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Desktop Linux doubled in 2006

I already reported that the Mac is on a massive ramp, but what about Linux? Well, according to this note on Slashdot, desktop Linux nearly doubled in the past year (to 0.81%). Nothing to write home about, perhaps, but still significant.

Vista may be cruising, but when you have the Mac and Linux growing at torrid paces, there's serious cause for Microsoft alarm. The world doesn't seem to want its online presence, where most of the action is. Microsoft continues to churn out monopoly rents on Office and Windows, but as the world moves online and open … Read more

Portals vs. social networks: Which will prevail?

Over at Micropersuasion, Steve Rubel is making a bold prediction: The portals will be big winners in the social-networking wars.

"Social networking is certainly rising and there seems to be no end in sight to the phenomenon. However, what I do know is that people will jump around from one Myfaceborkutspace to another and not all of them will win," Rubel wrote.

He is referring to Long Tail author Chris Anderson, who points out that all good web sites should have elements of social networking and therefore suggests that social networking is a "feature, not a destination.&… Read more

New entry-level Xbox 360 model imminent?

Now that the long-rumored "bargain" PS3 now a reality (in Europe, anyway), how will Microsoft respond? Over the past few months, the company has refreshed the bulk of the 360 line: the $450 Elite debuted in April with a large 120GB hard drive, HDMI port, and (finally!) black color scheme; the Pro (a.k.a. "Premium") 20GB model got a $50 price cut and HDMI upgrade; and there's even a limited-run $400 Halo Edition (basically, the Pro with a military camo paint job) for $400. But what of the lowly Xbox 360 Core System? The … Read more

Watching the 'Microsoft killers' come and go

Readers responding to my Friday morning column seem to agree that Adobe has come up with an interesting wrinkle with its Adobe Integrated Runtime technology.

Check out the vigorous discussion going on in the Talkback section of the piece. At the same time, I've received a ton of private e-mail. One, in particular, stood out. The author, who asked to remain unidentified, described the goings-on at a small financial services firm where many of the developers enjoy close relationships with Microsoft.

Within the last couple of months, there's been a shift away from .Net for front-end development in … Read more

Microsoft's risky, misleading ad campaign

Just when I thought Microsoft couldn't do worse than it's done, I see something like this ad:

It wouldn't be so bad if the person quoted actually still worked for his State (Illinois in this case). Nor would it be quite as bad if the person in question - Paul Campbell - weren't involved in a swirl of federal subpoenas, allegations of serious ethics violations, and general incompetence.

Campbell's so slick, I wouldn't be surprised to see him out hitting the campaign trail for Microsoft's OOXML efforts.… Read more

Microsoft to issue seven patches on Tuesday

As part of this month's Patch Tuesday, coming next week, Microsoft plans to release seven patches, four rated "critical" and three "important." Affected software includes Windows (Windows 2000, XP, and Vista), Office (Word and SharePoint Server), Internet Explorer, Outlook Express and Windows Mail. One patch affects Microsoft Office 2004 for the Mac.

Zune vs. Samsung

After having a day to reflect on Microsoft's latest Zune offering, I began to think that perhaps the iPod vs. Zune battle is a little too obvious. Whether the iPod's position at the top of the MP3 player food chain is deserved or not, history has shown us that it will likely stay there. The real question is, "As the holidays approach, which MP3 player will come in second place?"

When it comes to interface and killer features, the challenger that Microsoft should really keep an eye on is the yet-to-be-released Samsung YP-P2 I reported on back in August. Although Samsung hasn't released pricing information yet, things could really heat up if the YP-P2 can get close to the $149 and $199 price points of the iPod Nano and Flash-based Zunes. Not only does the YP-P2 offer a 3-inch touch screen and built in Bluetooth, but it also has the advantage of not being Microsoft. Honestly, after Apple's successful "I'm a Mac" smear campaign, it's tough to convince people that Microsoft makes cool gear (unless you've got Halo 3 as bait).

We've been able to dig up two videos on YouTube that demonstrate the interface for both the Zune and Samsung YP-P2.… Read more

Microsoft's .Net gets the shared-source treatment

Microsoft has been notoriously anti-open source in the past, so today's announcement that it will be releasing the source code for its .Net Framework comes as a bit of a surprise.

The source code will be released under Microsoft's Reference License. This means that you can only use the source as a reference for debugging, maintaining or enhancing your applications. You cannot modify or distribute the code for any purpose. This happens to be the most restricted shared-source license that Microsoft has. This announcement confirms that .Net is going to be shared source, not to be confused with … Read more