Small wonders: the 2009 Ars USB flash drive roundup Since our last roundup in 2005, USB flash drives have become ubiquitous. So ubiquitous, in fact, that we wondered whether there was any difference at all among models. In our 2009 roundup, we find out the answer.

If you look at the SSD market today, you’d assume that it’s very different from what it was just six months ago when the X25-M launched. People are worried that the Intel drive has issues with degrading performance over time. Some vendors are now shipping “revised” JMicron drives with multiple controllers, supposedly fixing all of the problems I talked about last year. I hate to break it to you guys. As different as the world may seem today, it’s all very much the same. The Intel drive is still the best of the best. Yes, it, and other SSDs do get slower over time and later in this article I’ll explain why it happens and why it’s not as big of a deal as you’d think. The issues I complained about with the JMicron drives from last year are still alive and well today; they’re just somewhat occluded.

We compared the 10 most prominent FLOSS projects: XBMC, MythTV, Boxee, Elisa, Neuros OSD, Freevo, My Media System, Entertainer, CenterStage+Plex and MediaPortal.

This project examines security software for Windows OS that implement application-based security model – i.e. most of the products called Internet security suites, personal firewalls, HIPS, behavior blockers and similar products on the market. A product must meet some fixed criteria in order to be included in this project. The list of products suitable for this project that we are aware of is available on the product list page.

ZFS may be locked into the Solaris operating system but “Butter FS” is on the horizon and it’s boasting more features and better performance.

With the flurry of news we've seen (and reported on) about the Palm Pre, it's pretty hard to keep track of what's what. Between the launch, our first hands-on, and repeated encounters with the company's little star, we've hit dozens of stories exploring the ins and outs of the webOS-based device. Everything we know to date has been compiled on this page, with the high priority stories you need to see right up top. So, take a stroll through the archives and learn all about the Pre.

Ubuntu 8.10 Desktop Edition easily ranks higher than any other Linux desktop OS we've looked at in the Test Center. Head to head, Ubuntu simply beats Vista on so many important points that Windows is no longer the simple, reflexive default. We're calling this one for Ubuntu, plain and simple, because it's a beautifully done operating system, it functions as advertised, it's easier on the client side to get up and running and it costs less. Application support is still a big deal working against it.