The InformationWeek Weblog community discusses the IT job outlook, ultra-light notebooks and notebook replacements, and Linux vs. Microsoft Vista.

A Happy New Year For IT Workers

• Barb:: "Yes we have one big thing to be happy about today. Thanks to Sen. Jeff Sessions and others there will be no rise in the H-1b cap. This in spite of an epidemic of foreigners calling and lobbying our representatives as if they - not we - were the aggrieved citizens."

• R. Lawson:: "Now that the political push by the IT industry to mislead people on the IT labor market is over for now, will this publication start publishing the facts on this issue? During this political push -- which publications hardly acknowledged existed -- InformationWeek didn't have a single critical article on the IT industry in their abuse of the foreign labor market."

Traveling Light

• Mark G.: "I use Pocket PC, but am hanging out for OQO 2, hope it is the goods - the real Windows vs pretend version is the attraction."

• Phil Turek: "No search for an ultralight should leave Fujitsu unturned."

• Dr. Brett:: "I have used a Treo and Stowaway keyboard for traveling.... if we could just bring back the Newton 2100 and upgrade it for a web connected, in living color world, life would again be sweet."

• Net User: "Acer makes a lot of tiny PC's for the Asian market-I suggest that you look there."

• Dilt: "Two words... Tablet PC"

How Can Linux Be More Expensive Than Vista?

• Henry: "I am far from being a geek. The only thing I have programmed in my life is the alarm clock. However, I have been using Ubuntu Linux for a few weeks and my argument would be: Why use Windows when Linux can do pretty much the same thing, unless you are using Windows apps that don't exist in Linux."