I use Xchat often to visit IRC channels to help others with issues. This IRC client is very well put together with automatic highlighting, color-coding and many features to increase your productivity in IRC channel chat sessions.

I have used Picasa on multiple OSs, but it seems too intrusive by automatically detecting and indexing all documents, it has found and indexed application based images which I don't want visible in my collection, the only feature I like is the ease of uploading to the web, but that is also restricted to a single site.

If you want a good photo management solution that is non-intrusive and easier to manage I recommend digikam, it has feature that I wish were in Picasa.

Cups is one of the services that really makes Linux-based systems useful. The simplicity of printer installation, the ability to print to pdf documents and the server pool technology make it as great solution for enterprise networks.

As an example of the footprint, I recently bought a new HP printer, a windows XP installation would have taken 600 MB, a windows Vista or windows 7 installation would have taken 1.2Gb, but I am using Linux so everything that was needed was on my system, it only needed a 6k driver file.

Stellarioum allows you to view the organization of the stars and other objects in the sky based on any time, or location you wish, including views from other planets. With the optional libraries installed it becomes ever more impressive because of the plethora of object that you can view. I often recommend this is a "wow factor" program to introduce open source software to others.

I have been using VirtualBox for some time now and have found a lot of use for it for running desktop based virtual systems and headless server systems. It is highly functional, but the drawbacks are that specific functions are only available with the binary version that are not included in the open source version.

If you run it checkout the notes about the command line options, you will be pleasantly surprised.

The Canonical Team (Ubuntu's Developers) have worked very hard to make this easy to use distribution that appeals to general computer users. The Graphical configuration options, smart network monitor, simple application installation and default security functions make this very user friendly.
Additionally with the release of Ubuntu 9.04 I found that it is very easy to setup EVDO, or mobile broadband cards to work, once you plug them in they are detected, you only need to select to use that network connection.

I have been working on Linux based operating systems for many years now and have grown used to fine tooth control via text files, so the GUI configuration annoys me a little. But for users that are converting to or trying Linux is is very friendly because of the Graphical configuration options.

If you are a seasoned user then this distribution may not fit your needs, but if you are new or a casual computer user then Ubuntu may be your calling.

This Office suite is a quality product with good functionality. It is compatible with many known competitor formats such as MS Office documents, which makes it a viable application for many consumer and corporate installations.

The drawbacks I have found are the functionality in their Draw program and the visual appearance. Their draw program has limited functionality and needs improvements to compete with applications such as MS Visio. I have had some difficulty converting users to this application suite because they feel that it looks like it belongs on MS Windows 95, if the developers spend some time working on the visual appearance of the application suite it would help to increase interest in the product and will result in greater adaptation.