This evening I've decided to try Monoppix (a little test, I had not too much time for a complete test 
).
For the test I've decided not to start with a boot from the Monoppix CD (recommended!!!), but using Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 (I was curious to try Knoppix under it).
The boot was a success... Obviously, Virtual PC has lots of limitations and in this case the biggest limitation is that the Virtual PC emulated video device is only 256 colors, so KDE environment is not so good (but readable).
To boot vith Virtual PC, I've decided to directly use the CD as the source for my virtual machine. To do this, you've simply to do this:
- Start your Virtual PC.
- Create a new virtual machine and select "Other" as hosted OS.
- When start your new Virtual Machine just created, select "CD" on the VPC Menu and "Use Physical Drive".
- Now your Virtual Machine with Monoppix is ready to start...
The first thing you want to do (ok, apart from reading the Mono Quick Start Tutorial (very small) is start to work by using Monodevelop I think (almost for me 
).
But... where is Monodevelop???? You search on every possible menus but Monodevelop is not here. Where is? Disappeared? No... Monodevelop is on the CD but I think the author has forgotten to place a link on the desktop or on the KDE menu (I think it's a must to do for the future).
So, what you've to do is open your Terminal (or Shell Console) and type "Monodevelop". The environment is now ready to start.
This is the moment to cry... Monodevelop is totally unreadable and unusable under VPC (as you can see on the image). 
The only thing that you can do to work with Monoppix on VPC is trying programming with Mono manually...
What I want to say is that you've to write your program with a text editor (such as VI, GVIM, or KWrite), save your program (I've used the TMP directory created by the Virtual Machine, you can see it by typing ls -la on the Console) and compile it manually with the Mono Compiler, like this:
Your program is compiled...
However, apart from this little test, what I can say is that Monoppix is really interesting, expecially to keep in touch with the Mono development. I recommend not to use it under Virtual PC if you want to work well and programming seriously. Start from the CD and all is wonderful! 
I hope the Monoppix Team will keep up the great work...
With the XP SP2 availability on Windows Update, I think that many people are still unsure of whether they should download and install SP2 or not. Will I gain something or will I loose something?
I think that what you could gain with XP SP2 are 2 things:
- more security: the new Windows Firewall is not so good as I could expect from this product (there are too many better firewall out on the market and the new Firewall lacks in many feature) but is better than the native XP Firewall (if you consider it a real "firewall" ). The Popup Blocker feature for IE is what we're waiting from years and it's a must to have (maybe a browser changement is the ideal choice ), the same for the Download Manager. Obviously, keep this is your mind: installing XP SP2 is not equal to "My system is secure!" but "My system has something more about security"
- better WiFi support: with XP SP2 you could have a native Bluetooth support (I was waiting for it) and improved Wireless features.
Where you can loose?
I think that if you're not a "lamer" and you know how to administer your system (expecially how to configure your new firewall) you loose nothing. Obviously, if you don't know how to set your firewall options, you can have lots of problems with some applications.
According to what I write above, here you can find an interesting test about Performance comparison between XP SP1 and XP SP2.
Read it... as you can expect, there's not a loose on performance between SP1 and SP2. So, what's your decision?