Over the last 10 days whe have experienced some serious technical problems. This has resulted in our server being down for most of that time. We have now managed to resolve the problems. And to prevent unavailablity from re-occurring we have installed a backup server which can replace the main server immediately. One of the most interesting aspects of our problem was that we previously managed to install SuSE Linux 10.0 on our main server without any stability problems. Most likely due to autoupdating a parameter must have been changed which caused us to suffer very frequent so called ”nvidia mouse-keyboard freezes”. The result of these freezes is that the cursor still moves but NO input is accepted from the mouse or keyboard. The underlying operating system worked properly. So the website remained reachable. But we could not maintain it due to these freezes. Attempts to solve the problem eventually led to attempts to re-install SuSE Linux 10.0 but every attempt ended in the same freezes. Even upgrading to SuSE Linux 10.1 did not solve the issue. Attempts to install Ubuntu Linux 6.0.1 also did not resolve the issue. Novell was sent an email asking whether they had a solution. They never responded. Searches with Google did identify that this problem is not unique to Novell SuSE Linux but has started occurring approximately a year ago and is thought to be due to a variety of bugs in the nvidia nv and nvidia drivers, Xfree86, the kernel, the power control interface hardware, and the AGP interface. The nvidia hardware is the key factor in this interplay. Thus Nvidia –and Novell as a big player in the commercial Linux market– should get off their back-sides and ensure that their driver –and possibly the kernal installation software of all Linux distibutions– properly identifies which hardware combinations are prone to this problem, and ensure proper fixes are installed. Nvidia hardware is used widely. In our view this problem puts Linux acceptance at risk. Our solution eventually was to revert to an older version of Linux which had previously been rock-solid on the same hardware and which still allowed us to used the latest Apache server software. In addition, to prevent our site from being unreachable for any prolonged period of time we have set up a shadow or backup server with the same content as our main server. If the main server were to suffer a failure in the future we can now quickly swith to the backup server. A second positive result of the problems we suffered is that we generated updated or new content for our site. Although it will take a few days to re-activate all functions we hope that the cleaner layout and content will leave you with a positive impressio. We hope to see you back soon when our virtual shop for aerial photography opens !