The number of machines shipped with Linux preloaded on them has multiplied a whopping 28 times since Microsoft launched its Vista operating system in January 2007 in U.K. The Linux share of this route to market has edged up ever since the Vista launch. Then it broke the two per cent barrier in May after the latest release of Ubuntu, the strain of Linux most capable of kicking Microsoft in the shins.
I installed Ubuntu 8.04 in my Quad core desktop 2 days back. The installation was smooth. The only issue I had was with partitioning. I usually create separate partitions in my hard drive for boot, root, home and swap directories before installation, but I didn't do that this time. I first thought of using the Guided Partition in Ubuntu installer, but I wasn't sure how it would partition. I never used that before, so I fired up GParted from the live CD and created partitions for the ext3 file system and installed Ubuntu.
According to two Gartner analysts, Windows operating system is collapsing and Microsoft must make radical changes to its operating system or risk becoming a has-been. It was pretty obvious to everyone who read about Vista or who used Vista. I have a quad core system with 3 Gig RAM and Vista is visibly slow in that.
Google has released Google Email Uploader which is an open source desktop utility to import emails and contacts from Windows desktop email clients like Microsoft Outlook. You need to have a Google Apps account in order to get Google Email Uploader to work. It won't work with regular GMail. This utility works only with Windows XP and Vista. If you are using Thunderbird email client and you have your emails stored in a different folder outside the Thunderbird profile folder, email uploader won't detect those mails. If you have Google Apps account and you want to use the uploader, you have to first activate by logging into your Google Apps account.
Microsoft announced today that they are extending support for Windows XP Home in ultra low cost PCs like Eee PC. As every little baby in the town knows, you can't run the bloated Windows Vista OS in any device other than the latest ones. This helped Linux gain more share in the ultra low cost PCs since Linux's footprint is pretty small. Microsoft still holds a major chunk of share in the PC market, but it's slowly losing to Linux on the low end PCs. To stop that, Microsoft today extended the sales and support for Windows XP Home until June 30th, 2010. Microsoft is expecting to launch Windows 7 (next version of the bloated OS) by that time. If Windows 7 is a derivative of Vista, will Microsoft extend the deadline for XP again or will they create a Windows 7 mini for ULCPC?
I installed Firefox 3.0 beta 4 on my Vista system. I didn't like the default theme. It appeared greyish blue which I felt was not pleasing. I installed 4 new themes which were compatible with Firefox 3 (Firefox 3.0 didn't allow me to install the ones that were not compatible with Firefox 3.0). When I switched to the new theme, the Google search box on top right was not displayed correctly. The Google logo was somewhere near the middle of the search box and I couldn't see the first few letters I entered in the search box. All 4 themes showed it in the same way. Only the default theme worked fine. I'm not sure if it's the theme problem or my Firefox installation problem. Here are the list of themes I tried:
Mozilla released Firefox 2.0.0.9 today. This is a stability update. This release fixed bugs created by Firefox 2.0.0.8. Here are some of the bugs fixed, according to Mozilla.
I read this interesting article in PC World which narrates the arguments between a mother frustrated with Vista OS and Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer at Gartner Inc. conference in Orlando, FL.
Yvonne Genovese, an analyst told Ballmer that her daughter wanted to use gadgets in Vista, so she installed Vista in her daughter's PC (What a grave mistake!!!).
Ballmer said «I love your daughter».
The mother shot back «You're not going to like her mom in about two minutes».
She went back to XP since Vista was bulky, bloated and not easy to implement.
«Let's start with the end user. Your daughter saw a lot of value» said Ballmer.
«She's 13,» Genovese shot back.
Ballmer also said that Vista is bigger than XP, and «for some people
that's an issue, and it's not going to get smaller in any significant
way in SP1. But machines are constantly getting bigger, and [it's]
probably important to remember that as well.»
«Good, I'll let you come in and install it for me» said Genovese.
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