Last week, Jason authored an article on reasons why to use Linux. Jason is a real fan of Linux and I was part of the “heated discussion” he refers to at the beginning of his article. His article really did touch a nerve and has quickly become one of those most popular articles on all of PCMech.

Seeing as I was, indeed, part of said “heated discussion”, I thought I would shed some light on my personal choice of computer: the Mac.

Continued

Damn. Whoah. And at the same time, yeah.

This is how I reacted when I saw a story which cites a pair of Gartner analysts saying that Windows is “collapsing”. They go on to say that the situation is “untenable” and that Microsoft must make radical changes to the OS or risk becoming old news.

According to the story on ComputerWorld:

In a presentation at a Gartner-sponsored conference in Las Vegas, analysts Michael Silver and Neil MacDonald said Microsoft has not responded to the market, is overburdened by nearly two decades of legacy code and decisions, and faces serious competition on a whole host of fronts that will make Windows moot unless the software developer acts.

Speaking for myself, I have been THOROUGHLY disabused by the Windows Vista fiasco, so much so that I abandoned Windows altogether and am now using all OS X on 3 different Macs. Sure, I still use Windows in a virtual session, but it is XP. What Vista showed me is that Microsoft just doesn’t get it. Vista is a bloated piece of crap, and the Gartner guys correctly point out that it is weighed down by nearly two decades of legacy code.

Microsoft - STOP the legacy support! It will be the death of Windows. Seriously, are they going to release Windows 7 in 2010 and still attempt to support hardware that is 10+ years old?

Microsoft is obviously trying to make Windows all things to everybody, and in the process they are making it too little for almost everybody.

Andy Beal, from Marketing Pilgrim, makes a great point: Is Microsoft Rushing to Acquire Yahoo Before Windows Shatters? Even Arrington over at Techcrunch is echoing this point, saying THIS is why the MicroHoo deal needs to happen. The question is this: If Microsoft loses it’s grip over the desktop environment, do they then need to position themselves quickly to be a leader in the online environment?

And Microsoft hasn’t exactly been a leader online. They are a reactionary company. They see somebody else doing well in a market and they devise a way to take over. Perhaps the Yahoo deal is just Microsoft being Microsoft. Can’t beat ‘em - BUY THEM!

My only hope here is that the Microsoft culture does not kill off what we like about Yahoo. The two companies have very different cultures, and I’m really failing to see exactly how Microsoft fits into the equation - except for the fact that they are just rushing to stay relevant in a computing world shifting increasingly to the Internet.

It looks as if Microsoft is now contradicting comments from their chairman Bill Gates. Gates originally had said that Windows 7 may be shipping as early as 2009. A Microsoft spokesman, though, as come out and said:

“We are currently in the planning stages for Windows 7 and development is scoped to three years from Windows Vista consumer.”

Since Vista came out in 2007, that would put Windows 7 into 2010. This was revealed in an email sent to Information Week.

Windows 7 is currently in the very initial phases of development under the codename Blackcomb. The fact that so many are already looking forward to Windows 7 is testament to the relative failure of Vista to impress, well, anybody.

Personally, I’m not waiting for Windows 7 for anything more than curiosity. For me, the big question will be:

Did Microsoft learn anything from the Vista debacle?

We shall see.

There is a lawsuit against Microsoft afoot for the misrepresentation of the “Vista capable” designation. The judge in that case got a collection of internal emails. In that collection of emails comes an interesting statistic: that almost 30% of logged crashes of Windows Vista were caused by Nvidia video drivers.

According to the story on Ars:

Microsoft’s data strongly indicates that the problems were real. Damon Poeter at CRN dug through the documentation to find that on page 47 of the PDF, NVIDIA drivers were identified as the cause of over 479,000 crashes, or just under 29 percent of all the crashes Microsoft logged. Microsoft’s own drivers follow, at 17.9 percent, and the “Unknown” category takes third place at 17 percent. ATI is in fourth place (9.3 percent) and Intel in fifth place (8.83 percent).

We have been hearing about problems with Nvidia under Vista from PCMech visitors. In fact, I personally had issues using Nvidia in 2007 under Vista. I had to actually go out and spring for an ATI card just to make my video system work under Windows Vista. Needless to say, I was pissed.

So, these emails pretty much confirm what we informally already knew: Nvidia was (and perhaps is still) problematic under Windows Vista.

Even Microsoft VPs got “personally burnt” by the Vista-capable stickers.

It really is hard to imagine how Microsoft could have so royally screwed up with Windows Vista.

Two words: Save XP.

Source: Ars Technica via Engadget

For Windows Vista users wanting to make modifications to some of the user interface and security settings, check out WinBubble. You can think of WinBubble as a TweakUI for Vista which allows you to:

• Customize OEM information.
• Customize screensavers.
• Tweak security settings (disable task manager, control panel, etc.).
• Activate a hidden Aurora boot screen.

This program is 100% free and worth a look for Vista users.

Windows XP will be officially retired in June 2008. And maybe you’re the type of person that says "Well.. I like my computer the way it is and I really don’t feel like buying a new computer or changing the operating system. How long can I continue to use XP before it’s unusable?"

The answer is about 2 years (roughly).

"Unusable" defined: The point where little to no off-the-shelf hardware or software is supported by your computer’s operating system.

When any OS is retired, the computer industry doesn’t toss it aside like yesterday’s newspaper. Hundreds of thousands of people (and businesses) will continue to use it well past the retirement mark. If there’s a market for the OS, companies will continue to make both hardware and software products for it.

Taking example from the past

Microsoft ended support for Windows 98 in June 2002. This was well after Windows XP was available to the public (December 2001).

Even so, Windows 98 stuck around for a while. It took a couple of years before XP overtook ‘98 as the standard where the computer industry said "Okay, we’re not making stuff for ‘98 anymore. It’s XP now."

Taking example from the present

Windows Vista is not the #1 OS in use and won’t be for a while. It’s still XP and will continue to be for a while even after June 30, 2008.

In fact it’s probably a safe bet to say Windows Vista will never be the #1 OS due to the fact another Windows will appear in 2009 (supposedly). So if anything, the one to wait for is what comes after Vista.

To extend XP for as long as possible, use open source apps

If you’re the die-hard type that wants to squeeze every possible penny out of XP, the best way to do it is with open source applications.

Open source apps are designed from the ground up to be extendable. What this means to you is that they’re "light" and don’t require as much computing power as retail apps. So even if your computer box is old and XP is old, open source allows you to stay on top of the game even if you have a yesteryear OS and box.

Open source apps are easy to come by. You probably use a few of them already such as Firefox or OpenOffice. There are many others available.

When will the time be to throw in the towel?

Ultimately this is your decision, but you will know it’s time to ditch XP for something else when the computer industry itself won’t support it any longer.

At present this is not the case. There is still wide support for XP for both hardware and software. And even with Vista in existence the industry still champions XP. As of now there is absolutely no need to worry about obsolescence with Windows XP.

But in about 2 years it will be a legitimate concern, especially with new upcoming technologies that will become standard (like USB 3.0). If you run an OS that has no official support from the company who made it, there won’t be any native OS support developed.

I stumbled across a really handy feature in Windows Vista, which is the ability to display the time in multiple time zones using the system clock.

This is easy to set up:

1. Right click on the time in the task bar and select Adjust Date/Time.
2. Go to the Additional Clocks tab.
3. Select the check box to show the additional clock, pick a time zone and give it a title.
4. You can add up to 2 additional time zones this way.
5. Apply your changes.

Now hover the mouse over the clock in the system tray and you will see your additional times are displayed along with the local time. This feature is very useful to me since I have customers in several different time zones around the World.