ZDNet UK Problems, and Roundup
I haven't been able to Sign In for the past day or so - anyone know what's going on?
Rounding up a few miscellaneous things that I had been wanting to post about or comment on...
- Good things coming soon: openSuSE 11.3 should be out tomorrow, and based on the fact that they have not updated the daily build since RC2, I suspect that they will make it on time, and that it will be a good, solid release. Details here shortly after it is available.
- Operating Systems are a matter of personal preference (apexwm's very good recent blog post): Yes, that should be true. It is all too often not the case, because of Microsoft's lock on, and leverage over, OEM distributions channels. Case in point: I would like to try one of the latest generation of HP Mini netbooks. However, I can not order one without Windows, and so far my disgust with Windows has outweighed my curiosity about these systems.
- Microsoft extends sales of XP "downgrade" option. A special shout-out to all those who continue to prance around and parrot the Microsoft line about how successful Windows 7 is... First, I have the same question that I had through the entire "life" of Vista sales - what portion of Win7 sales are actually "downgraded" to XP Professional installations? Second, how on EARTH does Microsoft get away with this - forcing customers to buy the most expensive Win7 licenses in order to get the "right" to "downgrade" to Windows XP? Third, honestly, how fantastically good of a business model is this, assuming that you have absolutely no conscience at all and thus can sleep comfortably while doing it... develop garbage and jack up the price on it, knowing full well that a large percentage of the "sales" are in fact never going to be used. This is an even bigger baboozle than the "Vista Ultimate" package supposedly including "special perks" from Microsoft which never actually materialized.
- Another good thing coming soon, Dream Linux 4.0 now in Beta. Very nice desktop.
jw 14.7.2010