This conversation didn’t actually take place but it could have. Last week, friends and I were discussing µblogging in the pub. Well not µblogging exactly but two ladies had recently discovered Facebook and were talking about the pros and cons of this wonderful social network. One lady said: ‘Oh and another thing - I really don’t like the ‘Jenny is…’ status update. I just don’t get it.' The other lady replied ‘Yeah - that bit is stupid. I am hardly going to write down ‘Marilyn is…just off to Asda for the weekend shop'. ...

A few years ago, on a Wednesday night, I returned from work and Norma told me in passing that she had got a man coming to clean our carpets for free. Ten minutes later, I found myself welcoming not one but two Kirby salesmen into my house. What followed was possibly the worst 96 minutes of my life (with the possible exception of yesterday’s fixture at Anfield). I am normally polite and well mannered so I dutifully sat with my cup of tea and listened to the sales guy’s pitch about the miscellaneous wonders of the Kirby vacuum cleaner. ...

Driving along the M25, my son noticed some large graffiti on a bridge ‘Give peas a chance’ Norman Junior III: ‘Hmm - that’s interesting ‘Give peas a chance’ - what does that mean ?’ Me: ‘Well these days broccoli and green beans are getting really popular so these people just want us all to give peas a chance.’ 17 seconds silence then both of us burst out in uncontrollable laughter. ...

After the Yak was shaved, we suddenly realised we had missed ‘Football Focus’ and proceeded directly to the casting couch. I fully appreciate that evaluating a Linux distribution is just 18 minutes and 32 seconds isn’t probably sufficient to probably gain a full picture of the capabilities (or otherwise) of any software let alone a full blown operating system. However, this superficial, high level, cursory review of all the distros below is useful as it solely focuses on the installation process, ease of use - both of which are key for prospective Linux users; particularly those people who might be looking to migrate, as in my case, from Windows. ...

‘How I ditched Windows and embraced Linux’ - the prequel. On Saturday morning, I thought it might be fun to install Linux on my home computer. A year ago, I had experimented with a few Live CD’s and actually installed Ubuntu (not officially supported) followed by Oracle Enterprise Linux (officially supported) on my work laptop (Thinkpad T61). For various reasons, I subsequently had to reverse that change so I thought it might be worthwhile and interesting to install Ubuntu on my own computer (an ageing but reliable Dell 4500). ...