Dec 20, 2006 | blog
So how have I been doing in my month-long quest to be Linux-only user for all December 2006?
Not as well as I had hoped.
Mainly its my fault for trying this in the wrong way. Instead of backing up my data, wiping my Windows partition and loading up Fedora Core 6 (FC6) like I had originally planed in early November. I simply installed FC6 in a VMWare instance on my Vista laptop. It works quite well all around, but it is not as “convenient” as it should be.
The fact that I’m already booted to my Vista desktop and then need to launch my FC6 virtual machine to do my work. Compounding this is my workload — at work. I’ve been so inundated by work that I have little time at home to get the things done that I had planned, so when Windows comes up, I plain forget to launch into FC6 to get my work done.
Now all this is all excuses and we all know it. So my revised plan is to do a little more learning in FC6 to get a better feel for the OS and to search out some of the tools I need in a Linux environment that I enjoy in Windows. Also, I’m going to revisit this trial in the New Year – probably February – and I’ll do it the right way by installing Linux on my hard drive, and put Windows in a virtual machine, so there!
Apr 28, 2006 | blog
In this post, Robert Scoble talks a bit about why scrum won’t work as a development/release strategy for OS’s… (also read Yo! Listen Up! by Rod Boothby) I believe that the scrum model could fit nicely with the software-subscription model; Microsoft is at a great point with Windows Vista in which they could target Windows Vista R2 as the base for all future scrum OS development. This would mean that it would be the last “shipping” traditional base OS, all new/enhanced bits would come over the wire from a customization panel at Windows Live. In fact, Vista R2 could be shipped as “Windows Live”, with ongoing bi-monthly updates, enhancements, patches, and new features shipped via Windows Live following the scrum methodology.
To get end users in line with this, Microsoft will need to promote the virtues of never needing to “upgrade” the OS in the traditional manner. That for an annual subscription price (call it $20 a PC for example), you get the base OS and all the fixing’s, add $10/yr for Media Center Edition, add $10/yr for the “Ultimate” version, whatever… Many Microsoft Windows users get tired of having to purchase, install, and troubleshoot new OS versions when they get little perceived new value from it.
Also, invest is answering the worries of non-broadband users – figure out how to get them on broadband to make the updating process work faster and easier. Sell the idea of never needing to upgrade in the traditional sense, but build the OS to accomplish that goal – you’re close, finish it in the next rev of Windows.
Windows Live and Office Live are, obviously, the method to deliver ‘Web 2.0’ based solutions, making Word, Excel & PowerPoint on line like ZoHo Office, or Writely. Yes, strip out the extra fancy stuff that only 1% of the user base needs. Get back to the simple word processing that 80-90% use and make it available on line. Outlook is already modeled on line in the form of Windows Live Mail – just add Windows Live Word, Windows Live Excel, etc…
Also, beat Google to the punch and get the “M Drive” or Windows Live Drive or whatever you call it out there asap. Set it up so it’s a drive letter from Windows boxes, set it up so its a folder on the desktop next to My Documents – don’t abandon the existing easy-to-understand methodology for the desktop that MILLIONS are using. Make it simple – “My Documents”, “My LiveDrive”, etc… the simpler you make it the more people will use it, the more people will tell their friends how easy it was to use. KISS applied to all aspects.
Completely erase the boundaries between local and remote, OS and Web. Change Windows so that ANY browser can snapped into the OS in place of IE. Follow every standard, adapt your plans and ideas to utilize standards, don’t try to make a standard out of Microsoft proprietary items for this. Use standardized AJAX methods on line and publish the APIs, .NET is great, others are porting it to Linux, help that effort where you can.
Embrace Linux & Mac, every computer user in the world should be able to have the same experience using any on line Microsoft property. Anything less is unacceptable. Of course owning a Windows License brings more features to the users of Windows Live, but make the basic experience of Windows Live identical for every OS and every browser – there should be no compromise on this, how else can you convince anyone that your world view computing is better if all they see is a flaky on line experience?
So, is Microsoft listening…
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Ranting…
OK, guess I went quite a bit off the original topic, but I believe that it all ties together. That it all is part of a whole. It really does boil down to whether we’ll see the next real breakthrough in OS design come from Microsoft or Linux. It could happen if Microsoft listens to customers, critics, and the like. I’ll get down off the soap box for a few minutes.
Thanks for stopping by!
Apr 23, 2006 | blog
So there are two awesome thin new phones coming out soon that are similar in layout to traditional BlackBerry devices. Say hello to the Motorola Q (top), which you’ve probably read about, and the Samsung SGH-i320 (bottom).
The two phones both run Windows Mobile 5 and will be available in the coming weeks in the US. Both have recently been approved by the FCC for use in the USA. While we know that the motoQ is currently a CDMA phone and will be available from Verizon, the SGH-i320 is a GSM phone and could be used on either T-Mobile or Cingular (or some of the regional GSM providers) here in the States.
Unfortunately, the i320 is a tri-band phone (900/1800/1900) and would only really have decent coverage on the T-Mobile network as theirs is primarily a 1900 band network. Cingular relies heavily on the 850 band and has significant 1900 band holes everywhere. Cingular sells only tri-band phones that have both 850 & 1900MHz, or quad-band phones that support all GSM frequencies around the world. T-Mobile has recently rolled out a number of 850MHz towers and has signed a roaming agreement with Cingular for vast 850MHz streaches of the country, and in addition has also taken to selling quad-band phones or tri-band with 850/1900 band support.
At any rate, its great to see this style of phone coming out from two of the top three Windows Mobile phone vendors. Now all we need is to see an HTC version of this format, one that builds on the great layout that BlackBerry has demonstrated, and these two have copied.
For more information on either of these phones, check out these great articles:
