Internet Explorer v 7

This morning my computer ground down to almost a halt when Internet Explorer v 7 decided to instal itself. It looks very nice - but it's completely newly organised - it took some time to find the 'favourites'; it has new blockers including a 'phishing blocker'. It needs to be said, though, that many of the new features are already part of Mozilla's Firefox which I use on my domestic computer at home. Even the design has some things in common with the Linux designs. Mozilla Firefox, like Thunderbird (the associated email programme) are free to download and work well on both Windows and Linux operating systems. The only problem with Thunderbird, that I have been unable to solve so far, is that it is difficult to transfer emails from one Thunderbird set-up to another (I have three, on two computers - don't ask!).

On a wider front, I like Linux and the principle of free distribution (wouldn't any Scot?), but it is not as user-friendly as Windows. In particular installing new hardware, and indeed software, can be a very painful process.