Microsoft extends sales of Windows XP till June 2008

…[Microsoft] has decided to “extend XP sales in response to feedback from computer manufacturers who said there were customers who still wanted to buy the older operating system.” Of note, Mike Nash, a Microsoft corporate vice president, was quoted as saying that the company was “a little ambitious to think that it would need to make Windows XP available for only a year after the release of Windows Vista,” Read the full story on Engadget

Vista Drove Me Away – a Testimonial

I used to be a Microsoft Fan – a really, really big and obnoxious one too. Whenever someone even brought up the topic of a Mac I would go on about how PC’s were “clearly superior” and “control the market for obvious reasons.” In fact, my friends who use Macs as well remind me that I used to lecture them for ten minutes straight about the supposed advantages of the Windows Platform. Using cliché arguments like “Windows’ Wealth of Software” to defend my views, I convinced myself not to get a Mac last December and so I bought a brand-new Acer PC. Read the full article on SwitchingToMac.Com

All schools in Russia to use Linux-like OS by 2009

Russian OS is to be installed on every school computer in Russia by 2009. Furthermore, every pupil will get the opportunity to operate the applied software produced in Russia, Leonid Reiman, acting Minister of Communication stated at a press conference. Experts and market participants consider the terms within which software is to be developed quite reasonable. According to Mr. Reiman, that might significantly reduce Russian dependence on foreign software. Read the full article on CNews.Ru

Windows Vista: Five Broken Promises

Before I launch into my tirade, I need to make a confession. I like Vista. I use it daily, but I also use it with the full knowledge that it’s a pre-service pack 1 OS from the boys in Redmond. That necessarily means it will have glitches, bugs, and annoyances. That’s a given. I’m willing to put up with all those headaches, certainly more so than Jim Louderback. But there were several things I was really looking forward to in Vista that are simply missing in action or broken. These are features I’d really hope would improve my productivity and make life a little easier. HA! Let’s run down the list, shall we? Read the full article on Extremetech

Macs on the network: Time to panic?

For network admins, the Macintosh has always been the purview of advertising agencies, entertainment companies, educators and home computer users. Mac OS X is merely a minor support issue in a Microsoft-dominated organization. Yet as the consumer market begins to meld with the corporate world even more, and employees expect to use their preferred gadget (and operating system) for work and home life, the Mac could make inroads at large corporations. Read the full article at ComputerWorld.Com

C|Net News: Windows XP good, Vista bad

“…It saddens me to think of all the ill advised people buying new computers running Windows Vista, when they could have chosen XP. As Mr. T was fond of saying back in the 1980s, I pity the fool. Let me be clear, my point is only about the choice between XP and Vista and has nothing to do with Macs or Linux, many of whose devotees feel this way about all Windows users. I’m also not here to defend Windows XP, whose faults are many. My point is simply that if you are buying a new computer to run Windows applications, XP is the right choice; Vista is the wrong choice.” Read the full article on C|Net News.

Puremobile drops prices on unlocked iPhones 50%.

Puremobile seems to have re-thought their pricing model for unlocked iphones over the long weekend cutting prices for the units in half.  Canadians will now pay $1,149 for an unlocked iPhone while US customers will pay $1,081. While this pricing is significantly more realistic than Friday’s $3000 price tag, it’s still a lot to pay for a hack that one could do themselves for free using widely available DIY instructions on the net.

Product Sales and Expectations Lift Apple Stock

A nexus of events, iPhone current and projected sales and possible iPod announcements on Wednesday have listed Apple’s stock dramatically, according to MarketWatch on Tuesday. Analysts, including Gene Munster, are also expecting Apple to sell 2 million Macs this quarter. Mr. Munster has set an “outperform” rating for AAPL and a target price of US$211. Read the full article on macobserver.com

(The predicted 2 million Macs sold would equal a minimum of $2,398,000,000 for Apple based on the lowest end iMac, or $1,598,000,000 if they were all Mac minis. Either way, my money will be in there too somewhere.)

Microsoft twists reality regarding OOXML standardization campaign

“…In all my years working as a journalist, I’ve never seen any technology company spin information the way Microsoft did today. The press release on OOXML ratification is a blueprint for spinning semantics, and the stringing together of truths and half-truths to seemingly make the outcome of one event something else altogether. Microsoft’s press release and statements contained therein are shocking. The amount of propaganda conveyed by this one press release is reason for Microsoft customers or partners to reflect on their dealings with the company.” Read the full article.

OpenOSX Office 2.0 adds finance software

Want a low cost, yet powerful alternative to Micrsoft Office for your new Mac? OpenOSX has released v2.0 of OpenOSX Office, a Mac OS X equivalent of the GNOME Office suite for Linux systems. All of GNOME Office’s applications are bundled together, among them AbiWord, the Gnumeric spreadsheet, and the Gimp image processor. The second edition is native to both Intel and PowerPC (new and old) Macs, but most importantly introduces Gnucash, a financial program that tracks accouns, stocks, incomes and expenses. More info. [via MacNN]

Internet statistics reveal Vista’s lack of acceptance.

So how is Vista’s real world usage doing? According to W3Counter – An internet traffic monitoring site, the operating system has only picked up 3% of the market and lags far behind XP. See the chart.

Entire city of Vista users can’t access the internet

People in the city of Lund in Sweden that use the Microsoft Vista OS can’t connect to the Internet. According to this local newspaper, the reason is because Lund is a Linux city which has a a Linux server that doesn’t like Vista. Lundis Energi blamed Microsoft because Vista has got a bug and it isn’t going to change the configuration of the server just to cope with the flaw. A local Microsoft rep said it could probably fix the problem if Lundis Energi got in touch with it. [via The Inquirer]