I have been seriously contemplating a Windows alternative on my laptop and lately I've been testing out some of the new Linux Desktop Environments...specifically Gnome 3 and Ubuntu Unity.  I just got my desktop up and running with Gnome 3 on top of Opensuse 11.4 64 bit and oh my I am very impressed.  I was liking Unity on my laptop but I think I like Gnome 3's layout of the activities menu, one click and you can access everything.  With Unity I found myself switching back and forth from the Ubuntu logo button and the Application lens.  I like how you can drag and drop windows to different desktops on Gnome 3.  Chrome 11 seems to run very well also.  I may wait until Ubuntu 11.04 is released before I make up my mind but right now Gnome 3 is winning.  I'm definitely switching from Windows 7 on my laptop but we'll see about my desktop.

I am absolutely amazed at how much I love the new Internet Explorer 9 Beta.  Here are the things that I like:

1.) I have always disliked the way Google Chrome handles application shortcuts on Windows 7.  Chrome puts an icon in the taskbar but because the icon picture is meant for inside the browser, it looks ugly on the taskbar.  Also, if a window for a web application in Google Chrome spawns a new window, it gets grouped with the main Chrome window.  Those things annoy me and are handled much better in IE9.  While the big icons might only be available for some web applications so far, the icons are made for the Windows 7 taskbar and if you create your own it shows the small icon in a white box, rather than stretching it into ugliness like Google Chrome does.

2.)  The speed of IE9 and the hardware acceleration makes Internet Explorer competitive again.  While some things may still not be quite as fast as Google Chrome, its fast enough for my needs.  Also, lately I have been annoyed with Google Chrome freezing up when I have many tabs open.  So far I have had no problem of the sort in IE9.

3.)  HTML5 is sweet in IE9 and I can't wait until the Bing Application that was demonstrated today becomes available.  Read about it here: http://www.bing.com/community/blogs/search/archive/2010/09/15/bing-previews-a-more-beautiful-search-experience-in-ie9.aspx

In conclusion, I am addicted to IE9 because it integrates well with Windows 7 and I think it has great potential to make the internet a more rich experience!  Don't screw this one up Microsoft!