If you're looking to transition from Windows to Linux but your users are not technically inclined you may want to evaluate Linux XP Desktop 2008. Linux XP tries to emulate the look and feel of Microsoft Windows. The goal being to make the transition to Linux easier for those used to Microsoft like operating systems.

Looks like Microsoft may be working hard to get a lightweight version of Windows XP available for Eee PC. Asus will begin "officially" offering Eee PC buyers a choice between Linux and Windows.

Asus CEO Jerry Shen predicts that more than half of the Eee PCs sold this year will run XP instead of Linux.

There are lots of good text editors for Unix OS's, but how about Windows?

If you want a good text editor for Windows you may want to look at "Dark Room". It's a no frills text editor that has the look and feel of a good old fashioned linux terminal screen. It removes all of the distractions and keeps you focused on the important things like actually writing good content.

Help solve the worlds problems by donating your unused CPU cycles to solve complex computational challenges. Known as grid or distributed computing it allows you to share your CPU to perform units of work when your PC is sitting idle. Most machines actually sit idle for a majority of the time. The idea is to take advantage of that idle time and scavenge cpu cycles.

As many of you know VMware finally released Fusion for the Mac. Fusion allows you to run Windows within a MacOS. It is by far the most seamless way to run Windows within a Mac.

Fusion has all of the nice features that VMware Workstation for the PC has with some additional features. One of the nicest features on Fusion is the "Unity" feature which allows users to interact with Windows applications on Mac OS as if they were Mac applications.

Here is a video demonstrating its functionality.

Dell may soon go the way of the Dodo bird. All the signs are there. Some of their recent announcements are setting off warning signals.

These include:
1) Announcements of additional job cuts (5,600 more jobs in addition to the 3,200 already announced).

Computing infrastructures are growing rapidly. Hardware has become less expensive and their form factors smaller and smaller. With the advent of grid technologies, virtualization,and other distributed computing methods we need to find better ways to manage the the sheer number of resources being created.

Advanced WindowsCare Professional from IOBit is an advanced Windows optimization and maintenance utility providing PC users an fully automated, all-in-one PC Healthcare Service including anti-spyware, privacy protection, system optimization and cleaning capabilities.

Adam Boileau, a security consultant from New Zealand released a utility to unlock a Windows PC in seconds bypassing the standard Login/Password requirement, The utility named "Winlockpwn" makes use of a vulnerability in Windows handling of Firewire port, the hacker needs to physically connect a Linux based computer to the victims Firewire port and execute a command in order to get unrestricted access to the victim's PC, The need of Firewire port and physical access to the computer makes the hack difficult to execute and less potent.

http://www.megaleecher.net/Unlock_Windows_XP

Grid computing has been around for over 12 years now and its advantages are many. Grid computing can be defined in many ways but for these discussions let's simply call it a way to execute compute jobs (e.g. perl scripts, database queries, etc.) across a distributed set of resources instead of one central resource. In the past most computing was done in silos or large SMP like boxes. Even today you'll still see companies perform calculations on large SMP boxes (e.g. E10K's, HP Superdomes).

EyeOS is trying to redefine the operating system. It is an open source initiative that aims to create an operating system that is accessible over over the web from anywhere around the world. OuterVillage in its top five strategic technologies for 2008 suggested the need for "enhanced web platforms that deliver applications over the web reducing the need for stand-alone OS's". That is what EyeOS seems to want to deliver on.

Unison announced at CeBit that it has launched what it claims is the best Linux based communications suite available. It combines IP telephony, e-mail, instant messaging, address book, capable of running on a single Linux server. It is available free as a public beta.

Ever work on a computer that doesn't have Microsoft Office installed and you need to view an Excel sheet? MS now makes a MS Excel viewer . The new version also support xlsx format.

You can view _and_ print spreadsheets created with any version of Microsoft Excel. You can also copy data from Excel Viewer to another program.

Edsor3
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http://www.outervillage.com

Virtualization seems to be the buzz word all in IT are using these days. It can mean a bunch of different things depending on who you talk to. Refer to Wikipedia for many of the latest definitions. For our discussion let's define it as a technique for hiding the physical characteristics of computing resources in a way in which other systems, applications, or end users interact with those resources.