Will Patch Tuesday Become Vista Tuesday?
This
last
Patch Tuesday was chock-full of Vista fixes -- as perhaps it should be.
Vista is, after all, a new OS with a heckuva lot of code behind it. This is
leading security experts -- such as Eric Schultze, the recently promoted CTO
of Shavlik -- to argue that in 2008, Vista will have more patches than a pair
of old hippy jeans.
Here's
the skinny on the future of Vista patches.
Meanwhile, the biggest patch of all, Vista SP1, is now
a release candidate -- which means it's getting close.
Dutch Go Open Source
Government agencies in the Netherlands will have to start
moving to open source or have to clearly justify their continued use of
proprietary software.
Many organizations are doing just fine running open source productivity suites,
and the files are generally (but not perfectly) interchangeable with Microsoft
Office. What I'd like to see are more installations of desktop Linux so we can
really find out if it can stand up to XP, Vista or Leopard.
Are you using desktop Linux and, if so, is it at home or in the office? Share
your stories with us by e-mailing me at [email protected].
Opera Sues Over IE (Where Were They a Decade Ago?)
There's a statute of limitations for many crimes -- and for this, many a former
teenager is eternally grateful.
But when it comes to the European Union and the practice of bundling software
with the operating system, you can wait as long as you want to take action,
apparently. This is just what Opera Software did when it whined
to the EU about Microsoft bundling IE with Windows.
I'm not going to comment on whether this bundling is fair or not; to my mind,
these issues have been dealt with long ago. For my part, I don't particularly
mind having IE on my system, but I only use it when Firefox fails to display
a page properly. And having IE there gives software developers a broader canvas
on which to paint -- they can assume that everyone has this browser.
Have I been brainwashed by the Redmond intelligentsia? Should Microsoft be
forced to yank out IE? Let us all know by writing me at [email protected].
About the Author
Doug Barney is editor in chief of Redmond magazine and the VP, editorial director of Redmond Media Group.