<html><head><style type='text/css'>p { margin: 0; }</style></head><body><div style='font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; color: #000000'>"What is the laptop in question: make & model." The laptop is a Dell Latitude D630 "2) I too recently have noticed that some versions of flash are to new on some sites and I cant play them. All the normal sites though like YouTube and news sites I can access. How did you install flash? And did you install FLASH or the open source version of it?" In all honesty I lost track as to how many programs said they were flash. I did turn on that restricted thing and installed those. Flash seems to work but it gets iffy. Youtube works..ytmnd somewhat does so it really does seem to depend as to the site itself That reminds me of issues I have with my ISP as apparently not all browsers allow me to login. I tend to switch between opera and firefox "4) Yahoo on pidgin works great and then its down - but that is Yahoo's deal - not pidgin. QQ?? What is that." QQ is a im program that's extreamly popular in china. I know people there and that's what they are used to. It has some features that are pretty interesting one allows you to cut and past graphics rather than just text (instead of the old print screen and then going to paint and then sending etc) The other reason for them to use it is not all of the providers in the usa operate in china (the size and scope of the blocking software is odd. one area I could get to my isp another one I couldn't..no rhyme or reason...hense why QQ became huge there) "Stick to the 32bit version. You didnt say but, if you arent, use the lately LTS version of Ubuntu." 9.04 is what I'm using I think it's a LTS one. My laptop is the primary computer I use. If the home one dies out I guess that can be ok (the monitor is actually older and doesn't help) worse comes to worse maybe I'll get a all in one pc and put ubuntu on it. </div></body></html>