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1. Comment - Can Linux manage updates and upgrades more easily than Windows?

   (Jul 16, 2009 - 1:31 PM)

   It's only the installation package format that's mandated. If MS were to adopt this model, I don't think they would try and create an uber-repository of all available windows software, and it certainly doesn't resemble that on the Linux side. Canonical (the business behind Ubuntu) handles this nicely: On a default Ubuntu install, there are thirty-something repositories already defined. Some are maintained by Canonical (analogous to Microsoft maintaining a Windows OS and Office repository), and the rest are maintained by third parties, analogous to Adobe and Google maintaining their own repositories. You want more? Add more repositories for the software you want.
   
   For a real example, Skype maintains a repository for Deb/Ubuntu versions, and the software they make available is on their own servers. It's just that they are using the DEB file format for their installer. E.g. their instructions are:
   1. Add the Skype repository*: deb http://download.skype.com/linux/repos/debian/ stable non-free
   2. Reload or update the package information
   3. Install the skype package.
   From that point on, Skype is installed on your Ubuntu system, AND updated automatically along with everything else on the system. To the end-user, it looks like one process, but in reality each package looks for updates from its own maintainer; Canonical, Adobe, etc etc. Now if I could just point Office 2003 (running under Wine) to a Microsoft repository.... :)

2. Comment - Windows 7 E: Microsoft's sensible response to Europe

   (Jul 15, 2009 - 8:08 PM)

   "Joe offers some of the best and most insightful analysis out there"
   
   What? After Joe's spectacular faceplant in the spluttering and largely-incoherent new-independence-day article, I'm pretty suspicious of Joe's judgment, knowledge, & writing ability. Reading this article, there's more fawning towards a "brilliant" MIcrosoft, and the analysis is pretty much the same as the first dozen hits on the topic from Google News. There's a reason this guy got canned from his last handful of vendor-slobbering gigs.
   
   (Yawn) Wake me up when you get someone worth reading.

3. Comment - The Google Revolution begins; Will you join the fight?

   (Jul 8, 2009 - 6:19 PM)

   In the tone of a soldier yelling for aid to his injured comrade: EDIT!!! Please, we need an edit!!! First for logic, then for readability. I only slogged thru this effluvial rant because it'd been forwarded to me by a friend for a giggle. I'm astounded by the clowning that passes for analysis and informed opinion these days.
   
   First, Google didn't invent the browser-as-OS, either from a technology or a marketing perspective. Have you ever heard of a guy named Scott McNealy? Maybe Gosling? Second, Microsoft has more to fear from the internal collapse of its revenue model than from any specific technology promulgated by a competitor. Third, the social startups and their presumed armies have no relevance to this discussion; most of them would be just as happy to twatter or faceplant thru their iPhones or other distinctly locked-down devices. They are not your open source army. Fourth, Chrome is not open source, it's *based* on the already-open-source Chromium. This is an important distinction. Fifth... oh, nevermind. I could go on, but really, what's the point? Calm down, emo boy. EDIT!!!!

4. Comment - Tikitag: A barcode-based alternative to personal RFID tags

   (Jan 12, 2009 - 5:34 PM)

   ...Aaaaand....? Did you come to any conclusions about these pieces of information? Microsoft Tags *are* barcodes. (Well, not "bar" per se, but they are as much of a bar code as the Aztec Code from Welch Allyn or the Data Matrix from Siemens.) So they share all the advantages and disadvantages of any other printed tag, but just provide a little more data density. So yeah, they're perfect for business cards. TikiTag RFID, on the other hand, uses totally different tech to extend a totally different set of use cases -- like inter-device identification, connection, synchronization, power charging, etc. TikiTag might help sync and charge your friend's mobile when visiting, while MSTag would upload new contacts when you're at a trade show. Totally different things. Why did you lump them together?

5. Comment - CES Countdown #4: Who's securing the CE device's end user?

   (Jan 10, 2009 - 1:59 AM)

   Nice to point out that there's a diminishing difference between consumer electronics and computing devices. Mobiles and laptops have converged in most aspects except display size, and the set-top box is close to becoming the desktop computer. Yeah, security matters, and it ain't coming from the ISP for *any* of these connected consumer devices.