“Microsoft bug squashers are investigating reports of a serious security vulnerability in Windows operating systems that could allow attackers to take control of vast numbers of machines.”
“A Microsoft spokesman had only minimal details about the investigation, which was prompted by a presentation last week by researcher Beau Butler at the Kiwicon security conference in New Zealand. According to [a report] in the Sydney Morning Herald, the flaw affects every version of Windows including Vista and is actually the continuation of an old vulnerability that Microsoft supposedly fixed years ago. Read the rest of this entry »
“When visitors trooped into Iona College’s Ryan Library in the spring of 2007, they were amazed — and delighted — to see 52 sparkling new iMac computers ready for business. Since that first rollout the systems have seen nonstop usage, and requests for more Macs are springing up all over campus — remarkable, given that Iona had maintained a Windows-based computing environment for more than 20 years. With the availability of Boot Camp on Intel-powered iMac computers running Mac OS X Leopard, faculty, students, and all users have the best of all computing worlds.”
“When we started researching Boot Camp, we realized that we could give our faculty the advantages of Mac-based software while supporting our Windows-based environment all over campus.” Read the full article on Apple.Com
“After 25 years of desktop computing and 15 years of the commercial internet, there are still plenty of frustrations, pains and throwbacks in our everyday technology experience. It’s great having a terabyte hard disk, but not so great trying to manage it using interfaces and tools that have barely changed from the days when 40MB was respectable.Many factors are holding back technology. Here is a list of 10 such barriers, in no particular order. We have almost certainly missed a few, so feel free to leave your comments using the Talkback facility at the bottom of the page.
“…Vista, both with and without SP1, performed notably slower than XP with SP3 in the test, taking over 80 seconds to complete the test, compared to the beta SP3-enhanced XP’s 35 seconds.Vista’s performance with the service pack increased less than 2 percent compared to performance without SP1–much lower than XP’s SP3 improvement of 10 percent. The tests, run on a Dell XPS M1710 test bed with a 2GHz Core 2 Duo CPU and 1GB of RAM, put Microsoft Office 2007 through a set of productivity tasks, including creating a compound document and supporting workbooks and presentation materials.
“…Microsoft wants to hold on to Vista regardless of where it takes the company. Will it force the company into a tailspin? I think it already has. Will it get worse? Possibly. But if Microsoft heeds my warnings and follows some of the tips I will outline below, Windows Vista may not be the utter failure I think it will be if nothing changes.” Read the full article on C|Net blogs
I had an epiphany yesterday while I was in the local Best Buy on my lunch break picking up a purchase for myself. I suddenly found myself able to put into words what my gut has been telling me for months.
I was watching mid-day, week-day shoppers as they were browsing around the computer department eyeing desktops, and notebook computers. Most of them looked like Parents or Grandparents shopping for their kid’s school computers or getting a head start on Christmas shopping for the grand-children. As I watched these people toy about cluelessly with the Vista loaded hardware looking like they barely knew how to operate a trackpad, I felt that familiar sinking feeling that I’ve felt so many times before in the same situation. Read the rest of this entry »
A Microsoft product manager couldn’t correctly explain the “Vista Capable” marketing slogan, according to recent filings in a lawsuit that claims the company misled consumers with a prerelease Vista campaign last year.
“…After a 10-minute consultation with Microsoft’s lawyers, Croft (Microsoft’s product manager) corrected himself. “I made the statement that … Capable would be able to run any version of Windows Vista, whereas, in reality, our intent with Capable was that the system would be able to run a version of Windows Vista,” he said. “So quite an important difference in the two — two terms there.”
When [the plantiff's] lawyers asked Croft if Microsoft had done any market research to determine if the term Vista Capable “would cause any consumer to make the very mistake that you just made,” Croft acknowledged that the company had not.” Read the full article on PCWorld.Com
“Will retailers and OEMs put a little Vista coal in this year’s holiday stocking? Windows Home Basic and integrated graphics SKUs could lead to surprises—as in uh-ohs, not wows—for some holiday shoppers”
“…OEMs and retailers operate under the presumption that “the mainstream consumer doesn’t need huge graphic capabilities, especially since so many notebooks tend to be the second or third PC in the house,” Baker said. “The idea is that people who want that higher level of graphics are willing to pay more for it.” Read the rest of this entry »
“…About eleven years ago, I wrote a column (in another publication) in response to letters I had received that called me to task for hailing the arrival of computers that were performance overkill for the majority of users. I wrote that the reason to look forward to the faster personal computer is that it would have the spare firepower and resources to look after itself, to stay out of the user’s way while being a microsecond away from answering any user demand, and to make sure that the user never has to do anything twice. That’s Leopard.” Read the full review on Yahoo News
The legal dispute over Microsoft’s “Vista Capable” claim continues.
“…Microsoft criticizes the plaintiffs for focusing on “a small (less than a square inch) sticker” and not considering the broad array of things it did as part of the Windows Vista Capable program. The company claims that it made clear through “a comprehensive marketing campaign” what the sticker meant, and that arguing over interpretations of the word “capable” without reference to these broader efforts isn’t a fair way to proceed.” Read the full article on ArsTechnica.Com
Devil Mountain Software, which earlier in the week claimed Windows Vista SP1 was no faster than the original, repeated some of the same tests on the release candidate of Windows XP SP3, the service pack recently issued to about 15,000 testers.”We were pleasantly surprised to discover that Windows XP SP3 delivers a measurable performance boost to this aging desktop OS,” said Craig Barth, Devil Mountain’s chief technology officer, in a post to a company blog Friday. Read the rest of this entry »
“Throughout the four years of the Vista development process, I tested and evaluated at least 15 different alphas and betas of the operating system, spending hundreds of hours evaluating the late prereleases and the final editions. Likewise, I spent countless hours testing Leopard, both in prerelease form and the final version now available to the public.”
“…it’s impossible to miss the refinement infused throughout Apple’s new operating system, whereas there are compromises in Vista that impinge upon the user experience without giving something back in return. Apple is focused on the user experience, while Microsoft appears to be focused on antipiracy, overengineered security protections, and digital rights management aimed at serving its prospective third-party partners. There’s really no contest. Tiger is a better OS than Vista, and there are no long-term downsides to Leopard. Vista doesn’t measure up.” Read the rest of this entry »
Web developers have known this for years. But now… well I guess it’s kinda official. The folks at SitePoint.Com have been working on authoring a definitive guide to .CSS code for web page building. Even though they tried to take it easy on Internet Explorer they’ve still come to the conclusion that it sucks.
“…Obviously, with IE7 Microsoft made great strides in correcting the most glaring and painful issues that plagued developers in IE6. But the unavoidable truth revealed by this reference is that Internet Explorer is still miles behind the competition.”
C|Net recently posted a top 10 list of worst technological products. The list apparantly spans 21 years of technology (1985-2006) and the winner of them all? Yup. Everyone’s favorite disaster… Vista. Read the rest of this entry »
“…I’ve been hating the Mac for a long time (hating the PC too, but for different reasons). But the calculus has changed.”
“…what I need is a really reliable, really easy to maintain machine that will allow me to quickly do what I need to do and then get back to the really important stuff: spending time with my daughter. Sure, I love that the PC is so open that I can customize and tweak until my computer is just perfect. But I don’t have those hours to spend on that crap anymore. What I want now is a machines that will be 98% of the way there out of the box.” Read about his adventure on his blog at SixMonthMac.Blogspot.Com
Wal-Mart introduced the gPC earlier this month but it quickly sold out online. It’s “been one of the top performing desktop computers on Walmart.com,” a spokesman for the company told InformationWeek last week. Read the rest of this entry »
“Open source products comprise the work of many collaborators — sometimes thousands of them, and often separated by oceans. Each person works on small portions of a project, and anyone is welcome to contribute. The finished product will be available freely for anyone to download and, in most cases, modify.
All very touchy-feely, carey-sharey, but why should you care about open source? You should care because Read the rest of this entry »
Asus’ Eee PC has been in the news a lot lately. It’s a tiny $400 USD laptop that’s sold preloaded with a Linux OS instead of Microsoft Windows and loaded with free software that accomplishes virtually everything your average notebook buyer would want to do. Read the rest of this entry »
It will be one year that Windows Vista has been available to businesses on Nov. 30, yet many companies still are waiting until the release of Vista’s first service pack to upgrade. But with Microsoft planning to release the next version of Windows, code-named Windows 7, in late 2009 or 2010, there remains a strong possibility that companies might skip over Vista altogether in favor of the next release of Windows. Read the full article on PCWorld.Com
Thinking of moving to Windows Vista? Whether you are or not, it’s becoming more difficult to ignore Microsoft’s latest operating system, as it comes pre-installed on many new computers and generates all the buzz in the papers. Behind all the fanfare, though, lies a seldom discussed secret: Vista may not be right for everyone – at least not yet, and perhaps not for quite some time. Read the rest of this entry »
Now more than a year out of the business gate, Microsoft’s Vista operating system is having trouble making friends in the exact place it needs them the most—the IT department.When asked, rather than express excitement over Vista’s promised better security, networking features and fancy GUI, IT professionals admit trepidation over the looming upgrade and the trouble it will cause.Read the rest of this entry »
Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) is not measurably faster than the original stock edition, a Florida-based developer of performance testing and network metrics software said Monday.
“Microsoft has hinted that SP1 is faster than Vista RTM,” said Craig Barth, the chief technology officer at Devil Mountain Software, referring to the release to manufacturing version of the operating system. “But we found pretty much nothing measurable. It surprised me as much as it surprised everyone else, but the numbers are the numbers.” Read the rest of this entry »
Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system will face increasing security threats, according to McAfee Avert Labs predictions for top 10 security threats in 2008. Jeff Green, senior vice president of McAfee Avert Labs and product development, said, “Threats are moving to the web and newer technologies such as VoIP and instant messaging. Professional and organised criminals drive a lot of the malicious activity. As they become increasingly sophisticated, it is more important than ever to be aware and secure when traversing the web.” Read the full article on Business-Standard.Com
Vista can’t seem to get a break. Yet another survey points to large numbers of businesses with no adoption plans. Oh yeah, Vista malaise may benefit Mac OS X. 44 percent of the IT professionals said that they had considered deploying a non-Windows operating system. Ninety percent of all respondents had concerns or reservations about Vista migration. Among those IT professionals considering alternatives, 9 percent had already started non-Windows deployments, with another 25 percent planning to do so within a year. Read the full article on Microsoft-Watch.Com
This isn’t legal but apparantly that didn’t stop one hobbyist from loading Apple’s Mac OS on to the sub $500 Asus Eee PC.
Meant as a Windows Vista alternative for Best Buy shoppers it’s been converted into an inexpensive way to run OS X without the Apple hardware. “…So, ever since I got the eeePC I’ve loved how easy it is to tinker with. Since I’m not a Linux guy, I dumped the Xandros preload and opted for Windows XP so I could [use] my EVDO USB datacard and blogging software easier, but I wondered could I install OSX on it? And, after trial and error – you can!” Read the full story on UneasySilence.Com (found via Gizmodo.Com)
AppleInsider.Com has posted an in-depth comparative review of Microsoft Word and Apple Pages. If you’re considering alternatives to Microsoft’s Office software you may want to give this a read. Read the review on AppleInsider.Com
AppleInsider.Com has posted an in-depth comparative review of Microsoft Excel and Apple Numbers. If you’re considering alternatives to Microsoft’s Office software you may want to give this a read. Read the review on AppleInsider.Com
Last October I reported on how hackers had found a way to install Apple’s Mac OS X on regular old cheap PC hardware which attracted a lot of attention. It seems the folks at the productivity tips site Lifehacker.Com were intrigued enough to give it a shot.
“…Building a DIY Mac requires some work on your part, so be ready to dedicate time to this project. To make things as easy as possible, I’m going to lay out how I built my Hackintosh from start to finish, from the hardware I used to the final patches I applied to the Leopard install. If you can build a Lego set and transcribe text, you’ve got all the basic skills required”
“…All of your hardware should work exactly as you’d expect. Your sound, networking, and video will all work off the bat. (I haven’t tested the motherboard’s built-in wireless yet, but it reportedly works.) Your iPods will sync flawlessly, and CDs and DVDs read and burn just as you’d expect. Mail, Address Book, iTunes, and everything else I’ve tried so far work flawlessly. Firefox is browsing, Quicksilver is doing it’s thing, Spaces are rocking, Stacks are stacking, Cover Flow is flowing, and Quick Look is previewing.” Read the full story over on Lifehacker.Com
Microsoft’s has taken a bruising in the Japanese marketplace just as Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard was released, according to a new report by the country’s Business Computer News. The publication notes that while sales of Mac OS X increased dramatically between September and October, climbing from a rate of 15.5 percent year-over-year to 60.5 percent, Microsoft suffered from the reverse effect. Sales growth of Windows plummeted from 75.3 percent to 28.7 percent. Read the full article on Electronista.Com (found via MacObserver.Com)
A Windows XP system with Service Pack 1 installed, but with no subsequent patches applied, was hacked in six minutes by a security expert in London, according to C|Net on Tuesday. A Microsoft executive who watched the demonstration found himself both enlightened and frightened.The Windows computer was not running a firewall or other anti-virus or anti-spyware software. The challenge was to connect, on a local network, and retrieve a text file of passwords. The attack was successful in six minutes and the password file downloaded in 11 minutes.
“If you were in (a cafe with Wi-Fi access), your coffee wouldn’t even have cooled down yet,” said Sharon Lemon, deputy director of SOCA’s e-crime unit at the event sponsored by the UK’s Get Safe Online. SOCA is the Serious Organized Crime Agency, a UK government intelligence group. Read the full post on C|Net. (Found via MacObserver.Com)
Want a Mac but can’t bear the thought of not being able to run your favorite Windows applications? Haven’t you heard? Macs do Windows. (In some cases better than any PCs) There are several methods for getting Windows running on Mac. You could use “Bootcamp” (Which comes with the latest version of Mac’s operating system.) and allows you to pick which OS to run when you turn on your computer, or you could use virtualization software such as “Parallels” or “VMWare Fusion” which lets you run Windows programs within Mac’s OS.
VMWare features a tool called “Unity” which allows your applications to run as if they were a native Mac application. Check out the video above for an example of Unity in action. Then head over to VMWare’s site to read more about it.
“…Subjectively speaking, I think Leopard is slightly more responsive on my [old Mac] than Mac Os X 10.4 Tiger was. The fancy new eye candy such as QuickLook Cover Flow in the Finder work fairly smoothly. Not quite as well as they do on my 2006 MacBook, but certainly well enough.
Vista, eat your heart out.”
Indeed! Microsoft’s latest OS seems to be the extreme opposite way on even the newest of computers. (Unless you’re running it on a Mac.)
“…I went in to Best Buy less than 24hrs after purchasing it and they wouldn’t take it back. They just kept insisting that there’s nothing wrong with it. I told them “I don’t want it. I hate it. Your sales person told me that all of my Vista concerns were not valid and that I’d be happy with this one. Well, I’m not happy with it and I want to return it.” They finally agreed but said there would be a 10% restocking fee. I’ve had the thing for less than a day but they wanted a $190 restocking fee. After going back and forth, I finally spoke to the manager. He explained that there would be a 15% restocking fee. We’re up to $285 now!! He explained that their policy is posted but when I asked him to show me where, he pointed over to the registers on the opposite side of the building and said it’s by the registers. the registers where you can’t possibly buy a laptop.” Read the full post on SternFanNetwork.Com’s Forums
One year ago today, Microsoft released Windows Vista to manufacturing. In the obligatory anniversary post we ask: Was it ready? Will it ever be ready?
The answer to the first question is an emphatic “no.” Vista wasn’t ready. Hardware manufacturers and software developers weren’t ready for it. The channel and enterprises weren’t ready, and consumers couldn’t get it because Vista missed holiday 2006.
Microsoft promised WOW, but the reaction was, “What?” What is different from Windows XP? What is wrong with the hardware requirements? What is the difference between “Capable” and “Ready?” What is this Software Assurance requirement for Vista Enterprise? What happened to the familiarity of Windows XP? What is wrong with my Vista applications and hardware?
… And yet, you’re not buying an Apple computer. Most of the world isn’t. There is probably a single overwhelming reason you’re clinging to Windows. Macs are expensive. This is what you’ve been told, and in your research, it’s seemed to check out. If they acknowledge it at all, Mac fans will rationalize the higher prices by noting that you’re paying for quality. Buying a Mac, folks say, is like buying a BMW (Apple CEO Steve Jobs regularly compares the Mac’s market share with that of German luxury cars). But what if you don’t want the BMW of PCs? What if you can only afford a Chevrolet?The present article is an attempt to prove to you that, on price alone, the Mac is not the BMW of computers. It is the Ford of computers. I am not arguing that the Mac is cheaper only if you consider the psychic benefits conferred by its quality. Rather I’m going to illustrate something more straightforward: Even though you may pay a slight premium at the cash register for a Mac over a comparable Windows PC (a premium that gets slighter all the time), it will cost you less money — real, honest-to-goodness American dollars — to own that Mac than to own that PC. Read the full article on The Machinist.
“It’s actually here – the day we have been waiting for,” said Mary Stewart, instructional coach at Wyandotte High School. “Classrooms in Kansas City, Kan., high schools will never be the same after today.”The school board earlier this year agreed to purchase Apple MacBooks for all of its 5,000 high school students to use at school and at home.
The project aims to better prepare students for college. Principals have lamented for years about their students not having computers at home, fearing they will be behind their peers by the time they get to college. Read the full story on KansasCity.Com (found on AppleInsider.Com)
Thanks to its combination of Intel hardware and a non-bloated Linux install, reviewers found that Asus’s little laptop performs just as well as much larger and more expensive Windows notebooks. And the company spent enough time tweaking the unit’s default Linux distro that Windows users will supposedly feel right at home. The device does support Windows XP, but Linux seems to be the OS of choice for all of the reviewers for performance and ease-of-use reasons.
In this respect, Microsoft has well and truly blown it, because this device is poised to introduce a few million Best Buy shoppers to a pleasantly usable, non-embedded Linux distro. Even more ominous from Redmond’s perspective is the fact that the Eee PC is just one of a breaking wave of Linux-powered portable devices that will reach consumers in the coming year, and that it’s the hardware makers that are driving the Linux push. Read the full article at ArsTechnica.Com
Leopard demolishes Vista in a classy, coherent upgrade according to Slate Magazine on Wednesday. Apple has underpromised and overdelivered while Vista’s techincal improvements remain difficult for users to appreciate and utilize.
Apple’s OS update approach stands in sharp contrast to Microsoft’s. While Apple remains modest in its numbering system and includes lots of new features in periodic releases, Microsoft “trumpets each new version of Windows as an epochal breakthrough, thereby raising expectations so high that it can’t possibly meet them,” Harry McCracken wrote.
As a result, Microsoft’s “The Wow Starts Now” campaign, intended to create wonder has simply resulted in users being speechless and full of desire to cling to a six year-old XP. Read the full review on Slate.Com (via MacObserver.com)
…At Cox, the school has installed about 100 iMacs in labs, and there’s dual-boot Mac minis (OS X and XP) at the head of about 30 classrooms. “We’re enhancing and diversifying our computer platforms by keeping Windows XP while adding OS X,” said Allen Gwinn, the school’s technical director, in a statement. “Upgrading to Apple platforms is the only way to do this.” Read the full story at CultOfMac.Com
The Everex Green gPC TC2502 includes popular applications from Google, Mozilla, Skype and OpenOffice.org. It runs gOS Initial G, which in turn is based on Ubuntu Linux 7.10 The gOS operating system features a simple and intuitive Linux Enlightenment E17 desktop interface with a Google-centric theme. The system comes with a lifetime of free updates and revisions.
At the heart of the gPC TC2502 is an energy-efficient 1.5GHz, VIA C7-D processor. This CPU draws less than 2W on average (with a maximum of 20W). Operating at a mere 28dB, the gPC also ranks as the quietest Everex desktop computer ever produced. It also includes 512MB of system memory, 80GB hard disk drive and DVD-ROM/CD-RW optical drive. The system also comes with six USB 2.0 ports; an RJ45 Ethernet port; an RJ11 port; and a serial and parallel port. Read the full article on DesktopLinux.Com
“Microsoft bug squashers are investigating reports of a serious security vulnerability in Windows operating systems that could allow attackers to take control of vast numbers of machines.”
Posted by vistasucks 
Posted by vistasucks 
“After 25 years of desktop computing and 15 years of the commercial internet, there are still plenty of frustrations, pains and throwbacks in our everyday technology experience. It’s great having a terabyte hard disk, but not so great trying to manage it using interfaces and tools that have barely changed from the days when 40MB was respectable.Many factors are holding back technology. Here is a list of 10 such barriers, in no particular order. We have almost certainly missed a few, so feel free to leave your comments using the Talkback facility at the bottom of the page.
Posted by vistasucks 
“…Vista, both with and without SP1, performed notably slower than XP with SP3 in the test, taking over 80 seconds to complete the test, compared to the beta SP3-enhanced XP’s 35 seconds.Vista’s performance with the service pack increased less than 2 percent compared to performance without SP1–much lower than XP’s SP3 improvement of 10 percent. The tests, run on a Dell XPS M1710 test bed with a 2GHz Core 2 Duo CPU and 1GB of RAM, put Microsoft Office 2007 through a set of productivity tasks, including creating a compound document and supporting workbooks and presentation materials.
“…Microsoft wants to hold on to Vista regardless of where it takes the company. Will it force the company into a tailspin? I think it already has. Will it get worse? Possibly. But if Microsoft heeds my warnings and follows some of the tips I will outline below, Windows Vista may not be the utter failure I think it will be if nothing changes.” 
I had an epiphany yesterday while I was in the local Best Buy on my lunch break picking up a purchase for myself. I suddenly found myself able to put into words what my gut has been telling me for months.
A Microsoft product manager couldn’t correctly explain the “Vista Capable” marketing slogan, according to recent filings in a lawsuit that claims the company misled consumers with a prerelease Vista campaign last year.
“Will retailers and OEMs put a little Vista coal in this year’s holiday stocking? Windows Home Basic and integrated graphics SKUs could lead to surprises—as in uh-ohs, not wows—for some holiday shoppers”
“…About eleven years ago, I wrote a column (in another publication) in response to letters I had received that called me to task for hailing the arrival of computers that were performance overkill for the majority of users. I wrote that the reason to look forward to the faster personal computer is that it would have the spare firepower and resources to look after itself, to stay out of the user’s way while being a microsecond away from answering any user demand, and to make sure that the user never has to do anything twice. That’s Leopard.” 
The legal dispute over Microsoft’s “Vista Capable” claim continues.
Devil Mountain Software, which earlier in the week claimed Windows Vista SP1 was no faster than the original, repeated some of the same tests on the release candidate of Windows XP SP3, the service pack recently issued to about 15,000 testers.”We were pleasantly surprised to discover that Windows XP SP3 delivers a measurable performance boost to this aging desktop OS,” said Craig Barth, Devil Mountain’s chief technology officer, in a post to a company blog Friday. 
“Throughout the four years of the Vista development process, I tested and evaluated at least 15 different alphas and betas of the operating system, spending hundreds of hours evaluating the late prereleases and the final editions. Likewise, I spent countless hours testing Leopard, both in prerelease form and the final version now available to the public.”
C|Net recently posted a top 10 list of worst technological products. The list apparantly spans 21 years of technology (1985-2006) and the winner of them all? Yup. Everyone’s favorite disaster… Vista. 
Wal-Mart introduced the gPC earlier this month but it quickly sold out online. It’s “been one of the top performing desktop computers on Walmart.com,” a spokesman for the company told InformationWeek last week. 
“Open source products comprise the work of many collaborators — sometimes thousands of them, and often separated by oceans. Each person works on small portions of a project, and anyone is welcome to contribute. The finished product will be available freely for anyone to download and, in most cases, modify.
Asus’ Eee PC has been in the news a lot lately. It’s a tiny $400 USD laptop that’s sold preloaded with a Linux OS instead of Microsoft Windows and loaded with free software that accomplishes virtually everything your average notebook buyer would want to do. 
It will be one year that Windows Vista has been available to businesses on Nov. 30, yet many companies still are waiting until the release of Vista’s first service pack to upgrade. But with Microsoft planning to release the next version of Windows, code-named Windows 7, in late 2009 or 2010, there remains a strong possibility that companies might skip over Vista altogether in favor of the next release of Windows. 
Thinking of moving to Windows Vista? Whether you are or not, it’s becoming more difficult to ignore Microsoft’s latest operating system, as it comes pre-installed on many new computers and generates all the buzz in the papers. Behind all the fanfare, though, lies a seldom discussed secret: Vista may not be right for everyone – at least not yet, and perhaps not for quite some time. 
Now more than a year out of the business gate, Microsoft’s Vista operating system is having trouble making friends in the exact place it needs them the most—the IT department.
Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) is not measurably faster than the original stock edition, a Florida-based developer of performance testing and network metrics software said Monday.
Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system will face increasing security threats, according to McAfee Avert Labs predictions for top 10 security threats in 2008. Jeff Green, senior vice president of McAfee Avert Labs and product development, said, “Threats are moving to the web and newer technologies such as VoIP and instant messaging. Professional and organised criminals drive a lot of the malicious activity. As they become increasingly sophisticated, it is more important than ever to be aware and secure when traversing the web.” 
This isn’t legal but apparantly that didn’t stop one hobbyist from loading Apple’s Mac OS on to the sub $500 Asus Eee PC.
AppleInsider.Com has posted an in-depth comparative review of Microsoft Word and Apple Pages. If you’re considering alternatives to Microsoft’s Office software you may want to give this a read. 
AppleInsider.Com has posted an in-depth comparative review of Microsoft Excel and Apple Numbers. If you’re considering alternatives to Microsoft’s Office software you may want to give this a read. Read the review on 
Last October I reported on how hackers had 
Microsoft’s has taken a bruising in the Japanese marketplace just as Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard was released, according to a new report by the country’s Business Computer News. The publication notes that while sales of Mac OS X increased dramatically between September and October, climbing from a rate of 15.5 percent year-over-year to 60.5 percent, Microsoft suffered from the reverse effect. Sales growth of Windows plummeted from 75.3 percent to 28.7 percent. 
A Windows XP system with Service Pack 1 installed, but with no subsequent patches applied, was hacked in six minutes by a security expert in London, according to C|Net on Tuesday. A Microsoft executive who watched the demonstration found himself both enlightened and frightened.The Windows computer was not running a firewall or other anti-virus or anti-spyware software. The challenge was to connect, on a local network, and retrieve a text file of passwords. The attack was successful in six minutes and the password file downloaded in 11 minutes.
“…Subjectively speaking, I think Leopard is slightly more responsive on my [old Mac] than Mac Os X 10.4 Tiger was. The fancy new eye candy such as QuickLook Cover Flow in the Finder work fairly smoothly. Not quite as well as they do on my 2006 MacBook, but certainly well enough.
“…I went in to Best Buy less than 24hrs after purchasing it and they wouldn’t take it back. They just kept insisting that there’s nothing wrong with it. I told them “I don’t want it. I hate it. Your sales person told me that all of my Vista concerns were not valid and that I’d be happy with this one. Well, I’m not happy with it and I want to return it.” They finally agreed but said there would be a 10% restocking fee. I’ve had the thing for less than a day but they wanted a $190 restocking fee. After going back and forth, I finally spoke to the manager. He explained that there would be a 15% restocking fee. We’re up to $285 now!! He explained that their policy is posted but when I asked him to show me where, he pointed over to the registers on the opposite side of the building and said it’s by the registers. the registers where you can’t possibly buy a laptop.” 
… And yet, you’re not buying an Apple computer. Most of the world isn’t. There is probably a single overwhelming reason you’re clinging to Windows. Macs are expensive. This is what you’ve been told, and in your research, it’s seemed to check out. If they acknowledge it at all, Mac fans will rationalize the higher prices by noting that you’re paying for quality. Buying a Mac, folks say, is like buying a BMW (Apple CEO Steve Jobs regularly compares the Mac’s market share with that of German luxury cars). But what if you don’t want the BMW of PCs? What if you can only afford a Chevrolet?The present article is an attempt to prove to you that, on price alone, the Mac is not the BMW of computers. It is the Ford of computers. I am not arguing that the Mac is cheaper only if you consider the psychic benefits conferred by its quality. Rather I’m going to illustrate something more straightforward: Even though you may pay a slight premium at the cash register for a Mac over a comparable Windows PC (a premium that gets slighter all the time), it will cost you less money — real, honest-to-goodness American dollars — to own that Mac than to own that PC. 
“It’s actually here – the day we have been waiting for,” said Mary Stewart, instructional coach at Wyandotte High School. “Classrooms in Kansas City, Kan., high schools will never be the same after today.”The school board earlier this year agreed to purchase Apple MacBooks for all of its 5,000 high school students to use at school and at home.
Thanks to its combination of Intel hardware and a non-bloated Linux install, reviewers found that Asus’s little laptop performs just as well as much larger and more expensive Windows notebooks. And the company spent enough time tweaking the unit’s default Linux distro that Windows users will supposedly feel right at home. The device does support Windows XP, but Linux seems to be the OS of choice for all of the reviewers for performance and ease-of-use reasons.
Leopard demolishes Vista in a classy, coherent upgrade according to Slate Magazine on Wednesday. Apple has underpromised and overdelivered while Vista’s techincal improvements remain difficult for users to appreciate and utilize.
…At Cox, the school has installed about 100 iMacs in labs, and there’s dual-boot Mac minis (OS X and XP) at the head of about 30 classrooms. “We’re enhancing and diversifying our computer platforms by keeping Windows XP while adding OS X,” said Allen Gwinn, the school’s technical director, in a statement. “Upgrading to Apple platforms is the only way to do this.” 
The Everex Green gPC TC2502 includes popular applications from Google, Mozilla, Skype and OpenOffice.org. It runs gOS Initial G, which in turn is based on Ubuntu Linux 7.10 The gOS operating system features a simple and intuitive Linux Enlightenment E17 desktop interface with a Google-centric theme. The system comes with a lifetime of free updates and revisions.
Windows Vista Refunds!
