It’s almost impossible to overstate the buzz leading up to this device. Immediately after the death of the Newton, rumors began trickling out about a followup from Apple; in the last five years, speculation and scraps of evidence about an Apple tablet have been a fixture in the tech media; in the last year, the rumors were unavoidable. Today, Apple’s tablet has finally arrived, and we’ve got the full rundown—from specs, features, content and price to what it’s like to actually use one.

The Hardware

• Size and shape: The screen’s aspect ratio makes it seem a bit squat, but this is intended to be a bi-directional tabl—err, Pad. The bezel is a little fat, but otherwise, this thing is basically a clean slab of pure display. It’s just .5 inches thick, which is a hair thicker than the iPhone 3GS, and measures 9.56 x 7.47 inches. Final weigh-in is 1.5 pounds without 3G, and 1.6 with. Says Mark, who’s actually held one:

Imagine, if you will, a super light unibody MacBook Pro that’s smaller, thinner and way, way, way lighter. Or, from a slightly different perspective, think about a bigger iPhone that’s been built with unibody construction.

• The screen: The tablet’s multitouch screen measures in at 9.7 inches, meaning that it’s got a significantly smaller footprint than the smallest MacBook, but a much larger screen than the iPhone. (That’s 9.7 inches diagonal, from screen corner to screen corner.) The screen’s resolution is a dense 1024 x 768.

• The guts: It’s a half-inch thick—just a hair thicker than the iPhone, for reference—and weighs 1.5 pounds. It’s powered by a 1GHz Apple ARM A4 chip, and has 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of flash storage. From the looks of it, Apple finally got some use out of that PA Semi purchase, and built their own mobile processor, but that’s no totally clear yet. It’s also loaded with 802.11 n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, a 30-pin iPod connector, a speaker, a microphone, an accelerometer and a compass. Video output runs through and iPhone-type composite adapter at up to 576p and through a dock-to-VGA adapter at up to 1024 x 768. No HDMI, no DVI—not even a Mini DisplayPort.

3G is optional, and costs more, not less. Along with 3G, the upgraded models include A-GPS. (More on this below)

Oh, and there isn’t a rear-facing camera, nor is there a front-facing camera. This tablet is totally camera-less, which seems a bit odd.

• The battery: Apple’s making some bold claims about battery life: ten hours for constant use, with a one-month standby rating. Ten hours of constant use includes video viewing, so you could conceivable watch about six feature films before this thing dies.

• How you hold it: You can hold it two different ways, and the software will adapt to both. Portrait mode seems like the primay mode, a la the iPhone while landscape mode—better for movies and perhaps magazine content—is a secondary mode. The Apple decal is oriented for portrait mode, so basically, just get ready for a whole bunch of HEY IT’S A GIANT IPHONE!! jokes.

Connectivity

Some models have Wi-Fi exclusively, while some have 3G as well. It’s with AT&T, and costs either $15 a month for 250MB of data, or $30 for unlimited data. With the plan, you get access to AT&T’s Wi-Fi hotspots as well. Best of all, it’s a prepaid service—no contract. You can activate it from the iPad any time, and cancel whenever you want. This sounds like a fantastic deal, until you consider how it’s probably going to brutalize AT&T’s already terrible 3G coverage.

The iPad itself is unlocked, so you can conceivably use it with any Micro SIM card . But what the hell is a Micro SIM card? For one, it’s not the same kind of SIM that’s in your iPhone, so don’t expect to just pop that in and surf for free. It’s a totally different standard, and the iPad’s the only device that uses it right now. Even if, say, T-Mobile released a Micro SIM card, the iPad can’t connect to its 1700MHz 3G network.

The Software

• The OS: The operating system on the tablet is based on iPhone OS, which is in turn loosely based on OS X. In other words, it’s got the same guts as the iPhone, as well as a somewhat similar interface. What this means in practical terms is that the UI is modal; you can only display one app at a time, and there aren’t windows, per se. There’s a new set of standard UI tools as well, including a pull-down menu, situated at the top left of most apps.

• The homescreen: It’s like a mixture between the iPhone and OS X: it uses the iPhone launcher/apps metaphor, but has an OS X-style shiny dock. It feels very spread out compared to the iPhone’s homescreen, though I suspect this is necessary to keep things from getting too overwhelming. For our full walkthrough of the new OS, check here.

• The keyboard: Input comes by way of an onscreen keyboard, almost exactly like the iPhone’s. Typing on it is apparently a “dream,” because it’s “almost lifesize”. Steve wasn’t typing with his thumbs, but with his fingers, as if it were an actual laptop keyboard. Navigation throughout the rest of the OS is optimized for one hand, though.

• The browser: The browser is essential an upscaled version of Safari Mobile, with a familiar, finger-friendly title bar and not much else. It rotates by command of the accelerometer. From the looks of it, it doesn’t have Flash support, but we’ll have to confirm. UPDATE: Yup, none at all. You can get away with that kind of thing on the iPhone, sort of, but on a 10-inch tablet it’s a glaring omission.

• Email: Mail again takes its visual cues from the iPhone, but with a lot more decoration: you can preview your mailbox from any message with a pull-down menu, and preview any message from within the mailbox, with a pop-up window.

• Music: The music player is even more hybridized, styled like a mix between the iPhone’s iPod interface and full-fledged desktop iTunes. Interestingly, Cover Flow seems to have more or less died off.

• Maps: This one may be the most direct conversion from the iPhone, with a very similar interface through and through. It includes Street View, too.

• Photos: The photo library app looks a lot like iPhoto, only adapted for multitouch finger input.

• Video: YouTube is available by way of an app, iPhone-style, which can play videos in 720p HD. iTunes video content plays back in a dedicated app, just like on the iPhone, and can also play back in HD. Movie codec support is otherwise the same as the iPhone, which is to say pretty limited.

• Calendar and contacts: The calendar app is desktop-like, until you open contacts and calendars, which look a lot like actual contact books and organizers. They’re beautiful, and dare I say a bit Courier-like.

Apps

• iPhone apps: This thing runs them! The iPad runs iPhone apps right out of the App Store, with no modification, but they’re either relegated to the center of the screen or in “pixel double” mode, which just blows them up crudely. Any apps you’ve purchased for your iPhone can be synced, for free, to your iPad.

• New apps: The iPhone app SDK has already been expanded for tablet development, including a whole new set of UI elements and expanded resolution support. The raw iPhone app compatibility is just a temporary measure, it seems—any developer who wants their app to run on the tablet will develop for the tablet. Some of the early examples of adapted apps, like Brushes, are spectacular. More on the SDK here.
Apple’s pushing gaming on this thing right out of the box, demoing everything from FPS N.O.V.A to Need for Speed. It’s presumably running these games at HD, so the rendering power in this thing is no joke.

• Ebooks: Apple’s also opened an ebook store to accompany the iPad, in the mold of iTunes. It’s called iBooks.
It offers books in ePub format, and makes reading on a Kindle seem about as stodgy as, you know, paper. To be clear, though, this is just Apple’s solution—unless they’re explicitly banned from the iPad, you should be able to download your Kindle app as well.

This store doesn’t sell magazines or newspapers, which’ll be relegated to regular app status. At this point, whether or not the tablet helps them out is in their hands.

• iWork: Apple’ also designed a whole new iWork suite just for the tablet, which implies that this thing is as much for media creation as it is for consumption. There’s a new version of Keynote designed just for the iPad, as well as new version of Pages, (word processor), and Numbers, which is the spreadsheet app. Here’s what Keynote looks like:
The interfaces are obviously designed strictly for touch input, but from the looks of it can handle every function that the old, mouse-centric version could, plus a few more. And man, they’re so much prettier. Each app costs $10, and you can get them all for $30.

• File storage: Unlike the iPhone, the iPad does seem to have some shared storage aside from the photo roll. The newly released SDK reveals that when you connect an iPad to a PC or Mac, part of it—a partition, maybe?—mounts as a shared documents folder.

Accessories

Right away, Apple’s offering three main official accessories: a book-style case, a regular dock and a keyboard dock. (Ha!)

The book cover doubles as a stand, so you can prop the iPad up in a few different ways. The keyboard dock hooks up with the iPad when it’s in portrait mode, so you can type longer documents, charge, or both. The iPad will also support Apple’s Bluetooth keyboards.

The iPad’s only really got one accessory port, and it takes an iPod dock connector. Apple’s solution for this? Adapters! So many adapters. There’s a Dock Connector to VGA adapter, a USB camera adapter (which gives you one plain USB connection, though it apparently only works for importing photos), a USB to SD adapter, and an included USB power adapter, which lets you charge by AC or USB. It’s essentially just an iPhone charger with a bigger brick.

UPDATE: We have prices:

the Keyboard dock costs $70, the case costs $40, the SD/USB connection kit costs $30 and the VGA display adapter costs $30 (1024×768 only)

What It’s Like to Use

It’s hefty. Substantial. Easy to grip. Fast. Beautiful. Rigid. Starkly designed. The glass is a little rubbery but it could be my sweaty hands. And it’s fasssstttt.

Our detailed impressions in our hands on, right here.

Price and Release Date

The iPad ships worldwide in 60 days, but only in Wi-Fi versions. The 3G version will be another 30 days after that. Here are the prices:

Without 3G:

• $499: 16GB
• $599: 32GB
• $699: 64GB

With 3G:

• $629: 16GB
• $729: 32GB
• $829: 64GB

Apple will ship all the iPads in 60 days—the end of March—to America, and just the Wi-Fi models internationally. It’ll be another 30 days beyond that for 3G models to be available outside our shores; Apple says they’re still working on carrier deals.

3G comes by way of AT&T, who’s offering the service without contract, for $15 a month (250MB of data) or $30 a month (unlimited). That’s why, unlike the iPhone, the iPad is actually cheaper off-contract.

Step One: Create a System Repair Disc

You never know when some catastrophe will strike your PC, rendering it unable to boot. And because few vendors these days bundle actual operating-system discs, it’s up to you to build a bootable CD or DVD that can help save the day.

Thankfully, Windows 7 makes this quite easy. Just click Start, type repair, and then click Create a System Repair Disc. Pop a blank CD or DVD into your drive (netbook users will need to connect an external one), click Create disc, and then sit back while Windows gets to work.

When it’s done, label the disc, file it away, and hope you never need it. If you do, you can boot the disc to load a basic repair environment with diagnostic tools and System Restore.

The important thing to remember is that you can’t do this after a problem has occurred; you need to create your repair disc ahed of time. So take 10 minutes and do it right now. At some point in the future, you may be awfully glad you did.

Step Two: Remove the Crapware

Now that you’ve created a system-repair disc for your new PC, let’s get it running at peak performance. That means removing some, if not all, of the software that was preloaded by the system maker. Some call it shovelware; I call it crapware.

Why the derogatory moniker? Simple: The proprietary and/or third-party software that many vendors preload on their PCs is mostly junk. It consumes space on your hard drive, causes your system to boot slower than it should, and just generally gets in the way.

Yes, I’m looking at you, McAfee Internet Security 90-day trial. And Google Desktop. And Roxio everything. You’re not bad products, but I didn’t ask for you, and I don’t want you unless I want you. Get it?

There are two ways to go about shoveling out the shovelware. First, you can install one of my longtime favorite utilities, Revo Uninstaller, then manually remove unwanted apps one by one.

Second, you can take advantage of the aptly named PC Decrapifier, which was created for the sole purpose of removing crapware. The latest version (2.1) can kick nearly 100 crap apps to the curb, everything from AOL to Yahoo Toolbar. Of course, it’s not an all-or-nothing proposition: You can choose which programs it uninstalls.

Yes, I recognize the irony of installing software to remove software. But Revo Uninstaller is worth having anyway, and you can dump PC Decrapifier when you’re done with.

As to the question of what programs you should keep and what you should pitch, tread carefully. For example, if your system came with a Blu-ray drive and you remove a bundled program like Arcsoft TotalMedia Theater, you may lose the ability to watch Blu-ray movies. When in doubt, keep the app.

In most cases, however, if there’s a program you don’t recognize or don’t think you want (a Web search can answer most questions), get rid of it.

Step Three: Keep It Secure

Now let’s talk security. As any regular PCWorld reader knows, computers and their users are vulnerable to all manner of threats, from hackers to phishing to viruses. That’s why it’s critical that you batten down your new machine’s hatches right from the get-go.

Psst! Guess what? Right out of the box, Windows 7 is already pretty darn secure. Its firewall and built-in anti-malware tool (Windows Defender) offer robust protection from everyday threats.

Meanwhile, the latest versions of Firefox (3.5) and Internet Explorer (8) help keep you safe from pop-ups, phishing attempts, browser hijacking, and the like.

As for e-mail, both Gmail and Yahoo employ Norton antivirus software at the server level (meaning there’s nothing you have to install), along with anti-spam and anti-phishing tools. If you happen to use either one, well, you’ve got clean mail.

There are a couple tools of your own to consider adding to the mix. The first is a router, which has a built-in firewall that effectively renders your PC(s) invisible to the Internet at large–so no hackers will be able to break in.

Second, for that little bit of extra protection, install Microsoft’s widely acclaimed–and free–Security Essentials antivirus software.

I also highly recommend Web of Trust, a free browser plug-in that shows you if Web links are safe–before you click them.

And that’s it! I firmly believe that you can dispense with pricey, intrusive, performance-sapping third-party security software and rely on Windows’ own tools (and a few extras). That’s what I’ve done for years and years, and I haven’t encountered a single problem. Not one. (You can read more about this in Security Software: Protection or Extortion?)

A Step in the Right Direction

Microsoft made significant changes to how it protects the Windows operating system kernel and added a number of new security controls when it transitioned from Windows XP to Windows Vista. With Windows 7, many of those security controls are enhanced and there are some new features as well.

Here are three things Microsoft got right with Windows 7 security:

1. ASLR and DEP. ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization, hinders some types of security attacks by making it more difficult for an attacker to predict target addresses.) and DEP (Data Execution Prevention) both existed in Windows Vista, but have been improved for Windows 7. ASLR makes it more complicated for attackers to determine where core functions reside in memory, and DEP prevents buffer overflow attacks from working on files or in storage areas that are specifically intended to hold data.

Sophos Senior Security Advisor Chet Wisniewski says ” ASLR was massively improved in Windows 7. This means that libraries (DLL’s) are loaded into random memory addresses each time you boot. Malware often depends on specific files being in certain memory locations and this technology helps stop buffer overflows from working properly.”

Wisniewski also notes that DEP now protects Internet Explorer and other key Windows services that were not protected by DEP in Windows Vista.

2. BitLocker-to-Go. Microsoft added BitLocker drive encryption in Windows Vista. Originally it was only capable of encrypting the partition that Windows was actually installed on, but the functionality was expanded with Service Pack 1 to include additional partitions or volumes–but not portable storage.

Tyler Reguly, Lead Security Research Engineer with nCircle, notes that with Windows 7, Microsoft has included the ability to encrypt data on USB thumb drives. Reguly says that with the popularity of USB thumb drives–capable of holding gigabytes of data–”the expansion of BitLocker to include removable drives should be counted as a significant enhancement.”

3. IE8. Internet Explorer 8 is not specific to Windows 7–users of other Windows operating systems are also free to download and use the new Web browser. But, both Reguly and Wisniewski agree that it should go on the list.

Tyler Reguly commented that “The release of IE8 makes it evident that Microsoft is starting to take browser security seriously.”

Sophos’ Wisniewski elaborated more, explaining that IE8 “includes a new protection called SmartScreen which is similar to the protection in Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. This anti-phishing/anti-malware URL filtering is built into the browser, which can block known bad sites and helps protect users.”

In addition, IE8 highlights the actual domain of the URL in bold on the address bar. The added emphasis makes the true domain stand out and can act as a phishing deterrent by alerting the user when a fake or malicious URL may be directing them to a different domain than they were expecting.

More Work to Be Done

As far as Microsoft has come with security, its not perfect. No operating system ever will be. Still, it can’t hurt to try so here is a look at some of the areas that Windows 7 is lacking and perhaps some ideas for Microsoft to work on for Windows 8.

1. Windows Firewall. The Windows Firewall is an area where Microsoft has come a long (long) way from its original attempt at incorporating personal firewall protection into the operating system. One of the primary complaints about earlier versions was that it only restricted inbound traffic and did not provide any mechanism for blocking or filtering traffic outbound from the Windows PC. Microsoft has addressed that.

nCircle’s Tyler Reguly says “As a personal choice, I won’t use third-party firewall software. I find them to be too resource-intensive and too much of a pain. So, I would love it if the Windows Firewall was more powerful.”

I should note, though, that perhaps there is a correlation between “more powerful” and “resource-intensive”. Perhaps the reason third-party personal firewalls eat up more resources is related to the more comprehensive protection they provide.

This may be an area where Microsoft simply needs to strike the right balance between security and performance.

2. Hidden File Extensions. Microsoft continues to hide known file extensions by default. In other words, rather than displaying a full file name like ‘pcworld.docx’, Windows will only display ‘pcworld’.

The idea is to make things more simple or user-friendly. We don’t want to confuse the end-user with frivolous details like ‘docx’, or ‘xls’, or ‘mp3′.

Chet Wisniewski points out, though, that hiding the file names is a security concern as well. He says that hiding file extensions “makes it much easier for email Trojans to use double extensions to trick users into launching their payload. Files named FinancialStatement.doc.exe will appear to the user as FinancialStatement.doc with an EXE icon.”

3. XP Mode Virtualization. Windows XP Mode virtualization can be a savior for situations where there are legacy hardware devices or software applications that won’t work under Windows 7. The system can still be upgraded to Windows 7, but the incompatible hardware or software can be run in a virtual Windows XP environment.

The operative concern here, though, is that it is a complete Windows XP environment that is not protected in any way by the Windows 7 security controls. Wisniewski explains “Windows XP Mode introduces another layer of complexity for securing a Windows desktop. Because a total virtual machine (VM) is running on your PC that requires you to run a full security suite within that VM and manage that appropriately.”

Wisniewski also notes that “By default Windows auto-maps drives from your XP virtual machine to your Windows 7 machine. This could be a major malware vector if not properly protected.”

The ever-popular UAC (User Account Control) gets an honorable mention as a pro and a con. Although it has been both presented and perceived as a security control, UAC is more about enforcing sound software development practices. Security is sort of a fringe benefit.

Tyler Reguly likes the changes Microsoft has made for UAC with Windows 7. “The decreased interruptions will mean more people will leave UAC on, this is definitely a benefit. It ends up being more functionality, less security, but can still be seen as an improvement in security overall.”

Chet Wisniewski counters by pointing out that UAC is not really a security function in the first place, but also comments that ” Microsoft does need to continue to use UAC to encourage developers to follow proper privilege separation models, because this can help Microsoft make a more secure Windows, but it should not be positioned as a feature to the end-user.”

Overdrive connects to Sprint’s WiMax or 3G network and can be used to link up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices. The device, which is portable, will cost $100 with a two-year service contract that costs $60 per month. The monthly service contract includes unlimited data over Sprint’s WiMax network and 5GB of data over the 3G network.

The release of Overdrive comes as Sprint looks to expand the reach of its WiMax network, which currently covers a population of 30 million people living in 27 U.S. markets. By the end of this year, Sprint plans to quadruple that, to 120 million people, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse told attendees at a press conference ahead of the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Sprint hopes Overdrive will entice more people to try WiMax.

Among the hurdles that WiMax faces are a lack of devices that support the technology and limited coverage areas. Overdrive can help to overcome these problems, allowing users to access the Internet with any device that uses Wi-Fi. In addition, the ability to switch between the WiMax and 3G networks means users can still access the Internet in areas that aren’t covered by the WiMax network.

The Overdrive is Sprint’s WiMax dream, in a little box. And mine too, I confess: Real broadband that I can shove in my pocket and take anywhere, a teleporting Wi-Fi hotspot.

WiMax is pretty quick at its best, but speed depends almost proportionately on signal—in Las Vegas, at 100 percent, we were getting around 3.5Mbps downstream and close to 1Mbps up, but at 40 percent, we got 1.57Mbps downstream and around 0.3Mbps up, and more than a couple dropped connections. Latency stayed around 155ms. When it was at full strength, it feels a whole lot like real broadband.

Read About WiMAX

Ubuntu 9.10, also known as the Karmic Koala, arrived exactly on October 29, 2009 and is the eleventh release of Ubuntu OS. We’ve created the following tutorial to teach Linux newcomers how to install the Ubuntu 9.10 operating system on their personal computer. Therefore, it is addressed to people who have just heard about Ubuntu, those who have never installed Ubuntu before and want to test it, but don’t know how.

The tutorial will make things very simple for you, but if you get stuck somewhere in the middle of the installation and you need help, do not hesitate to use our commenting system at the end of the article!

Requirements:

You will need the Ubuntu 9.10 Desktop ISO image that corresponds to your hardware architecture (i386 or amd64), and which can be downloaded from here. When the download is over, burn the ISO image with your favorite CD/DVD burning application (Nero, CDBurnerXP, Roxio) on a blank CD at 8x speed.

Reinsert or leave the CD in your CD/DVD-ROM device and reboot the computer in order to boot from the CD. Hit the F8, F11 or F12 key (depending on your BIOS) to select the CD/DVD-ROM as the boot device.

Select your language when asked…

Select the second option “Install Ubuntu,” and hit the “Enter” key…

Wait for the CD to load into RAM…

You will see the wallpaper for a few seconds. When the installer appears, you will be able to select your native language for the entire installation process. Click the “Forward” button to continue…

Where are you?

The second screen will feature a map of the Earth. Upon the selection of your current location, the time for the final system will adjust accordingly. You can also select your current location from the drop down list situated at the bottom of the window. Click the “Forward” button after you have selected your desired location…

Test your keyboard

On the third screen, you will be able to choose a desired keyboard layout. But the default automatic selection should work for most of you. Click the “Forward” button when you have finished with the keyboard configuration…

Hard disk partitioning

You have four options here:

1. If you have another operating system (e.g. Windows XP) and you want a dual boot system, select the first option: “Install them side by side, choosing between them at each startup.”

Editor’s Note: This option will ONLY appear if you have another operating system installed, such as Microsoft Windows. Remember that, after the installation, the Windows boot loader will be overwritten by the Ubuntu boot loader!

2. If you want to delete your existing operating system, or the hard drive is already empty and you want to let the installer automatically partition the hard drive for you, select the second option, “Use the entire disk.”

Editor’s Note: This option is recommended for most users who do not have another operating system installed or who want to erase an existing one, for example Windows OS.

3. The third choice is “Use the largest continuous free space” and it will install Ubuntu 9.10 in the unpartitioned space on the selected hard drive.

4. The fourth choice is “Specify partitions manually” and it is recommended ONLY for advanced users, to create special partitions or format the hard drive with other filesystems than the default one. But it can also be used to create a /home partition, which is very useful in case of reinstalling the whole system.

Here’s how you do a manual partitioning with /home:

- Select the “Specify partitions manually (advanced) and click the “Forward” button;

- Make sure that the selected hard drive is the right one. /dev/sda is the first physical hard drive. /dev/sdb is the second hard drive in your machine. So, make sure that you know which is the one you want to format! Otherwise, you will lose ALL YOUR DATA on that hard drive;

- Let’s say that the selected drive is empty (no other operating system or important data on it), but it has some partitions on it. Select each one of those partitions and click the “Delete” button. After a few seconds, it will say “free space”. Do this with the other partitions from the selected hard drive, until they’re all deleted and you have a single “free space” line;

- With the “free space” line selected, click on the “Add” button. In the new window, type 2000 in the “New partition size in megabytes” field and select the “swap area” option from the “Use as:” drop down list. Click the OK button and, in a few seconds, you’ll notice a “swap” line with the specified size;

- With the “free space” line selected, click on the “Add” button. In the new window, select the “Primary” option, type a value between 10,000 and 50,000 in the “New partition size in megabytes” field and select / as the “Mount point”. Click the OK button and in a few seconds, you’ll notice an “ext4 /” line with the specified size;

- With the “free space” line selected, click on the “Add” button. In the new window, select the “Primary” option, type a value between 30,000 and 50,000 (or whatever space you have left on the drive) in the “New partition size in megabytes” field and select /home as the “Mount point.” Click the OK button and, in a few seconds, you’ll notice an “ext4 /home” line with the specified size.

This is how your partition table should look like. If so, click the “Forward” button to continue with the installation…

WARNING: Be aware that all the data on the selected hard drive or partition will be ERASED and IRRECOVERABLE.

Click the “Forward” button to continue with the installation…

Who are you?

On this screen, you must do exactly what the title says. Fill in the fields with your real name, the name you want to use to log in on your Ubuntu OS (also known as the “username,” which will be required to log in to the system), the password and the name of the computer (automatically generated, but can be overwritten).

Also at this step, there’s an option called “Log in automatically.” If you check the box on this option, you will automatically be logged in to the Ubuntu desktop. Click the “Forward” button to continue…

Are you really ready for Ubuntu?

This is the final step of the installation. Here, you can select to install the boot loader on another partition or hard drive than the default one, but it is only recommended for advanced users. If someone is installing to a USB memory stick, as if it was a USB hard drive, then they should know that the installer will mess with their computer’s hard disk drive MBR (thanks to Donald for the info on this one!).

Therefore, click the “Advanced” button and select the correct drive (the USB stick in this case)…

Click the “Install” button to start the installation process…

The Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) operating system will be installed…

After approximately 10 to 18 minutes (depending on your computer’s specs), a pop-up window will appear, notifying you that the installation is complete, and you’ll need to restart the computer in order to use the newly installed Ubuntu operating system. Click the “Restart Now” button…

The CD will be ejected; remove it and press the “Enter” key to reboot. The computer will be restarted and, in a few seconds, you will see the Ubuntu boot splash and Xsplash…

At the login screen, click on your username and input your password. Click Log In or hit Enter…

Have fun using Ubuntu 9.10!

Linux is faster. The speed compares to XP™
Linux is immune to 99% of all viruses/spyware.
Linux is so easy to operate, grandma can use it.
Linux can run on an old Pentium III computer.
Linux is stable and system crashes are rare.
Use Linux to make your old box run like a P-4.
Best of all, Linux is free! FREE as in Freedom!

  You will just love Linux. I guarantee it!

Virus and Spyware Free! Linux is immune to 99% of viruses and spyware. You can surf in the worst neighborhoods on the web and not worry about your computer getting screwed up. Download music movies and games and not worry about trojans and adware. You no longer need to fear opening attacthments in you email and getting a system wrecking worm. Unlike in windows systems, when the browser pop-up blocker is set, YOU DON’T GET POP-UPS!

Ultra Stable & Reliable! Many commercial Linux servers have been known to run for six years or more without a single system crash! With Linux, viruses and spyware can’t change your system settings or destroy your computer. This is why over 75% of servers are Linux powered! Even hackers can’t change your settings enough to cause serious problems. Avoid the blue screen of death and use Linux!

So Easy to Use! A six year old child can use Linux! If you have been using Mac or Windows, the learning curve for Linux is so very easy. Just like with Windows, you can “cut & paste”, “copy & paste”, “drag & drop”, and save online images to your computer. Linux is made to be simple for the computer novice and is very fool proof.

Tons of Free Software and Games! Over 9,000 FREE SOFTWARE programs are available for Linux. Downloading and installing the software is easy with the awesome and simple package manager. Most programs available for windows are also available as clone or replica software for Linux. Included is the Open Office suite and The Gimp Image Editor. Open Office is a powerful office suite that can read and write Microsoft™ Word™ and Excel™ documents. Open Office can even take text or HTML files and make a PDF document! The Gimp Image Editor compares very well to Adobe™ Photoshop™. Over 30 fun games are included on the CD. Some of my favorites are: Video Poker, Blackjack, Battleship, Asteroids, and Tetris.

Hardware Compatable. Linux works with almost all hardware and networking. Printers, scanners, digital cameras, cable modems, DSL modems, network routers, and wireless devices. Linux supports all motherboards, video cards, plus all Intel and AMD CPUs. There are drivers for about everything, and Linux finds your hardware automatically. The only thing Linux does not like are older winmodems. Linux does not work well on Apple computers.

Try a live bootable CD. You can try a free live CD version of Linux first if you want. The CD does run slow, but it will give you a good idea of what linux is like. Put it in your CDROM and reboot your computer. You want shock and awe? This is what you will get the first time you see Linux on CD. The FREE live CD, is also the install CD,

andLinux is actually a full installation of Ubuntu that allows you to run Linux apps directly within the Windows environment. The user interface is the KDE flavor, which should be easier for Windows users to get used to. It’s completely free, easy to install, and is a great way for the Windows user to introduce themselves to Linux. 

Note: andLinux is in Beta 2 stage, so keep in mind there may be some bugs yet to be worked out.

Installing andLinux

There are several steps following the installation wizard that are self explanatory, but we will take a look at some of the more important ones. You will need to decide how much memory you want to allocate for andLinux. This will depend on how much memory you have installed on your machine…you can experiment with different amounts and see what works best.

You can select to run it manually from the command line or the easiest option is to have it start automatically with Windows which is selected by default.

You can choose to have it access your Windows drives using Samba.

Select Install this driver software anyway when you get the unsigned driver message.

To complete installation, a reboot is required.

Using andLinux

After a successful installation and reboot, you will now see a small KDE icon in the notification area. This will essentially be your “Linux Start Menu” where you can select different included apps you want to run.

There are several KOffice apps included by default and you can start exploring programs like KMail, Kexi, KWord, and more. 

After you’ve become acquainted with the different Linux apps offered, you might want to download more using the Synaptic Package Manager. You’ll need to sign in using the password you created during the installation.

You can browse through the insane amount of different applications or search for what you’re looking for. You’re provided with descriptions of the different apps and when you’re ready, mark the package(s) for installation.

When the latest app packages are downloaded and installed. Click on Details to see what is happening “behind the scenes”.

You can use Konqueror to browse for the newly installed applications and launch them. Konqueror is a staple in a lot of Linux distributions that works as a file manager where you can browse by category and also browse the web.

Here is an example of the Multimedia directory where you can launch different apps.

Here are a few shots of how different Linux apps look running in the Windows 7 environment. Here we take a look at using Konqueror as a web browser in Windows 7.

KSpread is a Linux app for creating new spreadsheets and running in Windows 7.

Synaptic Package Manager allows you to download and install new Linux application packages.

Remember andLinux is still in Beta stage so expect some bugs and some things not to work correctly. If you already have a Windows virtual machine set up, you might want to try it out there before installing it on your real machine. This provides and easy way for a Windows user who’s curious about the Linux world to explore Linux apps without much difficulty. There is currently no support for 64 bit systems, but andLinux will run on Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, and Windows 7 (32-bit Versions Only).

Thanks to howtogeek.com for such a wonderfull post.

Download andLinux

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Running Disk2VHD

Disk2vhd allows you to create a Virtual Hard Drive (VHD) of a physical machine even while the machine is up and running using volume snapshot technology. This small utility doesn’t require installation and you can run it from a flash drive if you want. Just open up the Disk2vhd folder and run the executable.

Agree to the EULA…

Now select the physical drive you want to turn into a VHD, give it a name and location to create and store it. You’ll need to select a location that is large enough to store the VHD you’re creating. In this example we’re creating a VHD from an IBM ThinkPad running XP. Notice the space required under the Volumes to include section shows 6.48GB and the E:\ drive is actually an 8GB travel drive. Also, If you’re creating a VHD from XP or Server 2003 and will be running it on Microsoft Virtual PC, check the box Fix up HAL for Virtual PC. After everything looks correct, click on the Create button.

You’re shown the progress bar while the VHD is created. The XP VHD from an older IBM ThinkPad G40 used for this test took about an hour to complete. The amount of time it takes to create the VHD will vary from system to system.

Setup on Windows Virtual PC

Here we’ll take a look at running the newly created VHD on Virtual PC in Windows 7.  We need to create a new machine first, so open Windows Virtual PC from the Start Menu.

In the Virtual Machine folder click on Create virtual machine to launch the wizard.

Name the machine something that helps you identify it, where in this case we gave it the name of the physical machine it came from.

Decide the amount of memory to give to the virtual machine and select network settings.

In the next step of the wizard we need to point to the location of the VHD and click Create.

The created virtual machine will be placed in the Virtual Machines folder.

There are a few things to point out on this XP virtual machine. Because we moved it from another computer, we need to reactivate the XP license.

The new hardware wizard will come up as XP starts pointing out different hardware detected on the virtual machine. We found that cancelling out of those wizards worked the best.

Then we ran Enable Integration Features form the Tools menu on Virtual PC.

A wizard will start on the virtual computer and just follow each step until it’s done, then restart the VM.

After the machine launches from the reboot you can start using it. This example is cool because I’m fond of the ThinkPad for nostalgia sake, and can bring it along with me to other  machines.

Conclusion

You can also run the VHDs on Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines on Server 2008, and we successfully ran one on VirtualBox as well. There are a lot of scenarios where Disk2vhd would come in very handy, especially for consolidating older machines into one. It can be used to create images of other machines for testing, without having to worry about damaging them. Also it could be used for simply creating a backup of your computer. It’s completely free, doesn’t require installation, and will create the VHD while the computer is up and running. It will run on Windows XP SP2 and higher.

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1. Take a Spin Around the New Interface: Still glassy, glossy and damn near glittery, the Windows 7 interface is actually a major progression for Microsoft: It’s not just easy to use, it’s a whole new paradigm with the revamped taskbar and Aero Peek making multitasking with multiple windows more natural than ever.

2. Turn Off Everything You Don’t Need: While Windows 7 is missing some odd things, like a mail application, the flip side is that you can turn off pretty much every major feature you don’t want. Internet Exploder 8? Gone. Windows Media Player? Poof. And if you’re used to tweaking the crap out of Windows, you still can—a lot of the old tricks, like for manipulating context menus, still work.

3. Move All Your Crap from Your Old Machine: Windows 7 actually has pretty decent built-in powers for moving all your crap from your old and busted PC to your new pride and joy, though you need to download Windows Easy Transfer separately onto XP if you’re pulling stuff from that.

4. Master All of the New Keyboard Shortcuts: Why deal with flipping around a mouse or scribbling on a trackpad when you do the same thing in a tenth of a second with a keyboard combo? The Start key (oh sorry, Windows key), which I’ve always neglected as a useless monotasker, is supremely useful in Windows 7, as the underpinning for a metric ton of keyboard shortcuts.

5. Get It to Play Nice With All of Your Gadgets: The good news about Windows 7 is that, unlike Vista, most of your gear that worked with your computer a couple years ago with Windows should still work. And newer gear interacts with Windows in a fancy new way with a big ol’ splash graphic and easy access to all the stuff you’d wanna do with it. While even simple things, like adding a second monitor, are more straightforward now, here’s a device-by-device breakdown on getting everything to touch Windows 7 appropriately.

6. Share Stuff With Your Other Computers, ‘Cause It’s Easier Now: The networking UI hasn’t just gotten a facelift to make it more accessible, it’s actually easier to use with HomeGroups—join a HomeGroup, and all of the stuff you want to share with other computers spreads like herpes to the rest of the HomeGroup, no arduous networking required. Also, network in general—like with Macs—seems to just work better with Windows 7.

7. Stream Your Music and Videos Everywhere: Connecting your PC to a TV sounds so 1999. Well, you might not know this, but your Windows 7 PC is a badass music and video streamer, DVR, photo viewer, video aggregator and everything else you’d want out of a multimedia box, all thanks to Windows Media Center. The living room PC is legit now. Not to mention Play To, which beams music (and video and photos) to any compatible device on your network, no setup required (really!). All it takes it a right-click, and those Sonos speakers on the other side of your house will magically start yelling the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

8. Upgrade Your Netbook to Windows 7 Home Premium: If you got a Windows 7 netbook, there’s a good chance you got stuck with the artificially gimped out Starter edition, which sucks. The cheapest way to fix this is to buy Windows 7 for $30 using a valid .edu email address, then follow our guide to installing Windows 7 on any netbook.

9. Set Up Some Network Storage: A fresh computer is a fresh start—meaning it’s a perfect time to start a new life with fully networked storage for backup, especially if you’re using your machine as a DVR with Windows Media Center. (But skip on faster drives.) One awesome option? A Windows Home Server machine, which can do backups and stream out media to all of your computers.

10. Remote Control It From Anywhere with VNC: While diving deep into the system and futzing with your network at the same time, you might as well set up a VNC server so you can control your computer from anywhere, whether it’s to pull files or schedule downloads.

For Further Query and any Suggestion feel free to mail me at explorer.on.web@gmail.com