InfoWorld’s “Save XP” Petition

 

“…Millions of us have grown comfortable with XP and don’t see a need to change to Vista. It’s like having a comfortable apartment that you’ve enjoyed coming home to for years, only to get an eviction notice. The thought of moving to a new place — even with the stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, and maple cabinets (or is cherry in this year?) — just doesn’t sit right. Maybe it’ll be more modern, but it will also cost more and likely not be as good a fit. And you don’t have any other reason to move.

 

That’s exactly the conclusion people have come to with Vista. For most of us, there’s really no reason to move to it — yet we don’t have a choice. When that strong desire to stick with XP became obvious in spring 2007, major computer makers such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard quietly reintroduced new XP-based systems (but just to business customers, so as not to offend Microsoft). Come June 30, however, even that option goes away.” Read the full story and sign the petition at InfoWorld.Com

What laptop does Microsoft’s CEO use for his presentations?

A picture is worth a thousand words…

 

View the original on Flickr.Com

Popular Mechanics - Mac vs. PC: The Ultimate Lab Test

“…Simply put, Vista proved to be a more sluggish operating system than Leopard. Our PCs installed some software faster, but in general they were slower in our time trials. Plus, both PCs showed weaker performance on third-party benchmarks than the Macs. Our biggest surprise, however, was that PCs were not the relative bargains we expected them to be. The Asus M51sr costs the same as a MacBook, while the Gateway One actually costs $300 more than an iMac. That means for the price of the Gateway you could buy an iMac, boost its hard drive to match the Gateway’s, purchase a copy of Vista to boot-and still save $100. Read the full review on Popular Mechanics

Why ‘No Macs’ is no longer a defensible IT strategy

Once confined to marketing departments and media companies, the Mac is spilling over into a wider array of business environments, thanks to the confluence of a number of computing trends, not the least among them a rising tide of end-user affinity for the Apple experience.

 

Luckily for IT, many of those same trends are making it easier for tech departments to say yes to the Mac by facilitating IT’s ability to provide enterprise-grade Mac management and support.

“We’re seeing more requests outside of creative services to switch to Macs from PCs,” notes David Plavin, operations manager for Mac systems engineering at the U.S. IT division of Publicis Groupe, a global advertising conglomerate. There are so many requests that Plavin now supports 2,500 Macs across the U.S. — nearly a quarter of all Publicis’ U.S. PCs.

And Plavin is less of an anomaly than you might think. Buoyed by increased interest in the consumer arena, Macs are cropping up in more and more organizations, in large part because end-users are pushing for them. Read the full article on InfoWorld.Com

 

From Win32 to Cocoa: A Windows developer’s conversion to Mac OS X

“A couple of Gartner analysts have recently claimed that Windows is “collapsing”; that it’s too big, too sprawling, and too old to allow rapid development and significant new features. Although organizations like Gartner depend on trolling to drum up business, I think this time they could be onto something. “Collapsing” is over-dramatic-gradual decline is a more likely outcome-but the essence of what they’re saying-and why they’re saying it-rings true.

Windows is dying, Windows applications suck, and Microsoft is too blinkered to fix any of it-that’s the argument. The truth is that Windows is hampered by 25-year old design decisions. These decisions mean that it’s clunky to use and absolutely horrible to write applications for. The applications that people do write are almost universally terrible. They’re ugly, they’re inconsistent, they’re disorganized; there’s no finesse, no care lavished on them. Microsoft-surely the company with the greatest interest in making Windows and Windows applications exude quality-is, in fact, one of the worst perpetrators.” Read the full article on ArsTechnica.Com

 

Ballmer: Vista is ‘a work in progress’

 

As PC users clamor for Microsoft to continue to support Windows XP, company CEO Steve Ballmer called the Vista OS “a work in progress” at an annual Seattle event on Thursday.

“It’s a very important piece of work. We did a lot of things right and have a lot of things we need to learn from. You never want to let five years go between releases,” he said.

While Microsoft recently extended the date when the XP software will be available for low-cost PCs, it doesn’t plan to listen to some other complaints, including that Vista is too big. “Vista is bigger than XP and it’s gonna stay bigger than XP,” Ballmer said. Read the full story on MacWorld.Com

 

IBM contemplating switching to Macs?

“IBM’s Research Information Services division is investigating the possibility of moving a significant number of employees to Apple’s Macintosh platform according to a report acquired by RoughlyDrafted.
“In line with IBM’s external strategy of offering a true ‘Open Client’ that may be Windows, Linux or a Mac,” the document noted, “[Research Information Services] is focusing on providing an IBM application stack on multiple Operating Systems, rather than be confined to one or the other.”
The first phase of the pilot program was conducted between October 2007 and January 2008. During this phase, 24 MacBook Pros were distributed to researchers and used as the primary notebook, with the employees’ existing ThinkPads acting as backups if needed.
Of the 22 of 24 who responded, 18 said that the Mac offered a “better or best experience” compared to their existing computer, one rated it “equal or good,” and three said the Mac offered a “worse experience.” Seven reported having no or marginal prior knowledge of using Macs, while 15 reported having moderate or expert knowledge of the platform.” Read the full story on RoughlyDrafted.Com found via MacRumors.Com

 

One Page Crash Course in Switching to the Mac

[Within] you’ll find the My First Mac guide on how to use your new Mac when all you know is Windows. Of course this topic can go deep and take months or even years of training, so we will stick to the top dozen or so issues that new Mac users run into that makes them want to throw their Mac through the window. Read the article on MyFirstMacCom

 

Windows XP fans don’t want it to XPire

 

A petition to “Save Windows XP” has drawn more than 111,000 supporters — and continued shots across the Microsoft XP vs. Vista bow, a battle that began with Vista’s release last year.

The operating system succeeded XP, which came on the market in October 2001. Despite Vista’s much-improved security measures, it has met with criticism and some reluctance by consumers and businesses that don’t want to make the switch.

Among the concerns about Vista are the amount of computer memory and space it requires, its seemingly slower speed and frustration over the fact that third-party drivers for some printers and other devices are still not available from the companies that make those devices. Read the full story on… MSNBC (?!)

 

Former Mac hater reflects on his switch to Mac

“…While I am not a card carrying Mac fanboy (it does have issues like any piece of technology), I wanted to try and summarize why I like the Mac so much now that I’ve been using it heavily for the last two months.

I have been a Windows user and software developer since 1992, and a DOS user and developer since 1984. I used to hate Macs and as recently as 9 months ago my avatar on one of my forums was John Hodgman (the PC guy from the Mac ads).

Now I really enjoy using my Mac and am drifting away from Windows as a platform. Here’s why:

Read the full story on David Alison’s Blog found via SwitchingToMac.Com

Study finds businesses more satisfied with Mac OS than Vista

Corporate users of Apple Inc.’s Leopard operating system are more than five times more likely to say that they are “very satisfied” with the OS than business users of Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Vista, a research firm said Wednesday.

In a February survey of 2,200 U.S. corporate computer users, 53% of those using Mac OS X 10.5 reported that they were very satisfied with their operating system. Of those using Windows XP or Windows Vista, however, 40% of the former and only 8% of the latter said they were very satisfied.”Apple continues to set the standard for corporate customer satisfaction,” said Paul Carton, director of research at ChangeWave Research. That, and the fact that corporate buying plans for Macs remain at historically high levels, indicate that users like what Apple’s doing, continued Carton. Read the full article on ComputerWorld.Com

Apple snags 14 percent of US-based PC retail sales in February

Apple’s computer sales in the US have grown considerably from last year - at 60-percent unit growth and 67-percent revenue growth - granting it 14-percent of all computers sold for February. According to AppleInsider, Apple’s laptop systems saw the largest growth, representing a 64-percent increase in units sold, and 67-percent increased revenue, suggesting strong acceptance of the company’s new ultra-portable, the MacBook Air. Read the full story on AppleInsider.Com

Court docs reveal Microsoft’s TRUE motivation for relaxing Vista’s License Agreement

“…Microsoft finally relented in January and allowed Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Premium to be virtualized, company officials attributed the change of heart to a newfound “maturity in the industry,” in terms of being able to trust “what’s under the virtual machine.”But the real reason for Microsoft’s capitulation became clear on March 7 via a new joint-status report in the Microsoft-Department of Justice case. It turns out BIOS maker Phoenix Technologies (a long-time Microsoft partner) filed a complaint with antitrust regulators about Microsoft’s virtualization restrictions.” Read the full story on All About Microsoft

Court docs reveal Vista requirements lowered to help Intel sell incompatible chipsets.

“So now that the “Vista Capable” lawsuit is a full-blown class action, the judge has unsealed all 158 pages of emails between Microsoft execs trying to sort out what went wrong with the sticker program. While bits and pieces have been blacked out, what remains is still fairly incredible — although Intel’s 915 chipset was initially rejected as incompatible with Vista, MS execs flatly admit that “In the end, we lowered the requirements to help Intel make their quarterly earnings so they could continue to sell motherboards with the 915 graphics embedded” and “We are caving to Intel.” Read the full story on Engadget.Com

‘Vista Capable’ lawsuit against Microsoft now a class action

“In a blow to Microsoft Corp., a federal judge granted class-action status to a lawsuit late Friday alleging that Microsoft unjustly enriched itself by promoting PCs as “Windows Vista Capable” even when they could only run a bare-bones version of the operating system, called “Vista Home Basic.”The slogan was emblazoned on PCs during the 2006 holiday shopping season as part of a campaign by Microsoft to maintain sales of Windows XP computers after the launch of Windows Vista was delayed.

At a hearing two weeks ago, lawyers for Microsoft argued that because each consumer who bought a computer touted as “Windows Vista Capable” had different information at the time of purchase, the lawsuit should not be granted class-action status, while plaintiffs’ lawyers said that all individuals who bought “Windows Vista Capable” PCs were united in that “each person in our class did not get what they paid for.” Read the full atricle on SeattlePI.Com

PC Magazine: “[Apple's Mac OS is] by far the best operating system ever written.”

“…After three months with Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard Version 10.5, I have three main things to say about it. First: Despite minor problems, it’s by far the best operating system ever written for the vast majority of consumers, with dozens of new features that have real practical value”

“ If you’re in the market for a new machine, it’s time to look seriously at a Mac, especially now that all Macs can run Windows along with OS X through the built-in Boot Camp feature that lets you install Windows and Leopard in separate partitions. Even better, third-party software from Parallels or VMware make it possible to run a Windows program in a window on the OS X desktop. It’s even possible to set up OS X so that Word documents automatically open in the Windows version of Microsoft Word.”

“I’ve found Vista to be a major disappointment that tends to look worse the more I use it. I still use Windows XP for getting serious work done in long, complicated documents. But OS X is easier to manage and maintain and I vastly prefer OS X to Windows for Web-browsing, mail, and especially for any task that involves graphics, music, or video. Leopard performs all such tasks even better than previous versions did—and Leopard is the only OS on the planet that works effortlessly and intuitively in today’s world of networked computers and peripherals. Leopard is far from perfect, but it’s better than any alternative, and it’s getting harder and harder to find good reasons to use anything else.” Read the full review on PCMag.Com

Mac customers 81% “Very Satisfied” compared to Vista Basic’s 15%.

The chart above says it all but you can still read the full story at BaltimoreSun.Com. Found via SwitchingToMac.Com

Business Open Source Use Up 26% in One Year

CBR is reporting that open source use in the workplace is continuing to grow at an astonishing rate. Up 26% since last year, businesses are using 94 different open source tools to get the job done.

“[OpenLogic's] breakdown of licenses for the top 25 packages found that Apache, not the GPL, is the most common license. 62% of the packages use Apache, 27% use some variant of GPL and 4% each use BSD, CPL, Eclipse, MPL and Perl licenses (since packages may be released under two or more licenses, percentages total to more than 100%).”  Read the full story on CBROnline.Com found via SlashDot.Org

UK education agency says no to Vista, Office 2007

“The British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta) has published its final report (PDF) on Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007. The agency is largely sticking with its interim recommendations that schools steer clear of Vista in existing deployments and Office 2007 altogether.”

“…Becta recommends against deploying Vista in current setups, saying that the upside of such upgrades aren’t worth the cost. According to Becta, only 22 percent of school PCs in the UK are capable of running Vista “effectively.” Read the full story on ArTechnica.Com

Sales Pitch: “We remove Vista” [pic]

“…the sign appeared in the window of A&D Computer, across the street from the town square. Shop manager Aaron Kaplan said they were prompted to put it up because so many people were having problems with Windows Vista, including compatibility issues with older software and trouble adjusting to the interface.”A lot of people didn’t like using Vista, and a lot of the manufacturers forced people to go up to Vista,” he said.

What was the demand for the service? “We had a lot of people coming in and asking about it,” Kaplan said. “Of all the signs we put up there the last two years, at least, we probably got the most response out of that one. A lot of people coming in.” Read the full story on SeattlePI.Com

Microsoft ousted, 23,000 Linux PCs For Filipino Schools

“Providing high school students with PCs is seen as a first step to preparing them for a technology-literate future, but in the Philippines many schools cannot afford to provide computing facilities so after a successful deployment of 13,000 Fedora Linux systems from a government grant, plans are underway to roll out another 10,000 based on Ubuntu.”

“We wanted to use Fedora 5 and it went all the way to office of [the Filipino] President and they kept passing it around saying ‘why would they offer something for free, and how would they support and teach it’,” Gonzalez said. “The project dragged on for four to five months to a point where Microsoft matched the price by offering Windows XP for $US20 a copy and throwing in Office for $US30, but we still came out cheaper. Microsoft was also providing free training to high school teachers.” Read the full article on ComputerWorld.Com found via SlashDot

Legal IT Consultant: Vista = My Own Personal Hell

“…My conclusion is now that NO ONE who values their sanity, their time, their psyche and general sense of well-being should use Vista. At all. Under any circumstances. In fact, after giving it more than a fair shake over 11 months of daily use, I know think it deserves to be classified internationally as a Weapon of Mass Data Destruction. In fact, perhaps the best way to defeat Al Quaida or any other terrorist group would be to send them free copies of a particularly brain-dead version of Vista like “Home Basic” - it would stop them in their tracks, as it has done with me and so many others.”

“Vista is the #1 reason Apple has been so successful in the overnight turnaround of its Mac product line. The best feature of the Macbook and iMac series is they DON’T have Vista, not the fact they now have Leopard.” Read the full post on Rossipsa.Com

Best Buy focuses on selling more Macs this year.

“Leading U.S. electronics specialty retailer Best Buy said this week it plans to increase the number of stores carrying Apple Inc.’s Mac computer line twofold in the next several weeks, signaling robust demand for the Windows PC alternatives in the broader consumer market.The comments came courtesy of Best Buy executives who held a session at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, where researchers from investment bank UBS were in attendance.

Following the meeting, analyst Ben Reitzes relayed a note to clients explaining that the executives were “very upbeat” about their ongoing relationship with Apple, adding that 500 of the company’s 900 electronics stores could be selling Macs come the end of February.

The plan would effectively double the number of Best Buy stores carrying Apple’s computer line at the end of 2007, where rough figures placed a healthy array of Macs in approximate 230 to 270 locations.” Read the full article on AppleInsider.Com

Hi, I’m a Programmer. I’m In love with my new Mac because…

“…I’m just like you, seriously! I’ve been using Microsoft stuff since 1992! That’s right, I’ve been a windows user most of my life. I remember 3.1, NT, 95, 98, 2000, ME (fucking stupid, 2000 in a different box, right?), and then on to (OOooOOoo) Windows XP. Luckily for me, the buck stopped here.

It’s about here that I meet Jay Phillips. Jay, a fellow hacker, is the creator of a very successful Telephony application called Adhearsion. He will be the first to tell you owes some of his coder success to his MacBook. Honestly, Jay even looks like the Mac guy on the commercial (see right). Anyway I was in the mood to debunk this obviously misguided coder (because coders need TECH machines, not pretty toys, right?) and I can honestly say from the deepest techie place in my heart: I got PWWWWWWND. This is why: Read the full post on SiKaNrOnG.com (found via SwitchingToMac.Com)

Newspaper: Window Vista can clear out a medicine cabinet

“…A year ago, I picked up a computer on Boxing Day. Because Windows Vista didn’t come out until a few months later, the computer had the option of a free update to the new Microsoft operating system.

I never got around to doing the upgrade. And now, I’m glad I never did.

This Boxing Day, I once again picked up some bargain basement computers. This time, they were all loaded with Vista. It’s a good thing I don’t get headaches, because now, a week later, I would have run out of Advil, Motrin, Tylenol, Tylenol Extra Strength, Tylenol Quick Release, Aspirin, and maybe even Children’s Tylenol. I might have even raided the first aid kits in the cars.

The first headache was networking. As these computers are all meant to work together for my hockey photography shoots, so it is imperative the networking works.

Gizmodo Tests XP vs Vista vs Vista SP1. (Vista still sucks)

“…we noticed with Windows Vista was when we tried to transfer a large folder full of files over our 100Base-T network. While XP was able to transfer the 1.37GB folder containing 2606 items in a quick 3:37 (minutes/seconds), the Vista transfer seemed to hesitate at the end, taking a leisurely 12:58 to perform exactly the same copy from one PC to another over our network. Then when we compared the current shipping version of Vista with its upcoming service pack, there wasn’t much difference, with the Service Pack speeding things up by 0.865% in the PCMark tests.

The only part of it that’s bugging us is the network file transfer speed got even slower in the SP1 release candidate. Also continuing that bothersome disk speed problem is the way Vista couldn’t read and write on that speedy 15,000rpm SAS drive anywhere near as fast as XP did.” Read the full report (with a tiny bit of good news) at Gizmodo.Com

US Army: We’re switching to Macs.

“…Wallington, a division chief in the Army’s office of enterprise information systems, says the military is quietly working to integrate Macintosh computers into its systems to make them harder to hack. That’s because fewer attacks have been designed to infiltrate Mac computers, and adding more Macs to the military’s computer mix makes it tougher to destabilize a group of military computers with a single attack, Wallington says.

This past year was a particularly tough one for military cybersecurity. Cyberspies infiltrated a Pentagon computer system in June and stole unknown quantities of e-mail data, according to a September report by the Financial Times. Later in September, industry sources told Forbes.com that major military contractors, including Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon had also been hacked.” Read the full story on Forbes.Com

Gauging Windows user’s reactions to Vista with Google

Ever wonder where I find some of the articles I post here? A lot of comes from being spotted in customized .RSS feeds from technology websites but a lot of it is also found with Google’s search. Thanks to the amazing “quotes” and “&” feature it’s always easy to find relevant information and/or an exact phrase. Here are some of my favorite Google Searches and the enlightening consumer consensus they reveal about Windows Vista…

USA Today: Thinking of switching to a Mac?

Most consumers seeking a new computer this holiday season will buy a Windows PC. And yet judging by the questions I get, many would-be buyers are considering a Macintosh for the first time, possibly because they’re smitten with the iPod, or because of Apple’s clever Mac guy/PC guy TV ads.

I’m a Mac guy, too, though not one who believes bashing Windows is a prerequisite. So consider this column a primer on switching to the Mac. Read the full article on USAToday.Com