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Details of a future Microsoft operating system were revealed yesterday by David Worthington, a guy who works down the hall from me. He has apparently gotten his eyes on Microsoft documents that contained extensive details of a ground-up OS rewrite code-named Midori. Based on those documents, [URL=http://tinyurl.com/5ryum5]he reports[/URL] for SD …
Information Week has a great piece out on how IT CEO’s are riding out the rough economy. Surely, the 266 hike in the Dow Jones Industrial Average today, thanks to lower oil prices and a report indicating increased consumer sentiment, should soothe the jangled nerves of even the most downcast …
I just noticed that Apple has sold 150 million Ipods while Microsofts Zune has only sold 2 million. The Zune just recently let you put copyrighted videos onto it that happened about 2 months ago before that you could put barely any videos on a zune while you could on …
Hi, I know for some time now that if you remove your mother board and put in a new one you lose your Operating System, well it was not always like that and it isn't like that now either if you know a trick you can have a new mother …
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is not only an apish buffoon, but he also apparently lacks a backbone. It was revealed today in a [URL=http://in.reuters.com/article/governmentFilingsNews/idINWNAS033120080707]letter to Yahoo shareholders[/URL] written by “activist investor” Carl Icahn that Ballmer expressed fears that the current Yahoo board—hostile to a takeover by Microsoft—could put the huge …
[URL="http://www.xandros.com"]Xandros, Inc.[/URL] announced July 3 that they have acquired the Linspire and Freespire desktop operating systems. This will further enhance their desktop operating system offerings and their "one stop shop" status for all things Linux. The [URL="http://www.cnr.com"]Click'N'Run[/URL] (CNR) software distribution facility was also acquired by Xandros. CNR technology allows users …
Yesterday, NetGear released the long-awaited open source wireless router WGR614L--a high-performance, full-featured, wireless router with 4-port switch running, you guessed it, Linux. The router currently supports the free open source Linux-based [URL="http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato"]Tomato[/URL] and [URL="http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv3/index.php"]DD-WRT[/URL] firmware and will soon support [URL="http://www.openwrt.org"]OpenWRT[/URL]. From a hardware perspective, the WGR614L sports a 240 MHz …
According to [URL="http://www.bt.com"]BT[/URL] the average UK office worker sees less sun than the average coal miner. The growing trend of 'chain-desking' where workers feel that being out of the office is the same as being out of touch, is blamed for the vampire-like existence. The research was conducted on behalf …
Welcome to Crystal Ball Sunday #6. This week I'm exploring the possibility of Linux becoming the operating system of choice for virtualization--specifically Desktop Virtualization. Regardless of which operating system or desktop type one uses, Linux will be the underlying operating system that gets you there. Way back in 2002, I …
As portable computing devices advance in power and complexity, development-tool makers must keep up or die. Claiming strides this week are simulation-tools maker Virtutech and chip-maker Freescale Semiconductor, which are showing a version of Virtutech’s Simics virtualized software development environment with hybrid simulation capability. The initial release supports Freescale’s eight-core …
Yes, it's Sunday again and you know what that means--Crystal Ball Sunday and new predictions for Linux and Open Source for the coming months. This week I probe application and operating system interoperability. Developers and integrators are going to begin focusing considerable effort on the interoperability of Windows, Linux, and …
Last month I [URL=http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2473.html]wrote about Xenocode[/URL]’s Virtual Application Studio, which lets you package and launch apps in a portable runtime regardless of what’s installed underneath. But if doing business with an unknown company leaves you feeling faklempt, you might kvell over news this week from VMware. The company best known …
Where do you want to go in a few months? Windows 7? You'd be better off converting to Vista before holding your breath for that one. The Linux world keeps releasing new versions of its vendor-customized Operating System while the Windows world keeps waiting for more and more promises. While …
Channel Insider has [URL="http://www.pr-inside.com/channel-insider-names-red-hat-enterprise-r619668.htm"]announced[/URL] that [URL="http://www.redhat.com"]Red Hat Enterprise Linux[/URL] has beaten off the competition in the 2008 Product of the Year awards to scoop the server operating system award. This is important for two reasons: firstly the fact that awards are given to products which "exemplify attributes of high importance …
When [URL="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080222/105312322.shtml"]Bill Gates gave a speech[/URL] last winter and hinted that the need for a keyboard was going to be diminishing, the writer in me scoffed, but I should learn to take Bill’s little hints a bit more seriously because the next version of Windows (aka Windows 7) is going …
So the worst-kept secret is finally out of the bag - the next generation of Windows will [URL="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-9953243-56.html?tag=nefd.lede"]work with touch screens[/URL]. It will be faster than current versions of the system and it will take multiple inputs. I can't help being just a little cynical about this one. Yes, I …
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and many other financial institutions run their most critical services and applications on Linux. The NYSE specifically uses RedHat Enterprise Linux because of its stability and support. Linux is the most-chosen operating system in the U.K, France, Germany, and other European countries due to …
I’ve found myself using online apps more and more lately. Whether it’s Google Reader, the Daniweb blogging tool, my online calendar or Facebook, I’m spending more time in my browser and less time using desktop applications. This got me thinking if more and more of our work is moving online, …
Welcome back to Crystal Ball Sunday. This week in the Crystal Ball are my predictions for OpenSolaris vs. Linux. The release of OpenSolaris on May 5th has caused quite a stir. Many say that it will replace Linux on the Desktop and in the Data Center. My first prediction is …
Sun Microsystems on Monday was giving away packaged copies of [OpenSolaris](http://opensolaris.org/index.html) in an effort to seed the development community with a Linux alternative and boost the number of available applications for the platform. The news came at [CommunityOne](http://developers.sun.com/events/communityone/), Sun’s free developer conference collocated with JavaOne this week at the Moscone …
Yesterday Sun Microsystems officially released OpenSolaris and suggested that it's going to go head-to-head with Linux as a Desktop Operating System. Solarisx86 is nothing new and has been around about as long as Linux but it is historically proprietary and closed source. It was also very hardware-finicky and performance was …
Hans Reiser, creator of the ReiserFS, is found guilty of murdering his ex-wife, Nina. Described as odd, strange, and narcissistic by the prosecuting attorneys and having Asperger's Syndrome by his attorney; the jury decided against him. Unfortunately, the evidence against him was significant and damning. The prosecutors gave Reiser's ongoing …
This is the first post in my new series called Crystal Ball Sunday. These Sunday posts are where I take out my Linux, and related technology, crystal ball and give you my predictions for the coming months. This week I am focusing on corporate conversion to Linux. I foresee companies …
Can it really be 4 years back that Microsoft produced that always destined to fail product the datacasting SPOT watch? Yep, apparently it can, and apparently it has finally been killed off once and for all. Heck, how could it have succeeded? Cast your mind back to 2004 and think …
I am disappointed to hear that the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative may be changing its original focus of providing a low-cost laptop to the world’s poorest children. Originally, the small device was to enter the market at $100 USD but had a production release price of $188 USD. …
According to [URL="http://www.fujitsu-siemens.com"]Fujitsu Siemens Computers[/URL] the days of simply upgrading to faster processors in order to squeeze extra performance out of legacy applications are rapidly coming to an end. In a press release distributed today the company warns that the increasing use of multi-core processors, and the simple replacement of …
A new deal struck between Microsoft and its Linux ally Novell (SuSE Linux) is headed for mainland China. Microsoft claims now that Linux violates 42 of its patents (down from over 200 a year ago) and that purchasing SuSE Linux will indemnify Linux users from lawsuits for patent infringement. Thanks …
There is a recent trend amongst those who’ve implemented virtualization solutions: Complaints about the costs. Why, they wonder, have they spent more on virtualization when it's supposed to be cheaper? Virtualization is greener in terms of power consumption, space, and cooling but don’t look for a lot of green to …
There is an old saying that goes something like this: If you put 1,000 monkeys in a room with 1,000 typewriters (the things people used before computers), they would come up with the works of Shakespeare. Could the same be true of a great Desktop OS? No, but give me …
I'm no Microsoft basher, but I've never hidden my personal loathing for Vista. Yet even I was surprised to learn this week just how cynical Microsoft appears to be regarding Vista. It started the other day when a Steve Ballmer speech to the [URL="http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/"]Microsoft MVPs [/URL]leaked out. According to several …
[URL="http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=11463"]Reports are emerging[/URL] that according to a Gartner analysis, albeit a controversial one, Windows is on the verge of collapse. The conclusion being that unless something is done soon then it is only a matter of time before a competitor that is more able to tackle the problems it has …
According to [URL="http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9911470-56.html?tag=cnetfd.blogs.item"]reports[/URL] it looks possible that the next big upgrade to the Windows OS, the fabled Windows 7, could arrive much earlier than expected. Within the next 12 months even. And who is responsible for making this prediction? None other than Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates himself, apparently. If this …
[URL="http://www.blogger.com/profile/14485464016030085189"]Shereef Saker [/URL]has posted an [URL="http://fci-h.blogspot.com/2007/02/singularity-research-os-written-in-c.html"]article[/URL] about Singularity: A research OS written in C#. While going through Microsoft Student Partners forum I found a post sent by Matthieu Suiche an MSP from France informing about Singularity first release... [URL="http://research.microsoft.com/os/singularity/"]Microsoft research page[/URL]: The Singularity Research Development Kit (RDK) 1.1 is now …
According to an [URL="http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hVyPFIJPx8NKAzElk21Isx-zQxvgD8VAQTSG0"]Associated Press story[/URL] just hitting the wires, Wal-Mart is to stop selling computers running the Linux operating system after less than 5 months because, to quote Wal-Mart spokeswoman Melissa O'Brien "This really wasn't what our customers were looking for."
It has been estimated that something in the region of 70 percent of the ATMs in current use are based not on the proprietary hardware, software and communication protocol platforms of old but instead on PC/Intel hardware and commodity operating systems, the most popular being Windows XP embedded. In fact, …
In an interview with Australian publication [URL="http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;1891124482;pp;1;fp;16;fpid;1"]Computerworld[/URL] and ahead of his appearance as a keynote speaker at the Australian Linux Conference 2008, renowned security expert Bruce Schneier has compared Linux to Star Wars and suggests fanboys feel the force a bit more. Schneier will give a presentation entitled "Reconceptualising Security" …
[URL="http://www.opera.com"]Opera Software ASA[/URL], the company behind what used to be the alternative web browser of choice until Firefox came along and changed all that, has urged Microsoft to give consumers a genuine choice of standards-compliant browser clients. It has filed an official complaint with the European Commission which describes at …
From what I'm seeing out here in the trenches, economists just can't seem to agree on the health of the U.S. economy, in general, and the technology economy, in particular in 2008. Last week's consumer numbers seem to suggest that people are still willing to break out the checkbooks and …
[URL="http://john.jubjubs.net/2007/11/27/mozilla-firefox-market-share/"]According to John Lilly[/URL], the Firefox web browser has 126 million unique monthly users. A figure extrapolated from an Active Daily Users number of 48 million, itself a massive increase on the 23 million ADU figure from this time last year. So who is John Lilly and why should we …
Kind of a quiet day in the technology stocks world, which might be considered good news considering the drubbing the sector has taken this week. Sun Microsystems was in the news, signing off on a Solaris 10 distribution agreement with Dell to make the Solaris Operating System and Solaris support …
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates once talked about putting a PC on every desk. Now Gates is talking about turning the desk itself - or a tabletop - into a computer. Microsoft is set to announce an ambitious new computing category today called "surface computing" to try to make it happen. …
According to the latest [URL="http://www.idctracker.org"]IDC Quarterly Server Tracker report[/URL] the growth of Linux as far as the US x86 server market is concerned has started to slow. In fact, it is has done more than just slow, when compared to Windows-based server growth it has slipped backwards. In 2005 Windows …
For better or worse, first impressions tend to be lasting ones. But the world does not stand still, so occasionally it may be a good idea to reevaluate things you already think you know. My earliest impression of “chat” was formed during my days as a single guy in the …
We've been talking about "upside" in the technology stock sector all week. Hand held devices and memory cards were the sectors at the top of that list, and should stay that way. Another side to the upside discussion is who, exactly, will be buying these products? After all, a lot …
Finjan Inc has published its latest Web Security Trends [URL="http://finjan.com/content.aspx?id=827"]report[/URL] which contains everything you would expect, plus something you probably would not: your widgets are out to get you. Widgets, or desktop gadgets if you prefer, are exposing users to a whole host of not so delightful security exploits. Finjan's …
Simon Willcocks is a man on a mission, albeit an unusual one that no doubt many developers will recognise as being something of a geek driven dream. The mission in question to deliver native RISC OS desktop applications under Linux. This dream is fast becoming a reality, however, with the …
The latest version, V4.0 RC3, of [URL="http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/"]Damn Small Linux[/URL] was released today and it is really very small indeed. Described as a 50Mb mini-desktop oriented Linux OS, DSL is actually small enough to fit and boot from a business card CD as a live Linux distribution. Originally developed as something …
IBM has announced what it is calling the [URL="http://www.ibm.com/linux"]Big Green Linux[/URL] initiative in order to spark further interest in getting Linux firmly integrated into the enterprise, this time by going on the cost reduction and energy consumption attack. This follows up from the Project Big Green commitment announced by IBM …
According to a [URL="http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?doc_cd=150624&ref=g_homelink"]statement[/URL] from IT research company [URL="http://www.gartner.com"]Gartner[/URL] Windows 7 is just three short years away from fruition. In response to an enquiry following a CNET News story reporting a sales meeting of the Seattle software giants where the three year figure was supposedly mentioned, Gartner cites a Microsoft …
The first interesting missive to arrive in my inbox came courtesy of the words of Microsoft COO, Kevin Turner, speaking at the July 26th Microsoft Financial Analyst Meeting 2007. Turner decided to focus his attention on Vista security, rolling out the usual 'most secure Windows operating system ever' company line …
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