Robert B. wrote:

>So perhaps the *real* question is why do I still use windows?  It was
>required at the university, but now that I'm out I ask myself that every
>day, and am in the process of converting over to FreeBSD.  I've even taken
>to writing lengthy reports using VI, and rapidly become annoyed when I have
>to use the mouse for anything at all.  (I was pleased to see threads along
>both of these lines last week)
>  
>
The whole "I never leave the keyboard" philosophy is cool.  Definitely a 
time-saver.  I'm torn between staying on the keyboard and using both the 
middle button and the context-menu (right-click) button a lot.  (Middle 
button pastes in X Windows... highlight something, move mouse to other 
window, middle-button.  Done.  No CTRL-C, CTRL-V combo.)

For those that travel or don't have a PDA but *do* have a laptop and 
still use Outlook (i.e. your corporate PC), I saw a C|Net article about 
"pre-boot" software this week.  One example of this "pre-boot" sofware 
is an application that if you hold down a key during your normal machine 
boot, it loads ONLY this application and not Windows.  The application 
reads your Outlook data.  So you can quickly open up a laptop and get 
your addresses/phone numbers, whatever -- without having to wait for a 
full Windows boot cycle.

I had to laugh when I read that they're selling this software - it's 
literally a retreat to a day and time when applications were smaller, 
customized to run on one hardware platform, and didn't need a 2G OS 
running underneath them to do useful work.  (Of course everyone here 
knows how useful even SMALL amounts of code-space can be!)

http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3000_7-5579107-1.html?tag=nl.e724

The article mentions other "features" of some newer laptops like the 
ability to play a DVD without booting the OS, etc.

Is it a trend?  Smaller is better?

--
Nate Duehr, nate@natetech.com
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