Providing Wireless

I'll have a look @ those links later cheers.

I'm partial to Linux because it's free and doesn't have spyware/virus problems like Windows.
I've only really dipped my toes into the Linux ocean - it's a vast ocean with lots of strange creatures in it all binning and bashing each other. I don't quite understand it at all. For the most part my experience has been running Mandrake for a while. I also used knoppix and dynebolic a lot and run a Smoothwall system in here.

It can do everything that Windows can do with regards to surfing, email, chat, etc. Yeah, but the downside of that is when ppl ask to use MSN messenger and refuse or don't know how to use GAIM. Speaking as someone who runs a net cafe [the plan would be to incorporate it with the hostel in fact] and who's been in the netcafe game for years now, I know all too well the way your average (l)user sees computers. You click start to shut down, use Word to write things and that big blue E is the internet. They're not gonna find the big blue E in Linux.
Another one is Open Office, I use that in here because I just couldn't be bothered shelling out all that cash for office licences. But it's not "word" if you follow. I recently "fixed" a problem someone was having with their outlook by installing thunderbird, moving the files over and re-skinning it with a "Vista" theme. Must see if I can skin Open Office the same way, so's I can tell the plebes it's "New Office VISTA!" and get a few ooohs and aaahs. I'm so sick of ppl whinging and whining about the fact that it's not Word and they can't do all their mail-mergey ecdl bullshit on them.

You could open a "do it yourself" Linux-based Internet cafe with very little investment in hardware and software.
Thinking about it, for sure. I'm fit to draw the line @ Vista anyway, that thing is just pure, unadulterated evil. One of my compeditors recently put out an advert claiming he's got brand new PCs running vista and office 2007. I'll bet he's going to have a laugh and a half keeping them up and running once the
four-months-in installation slowdowns start to happen. Honestly, I'm 1/2 tempted to buy a mac, sure they ain't cheap, but for the cost of a new PC plus Vista plus second batch of memory you're going to have to buy to "speed it up" I reckon you'd have a mac bought by then which is all linux anyway.
Plus you get the extra security AND it runs all the M$ apps like Word and MSN Messenger. I guess I can't call Mac users "fruits" no more and will have to bite the bullet and go back on all the things I've said to them over the years.

In the meantime, I'm gonna take a look at Ubuntu studio when I get all my crap off the laptop. It looks quite interesting indeed. But as for cafés, well, I still reckon you'd be better off with what people know, the general public aren't always the most adventurous don't ye know. Though I guess a mix wouldn't be a bad idea, a few kit-built linux boxes for budget surfing, and a couple of more Vista (ARGH) machines. I'd much rather keep using XP though.

Know a fair few Linux Evangalists that just blow their top @ the notion of putting IE on Ubuntu. It's kinda like walking into a really nice fancy restaurant with a tub of Kentucky Fried Chicken under your arm. :D

Aye, it's kinda unavoidable when you're doing websites that you have to set the layout with IE in mind even if it does bork things up when compared to Opera (though they're MS now too aren't they?) Mozilla or Safari. This is especially the case with CSS-heavy stuff nothing more headwrecking than having some lovely w3c-compliant code whcih looks beautiful in Mozilla only to see IE make a dogs dinner of it because it interprets code differently.

Unfortunatly it's IE that the majority uses, so you gotta make it work for IE and if it's a trade-off between looking slightly borked in Mozilla and good in IE, or good in Mozilla and borked in IE I'll have to choose the former. I'm still running IE6 in here though - I outright REFUSE to use IE7, it's just repugnant.

Using it now :)

Dunno about these extensions you mentioned.
The validator would be handy.

Have google toolbar and imdb searches, which is handy, plus the XE toolbar which is one of the handiest things on earth once you learn all the currency codes.