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InformationWeek Analytics: State Of Open Source
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| As for open source desktop operating systems, we saw growth in use of Linux
| in 2008 primarily among developers. But as this group enhances desktop Linux
| variants and contributes that code back to the community, projects like
| Ubuntu become more viable alternatives for the enterprise.
|
| On the support front, while 18% of poll respondents purchase support from
| their open source vendors, most depend on internal resources. Few end users
| will be able to diagnose and repair even minor issues in open source desktop
| software, and even fewer will be able to decode the highly technical forums
| and wikis that comprise the support community, so competent in-house IT
| resources are a requirement for any organization using open source on the
| desktop.
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http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/open_source/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=217300671&subSection=All+Stories
Recent:
Windows 7: 83% Of Businesses Won't Deploy Next Year
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| The survey, of more than 1,100 IT professionals, is one of the first
| extensive looks at Windows 7's early sales prospects. It found that a
| whopping 83% of enterprises plan to skip the OS in its first year. While the
| business market typically tends toward caution when it comes to new products,
| the figure is nonetheless surprising given that almost no large companies
| migrated to Vista and as a result most have been using XP much longer than
| planned.
|
| [...]
|
| The open source Linux OS also could benefit from slow uptake of Windows 7 in
| the enterprise market, as could Google's Android OS -- which some computer
| makers are reportedly testing as a netbook platform. Fifty percent of those
| surveyed by Dimensional Research said they've considered switching to a
| non-Windows OS to avoid Vista or Windows 7
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http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/operatingsystems/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=216500331&subSection=News
The Windows 7 beta testing disaster
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| So what are Windows 7’s damning problems?
|
| –Windows usage is on the decline, and while Windows XP was an acceptable OS
| from the standards of 2001, both the Mac OS X and Linux distributions such as
| Ubuntu have matured. Microsoft also launched many other business ventures
| that it had hoped to subsidize entirely as loss leaders using Windows and
| Office sales to run the other guys out of business, but with sales of those
| faulting combined with massive XBOX 360 hardware failures, giving up on the
| Zune 2 years in with 4% of the market, and failing to put a chink in Google’s
| services, Microsoft is getting desperate.
|
| –They’re not listening to real users, they’re listening to a focus group if
| that, and the focus group gave us the McLean Deluxe, which was a total
| disaster for McDonalds. But unlike McDonalds, Microsoft has the advantage of
| no competitors. If we want to put Windows in the McLean Deluxe analogy,
| Windows thrives because all restaurants are McDonalds, all grocery stores are
| closed, and the only thing on the menu is the mystery meat. At least til
| lately.
|
| –Abusing their OEM partners for years hasn’t won them any friends, and
| mainline PC vendors such as HP and Dell are marketing Linux systems now with
| no Microsoft Tax. This isn’t helped by the fact that the only thing Microsoft
| has that is nimble enough to run on the Netbooks that they totally failed to
| see coming is 8 years old (XP) and that they are giving Windows away in a
| massive dumping operation to keep Linux off these things, because Linux is
| far more capable.
|
| –There’s no way to actually file detailed bugs and communicate with Windows
| developers or to have any ETA on a patch if one is coming. If you need help
| it costs $49.99 per incident to get someone that probably knows less than you
| do on the phone. You can’t just go to an IRC room and talk to the person that
| wrote it.
|
| –Windows 7 is in short, Vista all over again. It may be masquerading as a
| huge upgrade but the changes have been trivial, superficial, and usually skin
| deep at best, and “eat my data” and “fail to even load my program” at worst.
| Even my dad saw it running on my test system while he was over the other day
| and thought it was Vista. I had to point to the Windows 7 build number on the
| desktop because there’s almost no way to tell them apart otherwise.
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http://izanbardprince.wordpress.com/2009/04/14/the-windows-7-beta-testing-disaster/
Windows 7 Unmasked
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| But after the stage props came down, and after the projectors finally went
| cold, attendees were left with a pre-beta copy of something that looked less
| like a new OS than the repackaging of an old one. At least that was my
| impression after I started exploring the Windows 7 M3 (Milestone 3) bits that
| came on my shiny new 160GB Western Digital USB hard disk (one of the better
| tchotchkes I've received at a conference). As I reported on my Enterprise
| Desktop blog, the more I dug into Windows 7, the more I saw an OS that looked
| and felt like a slightly tweaked version of Windows Vista.
|
| [...]
|
| Just what was so new about Microsoft's next Windows, apart from a rejuggled
| UI? Windows 7 appeared to suck memory like Vista, to consume CPU like Vista,
| and to have the same consumer focus. How would this product be received by
| enterprise customers, the vast majority of whom had soundly rejected its
| predecessor? After all, if Vista wasn't good enough for big business, then
| surely a Vista-derived encore would meet with a similarly chilly reception.
|
| [...]
|
| Otherwise, Windows 7 operates much like Vista. There are subtle visual tweaks
| here and there, but nothing on the level of the dramatic XP-to-Vista
| transition. Ironically, Vista users may be more annoyed by the UI changes
| than users coming from XP. Because the Windows 7 and Vista Aero experiences
| are so similar, seasoned users of Vista will be more likely to look in the
| wrong places for common functions. By contrast, XP users won't be burdened
| with now-outdated Aero navigation skills.
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http://www.pcworld.com/article/153624/windows_7_preview.html?tk=rss_news
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