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The easy thing to do would be to get a Y coupler and run both machines' outs as the ins to the speaker set.

I think that there is a way to share audio resources in PulseAudio, but that is a little more involved to get running.

Looks like M$ has their hooks in your educational institution.  I would say that the reason people detest it is that every time M$ gets its fangs into something or "incorporates" an established standard, they end up trying to control it and ruin it for other users.  We have a W3C, they flippantly write their own DTD's and train developers to write for their browser only; we had IMAP standards, they push for their own MAPI; we have ODF and OO.o, they try to bait and switch it for their own OOXML.  I'm not a programmer, but isn't C# just their proprietary bastardization of C++? 

The lesson from the pattern is don't allow them to establish any standards, their intentions are not in the community's best interest--ever.  Mono does just that.

I meant the panel.  The gradients are like tube socks on a fat kid; the icons, tattoos on a cankle.  Then you have to muck with spacings manually by pixels and it still never looks right.  The launchers often fail...  It's kinda a dysfunctional hassle at this point.

I learned more about lxrandr through Crunchbang, because it actually functions in Crunchbang since the nVidia driver configures properly out of the box.  I still think it's a dumb name, when every other LXDE app is more straightforward:  LXPanel, LXLauncher, etc.  LXRandR could be for shutdown/suspend settings, could be a game, could be something to distract your significant other while you go have fun...  screen resolution is the last thing that comes to mind with a title like that.

Sorry, I gave it a fair spin and I would again if it progressed quite a bit.  I guess, given my experience with it, I just find it funny when someone purports it as a serious desktop environment at this phase.  I'm sure Corenominal is a gent, but it is kind of insulting to say that you can slap LXDE on top of any ol' Ubuntu and have something that is good enough to be a contender for the Crunchbang user base.

Don't get me wrong, ATI support has gotten WAAAAAYYY better since 2007.  For a while they were holding up the advancement of things like Compiz/Beryl and the modern desktop.  I had to install fglrx via terminal session on several distros when confronted with a WSOD only a short time ago.  Especially since AMD bought them out, they are now behind Linux to a nicer degree.  I have heard from some system builders that the Crossfire stuff can still be a nuisance, but I have yet to play with that toy myself.

As one of the more novice users on this forum, all I want from #! and most Linux distros in terms of packages is to have stability, get security updates as needed, and keep my day-to-day applications, libs, and dependencies (i.e. Firefox, e-mail client, OO.o, GIMP, VLC, Audacity, K3B, etc) current.  I think having to do a clean install every 6-12 months is pretty absurd, every 2 years is more like it.  Ubuntu and derivatives have to be virtually hacked just to do the basic chore, thereby becoming self-defeating in their intended package management simplicity.  Seriously, why do I need an Ubuntuzilla that needs to be run from the CLI just to keep FF current.  I hate that kind of slop and the folks who I have turned on to Linux get really turned off by it, too. 

Adding full on Unstable repos to the sources.list brings in a whole flood of things, most of which just bring the system more current.  But if you get into those that hose things up, you're completely F'd until you (often sans a working machine) figure it out. 
I like flexibility, but there has to be some comfortable ground between:

"Here's the pussy, you figure it out!" (Thanks, Sam!)         vs.        This starts becoming obsolete the moment we release it.

Achieve this simple request and you'll be my hero. 

Also, I'd really like if the System Update script could recognize apt-pinned apps that I have locked in via Synaptic.

I have used Fluxbox and I really do like it for many of the same reasons.  I also know that the fancy graphic stuff, to include icons, has to be loaded into RAM.   No big difference on a modern machine with plenty of resources, but trimming down on little things is one of the things that makes Crunchbang faster and more versatile in terms of hardware.  On my old box, I am happy whenever I can trim off even 5-10MB of RAM use at idle.

@ Anonymous:   Type 10 Hail Mary's and drink some wine. 

If it were completely free, I might put Win7 on a virtual box just to be somewhat familiar with the interface and file structure, but it's not getting a real partition on my machine.  If you run a really light Linux OS as a base and install Win7 in a virtual box, do you really lose all that much in terms of gaming performance?  I assume that a gaming level rig and a recent video card are being employed.

I have looked into this as I had a similar experience when ordering my lappy from Dell a few years ago.  I wasn't really looking to haggle for a few dollars off the price, I just wanted to save a step or two in getting my new box set up.  I also didn't want to put any more money into M$'s dirty coffers. 

I could always be wrong, but from what all I've read online and learned from local shops, I think snowpine and pitje have it right above.  The problem is that big OEM's are not just retailers of customized hardware anymore.  They have become pushers of software; their products a vehicle for direct advertising.  How much do you figure Norton or McAfee or Nero or whatever make-WIndows-actually-work software company pays the OEM to put those annoying trial apps on your system, complete with icons and nagging?  When you ask for hardware with an OS that doesn't need that crap or you don't want an OS at all, you take away their vehicle.   Further, you are asking them to give up revenue and the profit margin on the machine.  It's like calling up your phone book publisher and telling them you would like to have a copy of their directory delivered without the ads all over it.  Even though such a book would require less ink and paper, they would probably need to charge you for a non-subsidized book.

It is really a stranglehold that these folks, starting with M$, have enacted on the OEM's, holding them by the cohones of profit margins.  Microsoft OS's cost the OEM money to buy, but are full of security holes and missing functionality.  Enter the software makers/advertisers to pay the Microsoft tax and increase the profit margin of the OEM.  This arrangement fortifies the marketshare of M$, solidifies consumer need for companies like Norton, and pays them all more than they would have had in a more consumer-driven arrangement.  It destroys a portion of the free market as a consequence, as smaller OEM's not in such deals often have less competitive pricing structures.  And, of course, it takes away from consumers' freedom of choice in operating systems.

So when Dell or Lenovo et al tell you that they are not just selling hardware, they are selling a complete package, they really are telling the truth.

Either way, the idea that reformatting a HDD voids hardware warranty is absurd and should be litigated.  Such a precedent is like saying that installing a third party media player app on your box and not using WMP voids the warranty on your video or sound card.  Just plain dirty extortion and bad customer service.  It's a shame that we can't build our own laptops as easily as we can desktop boxes.

It is getting difficult to differentiate the two devices anymore.  Hulu has pllenty of ads, I don't see why they would have their panties in a bunch over this software.

Yep, this is one of the bugs I have with Ubuntu:  They create disposable OS's. 

The less advertised reality of Ubuntu release structure is that the only projects that get attention are the current and upcoming releases (for 6 whole months) and the LTS, which is produced every two years.  Their regular releases are effectively just public workshopping for the next LTS.  The only way to change this and stay mildly current is to add PPA's & repositories or use scripts that hack it out for you, like Ubuntuzilla.  You can also manually install .deb packages that you find on a trusted software site, but this approach takes more work to stay current.

I expect this is part of the motive behind moving upstream to Debian with Statler.  Although not highly experienced with Debian, I have read that this will allow for a more flexible, rolling update method.

I agree,  it would be nice to have a guide as to what's what and what can safely be uninstalled.  I know that with Ubuntu-based distros, there is a lot of "meta-packages," which to my understanding are just broader lists or a group of headers to install packages and can safely be removed.  But to be honest, it can be intimidating when you try to remove something you don't want/need and Synaptic tells you it has to uninstall half of your desktop environment.

Case in point:  Bluetooth support.  None of my machines have the hardware to run this, so why should the modules/libraries/applications to do so remain on my system.  When you try to remove them entirely, a list of things that I use but don't want to remove (including clawsmail) comes up to be flushed with it.  I don't wish to remove Claws Mail, so I leave the Bluetooth junk there.  It almost feels like package extortion!

I'll try changing the APT "recommends" line as detailed above, but this won't likely solve my example.

Mono:  An transmutable illness one begets through kissing [Microsoft's ass].
</flame>

I am likely preaching to the choir here, but this one is more an issue of ethics and liability than it is about functionality, since mono doesn't offer much of a gain for distros that include it.  Plus, as stated above, apps that depend on it do tend to be heavy.