vista

Sound Off! Yesterday, we asked Infopackets Subscribers what they thought of Microsoft's latest fiasco : the claim that various Free Open Source Software (FOSS) developers have violated some 235 Microsoft patents -- and now Microsoft wants to collect ... royalties. So, is Free Open Source Software really doomed -- or is Microsoft simply grabbing straws in hopes of resurrecting lost Vista sales? Infopackets Reader C. Williams was the first to chime in: " Okay, I'll admit it. I've been using a PC since late 2001, and during that time, I have used Windows exclusively. However, my experiences with ... (view more)

In what's being labeled by some as an attempt to deflect questions surrounding their floundering Vista reception and sales, Microsoft is threatening law suits aimed at open source distributors and users, claiming that Free Open Source Software ... (FOSS) violates 235 of their patents ... and they want royalties from it. If they get their way, free software won't be free any more. According to Microsoft , the Linux kernel violates 42 Microsoft patents, the Linux graphical user interface (GUI) violates 65 patents, the Open Office suite of programs violate 45 patents, Email programs violate 15 ... (view more)

... [continued from Part 1 ]. Others argue that Microsoft is at a turning point as they try to build a successful business around online services and advertising, waiting too long to adopt new business models similar to the ones that Google ... successfully launched. The Xbox 360 game console and the Zune digital media player have also proven to be unsuccessful. A January 26, 2007 memo issued by Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) CIO Dave Bowen states he might permanently bypass upgrading the FAA's desktops to Windows Vista due to stringent hardware requirements and application ... (view more)

A few weeks ago we talked about speculation surrounding the delay of the new Mac operating system (OS) from Apple, Leopard. In order to better accommodate Microsoft's own new OS, Windows Vista, some experts believed Apple pushed back their product ... until the fall, an action that disappointed many Mac maniacs. There may be more fist-shaking today, with news that Windows Vista likely sapped Macintosh hardware sales during its last period. Looking at the numbers, it seems fairly obvious that some sort of major release put the squeeze on Mac success during Apple's second fiscal quarter of 2007. ... (view more)

For those who follow the tech industry, and in particular Microsoft, the sudden announcement of legal matters is hardly surprising. It seems the Redmond-based company, and others like Sony and Apple, are perpetually engaged in litigation to defend ... anything from copyright issues to product quality. Now, the most recent case surrounds a woman who has launched a legal campaign against Microsoft's Vista advertising, and the "Windows Vista Capable" motto. The suit comes from one Dianne L. Kelley, who finds that a number of PCs sold last year with Vista on board are anything but capable. Instead, ... (view more)

Dell has announced that it will begin offering Windows XP on some of their consumer systems due to significant customer demand. The company said many customers have been asking for XP as part of the Dell IdeaStorm project, which asks customers to ... help the company come up with product ideas. "We heard you loud and clear on bringing the Windows XP option back to our Dell consumer PC offerings," Dell said on its Ideas in Action page. Users vote on various suggestions. Bringing Windows XP back received over 10,000 votes. Interestingly, adding Linux received over 123,000 votes. Starting ... (view more)

Since last November and even before that, Microsoft has been aggressively hyping the features and virtues of Vista. We've all seen it talked about in the printed media, on television, and on web sites, including Infopackets. Is Vista the latest and ... greatest Windows operating system ever produced? The jury is still out on that. Even I, the local Linux 'geek', look upon Vista and can see where there are seeds of potential greatness, but only the potential. It's just too soon to say for sure if will attain greatness. Why So Much Memory? On the technical side, the reasons for the expanded ... (view more)

Since Vista was released early this year, there has been no shortage of analyses judging the success of sales of the new operating system. But months have passed, and there still doesn't seem to be a consensus on how Vista is doing. Even Microsoft ... CEO Steve Ballmer seems to have changed his mind a few times. A few weeks ago, Ballmer said: "We think in the next three months we'll probably sell five times as many copies of Windows Vista as we ever did [Windows 95] in the equivalent period of time... We'll probably go double what we did with Windows XP." But last week, it sounded like he changed ... (view more)

Windows Vista took a long time to develop. Some 10,000 plus Microsoft employees worked on the new operating system, with the project -- codenamed "Longhorn" -- eventually expanding from a mere update to XP to something as radical as the epic Windows ... 95. With all of the pent-up hype over the new product, it's meant just as much anxiety for Microsoft's competition. That's the word right now, with reports that the release of Vista -- as delayed as it seemed to be -- has also prolonged the wait for Apple's new Mac OS X "Leopard". So, why the delay of Apple's operating system (OS)? One of the ... (view more)

Although most of us are aware that Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows Vista, is an improvement to yesterday's XP, few are convinced it's worth the pain of upgrading. Further hurting Microsoft's efforts have been a plethora of ... sensationalist reports on Vista shortcomings, many of which overlook the available improvements. Despite the negative light, Vista appears to be shining on the global stage, accounting for some 20 million licenses sold in a month. Still love XP? It's worth noting that Vista's initial sales are double that of XP, Microsoft's previous operating system. By ... (view more)