A picture is worth a thousand words.

I’ve been saying it for years and people just make fun of me because they turn a blind eye to Microsoft’s devious ways.

Ballmer admitted that Microsoft’s choices around Windows Vista’s development had hurt application and device compatibility. “I’m not saying there aren’t things that customers don’t choose to comment on,” he said, while playing up Vista’s sales success. “We did make the choice to kind of hurt compatibility, and customers have let us know that that was very painful.”

Read the whole article here.

Anyone who knows me, knows I am a huge advocate of Firefox web browser. I’ve always been attracted to it’s compatibility with just about all operating systems, it’s speed and its ability to be customized to suit me as a user. From the very first download, I was hooked.

Enter Swiftweasel. No, it’s not Firefox’s shifty-eyed used car salesman of a brother. I guess the best way to describe Swiftweasel is this. Firefox is the Corvette of the browsers. It’s fast and looks great stock right off the showroom floor. On the other hand, Swiftweasel is the identical Corvette taken to a customization shop to add a few after market accessories to make it faster and handle better.

Swiftweasel is Firefox under the hood. The differences are very subtle and include mostly visual aspects. The key performance enhancements come into play during the installation process. When Swiftweasel is installed, it builds itself to match your hardware such as processor, operating system kernel, and so on. Instead of trying to adapt to your computer, it molds itself to blend in and become more efficient. All of this and it still uses all of Firefox’s extensions and addons that make it so great.

Why is this date so important? It’s the date the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has set as the deadline for all US television stations to move to digital signals. This means there is a whole spectrum of signal possibilities opening up.

Who would be interested in this outdated technology? Another man’s junk is another man’s treasure. There are more than a handful of companies looking to buy into their own piece of the pie in the sky. Some of the bigger ones include Microsoft, Google, Chevron and most of the existing telephone and wireless companies.

This auction is going to play a huge role in the future of internet communications. I think this will become the future of internet connection. The signal strength available by using the 700mhz spectrum would expand coverage areas far beyond what’s available now for even the most advanced wireless providers.

Picture this. You’re at home and you’re expecting an important phone call. Your child calls and needs you to pick him up because he missed the bus again. You grab your house phone and drive to the school 15 miles away. As soon as you pull into the school parking lot your home phone rings and you take that important call you were waiting for. Notice I didn’t say mobile or cell phone. The line between home equipment and mobile equipment will be blurred to almost invisibility.

The same goes for actual internet connectivity. The differences between home usage and on the go will be few. Think about how great it would be to have access to your files and applications from home, work and anywhere you are, all with a wireless connection. I could be in line at the grocery store and send my friend an email with pictures attached from my PC at home. Then I could print those pictures and have them waiting when I get the my office. All of this could be done from my home phone I have in my pocket.

It’s coming.

I was stumbling around a few of my routine tech news sites tonight and came across this link:

I got a chuckle out of it anyway. The site itself  contains a lot of good info and some surprising stats. It’s worth a look.

After a little under a week with my new Verizon wireless internet connection, I’ve decided to keep it. Like I really have a choice. Dial up is horrid! Even though the speed for wireless is not constant, it’s still better than what I had.

With wireless networks expanding all the time, I think my service will only get better in the future. At least I hope so.

For some reason last week I got the idea to try out Verizon’s high speed wireless internet connection. I guess I figured I’d give it a shot and if it didn’t work, it would give me a better excuse to gripe. The only bad news is I can’t really gripe. I ordered it and am now up and running with my new connection. The speed is not as fast as DSL, but SO MUCH faster than my old dial-up connection. That makes me happy.

So far the reliability has been good. I set the service up with my only Windows XP box, then switched the modem over to my Ubuntu PC. I found help from one of the online forums the way to get Linux to work properly and within 10 minutes, I was up and running with high speed Linux at home. It’s kind of like dial-up with out all the dialing and connection takes less than 10 seconds.

Now I can stick my XP machine back in the closet. Does that make me a closet Microsoft user??

This time of year holiday shopping is in full swing. All the hot products have centered in people’s sights and budgets have been formed to match the price cuts. This year it’s Wii versus PS3, Guitar Hero III, iPhone, and Transformers. I have to laugh at the Transformer craze though, I had those when I was a kid. Some things never really go out of style.

Looking forward to next year’s holiday wish lists it’s really anyone’s guess as to what will be most wanted. Electronics are always in the top ten for kids and young adults. Here’s my predictions:

1. With only a few exceptions within the gaming industry, next year will be a battle of the game titles. With Playstation and Nintendo focusing on hardware sales this year, next year the big three will try to get the attention of shoppers with big game titles. Since Halo 3 and Rock Band were Microsoft’s big push this year, Sony and Nintendo will focus on games next year. As to what titles, that’s anyone’s guess. Playstation’s Assassin’s Creed will fast become the flagship for that console. Another title of PS3 that should be promoted more is Little Big Planet. Nintendo will probably get back to it’s roots and focus on Wii specific games like Mario variations and Zelda.

2. In the Apple arena, look for consolidation. Apple traditionally has focused on a simple lineup. This has been one of the keys to their success. Their iPod lineup has gotten a bit unruly. I look for them to drop a few iPod models they currently offer and focus on just three to four while making the technology used better. It’s still too early to see what direction the iPhone will head in.

3. Operating systems, my favorite topic. This will be the year of the service pack(s) for Microsoft. Now that the newness has worn off, the bugs in Vista will start to shine through. Be prepared for several important security updates. I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a major virus outbreak to christen the new OS.

   Apple experienced it’s first major virus this year to go along with it’s newly released Leopard. Speaking of Leopard, I buy into the rumors that Apple will make it’s OS available to install on non Apple equipment. Of coarse the support will not be as great, but it adds an extra avenue of revenue for the company.

   Linux will see continued growth in 2008. Dell will expand it’s Linux offerings and other companies will follow suite. I can definitely see HP and other PC manufacturers start offering a Linux distribution as an alternative to Windows. You will see better hardware and software support of Linux as well. I think we will be surprised by some of the companies that will jump on the bandwagon.

I’m looking forward to 2008. With the economy slowing down, you will definitely see companies focusing on their strengths and not venturing out on uncharted territories. If there are companies that introduce something new, look for it to be revolutionary. This applies to car companies as well. The auto industry will be beating the fuel economy drum to death. This is a good thing though. Volkswagen will be coming out with all new diesel engines and setting the standard again for fuel economy. Diesel is already very strong in other countries, and biodiesel is really creating a huge buzz i the US. I just hope the new Rabbit does diesel.

According to this recent article on the Register, Dell has released some of their Linux PC sales numbers. So far they have sold just over 40,000. A little quick math and that comes to about a million and a half dollars if they were sold at an average of $350 each. That’s just a drop in the bucket compared to what Dell normally makes, but it’s still an impressive number
.

This number is still not as accurate as it should be. There are many factors that play into this equation. One of those factors is Dell has yet to advertise the fact that they are offering an alternative operating system to anyone who visits their website. In fact, it’s just the opposite. To find Dell’s Linux offerings, you have to search for them. There are several reasons why Dell does this, but that’s out of the scope of this article.

This is very good news though. This number sends a message to hardware and software manufacturers that people are interested in an alternative to what’s currently offered. This will hopefully force large companies such as Adobe, Nvidia, ATI, and numerous others to start supporting and producing for Linux.

So FedEx delivered a big box yesterday with Dell plainly written on the sides. After seeing FedEx’s website listing the PC I ordered as out for delivery all morning, I was keeping an eye out for that big white delivery vehicle.

Finally at it’s now permanent location, I began the unpack and assembly process. It was well packaged and the thrill of getting a new PC finally set in. The initial inspection went well. There was not a scratch on it and I’m impressed with the aesthetics of it. I’m used to the workstation color combination of black on black with an occasional scrap of gray thrown in. The white and silver look is appealing and definitely a welcomed change. The updated Dell keyboard and optical mouse are a nice touch as well. In the box were also an Nvidia driver CD, quick setup guide, Ubuntu Install CD, Dell mouse pad and an operators/owners manual.

Once all the peripherals were attached and the power chord plugged in, the power button was pressed and the new PC whirled to life. After the initial system fan testing, the system quiets to its normal operating decibel range. The use of blue LED lights are nice and very attractive. Upon initial boot you are guided through the normal Ubuntu setup of time zone, user account and password setup. That’s about it. The rest is up to you.

I was a bit disappointed with the lack of branding of the OS though. I was expecting to see at least a Dell desktop wallpaper or maybe a Dell logo somewhere on the boot up splash screen. The biggest letdown however comes on the outside of the box. Obviously there would be no designed for Microsoft case badge, but at least put something there indicating Ubuntu. This has been brought to the attention of Dell via their Idea Storm website.

Even though the installed version of Ubuntu is not the latest, it still works fine. It does not however, support the Nvidia chipset that well. I decided to do a fresh install of Ubuntu 7.10 and fix that problem with the use of their Nvidia driver through the system Add/Remove packages. After that, it was smooth sailing. performance is great, the Compiz effects work very smooth and using the system on broadband makes things flow so well together.

The question now is not if I would buy another Dell pre-installed with Ubuntu, but when. I’ve been pricing their laptops but they are still too far out of my price range. I had a family that stopped by to take a look at Linux as an alternative, seeing how they were in the market. They seemed impressed and I actually ordered one for them while they were there from Dell. I’m looking forward to getting their feedback about how they like it.