The Ars Technica Holiday Gift Guide is Here!  Geeks, technophiles, early adopters, giant nerds—these are hard people to shop for, because by definition they're always more up on the latest and greatest than their peers. That's why every year at Christmas time, loved ones and significant others struggle to find gifts for that special geek that fit the following three criteria: 1) they want it, 2) they don't already have it, and 3) it won't break the bank if you buy it for them. And, every year, the Ars Technica Holiday Gift Guide is here to help.
Most tech-oriented gift guides are filled with gadgets and gear that only meet criterion #1 above—truth be told, we at Ars have written a few guides that fit this description in the past. That's why with our 2009 guide, we put our heads together and came up with an assortment of gift ideas that, for the most part, should fit all three criteria for the nerd in your life. We asked ourselves not "what is the top X or Y of 2008?", or "what should everyone have at least one of?", but "what is it that we've come across in the past year that we actually wanted, for whatever crazy reason?" We then threw all of the suggestions in a giant pile, and sorted them into some basic groups. Read More.
Top stories: Nov 12 - 19, 2009
 Gear & Gadgets
Ars Technica Holiday Gift Guide 2009
by Ars Staff
It's almost that time of year again—snow is falling, turkey day is fast approaching, and "50% OFF!" signs are being printed (because that seems to be happening before Christmas now). If you dread gift hunting for the early-adopter who has it all, the Ars Technica Holiday Gift Guide is here to help with almost 70 geektastic gifts that you gotta have. Read More
|  Open Ended
Good karma: an in-depth review of Ubuntu 9.10
by Ryan Paul
Ubuntu 9.10, codenamed Karmic Koala, was officially released last month. In this comprehensive review, Ars takes you under the surface for an in-depth look at the new features and major architectural changes. Read More
|  Infinite Loop
Running Windows 7 under OS X: Ars reviews VMware Fusion 3
by Dave Girard
VMware has released the latest version of the popular Mac virtualization package, Fusion 3, and Ars puts it through its paces with a battery of benchmarks and usage scenarios. Read on and find out if this upgrade is for you. Read More
|  One Microsoft Way
Inside "MinWin": the Windows 7 kernel slims down
by Warren Rumak
Back in 2003, Microsoft assembled a team of engineers to rethink the lowest levels of Windows, so that the OS could be more easily slimmed down and secured to run in servers and embedded applications. That project, called "MinWin," has now started to bear fruit. Read More
| Forward this message to a friend |
