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!
Dec 17, 2006 | blog
Interesting information that Om Malik has dug up. If this is true, it may turn out to be a very interesting device for the mass market. Google has a history of focusing on simplifying the user interface and making it easier for the average consumer.
I’ll sign up to try a device from Google.
Via: GigaOM – Forget iPhone, Think Google Phone
Dec 10, 2006 | blog
So is it that “confusing” about what Palm is doing with Garnet? Yes they sold the operating system by spinning off the OS development arm as PalmSource. Yes they’ve now licensed it back from Access, the Japanese company that purchased PalmSource in its entirety.
It seems to me that while Palm OS 5 (Garnet) is several years behind Windows Mobile or Symbian, the basic OS in the feature department, it still has great usefulness as a smart phone OS. The biggest thing is that the Treo platform with Palm OS 5 simply works, its tried & true. It also has a huge following and a very easy to use GUI.
Since the OS has been used for many versions of the Treo, the continual refinement of the user interface is where the product improvements will keep the OS fresh.
Via: The Wireless Weblog – What is Palm doing now?
Dec 5, 2006 | blog
Really, I’m starting to wonder if the staff over at eWeek’s Microsoft Watch has any fun, or if they simply get off writing things like Study: Just Six Percent of American Business PCs can run Vista Premium, or Yet Another View on Vista Adoption, or CIOs: Vista Will Need Heftier Hardware.
I know that covering Microsoft is their job, but it gets a little old when they keep talking about how barely 10% of corporate PC can run “Vista Premium”, or how Microsoft’s prophecy of Vista adoption is overblown.
Guess I just get tired of trade magazines that state the obvious – kind of the same issue I have with Gartner.
Nov 30, 2006 | blog
Wow, great news for those of you who have embraced the modern world of online applications and document storage!
Zoho has interoperability with Microsoft Office via a downloadable plugin that allows Office users to save Word & Excel documents directly to their Zoho account. This functionality helps blur the line between remotely hosted and local applications.
“People are asking for this,†Vegesna said. “Currently they have to go to Zoho.com, login, and upload documents. We have them doing this an average of five times per day. This will let them go straight to Zoho without having to go to Zoho.com, upload, etc.â€
Zoho is also opening its API’s so that online storage providers could tap into the Zoho engine and provide more seamless integration of storage options.
I’ve been using Zoho (and Google Docs & Spreadsheets) for most of 2006. There are definite differences between the offerings, but Zoho has made the most progress towards an integrated feature-rich office suite. By offering the ability to upload/download documents directly to your Zoho account – their product becomes even more useful and productive.
This new feature is compatible with Office 2000, 2003, and 2007 by the way.
Via: TechCrunch – The Real Office Live: Zoho Bridges Online And Offline Office App’s
