RedHat Linux

previously mentioned the $100 laptop initiative and repeatedly referred to cheap computers in general. An article in the Wall Street Journal now claims that the $100 laptop is nearing reality. It will supposedly run Red Hat Linux on AMD processors.

A novel plan to develop a $100 laptop computer for distribution to millions of schoolchildren in developing countries has caught the interest of governments and the attention of computer-industry heavyweights.

Steve Jobs, Apple Computer Inc.’s chief executive, offered to provide free copies of the company’s operating system, OS X, for the machine, according to Seymour Papert, a professor emeritus at MIT who is one of the initiative’s founders. “We declined because it’s not open source,” says Dr. Papert, noting the designers want an operating system that can be tinkered with. An Apple spokesman declined to comment.

Older items on inexpensive hardware:

• How Cheap Can Computers Become?
• Cost-effective Computers
• Dirt-Cheap Computers
• Expensive Developers, Cheap Hardware

Season of the playful penguins from Oyonale

Microsoft released a report that is very damaging to the image of their operating system. As Paul Murphy from ZDNet put it, ‘Unix beats Windows’ – says Microsoft!.

What’s noteworthy about it is that Microsoft compared Singularity to FreeBSD and Linux as well as Windows/XP – and almost every result shows Windows losing to the two Unix variants. For example, they show the number of CPU cycles needed to “create and start a process” as 1,032,000 for FreeBSD, 719,000 for Linux, and 5,376,000 for Windows/XP.”

Microsoft are still trying to defend their new operating system called Singularity, but in the process they lead to public confusion and doubt. As we approach the release of Windows Vista (due next year), the Gartner group suggests that Vista should be ignored until 2008.

Companies shouldn’t rush to upgrade to Microsoft Windows Vista, according to analysts at Gartner, who believe most firms could safely hold back until 2008.

The majority of improvements in Vista will be security-related and most of this functionality “is available via third-party products today”, Gartner claimed in a research note published on Friday.

Believe it or not, Microsoft decided to include Linux equipment in their network environmernt, as was reported last week.

The next time Bill Gates sends an e-mail through Microsoft’s shiny new Wireless LAN it will be passed through a behind-the-scenes Linux-based network appliance.

[...]

Pandey’s (senior director of Microsoft IT) appraisal of Aruba’s technology is in stark contrast to Microsoft’s “Get the Facts” rhetoric which places Windows as a more secure, and higher-performing choice over Linux.

I decided to take this a step further and compose a pseudo BBC article on Bill Gates’ full migration to Linux. Notice that the URL clearly contains the word ¨Amusement¨, which gives context and clarifies that all is cynicism, I hope.

“Me loves me penguin…”

Bill is still determined to win

The following item was published just half an hour ago. It speaks of a memo from Bill Gates, which reflects on fear from the Web giants.

SEATTLE – The technology industry shift’s to Internet-based software and services represents a massive and disruptive “sea change,” Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates wrote to top-level executives in a memo aimed at rallying his troops against the new competitive threats the company faces.

Gates compares the push toward such services — which range from online business software offerings to free Web-based e-mail — to the changes he saw nearly a decade ago. Then, he wrote a now-famous memo, called “The Internet Tidal Wave,” the (sic.) prompted a massive shift at Microsoft toward Internet-based technology.

This is closely related to an article from CNN on AJAX and its effect on Windows. A few days ago Gates announced the creation of Internet-based Office and prematurely unveiled live.com.

Yesterday I discovered a user-friendly AJAX development environment called Morfik. It resembles Visual Basic in terms of productivity, I’m informed. Will Web applications soon be constructed as easily and rapidly as desktop-based applications. If so, will Morfik, the sponsor of the recent Web 2.0 conference, take a strong lead? Let us remember that Web applications require no installation, to name just one among the distinguishable traits. This makes them easy to market and promote.

OUSE gestures are the means for commanding actions using movement of the mouse. The user, for example, could jiggle the mouse and/or use combinations of mouseclicks to flip from one Web page to another or insert a piece of commonly-used text such as an E-mail signature. More usefully, programs can be opened by drawing letters and numbers that menmonically characterise them.

There are free software packages for enabling mouse gestures, all of which are rather light-weight:

Linux: WayV – Supports text commands, e.g. quick insertion of names, frequently-used Web site addresses, form filling, etc. WayV supports binding to either a mouse key or a mouse combination with keyboard triggers such as SHIFT or ALT, which avoid collisions. There is no front-end for configuration of actions and gestures, yet (as of 2001).

Windows: StrokeIt – A graphical interface for configuring mouse gestures, which supports plenty of actions. A clear distance is taken from the command-line approach (as in WayV), so there is good abstraction which helps any beginner. The application, however, does not look very modern. It is said to be the ‘standard’ mouse gesture application for Windows users nonetheless.

Note that both Windows and Linux applications don’t appear to have been maintained (nor extended) for a very long time. Regardless, they still are compatible with modern desktop environments.

Firefox (cross-platform): Optimoz – One extension which I personally consider to be a Firefox essential is the Optimoz Mouse Gestures extension. It is only one among several mouse gestures extensions, of which I tried a few. Opera includes mouse gestures ‘out of the box’ and is apparently the root of browser mouse gestures.

Alternative: Keyboard accelerators – Keyboard shortcut keys (for Linux/Windows) can be quick provided that the user gets the mouse and keyboard positioning right and has memorised the key-to-program assignments. Keyboard accelerators are only one among several methods for invoking programs.

All in all, I still find use of the keyboard accelerators to be faster then mouse gestures. This is also a matter of habit.

Longhorn beta – old screenshot

ICROSOFT are said to offering too much choice in their upcoming Windows Vista. Some would even say that they are bound to failure due to this strategy. 7 editions of Vista are simply too much and customer confusion is foreseen.

As if a dozen editions/versions of Windows¹ was not excessive, Singularity — a research O/S — has recently been introduced by Microsoft. It is probably intended to address the many inherent deficiencies in Windows, primarily security and customisability. Singularity will in fact be built from scratch, which is reminiscent of what was previously said about Vista as words leaked out from Redmond.

If Microsoft pursue a research O/S, then so be it, but researchers are largely not fond of Windows, especially in scientific research domains. Windows is simply too restrictive and insufficiently flexible (unless one pays). The move to Singularity is absurd, in my opinion, as people do not want to completely separate research environments from other activities.

Research involves writing documents and surfing the Web, for example. Having one operating system at home a yet another O/S, which is dedicated to research at work, is utterly confusing and unnecessary. It also support the point regarding confusion in Vista, which will be distributed in 7 editions. To use analogies, it is like having a truck and a motorcycle both for the puspose of transporting one passenger. More so, it is like having completely separate sets of dishes for chicken and ham.

¹ Windows ME, 2000, NT, XP Home+Professional are still supported, but only partially and not for long either.

FeedLounge: one among many (Web)
applications which tolerate invalid feeds

HEER hypocrisy is the only way one can describe the latest statement from Microsoft’s RSS team. Microsoft have broken and ignored many International standards over the years. This caused many application to malfunction even when they stuck with standards. Now, when matters do not suit them, Microsoft decide to say farewell to feeds that are not well-formed XML [rel="nofollow"]. Many projects, even the tiniest among them, have tolerated malformed RSS feeds. Yet, this appear to be too much to ask from biggest standards-breaking criminal of all.

Potentially, Windows Vista and Internet Explorer 7 will simply refuse to handle anything that does not adhere to or complies with standards. Need I even mention that Microsoft are set to ‘extend’ RSS, thus breaking RSS protocols?

Our years of experience in with HTML in Internet Explorer have taught us the long-term pain that results from being too liberal with what you accept from others. Hence, we%u2019ve adopted the following overriding principle for IE 7 and RSS platform in Windows Vista:

We will only support feeds that are well-formed XML.