New Microsoft Licensing Fee Intended to Keep Out Hobbyists and Small Programmers

[gameoverDude]

Amen to the other options. When I buy a new PC it's getting XP64, Linspire, and Win4Lin Pro installed on it. Lock out all non-DRM content and unsigned code? Go to Hell, Vista. This is my PC, not Microsoft's.

I've practically forsworn commercial PC games in general because of DRM shit like StarForce and SecureROM. There are plenty of good doujin/homebrews out there anyway (and I shudder thinking that Vista could lock these out). As for the commercial titles that get my interest, I think I can hold out for a PS3 or X360 version- these systems should be able to do most PC titles justice.

[kedawa]

Tell me more about this. I need a PC to play music. Only that. Nothing else. MS keeps all of the good functions of Windows Media Player locked out unless you buy XP. I don't feel like buying XP.

With Ubuntu could I:
Encode music with a lossless compression?
Encode music into a more advanced lossy compression than MP3 for playback on a Nomad Zen Xtra?
Transfer music to a Nomad Zen Xtra?
Burn CDs?
Rip CDs and have the internet automatically fill in song names?

Where does one get Ubuntu programs? Is there an Ubuntu Photoshop?

I really don't know much about Linux media players, but I'm pretty sure you could do all of those things with existing software.
A friend of mine got his iPod shuffle working properly with Ubuntu, but he had to install some software and codecs first.
It's pretty easy to install software though, since there's a built in installer that can search for programs, download them, and install them through a single interface.
There's no PhotoShop for Linux, but the gimp is adequate for casual image editing.