The Open Road

As news broke this week that Microsoft and Nokia would be partnering to (brace yourself!) port Office to Nokia phones, followed by the equally momentous (or not) news that (sit down for this one!) Microsoft will replace Entourage with Outlook for Mac OS X, I couldn't help but agree with Larry Dignan's assessment of the Nokia deal:

Simply put, Nokia and Microsoft are the equivalent of two St. Bernards that are forced to run in 90 degree heat and high humidity. They're big. They're winded. And they could knock you over--if they could only catch you.

I happen to compete with Microsoft in one area that it is growing from strength to strength (SharePoint), but for everyone else, Microsoft is becoming a footnote in the history of computing.

Sure, it's still big. Yes, it still competes vigorously. But with the odd exception (Bing, perhaps), Microsoft just doesn't seem to have the energy to compete anymore. One indication of this is that most of the dirt that Roy Schestowitz digs up on Microsoft is from old court records. It's as if Microsoft struggles even to be nasty anymore.

So Microsoft dresses up tired press releases like the Outlook on Mac announcement "like they've been working in the lab for some time now and have had some technological breakthrough that allows them to bring Outlook to Max OS X," as ZDNet's Sam Diaz puts it. The breakthrough would be putting Outlook in the cloud, Google Apps-style. It would be creating products that wow in the same way that Apple's do.

But Microsoft doesn't wow in its traditional businesses. Surface, yes. Project Natal, yes. But there doesn't seem to be much creative gas left in the enterprise computing tank.

And perhaps that's the point. How much innovation can there be, really, in Office? Or the Windows operating system? These are old paradigms that don't need window dressing: they need the window shattered and shifted to completely new methodologies of computing, similar to what Google (Web) and Apple (entertainment) are doing.

The desktop is a tired metaphor. This is why Google's Chrome OS, while not necessarily manna from heaven, is a welcome change, and just the sort of thing that Microsoft should be investing in, but is structurally, financially incapable of promoting in the same way and to the same degree that Google does. Because Microsoft dies if it innovates its way out of its Office and Windows businesses too quickly.

Google may be resorting to some of Microsoft's most frustrating practices, using its strong products to prop up weak siblings, but at least those siblings promise a different mode of computing.

Apple offers a premium "desktop" experience that makes old feel new. Google replaces the "desktop" with the Web. Open source commoditizes and then innovates enterprise IT, as Accenture's Alex Wied recently wrote. What does this leave Microsoft?

It leaves Microsoft desperately needing to refresh its approach to the market. Immediately. It can live off its billions for a long, long time, but it risks becoming like CA: ever-present but not very relevant.

Follow me on Twitter @mjasay.

Some in the open-source camp would have you believe that open source is an all-or-nothing proposition. For such people, to believe that Linux makes for a superior server operating system is also to dedicate oneself to using open source for business applications, personal productivity, mobile, and likely brushing one's teeth. Open source on a proprietary platform like Mac OS X? Perish the thought!

But life is more complicated than that, and it turns out that there is exceptional open-source software for the Mac (or for Windows, for that matter).

The H Online has kicked off a nice "Open Source Stars for Mac OS X" series, one that I'd recommend all Mac users review. But for those who just want to know the best of the basics, here are my favorites:

• Firefox (Web browser) - Given Firefox's availability for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, this one won't be a surprise to anyone, but if you haven't used it lately, do give it a try. It continues to be the most feature-rich Web browser due to its large and variegated add-on community.
• Adium (instant messaging) - We will use Adium in heaven. Not only does it let me dress up my icon in an Arsenal uniform, but it manages all of my different instant messaging accounts (AIM, YIM, MSN, Skype, Facebook, Gtalk, and even Twitter/Identi.ca). It's like Trillian for Windows, only about one trillion times better.
• Zimbra (e-mail) - While geared toward enterprise-class messaging, you can use Zimbra (either the Web client or desktop or, in my case, both) for personal e-mail, as well. With the ability to extend its functionality through Zimlets and a Web user interface that continues to be best in class, Zimbra rocks.
• OpenOffice.org (office productivity) - I don't use this open-source alternative to Microsoft Office for word processing or spreadsheets, in part because I rarely use Word or Excel except for contracts and the occasional spreadsheet, two things with which I don't want to risk file format compatibility. But I actually prefer OpenOffice's presentation program to PowerPoint. It has some functionality that PowerPoint lacks.
• Handbrake (video converter/ripper) - I travel a lot and want my movies to travel with me, without having to carry DVDs around with me. So I rip them to my hard drive with Handbrake. It's a tremendously powerful (because it's so simple) program. It's now available on Linux and Windows, but it grew up on the Mac and is still best on OS X, in my opinion. Get it. It was created by angels.
• VLC (media player) - If it has a codec, VLC will play it. Heck, VLC will probably play it if the file even remotely resembles video or audio. It just works, and it works with everything.
• Audacity (audio editor) - Have a music file that you want to convert to a ringtone for your Blackberry? Or simply want to clean up that podcast before you publish it? Audacity is powerful and fairly easy to use.
• Seashore (image editor) - Seashore doesn't have nearly as many features as Adobe's Photoshop, but if you want a basic image editor with more-than-basic functionality, check out Seashore. Based on Gimp, Seashore is easy to use, though I do wish it had image transformations. I do so like making my pictures look even more cartoonish.

There you have it. That's the basic list of open-source applications I use on my Mac. I use them because they work, and in some cases work exceptionally well, far better than their proprietary equivalents.

This, incidentally, is also why I prefer the Mac. Life is too short to use a given application simply because it's open source (or Microsoft, or whatever). Use what works. Increasingly, this will lead you to use open source. But for me, the Mac is still the best desktop platform available, period. I'm therefore loving the combination of Mac OS X and a variety of open-source applications.

Maybe you will, too.

Follow me on Twitter @mjasay.

The Wall Street Journal recently opined that "the inconvenient truth is that the earth's temperatures have flat-lined since 2001, despite growing concentrations of CO2," causing a greater number of scientists to question the science behind global warming. Whatever your opinion in the matter, it's certainly true that the world would be better off if we wasted less energy, which is what makes open-source Ecobot so useful.

Ecobot tracks your carbon footprint

(Credit: Taxi)

While programs like Amee help businesses measure their carbon footprints, Ecobot offers a personal "carbon trainer" for Mac users.

Designed by Taxi, a Canadian corporation, Ecobot is derived from Taxi's participation in the "Green for Green" competition. The program "calculates your carbon footprint by measuring the fuel, power, and paper you use," and, importantly, does a lot of this data aggregation automatically. ("Automatically" is good - heck, if we weren't so lazy, we probably wouldn't need all these vehicles to power us from Point A to Point B.)

Not only does Ecobot keep track of how many pages you print from your laptop, but it also tracks the wireless networks to which you connect and works with you to figure out how you got from one to the other, and calculates the carbon emissions required to make the journey.

Pretty slick.

Even if you're not a tree-hugging, carbon-footprint-obsessed member of the Greenimati, Ecobot is an easy-to-use, unobtrusive way to monitor how much carbon your lifestyle requires. Of course, it only works if you're a Mac user.

Even so, despite Dell's insistence that Apple's Macs aren't as green as Apple claims, Ecobot lets you be as green as you want to be...and brag about it to anyone patient enough to listen to you.

Follow me on Twitter @mjasay. But please consider the environment before printing out my 3,000-plus tweets.

Over the weekend I struggled to get Flash working on my Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook Remix build. I turned to Twitter and Google for support, and was dismayed by the response.

Some, like Canonical's Jono Bacon, were very helpful. The rest offered the somewhat standard Linux supporter's line:

"What are you talking about? Linux is as easy as Windows."

After trying to get Flash installed for hours - using Firefox's extensions directory, the command line, and everything else I could find - this wasn't super helpful.

Not that I'm much more helpful when others ask me for assistance. I'm a Mac user, and my typical response tends to be,

"What are you talking about? Mac OS X is even easier than Windows!"

In either case, telling the drowning woman that it's really easy to swim ("Just type "apt-get swimming lessons") or, worse, yelling at her for incompetence ("I can't believe you're telling me that you don't know what to do with a .dmg file! It's soooo much easier than Windows!"), really doesn't help to win people over to Linux or the Mac. Learning a new operating system is like learning a new language: talking louder doesn't improve communication.

Here's a hint for the Mac and Linux faithful: you won't convert Windows users by talking down to them. Focus on the positive aspects of your own operating environments and then demonstrate empathy and patience while showing newbies how to get around on Linux or Mac OS X.

Using such means they, too, will come to have the same superiority complex that we Mac and Linux users have.

Follow me on Twitter @mjasay.

I spent the weekend using Ubuntu 9.04 almost exclusively. Blame it on Apple.

Seven years ago I didn't know any better than to use Windows, but in 2002 I switched to the Mac and have never looked back. Between my Mac and my iPhone, I've lived a completely Windows-free existence for so long that I actually don't remember "the Windows way."

Which, I think, is why it has been so easy to pick up Ubuntu, Moblin, and other variants of Linux. But for the Mac, I don't think I'd be so willing to try a new operating system.

Linux has its problems: some things that should be easy still require too much user intervention. I spent far too much of my weekend just trying to get Flash to work so that I could check blog statistics and watch a video on Vimeo. I still can't get it to work.

That's the downside. The upside is that, generally speaking, the Linux user experience has been wonderful: clean, powerful, and approachable.

Though Moblin emulates much that is great about the Mac experience, Ubuntu seems to be trying to make things easy on Windows hold-outs. In both cases, however, it is the Mac and iPhone that, by example, make the switch possible.

Apple has taught an ever larger percentage of the computing public to think outside the Windows box. While many who jump from Windows to the Mac won't look back, this shift has created a heterogeneous computing environment that no longer depends upon a Windows monopoly. Users are beginning to consider and even to expect alternatives to Windows.

In fact, Windows is no longer the default computing experience for mobile. This opens up new vistas for Apple, of course, but it's also a great opportunity for the Linux vendors.

As Apple persists in resisting the Netbook urge, Linux variants like Moblin, Ubuntu Remix for Netbooks, and others will have the opportunity to serve consumers, consumers trained by Apple to "think different" and to think beyond Windows.

Apple reportedly considered Linux to power the iPhone. Instead, it is the iPhone (and Mac) that may well power the Linux industry. Next time you boot up your Linux machine you may want to thank Steve Jobs and the Apple crew.

Follow me on Twitter @mjasay.

Microsoft likes to tout the cost savings that derive from paying Windows-skilled employees less money.

That's great, if you're an employer, but if you're an engineer who needs to feed her family, the money is in Linux and Mac OS X skills, as highlighted in a recent post on the site of the Free and Open Source Software Learning Centre:

(Credit: Indeed.com)

Of course, once you look past the operating-system data, it's clear that open-source skills do, on average, command less of a premium, perhaps because they're in more abundant supply. Because students are more likely to have JBoss or MySQL experience upon graduation than Oracle or WebSphere experience, for example, there is greater supply to appease demand and, hence, reduce salaries, on average.

This is almost certainly the reason that Windows skills command lower salaries, too: Microsoft has done a great job of seeding the education market with free or low-cost versions of its software, making Windows and other Microsoft technologies pervasive and cheap to learn.

Are these lower salaries necessarily bad? Probably not. So long as the demand for such skills remains strong, taking a lower paycheck in return for greater job security is probably worth it.

If you're a student hoping to get a job after graduation, your best bet is likely to aim for the largest and/or most resilient markets.

With open source increasing its share of enterprise computing, it's a safe bet to invest in open-source software skills. There's safety in numbers.

Follow me on Twitter at mjasay.

In the process of pillorying the intelligence of buying Macs in the recession, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer may have admitted defeat in fighting Linux-based Netbooks. Ballmer said:

Paying an extra $500 for a computer in this environment--same piece of hardware--paying $500 more to get a logo on it? I think that's a more challenging proposition for the average person than it used to be.

But if this reasoning is sound against the Mac, doesn't the same apply to Microsoft in its competition with Linux? Glyn Moody thinks so:

This is a very frank analysis of the problem for Microsoft: after all, who's going to pay extra money just to get the Windows logo on a Netbook, when they can get the same features for less with free software?

What goes around, comes around. Indeed, Canonical's Ubuntu distribution already claims fealty from a host of OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) like Dell and Hewlett-Packard, with more signing on, and Novell also has scored some considerable points on the Netbook.

Even if consumers and businesses don't opt for Linux on their Netbooks, the Windows they're choosing is not very profitable for Microsoft, and getting users to upgrade to a pricey Windows 7 could prove to be a fool's errand, as Microsoft admits. Microsoft may well end up winning the Netbook war against Linux and losing at the same time.

Why pay a few hundred dollars for Windows on a device that costs only a few hundred dollars and drops all the time? The economics of the recession may help Microsoft against Apple, but they're no help against Linux-based Netbooks.

Follow me on Twitter at mjasay.

This week in London I remembered one of the remarkable things that Mac OS X and the Apple hardware provide: wireless access.

By this I'm not referring to the ability to access the Internet through the Mac's WiFi hardware, but rather, the ability to provide wireless access to others using one's Mac. I used it this week to get WiFi access on my iPhone while in my hotel room, so that I'd only have to pay for Internet access once (through my laptop), and avoid Apple's/AT&T's substantial roaming data charges.

For many Mac people, you already know how to do this. For the rest, well, pay attention. It's quite easy, and it can be a nice party trick for making you popular at conferences, company meetings, or other places where Ethernet access is in short supply.

Assuming you have Apple's Mac OS X 10.5, follow these instructions. (They're not much different for earlier versions of OS X.)

First, click on System Preferences. Next, click on Sharing, then Internet Sharing. You'll see a "Share your connection from" dialogue box, which I enable as "Built-in Ethernet" and then "To computers using AirPort." You can set security preferences here, as well, which is a good idea to keep unwanted lurkers off your connection...and computer.

This allows you to use your Ethernet connection to make a WiFi connection for other computers around you, Windows or Mac. It's a great solution if you happen to be in a conference room that has fewer Ethernet jacks then computers.

Is this the best reason to get a Mac? No. But it's a great utility that Apple provides through the Mac, and one that has made me very popular at conferences in the past. I even had a few Linux users shed a tear of envy that their hardware couldn't pull off the same feat. Priceless.

Follow me on Twitter at mjasay.