Category: Computers, Science & Technology

The Evil Empire is gunning for Yahoo… and the jig may be up this weekend. I can hear the Vader music, Dum, dum, dum, dum, da dum, dum da dum!

Microsoft CFO to Yahoo: This weekend is deadline for buyout bid

“‘If Microsoft doesn’t ‘make progress’ in its Yahoo buyout bid by this weekend, the Redmond company will move on to options that include taking the offer to Yahoo shareholders and dropping the acquisition offer entirely, said Chris Liddell, senior VP and CFO at Microsoft, in a conference call late Thursday. [But] Microsoft is focused on the online ad market,’ due to industry predictions of major growth in this space over the next few years, Liddell told financial analysts and journalists during Microsoft’s third quarter financial call. Accordingly, Microsoft has developed a back-up ad strategy that will revolve around Windows Live and its other existing properties if the Yahoo deal stays stymied, Lidell said during the call, in which Microsoft announced net income of $4.4 billion — down 11 percent from the same quarter last year — on sales that rose only slightly this past quarter to $14.5 billion.

We know Vista is lame, but why? Microsoft is the largest, most successful software company in the world. Why did they release such a turkey? John C. Dvorak thinks he knows why.

Vista’s 11 Pillars of Failure

Here’s his reasons:

“1- Market confusion. From the beginning, everyone moaned about the fact that there were simply too many versions of the OS for sale. Who needs all the variations? It’s stupid—plain and simple. What you want is the one best version, not a slew of namby-pamby ones. This happened because the folks at Microsoft know only how to merchandise and, seemingly, not how to market.

2- Code size. I’ve got two words for you: TOO BIG. Enough said.

3- Missing components. Yes, WinFS, the promised file system and a core pillar of Vista, isn’t there. The promises regarding the development of this file system go back to 1991. And Microsoft cannot make it a reality? Why?

4- Laptop battery-life drain. This was supposed to be fixed with special code and hybrid hard disks (HHD). Still, users have to resort to expensive silicon drives.

5- HHD fiasco. I’m still irked about being told by the HD industry that the benefits of the new generation of hard drives will ‘make people flock to Vista.’ That was over two years ago, and suddenly there’s silence about the whole thing. One of these days, someone will tell me what really happened. My guess: It never worked correctly, and no one could make it work.

6- Bogus Vista-capable stickers. Microsoft’s ‘Windows Vista capable’ campaign was an incredible marketing botch. Computers were sold with an indication that they were ‘Windows Vista capable’ when they were not. This did wonders for goodwill.

7- Missing drivers. It seems incredible that all of the Windows drivers that worked with XP did not necessarily work with Vista. How does that happen?

8- Conflicting advice. There was no consistent advice for users about implementation, and Microsoft did nothing to help. Some people said that you should get a new computer only with Vista preloaded and not upgrade. Others said upgrades were fine. Others upgraded and complained. Microsoft should have put up a specialized Web site that could test machines remotely and tell users whether it would be a good idea—or not—to upgrade. A promotional/test CD-ROM that could boot Vista (like those Knoppix Linux disks) would have been a good idea, too.

9- XP mania. You’d think that the world was in love with Windows XP. Everyone wants to keep it on the market, and this makes Vista look even worse. What’s more, there were far too many reports about people reverting to XP after an ‘experience’ with Vista. If Microsoft had the testing service that I mention above in place, this would never have happened.

10- Mediocre rollout. Unlike other rollouts of important Windows products, Microsoft did not put on much of a show with Vista. While there were some weird posters placed in subways and maybe a few TV commercials, none of it compared with the rollouts from a few years back, where the company got worldwide attention. By comparison, the company seemed almost sheepish or embarrassed by Vista, something that was also reflected in the recent lackluster rollout of Server 2008—a total snooze. This sent the wrong signals to users and may have made them hypercritical.

11- Performance. You’re not supposed to deliver a new operating system that’s been in development for more than four years yet performs worse than the previous OS. Performance should be at the top, not the bottom, of the to-do list. You get the sense that Microsoft just piles code on top of code and somewhere in the middle of it all is MS-DOS 1.0.”

And, just to be curmudgeon-ly, I will throw in number 12… it’s not Linux! OK, OK, so it was a cheap shot!

LTS is “Long Term Support.” The desktop will be supported though 2011, the server edition is supported through 2013. Hooray! The day is always brighter when there is a new Ubuntu version to play with!

Ubuntu Website

“Ubuntu is a community developed operating system that is perfect for laptops, desktops and servers. Whether you use it at home, at school or at work Ubuntu contains all the applications you’ll ever need, from word processing and email applications, to web server software and programming tools. Ubuntu is and always will be free of charge. You do not pay any licensing fees. You can download, use and share Ubuntu with your friends, family, school or business for absolutely nothing. We issue a new desktop and server release every six months. That means you’ll always have the the latest and greatest applications that the open source world has to offer. Ubuntu is designed with security in mind. You get free security updates for at least 18 months on the desktop and server. With the Long Term Support (LTS) version you get three years support on the desktop, and five years on the server. There is no extra fee for the LTS version, we make our very best work available to everyone on the same free terms. Upgrades to new versions of Ubuntu are and always will be free of charge. Everything you need on one CD, which provides a complete working environment. Additional software is available online. The graphical installer enables you to get up and running quickly and easily. A standard installation should take less than 25 minutes. Once installed your system is immediately ready-to-use. On the desktop you have a full set of productivity, internet, drawing and graphics applications, and games. On the server you get just what you need to get up and running and nothing you don’t.”

Red Hat announced that their planned “Global Desktop” release of the Red Hat operating system is slipping. Pundits thin this may give SuSE Linux an edge… we’ll see!

Red Hat delays its global desktop Linux indefinitely

“Mixing technical concerns with a truckload of business issues, Red Hat has stealthily acknowledged slipping its deadline for Red Hat Global Desktop (RHGD), which might have given it an edge against Novell’s competing SuSE Linux. Unlike the existing Red Hat Enterprise Desktop (RHED), the planned RHGD is aimed exclusively at small, reseller supplied implementations in emerging geographic areas such as Brazil, China, and India. Red Hat also sponsors a community project called Fedora, which develops and maintains a free desktop product. But RHED and the forthcoming RHGD are both commercial products geared to businesses. First announced at the 2007 Summit users conference, RHGD was then expected to ship a few months later. ‘The technology side of the product is complete,’ according to a blog posting which slid quietly on to Red Hat’s Web site this week. ‘[But] there have been a number of business issues that have conspired to delay the product for almost a year,’ interjected the anonymous blogger, about midway through a more generic update on ‘What’s Going On With Red Hat Desktop Systems?’ Indeed, some of the contributing factors listed in Red Hat’s blog are unarguably business-related, including market changes and “start-up delays with resellers.’ RHGD, by the way, is supposed to be supplied by Intel channel partners in these emerging markets. Others reasons mentioned, though, lean to the technical side, including hardware changes, ‘multimedia codec licensing knotholes,’ and ‘getting the design and delivery of appropriate services nailed down.’

It will just be an amalgamation of fixes released since SP2, but it will be nice not to have to go through all of those when doing a new build… so I am looking forward to it!

Official XP SP3 release date still up in the air

“A Microsoft spokesperson declined this afternoon to confirm reports circulating on technology blogs today citing purportedly leaked documents as saying the online release date for Windows XP Service Pack 3 will be April 29. ‘We expect Windows XP SP3 to be available in 1H 2008, provided it meets our quality bar for release,’ stated the spokesperson, in response to BetaNews’ question about the specific date. The blog story appeared to indicate a large lag time between SP3’s release through the Microsoft Update service and the release through Automatic Updates, purportedly in June. Those dates would indicate a long period of time for initial installers to make sure drivers are in working order, similar to what ended up being required for Windows Vista SP1.”

Here’s a movie teaser for you… what if science, that claims to be open-minded to any hypothesis, black-listed one point of view? Impossible, you say? Watch Ben Stein’s new movie, “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” and see it happen before your eyes! Watch the trailer for the movie at the link below:

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

“By it’s April 18th national release, EXPELLED producers know that a minimum of 900 US theaters will screen the satirical documentary, making it one of the widest documentary releases in US film history. Film distributor Rocky Mountain Pictures has estimated that 1,000 screens will be booked by opening day.”

Come on, I dare ya!

Windows 7 is coming… why buy Vista? This is what I am hearing more and more. Now Gartner says so. I say, “Vista is dead… long live Ubuntu!”

Is Vista dead in the water?

“Analysts from Gartner said earlier this week that Windows is collapsing under its own weight. Talk in the blogosphere keeps pointing to a Windows 7 release date earlier than 2010. Is Vista already a lame duck? Certainly Microsoft wants to avoid another debacle on the scale of Windows Me, an operating system release that tilted more toward a mistake than an upgrade, and whose publicity turned into pushback from both customers and the press. However, two analysts from Gartner certainly didn’t help Vista much with their comments earlier this week. At an Emerging Trends conference in Las Vegas, Michael Silver and Neil MacDonald argued that Microsoft is collapsing under its own weight, and that Windows has become monolithic. Central to their point was the fact that Microsoft is leery to cut the cord, so to speak, on more than two decades of applications. Backwards compatibility remains something of an expectation with each new Windows release. At the same time, this support for the past has gotten them into trouble. ‘Security should have been enough of a reason for Microsoft to stop bringing these applications forward,’ Directions on Microsoft analyst Michael Cherry told BetaNews.”

Dewd! This is bad! There are now over 1 million virii out there “in the wild!” Sigh!

Computer viruses hit one million

“The number of viruses, worms and trojans in circulation has topped the one million mark. The new high for malicious programs was revealed by security firm Symantec in the latest edition of its bi-annual Internet Security Threat Report. The vast majority of these programs have been created in the last twelve months, said Symantec. Cyber criminals pump out malware to fool anti-virus programs which look for characteristics they have already seen.”

I am not sure if it is truly “low cost” enough… but it is cheaper than a typical laptop, I suppose.

HP enters the low-cost student PC market, but is $499 too much?

“Hewlett-Packard today announced a new low-priced $499 mini-notebook aimed at school students and business professionals wanting a small, low-cost system capable of withstanding the kinds of punishment that only a school can dish out. The HP 2133 Mini-Note is the latest effort by the world’s #1 PC maker to approach a market with still very little competition, though with very high growth potential. The base model will ship with the SUSE Linux operating system, 1.2 GHz VIA C7 processor, 8.9-in. WXGA screen, 802.11 Wi-Fi, and a Bluetooth option. It’s said to weigh somewhere in the neighborhood of two and one-half pounds. HP chose an aluminum shell and scratch resistant screen, and added a clear coating to help protect the keys and ensure system is less likely to be damaged if tossed around or dropped. HP expects the 2133 Mini-Note PC to be available later this month for $499. That price tag could limit the number of school districts that can afford the system, especially since the Mini-Note comes with an OS but does not have any bundled software. There’s no word yet as to volume discounts. An upgraded version for $599 will ship with Microsoft Windows Vista Business, 2 GB memory and a 6-cell battery, and will be available at the same time as the basic system.”

Yep… the good guys are on the march! I particularly like the school director’s comment (see below the link.)

Linux: 9000 PCs in Swiss schools will switch to Ubuntu only

“Beginning from next term, all computers at schools in the Swiss canton of Geneva will be switched to Ubuntu Linux only. Geneva newspaper Tribune de Geneve reports today that from September 2008 all computers at schools that currently are dual-boot MS Windows and Linux will have MS Windows removed and become FOSS (Free Open Source Software) only. Besides lower costs for the administration, students will also profit from the use of Ubuntu, as they then will be able to use the same applications at home without additional cost. Manuel Grandjean, director for the schools (Ecoles-Médias) IT services pointed out that the use of FOSS ‘…encourages participation and the democratization of knowledge and provides product independent competences…’. He also sees the use of FOSS as a ‘reinforcement of equal opportunities’ for students.”