Window positioning with keyboard short-cuts

In Windows 7, when you press Windows key + arrow key, it resizes current window to maximized, minimized, or left half/right half which I find very useful for wide-screen monitors or laptops.

After switching from dual "square" monitors to a single wide-screen at work, I was looking for similar functionality with Ubuntu/Gnome.  Here's how to approximate the functionality:

1. System > Preferences > CompizConfig Settings Manager (install "compizconfig-setting-manager" package if menu item not available)
2. Under General Options > Key bindings tab, you can, for instance, set keyboard short-cuts for Maximize Window and Unmaximize Window.  I've mapped these to + up arrow key and + down arrow key, respectively
3. Enable the Put plugin (in the Window Management section) 
4. In the Bindings tab, in the Put within viewport section, I've mapped the various positions to + number on numeric keypad (e.g. Put Top is + 8)

FYI, usually is already mapped to your Windows key (for that style keyboard).


Some annoying gotchas:

• You can't reposition a window if it is Maximized (makes sense, but behaves differently than Windows 7)
• Certain applications (Thunderbird, Firefox, e.g.) refuse to be repositioned; they'll just jump back to their original position
• Put Center doesn't appear to work properly, even for windows that don't otherwise have problems being re-positioned

In comparison to the Windows 7 feature, the Put plug-in is not quite as good because it only repositions, but does not also resize the window to appropriate dimensions.

Mail filters and Linux email clients

I currently work in an environment where we are simply inundated with emails.  This comes from a desire to be more open and transparent but the vast majority of the emails are notifications from automated jobs, bounced emails, source repository check-ins, ...  Mail filters are essential so that the important emails can stand out.  Features of mail filters differs depending on the client used:

	Filter settings exportable/restorable?	Cross-client tags/labels?	Can create filter from existing message?	Can execute filters immediately on existing email?
Thunderbird	Yes, but Thunderbird profile directory is huge, containing mail for off-line browsing too	Yes (“tags”)	Appears to be No	Yes
Evolution	Yes	Yes (“labels”)	Yes	Yes, but execution is slow
Zimbra (web mail)	Appears to be No	Yes, but weird names (which can be renamed for Zimbra)	Yes	Appears to be No

Other considerations:

• Server-side filters are best (no need to have client program running to process incoming mail) but immediate execution (i.e. to act on an existing folder of email) is necessary
• Filters can move messages into client-side folders if the mail is of little interest, or server-side folders (for cross-client access). Note that it may be necessary to “subscribe” to server-side folders (e.g. in Evolution, Folders > Subscriptions). Using client-side folders will allow you to keep within your mail quota
• In Evolution, for filters to work the way you expect, Edit > Preferences > Receiving Options tab > check "Apply filters to new messages in INBOX on this server"

Observations about iPod Touch - second week

• PROS
• Does not complain about being low on memory (great compared to my HTC 6800)
• Great to have robust offline mail and calendar client
• CONS
• Lack of easy access to a file system is annoying
• Mute in one step?
• Editing dates in Calendar is not user friendly for all-day events (day of week not displayed?)

iPod Touch 4th generation - first week

I admit it:  I succumbed to Apple and purchased the latest iPod Touch recently.  Why?  My 3-year-old WM phone is extremely unreliable (i.e. flaky) and the battery life is poor.  Why not an Android phone?  The best Android 2.2 devices are still limited in Canada at this time and I didn't want to compromise.  Why not an iPhone 4 then?  I still think the iPhone will have certain hardware and software limitations, which Android devices don't have, and for the features that iPhone is currently the leader, an Android device will soon come out that will surpass.  Also, I did not want to commit to an associated 3-year data/voice contract to subsidize a new smartphone's cost, at this time.

My retail buying experience was poor, with the local Apple stores sold out of the 8 GB model and their staff telling me to come in when none would be available by the time I arrived.  At the suggestion of store staff, I purchased online from Apple which I should not have done:  Seems that Costco recently started to sell the 4th generation iPod Touch and there it is a couple dollars cheaper and comes with Costco's 90-day return policy for electronics.  However, delivery from the Apple online store was prompt, the device arriving in a few business days after my order.   

This is the second Apple product I've purchased (first being an Mac Mini, which was returned).  Again the packaging is like gift wrap rather than the industrial-style sealed plastic bags other electronics come in (like when you are buying frozen fish).  Immediately on powering the device, I didn't like that the connection to iTunes is required before proceeding further.

Make no mistake, in general I find the slick user interface light-years beyond the WM 6 user interface.  Some might call it eye candy but much of the UI magic provides important cues to the user and the navigation is intuitive.  However, I have some criticism: 

• hardware lacks a four-way navigation control.  Most of the time this is not something missed but essentially it forces the user to have both hands free to use the device.  Situations where alternative hardware navigation controls would be handy [ ;-) ]:  if you're on a bus holding onto a handle, or have a drink in your hand at a party, or carrying a baby!  I don't expect Apple to ever add this as Apple aims to have a minimalistic hardware design outwardly
• Quicktime launched in Safari is a less touch-friendly media player than The Core Pocket Media Player (TCPMP) 
• In comparision to my old WM device, I'm very surprised to find that iOS is slow to suggest words (for auto-completion) while the user types  
• There should be an Undo or confirmation in the default Mail program to prevent unwittingly Trashing mail; sure, you can pull it back out of Trash but it's just too easy to accidentally hit the Trash icon

Some bugs I found in the first week of using device and corresponding fixes:

• Summary list of mail items is present (including preview text) but mail content stops appearing when go to a mail item
• Configure to sync multiple Google calendars but sync doesn't appear to work even after killing the Calendar process and re-starting.  Fix:  Search for a calendar item you know exists and it seems to kick-start the sync or refresh process

Listened to Windows Weekly 175: Wrong Again Monkey Boy

• Netcast
• Comparison between China (accelerating development) versus United States (slow moving, a has-been?) and Google/Android versus Apple/iOS.  
• Google's Android Market is a "wild west" experience compared to Apple's App Store which is curated, consistent, and overall, a higher-quality experience.  However, the advantage for Google is the pace of development and change
• Google's Android Market can be viewed as being like YouTube where anything goes until it is reported as abuse or violation

Waiting for next cool gadget (definitely not like waiting for prostrate surgery appointment)

While I continue to suffer with the battery life of my 35-month-old Windows Mobile smartphone and look forward to getting an Android 2.2 device, I find it interesting that although members of our society feels like they are caught in a rat race, simultaneously we cannot wait patiently for the next new device. 

For tasks that need to get done, weeks seem to fly by while we are preoccupied with other things or procrastinating.  Outside, in our backyard, vegetables and weeds alike grow bigger with each passing day.  My wife's tummy is getting bigger.  On the other hand, I have a hard time keeping on top of all the things that need to get done.  And therefore the launch date of the next cool gadget will be here sooner than we think.

Here's to Android 2.2 in Canada, here before I'm ready  :-)

Listened to TWiT 261: Abandon All HPOA

• Netcast
• Economics of privacy have changed.  Before it used to be becoming public (well known) was expensive: You were either Marilyn Monroe or a shmoe.  Now, to stay out of the lime-light (keep your personal details private), you have to pay extra or make an extra effort 
• Is the reason that Android phones are selling more than iPhones is that iPhone is still restricted to AT&T in the US?  And AT&T reception is relatively poor?  And that people are still locked into contracts with other carriers (that don't have the iPhone for their network)?
  

Listened to This Week In Google 54: Wave Bye Bye

• Netcast
• Potential malware in Android apps 
• Vulnerabilities in the Safari browser in the iPhone, iPod Touch, etc. that also enable jail-breaking
• Need for firewalls (controlling outgoing traffic) and UAC for these devices 
• A certification process for Android apps, paid by developers of apps
• As with so-called free applications available for Windows, Linux, etc., any type of code that is not from a trusted source is installed at your own risk.  An application may not wipe out your data but perhaps worse, it can send your data to malicious users for their purposes.  Code to be wary of include Firefox Add-Ins, GreaseMonkey scripts, etc. that may not normally be viewed as "applications"

Listened to net@night 161: Felicia Day

• Netcast
• Introduced me to Felicia Day, who appears on many lists for hottest geek girls (e.g. The Top 10 Girls Geeks Love).  She apparently was on Buffy.  
• Funny videos (Game On, Do You Wanna Date My Avatar) starring members of The Guild, a comedy web series
• Which led me to watch Episode 1 of The Guild which was quite funny.  Will watch another episode when I have time
• From desktop publishing to YouTube, computers and digitization has polluted the world with paper (by users that didn't know how to use computers properly) but more recently, also put into the hands of people the power to express themselves and share/broadcast professional productions out of their basements, home offices, and backyards

Listened to Windows Weekly 166: Revenge Of The White Icons

• Netcast
• Windows Phone 7 integrates your various accounts to services, e.g. your Flickr photos, Facebook photos, etc. all live together.  Contrast this with the need for a separate Flickr app, separate Facebook app, etc.  that you start up and exit, start up and exit.
• This drive in the marketplace to have apps for everything is a throwback to when we had desktop apps for everything rather than using online services.  That is, the pre-Internet age.  E.g. CIBC now offers a Blackberry app for online banking--why?  Why not have a web site that is optimized for smaller screen devices so all mobile devices can use the web site.  Google seems to be able to design decent mobile device-optimized web sites (Gmail, Google Calendar, etc.) so why can't other organizations?  Native apps seem better suited for those applications taking advantage of or accessing the specific hardware of the device, or intended for offline use/don't need constant internet access to function adequately

Listened to This Week In Google 52: Android Goes To War

• Netcast
• Users of social networking websites should be given a clear choice of what they make public and what stays private (by default)
• However, there are benefits to making things public, e.g. your real-time location may give you coupons to a bakery you are in.  Also, people may share things with you they might not otherwise do, by knowing what you've made public--mutual benefit because of openness 
• The problem is when some social networking websites prevent access to data (via APIs) that people have already indicated as public.  This data then cannot be mined by other organizations or analyzed for societal benefit
• With data showing that more Android phone are being activated per month than iPhones, and the number of Android apps becoming available, iPhones and their apps may be relegated to a niche market, like computers with Mac OS, in the near future.  The $99 USD to become a iPhone developer and the need to do development on a Mac hampers innovation (as some of the brightest developers may simply choose not to be limited by Apple)

Listened to TWiT 256: The Shirtless Page Turn netcast

• Netcast
• Innovation happening in smartphones that happened earlier with PCs, then Internet
• Consumers seem to want what is intuitive (touch) rather than what is fast (keyboard or mouse or other hardware)
• Google Search has to overcome flotsam created by search engine optimization, scraper sites, associated content (created by companies such as Demand Media)
• Funny Bing commercial 
• algorithms can be "gained"
• Facebook has real people (your "friends", people in your network) providing recommendations/Likes (aka search results).  These are the "curators"
• but how large is your circle of "friends" and how diverse are they?  Because people like people like them, what is truly new that you would learn from them?
• other social bookmarking services such as Delicious may be the answer

Restoring Windows Mobile phone

After resetting, need to restore applications and data.  My steps, approximately: 

1. Install programs from CAB files copied from computer to Storage Card
2. Set-up wireless connections 
3. Don't have MyPhone CAB, go to mp.windowsphone.com to download Marketplace bootstrapper.  Using Marketplace, install MyPhone
4. Restore data from MyPhone server.  Do NOT synchronize Contacts or Calendar
5. Configure ActiveSync with m.google.com to synchronize to Gmail Contacts
6. Use SyncMyCal Mobile to sync with my multiple Google Calendars
7. Customize which applications are launched by buttons
8. Speed Dial settings
9. Miscellaneous settings:  Display clock on title bar, Set phone to Vibrate and Ring

Re-setting Windows Mobile device

In an attempt to draw out the life of my Windows Mobile device bought in Sept 2007, I will be resetting the device (Start > Settings > System tab > Clear Storage). This seems to have fixed some stability issues in the past and I hope it will fix my recent problems with extremely short battery life, the phone not answering calls on occasion, and parts of the physical keyboard not responding well.  Not sure if Windows Mobile has registry problems like older versions of Windows.  Prior to resetting the phone to manufacturer defaults, for myself, I need to do these steps to back up the data:

• Back-up data on device
• Sync to m.google.com and then to computer using ActiveSync 
• Sync to myphone.microsoft.com using My Phone app  
• verify latest data in destinations

• In MS Outlook, save Contacts to .pst file.
• Calendar is read-only in Google Calendar ... no need to back-up
• Note programs installed on device, for later re-install  

ATI graphics card, dual screens, and Ubuntu

For some reason, whenever I have to re-start my Ubunutu 9.10 machine, which is very seldom, I have to cross my fingers and hope that I don't have any strange display issues.  Just this past weekend, there seems to have been a power outage at work and when I tried to boot into Ubuntu, I saw a blank screen rather than the login screen.

After booting into Windows XP without issue, I eventually choose to boot into "Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-19-generic" rather than the current default "Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-20-generic".  I received a warning about my graphics configuration but was able to log in.  My display was duplicated on both monitors.

When starting ATI Catalyst Control Center, I received a message similar to "There was a problem initializing Catalyst Control Center Linux edition. It could be caused by the following. No ATI graphics driver is installed, or the ATI driver is not functioning properly. Please install the ATI driver appropriate for you ATI hardware, or configure using aticonfig."

There was further messing around to fix the problem which I think can be filtered into the following:

1. Use the lspci command to determine the ATI hardware you are using so that you can download the appropriate driver.  You also may just need to re-install the driver that you already have!  The current driver file for my hardware is ati-driver-installer-10-4-x86.x86_64.run
2. Attempt to run ATI Catalyst Control Center from the menus
3. If unsuccessful, run sudo aticonfig --initial=dual-head --screen-layout=left
4. Output should be similar to:
   
   

   Found fglrx primary device section
   Found fglrx secondary device section
   Using /etc/X11/xorg.conf
   Saved back-up to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.fglrx-6 

5. Reboot.  Attempt to run ATI Catalyst Control Center to refine settings. 

Hopefully this doesn't happen again for awhile.  If it does, I'll update this post as appropriate ...

Follow-up to this:  Upgraded computer to Ubuntu 10.10 and had to fuss with the dual monitors again as I was either getting mirrored screens or blank screens.  Steps this time:

1. With both monitors connected to computer, run ATI driver (ati-driver-installer-10-10-x86.x86_64.run).  My graphics card is a ATI Technologies Inc Mobility Radeon HD 3470
2. Execute sudo aticonfig --initial=dual-head --screen-layout=left
3. Reboot, but have only one monitor connected until after login into Ubuntu
4. Reconnect other monitor
5. Go to ATI Catalyst Control Center (Administrative) and set up Multi-Display.  Without reboot, the dual monitor (non-mirrored) should be working!

Setting up Mac Mini with Windows-based peripherals

Recently, purchased a Mac Mini for my wife's use (and mine), essentially replacing her old PC desktop.  That PC's power supply and graphics card had to be replaced with salvaged parts and now, with a smaller disk installed with Ubuntu, it is at my dad's.  Rather than getting another Windows-based PC, we decided to get a Mac.  Since we had all the peripherals, it made sense to get a Mac Mini.

The Mac Mini is an interesting device between a laptop and an immobile desktop.  It has wireless and built-in speakers and with it tiny form factor, it is very portable.  On the other hand, Mac OS X itself has not blown me away yet.  Using Ubuntu 9.10 at work, and mainly Windows 7 at home, these OSes have set a high standard.

• External NTFS-formatted disks - by default, Snow Leopard has Mac Fuse which by itself is able to READ NTFS-formatted disks, I have an older drive in an enclosure and connect it to our Mac via USB.  However, to write to this disk, we  need NTFS-3G for Mac OS X; this web site can be a bit confusing.  As of the time of writing, look to download "NTFS-3G for Mac OS X 2010.1.16".  There are links for "Tuxera NTFS" which is the high performance, non-free version.  The correct file is ntfs-3g-2010-.1.16-macosx.dmg and of size 19.6 MB.  
• Since we are using a Microsoft (i.e. Windows) keyboard, the modifier keys differ compared to an Apple keyboard.  Mac 101: Using your Windows keyboard provides some tips of how to cope with this.  Currently, I've mapped the physical Ctrl key to a virtual Command key, and the (non-existent) Command key to a virtual Ctrl key.  This makes most of the Mac keyboard short-cuts familiar to Windows users.      
• Using Mac OS X, what I find most frustrating so far is not knowing the keyboard short-cuts or finding that a particular key combination does something different from what I expect.  Here's a comprehensive list for a few OSes:  Keyboard Shortcuts.  Keep in mind, the physical Alt key on a Windows keyboard is mapped to the virtual Option key by default so most short-cuts can be achieved.   

Yahoo Mail versus Gmail: feature comparison

I've been a long-standing user of Yahoo Mail.  Gmail was a different way of thinking so I was hesitant to use Gmail.  Now that I'm using both their web clients and also accessing the accounts in Zimbra, I'm starting to see each of their advantages and disadvantages more clearly.

	Yahoo Mail	Gmail
Conversations	Not available with the web client although Zimbra does try to collect email into conversations, but sometimes does not associate the correct emails together	Yes, available.  With more use, I've grown more accustomed to it.  Will continue to evaluate.
Search	Yahoo's search is no slouch.  Searches attachments and allows you to further filter by folder	Haven't used enough to judge but I remember when my wife searched her Gmail (in 2009?), PDF attachments weren't peeked into; could be fixed by now
Contacts	Recently (as recently as early 2010), access to Contacts seems to be unstable such that addresses that are in my Contact are deemed to be missing and direct access to the Contacts list is occasionally not available	So far, seems stable
Folders versus Labels/Tags	Folders; simple to understand and use but can have limits since a piece of mail can only exist in one folder at a time	Now that I am using Delicious social bookmarking, starting to understand the power of tags as a piece of mail can now have multiple tags.  More flexible but can be more "work" to organize
Synchronization with phone	Not available with my Windows Mobile phone as far as I know	Yes, via ActiveSync for Windows Mobile so able to sync mail, contacts and default calendar.  For other devices
Open to other email clients	Other than Zimbra, don't know of any other clients	Openly uses standards such as IMAP and SMTP so any email client that understands these protocols can access Gmail
Security	Only on login	By default, uses a SSL connection (i.e. https) through-out.  Although that doesn't mean you can send/receive confidential information as others might be using less secure email clients
Archiving	Equivalent to moving to a folder (can be viewed as both tagging and archiving)	Explicitly available

Essential free software for Windows Mobile 6

From a user point of view, Windows Mobile is a shameful, embarrassing interface.  Possibly because of its stylus-based roots, the touch interface for its native applications are especially awkward to navigate.  Fortunately the crappy base applications that come with WM 6 can be supplanted by these free ones:

• The Core Pocket Media Player (TCPMP) - replaces the dreadful native Windows Media Player.  Excellent touch screen interface and handles most media formats.  Discontinued but I've never had a problem with version 0.72RC1
• Total Commander - the native File Explorer is OK for single-handed use but Total Commander has much more functionality as a file system utility.  However, because of so many widgets on its interface, a stylus is recommended although touch use is acceptable
• S2V - I can't say enough bad things about the native Pictures & Video app:  it's slow, very stylus-oriented, and generally useless. On the other hand S2V is touch-savvy, slick (like an iPhone app, despite how much I dislike Apple's closed philosophy) and responsive. S2V also works well with the hardware navigation controls so single-handed use is great
• Google Maps is a no-brainer to have available on your phone
• Skyfire - mixed reviews on this web browser.  It requires you to be online even to see your bookmarks as Skyfire stores them on its server.  However it is otherwise full-featured, and gives you a PC web browsing experience on your WM phone.  Yes, you can watch YouTube videos with it.  Just remember to be connected online before you start up this app as it otherwise won't stop trying to get online with a cellular connection (persistent bugger).  Conversely, I find Pocket Internet Explorer suitable for most web browsing on the phone because it is mindful of the limited WM screen real estate.  So in this case, Skyfire is not a complete replacement for Pocket IE
• Pocketxpdf - is a 100% replacement for the OEM Adobe Acrobat Reader.  Again the OEM app is stylus-dependent, non-intuitive, doesn't take advantage of WM's "right click" functionality, and generally seems to be programmed by a junior developer who has never touched a mobile device.  While PocketXpdf takes a little bit longer to load a PDF, once loaded, it is relatively fast to zoom in and out, responsive when panning around with your finger, and generally the user's view is very customizable.  I am now able to truly browse my course/conference materials on my phone
• WM users should also evaluate Microsoft's My Phone for backing up their phone contents online.  "My Phone" could also be viewed as a replacement for a Windows PC to sync to, if one is using Ubuntu exclusively as their desktop operating system, e.g.  WM users, beware of this Microsoft travesty:  Lost contacts while trying to sync on laptop 

One more tip is to re-configure your Buttons to launch your frequently used applications with a press of a hardware button on your device.  My HTC has a myriad of buttons so I've got them launching S2V, Total Commander, etc. with just a click.

Alternative use of Linux Live CD: to fix Windows installation

Somehow, either because of my installation of Service Pack 3 for Windows XP, or because I accidently removed a driver, my XP installation on my desktop computer was refusing to start up.  Just prior to loading Windows, it complained about something like "a corrupt or missing file C:\WINDOWS\INF\BIOSINFO.INF ...".  According to Google results, this can be repaired by booting from the XP installation CD and running the Recovery Console.  Unfortunately I could not provide the administrator password the Recovery Console was looking for.

However, although I don't actually have my desktop dual-booting, I could use my Ubuntu 9.10 install disc to run Ubuntu from the CD.  Ubuntu is able to access my XP partitions, and thus I could copy the BIOSINFO.INF file from the XP install CD to the C:\WINDOWS\INF\ folder!

Zimbra Desktop and managing your free webmail accounts

Zimbra Desktop is useful for aggregating your various webmail accounts.  You know those email accounts that you check so seldomly?  Zimbra can help keep track of them.  Assuming Yahoo Mail, Gmail, and Hotmail are the leading free webmail providers, Zimbra has support for all of them.

As far as I know, it is the only desktop software that is able to sync with a free Yahoo account.  There is no problem with Gmail since Google openly allows POP and IMAP access to Gmail (Zimbra also has a pre-configured Gmail set-up for convenience).  Finally, Microsoft does seem to allow Hotmail access over POP; here are the settings to use.  One annoying thing for Hotmail in Zimbra is that your mail is deleted from the Hotmail server's mailbox after you've downloaded from the Hotmail server to Zimbra, and folders you may have created in Hotmail are not sync'd to Zimbra.    

You can also add your work or ISP mail accounts to Zimbra Desktop as long as you know the POP or IMAP and SMTP settings to use.  Zimbra itself is a decent email client so it's ideal as a one-stop-shop for your email.

Windows 7 Ultimate and Ubuntu 9.10

About a week ago, after booting into Vista, the keyboard and touchpad on my Acer laptop stopped responding.  Editing the Bios settings or using the Ubuntu Live CD, the keyboard/touchpad worked fine so it wasn't a hardware problem.  After trying to dual boot Ubuntu and Vista, I arrived at a Grub "No filesystem found" error.  May be due to the OEM partitioning which was consuming a lot of hard disk space unnecessarily too.  So it was quite easy to resolve to do a clean install.  The Ubuntu Live CD allowed me to access the Windows partitions to back up the little data I hadn't already backed up.

1. Loosely following the instructions here, I first ran Gparted and created one primary partition for Windows and one extended partition for Linux.  In the extended partition, I created two logical partitions, one formatted ext4 for / (root), /home, etc. and one formatted linux-swap (2 GB) for swapping.  Note that unlike the instructions described at ubuntuguide.org, I did NOT require a small partition for storing Grub files
2. Since I have a valid MSDN license, I downloaded Windows 7 Ultimate and burned a DVD with the .iso image.  During the Windows 7 installation, I choose a "Custom" installation, which allowed me to choose which partition to install Windows into.  Yes, this Windows 7 installation does play nicely.  Also, with a clean install, Windows 7 takes a little over 15 GB in hard disk space, compared to the OEM Vista installation.  This is because I don't have the OEM hidden partition containing the recovery media, nor the Windows XP Embedded partition, nor the Acer OEM software, none of which was really that useful. 
3. After testing that Windows 7 was installed properly, I ran the Ubuntu 9.10 CD.  By default, the Ubuntu installation ignored the two partitions that I had already created for Linux purposes.  Instead it proposed to create a fourth partition for Ubuntu exclusively.  However, choosing the manual/advanced option, I could specify where to mount each partition (i.e. for root and for swap purposes) so that the partitions that I created earlier could be put to use.

Now Grub starts initially and allows me to choose to boot into Ubuntu (default) or Windows 7.  Also, no problems with the keyboard/touchpad in either OS.  New life is breathed into my year-old Acer laptop!

Virtual PC 2007, Vista Home Premium and Linux distributions

Wanted to have access to a Linux environment on my Vista laptop. Although Virtual PC 2007 is not officially supported on Vista Home Premium, I gave it a try and so far it appears to run fine. Attempted to install Ubuntu 9.10 within Virtual PC but there were some display problems and eventually it appears that it started Ubuntu in the demo mode. That is, not installed to (virtual) hard disk. Moved to the second most popular Linux distribution according to DistroWatch which is Fedora 12.  This had display problems after the initial boot-up.  So came to Open Suse, which I have installed before without problems.  The current version, 11.2, also installed without too many problems (two seemingly corrupted files?).  Access to internet and Gnome GUI desktop environment within virtual environment.