It’s a curious move, coming from one of the largest software companies in the world, but a welcome one. Yes, it’s a transparent attempt to fight open-source software by getting companies hooked on their product before they’ve grown into the next Google. But it can also help such companies when they need it the most. [...]
Archive of posts filed under the The Great OS Wars category.
Roast Pidgin
A few days ago, I started getting this message from Pidgin, the instant-messaging client that Ubuntu Linux uses by default: The client version you are using is too old. Please upgrade at http://pidgin.im Well, I’ve seen that happen before, so I waited. Sure enough, that evening’s software update told me that there was an upgrade [...]
“SCO boss to customers: ‘Blah. Blah. Blah’”
This is just too good not to mention.
“Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2′s (Familiar) New Features”
I like this review, especially the somewhat-snarky paragraph at the end: All in all, IE 8 beta 2 sucks a lot less than one might expect, given IE6 and IE7. It feels like the product is truly catching up to the current state of the browser art, and the fact that my brother-in-law will get [...]
iPod Touch, Part IV: Apple Screws Linux Users Again
At the end of my last iPod Touch entry, I mentioned that I was going to try jailbreaking the Touch so I could load music onto it from Linux, instead of relying on a VMware Windows machine. I did so. Everything seemed to work with no problem, but after I loaded any song into it, [...]
“Windows XP crashes out of Olympics?”
If you have any sympathy at all for Microsoft, you’ve gotta wince at this story. It’s not the first time something like that has happened either… on a trip to Toronto a few years ago, I saw an absolutely HUGE electronic billboard — which was showing a gigantic Windows error message-box instead of the ads [...]
iPod Touch, Part III: Adventures in Data-Moving
So, having learned that the iPod Touch probably could replace my slowly-dying Palm TX, I’ve picked one up a few days ago. The box said that it required Windows or Mac OS X, which is an irritation but not a problem; I have this system set up to dual-boot between Ubuntu Linux and Windows XP, [...]
iPod Touch, Part II
Well, I did it. I’m writing this entry on my new (and newly-updated) iPod Touch. I have to say, I really like the interface. I’m still trying to figure out how to import all of my data to it, other than the music, but I’ll get it eventually. (This post is mostly a test.)
“Exploit code targets Mac OS X, iTunes, Java, Winzip…”
Lovely. Okay developers, time to get moving — add public-key code-signing stuff, so that your programs can tell whether they’re getting a legitimate update or not. Don’t know how, and don’t have time to learn? Try the GnuPG Made Easy (GPGME) library. I’m happy to say that Ubuntu Linux isn’t affected by this, because it [...]
“MS products just too cool to comprehend, say MS geeks”
As I’m not an MS geek, I couldn’t refute the headline any better than the article does.