakdown of the mechanics and results or just to see what's new, visit: http://www.mojaveexperiment.com/

The Linux kernel includes drivers for many popular PCI wireless cards, PCMCIA wireless adapters, and USB wireless adapters. On Ubuntu systems, wireless Ethernet interfaces are configured in the same way as wired Ethernet interfaces.

If no Linux driver is available for your wireless card, all is not lost. Thanks to the cleverness of the folks in the open source community, a Linux kernel module and related utilities called ndiswrapper enables you to use the Microsoft Windows drivers for much of the networking hardware that is not yet natively supported by Linux. Installing these utilities, installing Windows drivers under Linux, and configuring your system to automatically start loading the kernel module.

Using systems that have both wired and wireless interfaces is quite common nowadays. Even though wireless specifications such as 802.11g and the upcoming 802.11n provide high communication speeds. Ubuntu’s administrative Networking application makes this easy enough to do manually, but an automated solution is also available in the Networking Manager application.

Wireless network adapters are configured in basically the same way as standard networking adapters, except that they require some additional, wireless-specific information. To configure a wireless networking adapter on your Ubuntu system, connect it to your system and select System -> Administration -> Networking to start Ubuntu’s networking administration application (which you can also execute as the network-admin command from any Ubuntu command line, using the sudo command).

When you first start this application, your wireless adapter should be listed in the dialog, but should be identified as being unconfigured. If no wireless adapter is listed, your wireless adapter may not be directly supported by the Linux kernel.

Once your wireless adapter is displayed in the dialog, select the entry for your adapter and click Properties to display the configuration dialog for wireless adapters. Select the Enable this interface checkbox to enable you to enter specific configuration information for your wireless interface.

If you want to join a specific wireless network, enter the ESSID of that network—leaving this space blank will enable your wireless interface to connect to any open, publicly visible access point that does not require authentication, regardless of its name. Similarly, if the wireless network that you are joining uses WEP keys, select the appropriate type of key from the Key type drop-down list, and enter the key in the WEP key field— if the wireless network that you want to join does not use WEP, leave the Plain (ASCII) key type selected, and leave the WEP key field blank. The final configuration step is to enter the appropriate networking information if you want your system to use a static IP address for its wireless connection. If the wireless network that you want to join uses DHCP, click the Configuration entry and select DHCP from the drop-down list.

After completing these settings, click OK to proceed. The Properties dialog closes, and a status dialog displays as your Ubuntu system activates your new wireless adapter.

If your system has both wired and wireless adapters and you want to be able to use both together, you should change the Default gateway device setting at the bottom of the dialog to identify the Ethernet device over which you want to send packets to random hosts. In most cases, this will be your wired network interface. Depending on your configuration, you may also want to disable the other Ethernet interfaces on your system by selecting each interface, clicking Properties, and deselecting the Enable this connection checkbox.

To complete the wireless configuration process, you can then click OK to save your configuration settings, or click Cancel to close this dialog without saving any of your new configuration settings. You can verify that the interface is correctly configured by using the ifconfig command to query the status of that interface from any Ubuntu command line, which displays output like the following:

$ ifconfig wlan0
wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:06:25:07:F7:0E
inet addr:192.168.6.81 Bcast:192.168.6.255
Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::206:25ff:fe07:f70e/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:44 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:14 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:7697 (7.5 KiB) TX bytes:1284 (1.2 KiB)

Some removable wireless Ethernet interfaces are assigned names beginning with wlan (wireless LAN) and use numeric identifiers to differentiate between multiple wireless interfaces, just like Ethernet interfaces whose names typically begin with eth. The prefix used (wlan or eth) is set inside the device driver.

>>> Read more about Overview of Wireless Technologies < <<

Source of Information : Ubuntu Linux - Bible

If you think the smaller and thinner desktops are a distinction to have then you better consider the aftermath as well. Computers and gadgets can break down to and if a certain part such a chip or diode suddenly gets fried, be ready with your cash to have it repaired. Sure there will be the usual warranty stuff but in some rare cases, you will be surprised that these would not be covered by the warranty for the advanced desktop you purchased. Bummer as it may seem, that is a reality.

The probability of experiencing such a mishap is remote but you cannot discount it from happening. It may stem from accidentally means or through improper handling especially when you move it from one place to another. Overuse is another area for consideration as room temperature levels may play a vital role in determining how long such a device can hold.

There is no doubt most gadgets are becoming thinner these days and apparently it will all come to a point where we all love them due to space considerations. But the technology for manufacturing these things does not come cheap and today, there is no telling to what extent these things may result in. You just have to be ready in case they go beyond the traditional repairs by authorized service centers.

This is not to scare most innovative seeking consumers. It is a warning that with technology comes a price tag on it. You have to be ready for it or your PC will lay around inoperable. And this is something you don’t want to see, especially after spending a fortune!