Dr. Bill | The Computer Curmudgeon

Red Hat announced that their planned “Global Desktop” release of the Red Hat operating system is slipping. Pundits thin this may give SuSE Linux an edge… we’ll see!

Red Hat delays its global desktop Linux indefinitely

“Mixing technical concerns with a truckload of business issues, Red Hat has stealthily acknowledged slipping its deadline for Red Hat Global Desktop (RHGD), which might have given it an edge against Novell’s competing SuSE Linux. Unlike the existing Red Hat Enterprise Desktop (RHED), the planned RHGD is aimed exclusively at small, reseller supplied implementations in emerging geographic areas such as Brazil, China, and India. Red Hat also sponsors a community project called Fedora, which develops and maintains a free desktop product. But RHED and the forthcoming RHGD are both commercial products geared to businesses. First announced at the 2007 Summit users conference, RHGD was then expected to ship a few months later. ‘The technology side of the product is complete,’ according to a blog posting which slid quietly on to Red Hat’s Web site this week. ‘[But] there have been a number of business issues that have conspired to delay the product for almost a year,’ interjected the anonymous blogger, about midway through a more generic update on ‘What’s Going On With Red Hat Desktop Systems?’ Indeed, some of the contributing factors listed in Red Hat’s blog are unarguably business-related, including market changes and “start-up delays with resellers.’ RHGD, by the way, is supposed to be supplied by Intel channel partners in these emerging markets. Others reasons mentioned, though, lean to the technical side, including hardware changes, ‘multimedia codec licensing knotholes,’ and ‘getting the design and delivery of appropriate services nailed down.’

It will just be an amalgamation of fixes released since SP2, but it will be nice not to have to go through all of those when doing a new build… so I am looking forward to it!

Official XP SP3 release date still up in the air

“A Microsoft spokesperson declined this afternoon to confirm reports circulating on technology blogs today citing purportedly leaked documents as saying the online release date for Windows XP Service Pack 3 will be April 29. ‘We expect Windows XP SP3 to be available in 1H 2008, provided it meets our quality bar for release,’ stated the spokesperson, in response to BetaNews’ question about the specific date. The blog story appeared to indicate a large lag time between SP3’s release through the Microsoft Update service and the release through Automatic Updates, purportedly in June. Those dates would indicate a long period of time for initial installers to make sure drivers are in working order, similar to what ended up being required for Windows Vista SP1.”

Here’s a movie teaser for you… what if science, that claims to be open-minded to any hypothesis, black-listed one point of view? Impossible, you say? Watch Ben Stein’s new movie, “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” and see it happen before your eyes! Watch the trailer for the movie at the link below:

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

“By it’s April 18th national release, EXPELLED producers know that a minimum of 900 US theaters will screen the satirical documentary, making it one of the widest documentary releases in US film history. Film distributor Rocky Mountain Pictures has estimated that 1,000 screens will be booked by opening day.”

Come on, I dare ya!

Windows 7 is coming… why buy Vista? This is what I am hearing more and more. Now Gartner says so. I say, “Vista is dead… long live Ubuntu!”

Is Vista dead in the water?

“Analysts from Gartner said earlier this week that Windows is collapsing under its own weight. Talk in the blogosphere keeps pointing to a Windows 7 release date earlier than 2010. Is Vista already a lame duck? Certainly Microsoft wants to avoid another debacle on the scale of Windows Me, an operating system release that tilted more toward a mistake than an upgrade, and whose publicity turned into pushback from both customers and the press. However, two analysts from Gartner certainly didn’t help Vista much with their comments earlier this week. At an Emerging Trends conference in Las Vegas, Michael Silver and Neil MacDonald argued that Microsoft is collapsing under its own weight, and that Windows has become monolithic. Central to their point was the fact that Microsoft is leery to cut the cord, so to speak, on more than two decades of applications. Backwards compatibility remains something of an expectation with each new Windows release. At the same time, this support for the past has gotten them into trouble. ‘Security should have been enough of a reason for Microsoft to stop bringing these applications forward,’ Directions on Microsoft analyst Michael Cherry told BetaNews.”

Dewd! This is bad! There are now over 1 million virii out there “in the wild!” Sigh!

Computer viruses hit one million

“The number of viruses, worms and trojans in circulation has topped the one million mark. The new high for malicious programs was revealed by security firm Symantec in the latest edition of its bi-annual Internet Security Threat Report. The vast majority of these programs have been created in the last twelve months, said Symantec. Cyber criminals pump out malware to fool anti-virus programs which look for characteristics they have already seen.”

I am not sure if it is truly “low cost” enough… but it is cheaper than a typical laptop, I suppose.

HP enters the low-cost student PC market, but is $499 too much?

“Hewlett-Packard today announced a new low-priced $499 mini-notebook aimed at school students and business professionals wanting a small, low-cost system capable of withstanding the kinds of punishment that only a school can dish out. The HP 2133 Mini-Note is the latest effort by the world’s #1 PC maker to approach a market with still very little competition, though with very high growth potential. The base model will ship with the SUSE Linux operating system, 1.2 GHz VIA C7 processor, 8.9-in. WXGA screen, 802.11 Wi-Fi, and a Bluetooth option. It’s said to weigh somewhere in the neighborhood of two and one-half pounds. HP chose an aluminum shell and scratch resistant screen, and added a clear coating to help protect the keys and ensure system is less likely to be damaged if tossed around or dropped. HP expects the 2133 Mini-Note PC to be available later this month for $499. That price tag could limit the number of school districts that can afford the system, especially since the Mini-Note comes with an OS but does not have any bundled software. There’s no word yet as to volume discounts. An upgraded version for $599 will ship with Microsoft Windows Vista Business, 2 GB memory and a 6-cell battery, and will be available at the same time as the basic system.”