Hardware And Software Bonanza Coming Up

A bunch of new GNU/Linux distributions’ releases are coming up and will coincide with my plans to buy a new desktop and a new tablet PC for home use.

OpenSuse 10.3 is coming October 4th, Ubuntu 7.10 (codename: Gutsy Gibbon) is coming October 18th and Fedora 8 is coming November 8th. I plan to install and play with each one and decide on which distro to settle. My current preference is Ubuntu even though I like KDE better than GNOME. I’m currently running Ubuntu “Gutsy” Beta on my home desktop and “Feisty Fawn” (Ubuntu 7.04) on my work desktop and am very impressed with things.

The Case Of The Failed File Copy

I read this new blog post by Sysinternals’/Microsoft’s Mark Russinovich today about a file copy failure in Windows Vista. It’s not as “sensational” as, say, the File Open Dialog Delay or the Audio Networking Slowdown but it’s still interesting.

See http://blogs.technet.com/markrussinovich/archive/2007/10/01/2087460.aspx

Plus, again, he’s not done with just posting a blog entry, he’s going to follow up with the Windows developers to get them to fix/improve things in Vista.  Much appreciated!

If you’re a regular blog reader then Mark’s Blog should definitely be on your blogroll :-)

A Microsoft Update

I’ve just got a couple of things to mention here:

MS is campaigning for it’s OOXML (Office Open XML) file format to become an ISO standard. I believe India recently voted (or plans to vote) against it. I too think it (the format not the vote) sucks, I hope OpenOffice‘s ODF (OpenDocument Format) becomes popular and MS is eventually forced to support it and, who knows, maybe even drop OOXML . See http://ooxmlisdefectivebydesign.blogspot.com/

I’ve been a fan of Windows since Windows 95 (can’t say the same for their other software) and I also think Windows Vista was released before it was ready. There are so many issues cropping up such as this network-slowdown-with-audio-playback problem. I’m just waiting for Service Pack 1 to be released which I hope will improve quality. I’m encouraged by things such as this awesome blog post by Mark Russinovich who’s the guy that brought us the SysInternals tools and is now working for MS. People like Mark keep me believing that not all MS employees are retards that just like to spread anti-Linux and anti-FOSS FUD.

I’d like to time my purchase of a new desktop and/or laptop/tablet PC with Vista being stable enough.

Its Time For Microsoft Windows Vista

Tons of places where this was announced:

Microsoft’s Jim Allchin says simply, its time
Now I can’t wait for new hardware to show up!

It’s been almost six years since the last release (of Windows XP), lots of interesting technologies in here.

PS: Microsoft is also making virtualisation (Virtual PC 2007) free!

Sony VAIO laptop boot problem

I’ve got this Sony VAIO laptop – a 3.5 year old model PCG-GRX 560 – which I suspect is about to expire.

About mid-’05 it started having boot problems – wouldn’t “POST” unless I smartly tapped it underneath…

Came across a discussion topic online which helped – many other people have been complaining of similar problems with their VAIOs – looks like one of the two RAM slots is bad!

It’s a material world

The wait for Windows Vista is driving me nuts! I’m waiting for the “next wave” of hardware and price drops to come out so I can go on a shopping spree.