Bob's recommended online vendors, services, and products

Rohan

I'm not the ideal person to recommend clothing, because I don't care so much about how clothing looks as I do about what function it offers. I like Rohan trousers because they have secure pockets with zips, plus a built-in D-ring for clipping your keychain to, and because they're made of strong material that is lighter than natural fabric. I like their jackets too, especially the Pack Ice Jacket for cold winter days. If you don't mind looking like the outdoors type, Rohan clothing is good, functional gear.

Ubuntu Linux

Ubuntu is a distribution of the Linux operating system, packaged with the GNOME desktop environment and a set of excellent software applications to get you started. It's free to use, and because it's packaged so nicely, I believe it's a strong alternative to Windows for many people. If you're at all technically adventurous, you ought to at least give it a try. See my review of Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn and find out whether it catches your attention.

FreeBSD

FreeBSD is a UNIX operating system. It is completely free. If you are going to set up your own web server, or network file server, but you don't want to use Microsoft products, or can't afford to use commercial products, then FreeBSD is absolutely perfect. And it need not be used as a server. It makes an excellent graphical platform in conjunction with the X11 window system.

If you've thought about moving to Linux, take a look at FreeBSD during your decision-making process. FreeBSD is a superb system.

Mozilla Firefox

Firefox is a web browser. Look at the top of the window you're viewing this page in at the moment. I bet it says Microsoft Internet Explorer, doesn't it? (Unless you're using AOL.) You should be using Firefox. Firefox is grossly superior to Internet Explorer. And it's totally free, another product of self-respecting programmers who value quality over profit. Everybody should give Firefox a try. Go, go get it now!

Opera

Opera is another free web browser. It's a better option for users with accessibility problems because it allows easy toggling between a website's default stylesheet and alternate stylesheets specified by the site. A user-specified stylesheet can be used instead, and there are options such as text-only mode, accessibility layout mode, and replacing images with their alternative text.

Opera is also an excellent browser for users without accessibility problems, as its rendering engine is as good as Firefox's, obeying so many of the web standards that Microsoft's awful web browser fails to implement.

OpenOffice.org 2

Version 2 of this free office suite adds better compatibility with Microsoft Office documents, and a raft of features missing from version 1. The suite contains a word processor, and spreadsheet, database, presentation and vector graphics applications.

Dvorak

The Dvorak keyboard layout was designed by someone who felt QWERTY needed to be replaced by a more efficient keyboard layout. A layout that made it easy to reach common letters and type commonly structured words. I'm very happy with the Dvorak layout, but it seems that most people either don't know, or don't care, because the QWERTY layout is still, by a huge distance, the main layout used by just about every form of text input. I think more people should give Dvorak a try when they can.

If you do use this layout with FreeBSD, you might be interested in Using Dvorak with FreeBSD. Especially if it bugs you that single user mode is not letting you type using your preferred keymap.