Ah yes, Internet Explorer 6. It has more holes than Swiss cheese, is exploited easily and is slow as molasses. It doesn’t even do tabs.

You might be thinking, "What moron would still use IE 6 when you could use 7 or 8?"

Corporations would, that’s who.

Windows 2000 is still used widely in the enterprise environment. And as anyone who uses 2000 knows, it won’t support any IE version higher than 6.

Additionally, the majority of enterprise environments absolutely will not allow the installation of any other browser, such as Firefox or Opera.

According to an article published on Lifehacker, a whopping 60% of companies still have the default browser as IE 6.

Concerning your web site or blog, if you want to ensure the widest possible audience, it should work in IE 6.

"But I don’t have IE 6 to test with", you say. Not a problem. There are ways around that.

Workaround 1: Install a virtual environment of Windows XP or 2000.

Download VirtualBox, grab your copy of XP or 2000 and install it, and you’ll get IE 6.

Workaround 2: BrowserCam

This is a web designer’s best friend for testing compatibility of your web site. It is a paid service but there is a free trial so you can see if it’s your thing or not. This service tests web sites in Windows/Mac/Linux using a plethora of different native-environment browsers from you to choose from. I have used this service before and it works great.

Workaround 3: Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Image

"VPC" is "Virtual PC". Microsoft does understand that designers need to test things in previous editions of IE and has VHD (Virtual Hard Disk) images ready to download for that purpose.

This is essentially the same as creating your own virtual machine, but with Microsoft’s available offerings they’ve done all the work for you. All you have to do is download, install and go.

A standard argument by Linux users is that if WINE cannot run a Windows  app for whatever reason, do it virtually. Load up Windows in a virtual session with your app of choice, be it VMware, Virtualbox or the like, load up your Windows session and run your app that way.

There is nothing to my knowledge that Linux cannot run virtually if WINE doesn’t cut it. But how well Windows apps can run in virtual is something else.

A few examples:

You’re a web designer and need to test your site designs in Internet Explorer 7 for browser compatibility. Running XP virtually to do that is fine because performance is not an issue.

You’re a blogger and really like Windows Live Writer. This is just a word processor, more or less. Running it virtually won’t be a problem here either.

You’re trying to edit video. You want to run something like Adobe Premiere, Ulead Mediastudio or some other high-powered video editing suite that you bought previously. Can you run this in virtual? Yes. Will it work well? Not a chance. The frame rate on preview will be terrible and so much memory will be sucked into the virtual session that it will probably crash it (not Linux, just the virtual session).

You want to play your favorite Windows games. Can they be emulated in Linux? Yes. Will they work as well? Most likely not. Frame rates will drop and overall gameplay won’t be as fluid. And no, saying "play on a console" is not a solution. There are many reasons why PC gamers like playing games on PCs and not consoles.

The only time I’ve seen Linux have a legitimate problem with emulation is when there’s any high-graphic app involved. The virtual software we have at present still can’t deliver performance as well as natively under Windows. It is virtual, after all.

In the end, I honestly can’t think of anything else that can’t be run in virtual or have a Linux native equivalent.

Have you run a Windows app in Linux that was a bust in WINE and/or virtual?

Name your apps. Did you find Linux equivalents or other creative ways of getting around virtual limitations? Let us know.

Before reading this article, check out the video below (or at least watch the first 1 minute of it).

All major operating systems have a way of making multiple virtual screens (even Windows XP with Virtual Desktop Manager from the PowerToys set).

The idea of one continuous scrolling desktop seems like a good idea. And in fact it is. This is most likely what will happen to desktop environments in the future. Since we all have computers powerful enough to run full 3D-accelerated environments (ask any Linux user that uses Compiz), the idea of a “360″ desktop is a sound one.

I downloaded and tried out 360desktop.

There were a few immediate things that bothered me:

1. I couldn’t choose my own panorama image (what good is a GUI if you can’t use your own wallpaper?)
2. The panorama image only worked on one of my two monitors (I have a dual-screen setup).
3. The animation was choppy.

I can see the potential of how this could become the Next Big Thing in the future. After all, it is in fact easier to have a scrolling desktop with your own marked points rather than be forced into specific screens.

Want to try out 360desktop and see what you think? Go ahead. It works on both XP and Vista. See what you think of it.

[Via: Lifehacker]

Some routers have special means of handling Virtual Private Networks (VPN). Other routers may require putting the client computer for the VPN in the DMZ, which has reduced security. VPN features vary widely from router to router, and many routers do not have any VPN-specific features at all.

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