Sony's 2 new E-Readers

Sony launched two new e-readers, including one that hits the $199 price point and could bring e-books to the masses. Yet Sony is facing stiff competition from Amazon’s Kindle, Plastic Logic (in 2010) and a rapidly expanding field of competitors.

The Reader Pocket Edition : ($199)

The Reader Touch Edition : ($299)

Brennan Mullin, vice president of Sony Electronics’ audio and digital imaging division, said :

On the $199 price point, “Our themes are that we want to make readers and content the most open, available and affordable. Now there’s a device for someone on a budget—$199 is an important price point that makes digital reading available to a wider audience. Until now (the market) has been for early adopters.”

On Sony’s retail distribution heft, “We want to make them available wherever consumers shop. We want them to put the books in their hands and try it. Some people are dubious and putting the devices in their hands allows for trial.”

On the need for improvement, Mullin said that Sony is making tweaks based on user feedback. One complaint about the 700 model of Sony’s Reader was that the screen had too much glare and ambient light. The new Touch fixes that problem.

Speaking of improvements where’s the Wi-Fi? Sony’s latest e-readers, like the ones before them, need to be tethered to a PC for downloading. Compared to the ease of the Kindle, Sony will need a wireless answer. Mullin said:

The wireless products are developing. It is coming separately. It’s an important feature.

Mullin didn’t disclose whether Sony’s future e-readers would have 3G and/or Wi-Fi support. He’d only say that wireless technology is coming.

Does Sony need a partnership with other e-book stores? Mullin said Sony’s plan is to support multiple stores and be wherever consumers buy and use books. Sony sees beyond its SonyStyle.com stores to libraries and other outlets. However, Sony’s store supports its own format while Google features PDFs and e-books on the ePub standard. Mullin said Sony will support them all. “Sony Reader supports ePub and plenty of stores support that format,” said Mullin. “We’re agnostic and encourage the bookstores in the market to provide content in an open format.”

On bigger screens and the B2B opportunity, Mullin said Sony had “no plans bigger screens today.” He was more upbeat on the vertical industry potential. Mullin said that education is a market that Sony is exploring and there’s a lot of potential in the medical industry.
Where are the color screens? Mullin said that color will be very important for B2B applications, but “it’s also important that it’s done well.” In a nutshell, there’s a tradeoff between color and readability. Mullin said:

“When color is brought to market it has to be brought in a way that meets consumer expectations. There’s a tradeoff between readability and color. It’s also a tradeoff we’re not willing to make at this point.”

IE8 outperforms competing browsers in malware protection

A recently released study by NSS Labs is once again claiming that based on their internal tests, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 outperforms competing browsers like Google’s Chrome, Mozilla’s Firefox, Opera and Apple’s Safari in terms of protecting their users against “socially engineered malware” and phishing attacks.


Not only did IE8 top the chart, but also, the rest of the browsers have in fact degraded their “socially engineered malware” and phishing block rate in comparison to the results released by the company in the March’s edition of the study.

How objective is the study? For starters, it’s Microsoft-sponsored one. Here’s how it ranks the browsers:

Socially engineered malware block rate:

Microsoft Internet Explorer v8 - 81% block rate
Mozilla Firefox v3 - 27% block rate
Apple Safari v4 - 21% block rate
Google Chrome 2 - 7% block rate
Google Chrome 2 - 7% block rate
Phishing attacks block rate:

Microsoft Internet Explorer v8 - 83% block rate
Mozilla Firefox v3 - 80% block rate
Opera 10 Beta - 54% block rate
Google Chrome 2 - 26% block rate
Apple Safari v4 - 2% block rate

What is “socially engineered malware” anyway?

Basically, it’s the direct download dialog box that appears on a, for instance, scareware or Koobface video page spoofing Facebook’s layout, like the one attached. using “socially engineered malware” as a benchmark for malware block rate isn’t exactly the most realistic choice in today’s threatscape.

And even if it is, some pretty realistic conclusions can be drawn by using some internal traffic statistics from Koobface worm’s ongoing malware campaigns. The Koobface worm, one of the most efficient social engineering driven malware, is a perfect example of how security measures become obsolete when they’re not implemented on a large scale.
The stats themselves:

- MSIE 7 - 255,891 visitors - 43.33%
- MSIE 8 - 189,380 visitors - 32.07%
- MSIE 6 - 76,797 visitors - 13.01%
- Javascript Enabled - 585,374 visitors - 99.13%
- Java Enabled - 576,782 visitors - 97.68%

What does this mean? It means that with or without the supposedly working “socially engineered malware” block filter using a modest sample of several hundred URLs, the Koobface botnet is largely driven by MSIE 7 users. The previous edition of the study dubbed IE7 a browser which “practically offers no protection against malware” with the lowest block rate achieved back than - 4%.

Just like the previous edition of the study, this one also excludes the notion that client-side vulnerabilities continue contributing to the “rise and rise” of web malware exploitation kits. By excluding client-side vulnerabilities, the study isn’t assessing IE8’s DEP/NX memory protection, as well as omitting ClickJacking defenses and IE8’s XSS filter, once pointed out as a less sophisticated alternative to the Firefox-friendly NoScript.

Socially engineered malware is not the benchmark for a comprehensive assessment of a browser’s malware block rate. It’s a realistic assessment of the current and emerging threatscape combined with comprehensive testing of all of the browser’s currently available security mechanisms, a testing methodology which I think is not present in the study.

HTC Hero review

The HTC Hero has been an object of lust for some time now for gadget enthusiasts. Even from the earliest days of leaked hardware shots and blurry demo videos of its UI, smartphone fans seemed to agree that the company had finally achieved what has been missing in the world of Android. Namely, a polished and attractive device -- polished enough to go head-to-head with the iPhone -- that kept its open source heart. So, here we are months later with an actual, bona fide Hero in our midst. Yes the reports were true, it is a beautiful device, both inside and out (though of course opinions differ on that chin).

Industrial design


In terms of overall design and layout, the Hero is very much a product of evolution. Like its forebears the G1 (or Dream) and MyTouch (or Magic / Ion), the general stats like screen size, technology, and resolution, button placement, unit size and weight, and basic aesthetic are pure HTC. Like those previous devices, the Hero contains a smattering of hardware buttons on the base (or chin as some call it) of the phone, including a home, menu, back, send, end, and dedicated search key. The device also sports a trackball in this area, which shouldn't surprise any Android aficionados.

Where the Hero breaks from convention, however, is in the overall look and feel of the phone. If the Dream and Magic felt plasticky and cheap (they did), the Hero is quite the opposite -- it's like a solid brick in your hand. The casing is made of a soft-touch material (Teflon on the white version to prevent dirt), and the shape of the device takes a much more severe, almost rectangular slant. The buttons along the bottom are small, evenly spaced ovals (save for the search and back key -- we'll get to that), the earpiece is covered in a stylish mesh, and the volume rocker on the side is a smooth, single button. The screen also uses a new oleophobic treatment (similar to the iPhone 3GS), and thankfully HTC has added a 3.5mm headphone jack to the top of the phone.

Overall the appearance is sleek and modern -- it's like the Magic was beamed to the year 3000 for a redesign. Besides the chin (which some people will nitpick, though we don't mind), the Hero is a home run when it comes to looks, though it's not without issues. One of our main gripes with the phone is the layout of the hard buttons. The four across the top don't bother us much, but the placement of the "back" key is a huge pain. It basically forces your hand into a cramp-inviting position -- it's an unnatural move for a key you've got to use a lot. If you're left handed, it'll seem fine (great even), but as a righty, we found it inconvenient and uncomfortable. It's actually perplexing as to why the back button lives where it does on the Hero -- the Magic's placement is much more accessible and a lot more comfortable to use for righties or lefties.

Internals

The guts of the Hero should seem familiar to most gadget buffs -- they're essentially identical to HTC's Magic (at least the Rogers version). What does that mean for you, end user? It means you're stuck with the same Qualcomm 528MHz CPU, the same 288MB of RAM, and a paltry 512MB ROM. The onboard radios include WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, and a quad-band HSPA cell chip. The model we tested is the European release of the phone, and as such is only able to access EDGE networks here in America. Luckily for us we don't leave the house much, so most of the time we were on WiFi. So just to be clear, beyond the new screen coating, industrial design, and improved camera, this phone is the HTC Magic inside.

Camera


The Hero's 5 megapixel camera is pretty darn amazing, we must say. Coming off of most devices with their paltry 3-or-so megapixel entries, it's a real treat to have an onboard cam which can actually stand in for a proper shooter. While the image quality isn't up there with dedicated point-and-shoots, it's certainly leaps and bounds better than the nearest competitor, with near-macro focus length. We take a little bit of issue with HTC's UI design on the camera app -- using the sometimes-slippery trackball for both zooming and snapping shots seems kind of ill-advised to us, though we didn't have much trouble with it (a toggle to cancel zooming would be nice). As with most phone cameras, the colors weren't quite as vivid as we would have liked -- bright hues somehow came out murky with the Hero -- but we weren't expecting the world here. HTC seems to have tweaked shutter speeds and processing as well, as snapping photos was noticeably faster than on the earlier Android phones, though we still think the iPhone 3GS and Pre feel tighter (of course the Pre doesn't have to worry about that pesky focusing stuff).

Speaker


We're big speakerphone users, so the external audio of a device is actually important to us (besides, how else can we entertain friends with the "Ras Trent" video while out and about?). The speaker on the Hero is definitely up to the task, producing loud and clear audio while on calls or listening to music. Of course, no one is really going to jam this way very much, but at the very least you can make our your tracks pretty clearly. For calls, the speaker and microphone seemed pretty outstanding to us (we were testing mostly with T-Mobile, mind you).

Battery life


We were impressed with the Hero's staying power, though we'll reserve our final judgments till we have a device running US 3G to look at. On EDGE / WiFi, we saw impressive, full day use with a single charge. Standby didn't seem to pull much power, though it was obvious that many of the widget updates were just waiting till we woke the phone up, which made for maddening floods of syncing and updating (a real drain on speed). Overall, the Hero beats the pants off of our G1, and gives the Magic a run for its money. Battery life was favorable in comparison with the iPhone 3GS, and obviously puts the Pre in a world of hurt.

King of the QWERTYs

Capacitive touch screen devices are all the rage today with the iPhone 3GS, Palm Pre, HTC Hero and BlackBerry Storm. However, there are still many people who want a non-touch screen forward facing QWERTY device that is heavily focused on messaging. While I tend to bounce around quite a bit between different devices, the forward facing QWERTY form factor is one of my absolute favorite. To help you figure out which of these devices might fit your needs we are going to present a three part feature (with a summary post too) looking at the best QWERTY devices running the BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Symbian operating systems available from US wireless carriers. The three selected devices are the RIM BlackBerry Tour, T-Mobile Dash 3G, and Nokia E71x.
Gallery :

Touch screen smartphones are all the rage today with the iPhone, Palm Pre, and Google Android devices. However, there are still millions of people who enjoy a messaging experience on forward facing QWERTY smartphones. We will be taking an in-depth comparative look at the top three smartphones running Symbian, Windows Mobile, and BlackBerry operating systems.


Bottom view of the BB Tour, T-Mobile Dash 3G, and Nokia E71x (top to bottom).


Left side of the BB Tour, T-Mobile Dash 3G, and Nokia E71x (top to bottom).


Right side and top of the BB Tour, T-Mobile Dash 3G, and Nokia E71x (top to bottom).


Back view of the BB Tour, T-Mobile Dash 3G, and Nokia E71x (top to bottom).


Here you can get a glimpse of how each of the three keyboards compare to each other.


The BB Tour, Dash 3G and E71x forward facing QWERTY keyboards.

Microsoft beefs up Xbox 360's entertainment offerings with 1080p HD streaming

It hasn’t beat out the Wii, but Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is doing fine in second place in sales of the current generation of videogame consoles. It helps that it costs quite a bit less than the PlayStation 3, though a lot of that price difference comes in the form of the PS3’s Blu-ray drive. Today, Microsoft is answering its competitor’s 1080p video playback in the form of “instant-on” streaming of films and TV shows via the Xbox Live service.
While Xbox Live supports Netflix’s video-streaming service, the 5.1 channel, 1080p HD titles, available starting in the fall, will come from Microsoft’s Zune Store, which presumably will usurp many of the functions of the video section of the Xbox Live Marketplace. You can use the Xbox Live Parties feature with video streams, allowing you to watch the same movie with up to seven friends who are online Xbox Live subscribers and take turns talking back to the screen using voice chat.
The catch, of course, is that you need to be an Xbox Live Gold subscriber to get many of these enhancements—a $49.99 annual expense. No details were announced about how much additional cost the 1080p streaming titles would require to watch. Both the Wii and PS3 have the same connectivity as the Xbox 360, but haven’t offered as robust a set of entertainment features to date. As the E3 expo continues, we’ll see if Sony and Nintendo have a response to Microsoft’s latest developments.

AMD to ship DirectX 11 GPUs this year

If you’re planning to put down some cash for a new GPU, you might want to wait. At COMPUTEX, AMD announced that it plans to deliver DirectX 11 GPUs to support Windows 7 later this year, ahead of the competition.
DirectX 11 brings with it three major improvements to the DirectX API:
Tessellation - Allows higher definition 3D models to be created.
Compute Shader - Parallel processing capability
Improved multithreading - Better support for multi-core CPUs
Rick Bergman, senior vice president of AMD’s products group called DirectX 11 “the biggest inflection point in graphics in 10 years.”
The new GPUs will be based on 40nm fabrication technology and produced by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC).
What all this means is that it’s now a bad time to spend much money on a GPU, certainly a high-end one. While DirectX11 is backward compatible, I expect that there will be a performance overhead similar to that you see with DirectX10.1 running on DirectX10 hardware.
Check out these cool DirectX 11 demos caught over at COMPUTEX (via HEXUS):

Sony unveils PSP Go, motion-sensing

At E3 no big surprise was Sony's unveiling of an updated portable gaming controller, the PSP Go. Big surprise was the unveiling of a motion-sensing device to combat the Ninetendo Wii and Microsoft's new Project Natal.
Kaz Hirai (CEO of Sony's Networked Products and Services Group) introduced the much-anticipated the PSP Go, also known, he joked, "as the worst-kept secret" in the video game business.

The PSP Go, Hirai says, will feature 16 gigabytes of internal Flash memory; built-in Wi-Fi; integrated Bluetooth and a new system, Media Go, which will be the application used on the PSP Go to access the PlayStation Store. It is expected to be available on October 1 in the U.S.

PSP Go has slideout controls.

The PSP Go will also come in lavender.

Resident Evil comes to PSP with the Go.

The Sony motion-sensing system is still in the deveopment stage and won't be available until the spring of 2010. The controller has a real one-to-one relationship between the person wielding it and what is seen on-screen. And it also offers tension-based control, such as pulling back the string on a bow to shoot an arrow.
Here. Sony shows off motion-sensor controls where a real person controls the avatar of a knight.

Assassin's Creed demo.

Square Enix would be releasing "Final Fantasy XIV" exclusively for the PS3 in 2010.

A scene from Final Fantasy XIII.

God of War III gets introduced at E3

Sony Consumer Electronics of America President and CEO Jack Tretton introduced an upcoming game, "MAG," which can support 256 simultaneous players, including people playing remotely.

AMD announces ATI Theater HD 750 "HDTV on a chip"

Some owners of home theater PCs (HTPCs) want as much of the same experience as a typical cable user as possible, which means they need to install CableCards into their systems to access scrambled digital channels and the like. For those whose TV needs are less demanding, a PC with a TV tuner can get you unscrambled cable channels and over-the-air HD stations. AMD is courting the latter group with the launch of its new ATI Theater HD 750 video chip, which the company promises will provide superior image processing and signal reception compared to its competitors (and, presumably, AMD/ATI’s previous entries in this arena).
The new chipset supports NTSC, ATSC, and ClearQAM broadcast signals to fulfill many of your U.S.-based TV-watching needs, and lets you record broadcasts in such formats as H.264, DivX, and MPEG4. If you make use of Windows Media Center, you can schedule recordings to tape on your hard drive, as well as pause and rewind live TV. None of this is revolutionary stuff, but one novel wrinkle is that if the ATI Theater HD 750 is coupled with an ATI Radeon graphics card, ATI Stream technology (which harnasses a GPU’s processing power for CPU-like tasks) can be used to speed the transcoding process.
AMD hasn’t announced any specific products that will make use of the new chipset, but the company promises that its partners will release them starting later this year and that they’ll take the form of discrete PCI Express cards, USB sticks, and “other” solutions (whatever those turn out to be).

Acer Aspire Timeline: A thin-and-light notebook with 8 hour battery, gestures for $598

The world’s second-largest laptop manufacturer, Acer, introduced the U.S. availability of its Aspire Timeline series of business notebooks that average more than 8 hours of battery life, the company says.
The Aspire Timeline is a thin and light mainstream notebook that combines Intel’s ultra low-voltage processors with a palatable price tag: the series ranges from $598 to $899. The company is calling the series “all day computing” notebooks because you can (theoretically) work from 9 to 5 without stopping to plug in and recharge.
(Wondering about those battery life figures? The company says it measured systems using Bapco’s MobileMark 2007 Productivity benchmark test and got more than 9 hours per notebook.
There are three flavors of Timeline: the 3.5-lb., 13.3-in. AS3810 is a road-warrior companion; the 4.2-lb., 14-in. AS4810 is best for bigger hands (and those who need an integrated optical drive); and the 15.6-in., 5.3-lb. AS5810 manages a dedicated numeric keyboard on the old laptop size standard.
All models are less than an inch thin (and just over an inch at their thickest).
Outside, a brushed aluminum finish provides a little bling and a multi-gesture touchpad (pinch, flick, swirl, scroll) provides the power to manipulate the system. Inside, you’ll find either Intel Pentium, Intel Core Solo or Intel Core 2 Duo ultra low voltage processors and 3GB or 4GB of memory, a high-definition CineCrystal LED backlit widescreen display (16:9 ratio), Gigabit Ethernet or Wi-Fi 802.11b/g Draft-N, a Crystal Eye webcam, built-in digital microphone and two built-in stereo speakers.
The systems are also lead- and mercury-free.
Like Dell, Acer offers many configurations, but here are some examples:

Acer Aspire Timeline AS3810T-6415
Intel Core 2 Duo processor SU9400 (1.40GHz, 3 MB L2 cache, 800MHz FSB, 10 W)
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit with Service Pack 1
13.3-inch HD Acer CineCrystal LED-backlit TFT LCD (resolution 1366 x 768, 16:9 aspect ratio)
Mobile Intel GS45 Express Chipset
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
4 GB of DDR3 1066MHz dual channel memory (runs at 800MHz)
500GB SATA hard drive
Acer Crystal Eye webcam
Multi-in-1 digital media card reader
Intel WiFi Link 5100 802.11a/g/Draft-N wireless LAN WiFi certified
Bluetooth 2.0
3 – USB 2.0 ports
HDMI port
Multi-gesture touchpad pointing device supporting circular-motion scrolling, pinch-action zoom, page flip
Acer touch-sensitive hotkeys (Touchpad Lock, Backup Manager, PowerSmart)
Standard 6-cell Li-ion (5600 mAh) Battery
3.5 lbs.
12.67” (W) x 0.92” to 1.13” (H) x 8.97” (D)
Energy Star 5.0 compliant
MSRP $899.99

Acer Aspire Timeline AS4810T-8480
Intel Core 2 Solo processor SU3500 (3MB L2 cache, 1.40GHz, 800MHz FSB, 5.50 W)
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit with Service Pack 1
14-inch HD Acer CineCrystal LED-backlit TFT LCD (resolution 1366 x 768, 16:9 aspect ratio)
Mobile Intel GS45 Express Chipset
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
4 GB of DDR3 1066MHz dual channel memory (runs at 800MHz)
320GB SATA hard drive
Acer Crystal Eye webcam
Multi-in-1 digital media card reader
8X DVD SuperMulti double layer drive
Intel WiFi Link 5100 802.11a/g/Draft-N wireless LAN
3 – USB 2.0 ports
Multi-gesture touchpad pointing device supporting circular-motion scrolling, pinch-action zoom, page flip
Acer touch-sensitive hotkeys (Touchpad Lock, Backup Manager, PowerSmart)
Standard 6-cell Li-ion (5600 mAh) Battery
4.2 lbs.
13.32” (W) x 0.94” to 1.13” (H) x 9.44” (D)
Energy Star 5.0 compliant
MSRP $699.99

Acer Aspire Timeline AS5810TZ-4657
Intel Pentium processor SU2700 (2MB L2 cache, 1.3 GHz, 800MHz FSB, 10 W)
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit with Service Pack 1
15.6-inch HD Acer CineCrystal LED-backlit TFT LCD (resolution 1366 x 768, 16:9 aspect ratio)
Mobile Intel GS45 Express Chipset
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
3GB of DDR3 1066MHz memory (runs at 800MHz)
320GB(3) SATA hard drive
Acer Crystal Eye webcam
Multi-in-1 digital media card reader
8X DVD SuperMulti double layer drive
Acer InviLink Nplify 802.11b/g/Draft-N wireless LAN
4 – USB 2.0 ports
HDMI port
Multi-gesture touchpad pointing device supporting circular-motion scrolling, pinch-action zoom, page flip
Acer touch-sensitive hotkeys (Touchpad Lock, Backup Manager, PowerSmart)
6-cell (5600 mAh) Li-ion Battery
5.3 lbs.
14.88” (W) x 0.97” to 1.16” (H) x 10.19” (D)
Energy Star 5.0 compliant
MSRP $598.00

Morro (Microsoft Security Essentials)

Microsoft's free security software is almost here (in beta form, anyway). Microsoft intends to make Morro available as a download next week on Tuesday the 23rd, and you'll want to act fairly quickly in order to get a copy.

On Tuesday, the first 75,000 individuals to visit www.microsoft.com/security_essentials are supposed to receive access to Morro, or, as it's also known, Microsoft Security Essentials. Microsoft's not making any promises beyond that point.

Of course, the company might expand the offering, depending on demand and so long as its servers don't get swamped. Just don't say we didn't warn you.

Anyway, Microsoft Security Essentials is supposed to remove malware, spyware, and viruses, and provide real-time protection against malware and viruses, too. And although part of the reason it's being put out in a limited batch is so that further tests can take place, reports say that the software's in decent shape.

Ed Bott, for example, recently tested it and wrote, "I'm sufficiently impressed by MSE in operation to give it a more in-depth workout on multiple systems here."

So if you're looking for an alternative to other free forms of protection, consider staying especially near your computer on the 23rd.

The smallest threat to open source in 2009

How much of a problem is security updating for open source software going to be in 2009?
On Jan. 1, Dana Blankenhorn published the sensationally titled The biggest threat to open source in 2009.
His thesis is simple: that, because open source software usually lacks any mechanisms for easily updating to the latest security patched version, the growing popularity of open source software will render it more vulnerable to problems than its closed source counterparts.
As a lead-in to his main point, he said:
There is no longer any doubt that hackers and malware writers are going after open source projects as they once went after Windows. Vulnerabilities are being found, discovered, created, exchanged.
There seems to be a common malady amongst opinionated tech writers--that of never quite getting it when it comes to the fundamental principles of security. A particular favorite for being ignored is that of security through obscurity.
Many many moons ago, I wrote what I think is a decent treatment of the subject as it applies to open source software, Security through visibility. While it makes a pretty strong case for ignoring the bleatings of "popularity is insecurity" doomsayers, it's really only the first step toward full understanding of all the problems with the assumption that the only thing "secure" about open source software is obscurity.
Obviously, based on his start to the article, I was already expecting very little in the way of useful information. His next statement left me even more mystified at what appeared to be a towering edifice of ignorance, however. Specifically, he said:
The best protection against vulnerabilities is to keep software updated, but most open source lacks update services. That's one part of the Windows license that is worth paying for, and there does not seem to be an open source equivalent.
As a long-time user of open source operating systems, previously favoring Debian GNU/Linux, and subsequently moving on to FreeBSD, I was stunned to see this in writing, published for all the world to see. Was he serious? Could he really believe that?
One of the most visible wins for open source Unix-like OSes, once one has learned a fair bit about them, is the casual availability of superior software management systems. Ive written a brief primer for effective use of APT for TechRepublic, Efficient software management with the Advanced Package Tool in Debian. Ive also addressed the excellence of a security tool integrated with FreeBSDs ports system, How FreeBSD makes vulnerability auditing easy: portaudit. Both of these articles illustrate some of the significant benefits of better software management systems than offered by MS Windows.
Perhaps even more relevant to Danas point is the fact that, on open source Unix-like OSes (but not on MS Windows), the software management system typically manages security updates for far more than just the core OS and a couple of applications created by the same vendor. Such Unix-like OSes software management systems tend to provide security update management for literally thousands of software packages originating outside the core OS project itself--in some cases, tens of thousands.
Then, his next statement clarified his meaning:
An exception is Firefox...But how many take advantage of this? And how tied is Firefox to updating for security purposes? Remember were talking about pushing updates, not asking users to pull them.
Suddenly, it all became clear. In Dana Blankenhorns mind, "open source software" refers only to the handful of popular open source applications that are regularly used on MS Windows systems. I find it interesting that the only example of an open source application he offers is an exception to his rule, however.
Where are all the legions of open source applications that dont provide easy software updates? Whose fault is it that MS Windows doesn't have a software management system that can help ease the process of applying security patches for these applications the way open source OSes do? Where are the examples of closed source applications that provide such update management as he describes, where the MS Windows compatible open source alternative does not--thus justifying his singling out of open source software as somehow more notably vulnerable?
Perhaps the worst part of the inaccuracies of the article is the fact that its clear assumptions (that all software worth discussing is MS Windows-centric, for instance) for those of us who know better are opaque to those who do not.
A manager with little or no experience of OSes outside of MS Windows may read this article and come away with the assumption that open source OSes completely lack software management systems. As a result, he or she may scupper any potential plans to deploy open source Unix-like systems in the network. So much for "the best tool for the job"; such decisions are often difficult to make well even when you aren't hampered by wrong-headed ideas like those Dana's article might inspire.
He does make a good point about corporate culture, though:
But until this ramps up (hopefully in a competitive market), enterprise managers have an easy way to say "no" to open source.
Regardless of how dangerous this is, the fact that managers feel it's dangerous makes it so.
Too bad some of those managers might "feel" its dangerous specifically because of his own article.
I'd clarify that to say that managers feeling its dangerous doesn't actually make it so--but it does make it so for all intents and purposes in the corporate environment, when it comes to technology implementation decisions. When the higher-up says "I think the closed source software offering is better, because I have these concerns about the open source software alternative", his or her subordinate (and perhaps more technically inclined) IT worker will eventually reach a point where he or she must either make decisions limited by the managers fears or polish his resume. Take it from someone who knows from personal experience.
On one hand, I'm inclined to be dismayed by this common bureaucratic failure of corporate culture, and feel the urge to rail against it. After all, security is everybody's problem; it's not just a problem for "that guy over there". Your problem, to a significant extent, becomes my problem when you connect to the Internet.
On the other hand, knowing something about security that others don't provides something of a competitive advantage. Where competitors may stumble and fall, the organization with a knowledgeable IT department will remain stable and secure, and prosper where others have failed.

First look - Internet Explorer 8 RC1

On 26th January Microsoft made available Internet Explorer 8 RC1 (release candidate 1), which means that as far as Microsoft is concerned, IE8 is cooked and that barring anything major, this will become the final release. So, what’s the new browser like?

A new release of IE is always important because this is the browser that many millions of Windows users will be surfing the web with daily. Like it or not, by the very fact that IE is knitted into every Windows installation makes this an important event.
After what seemed like years of stagnation, Microsoft is continuing the tradition of kitting out IE8 with features that users of other browsers take for granted. That said, there are very nice features built into IE8, which include:
Smart Address BarThe address bar isn’t now just a place to type URLs into. The Smart Address bar in IE8 tries to make sense of what the user is looking for by retrieving sites visited from the history and bookmarks. This is handy for those times when you want to find something but can’t remember where you saw it.
Enhanced findSometimes it’s not finding the site that’s difficult, but finding where on the page you need to look for the information that you are after. IE8 offers a broad range of enhanced and improved tools to help you spot the information you are after. One such example if this is result highlighting.
Tab groupsWhen one tab is opened from another one, the new tab is placed next to the one from which it was opened, and both are marked with a colored tab. This is a good way to keep track of your open tabs.
InPrivateAlong with keeping track of stuff that you might later want to refer back to, IE8 also gives you powerful tools that allow the browser to have temporary amnesia in relation to the sites you’ve visited by temporarily halting the writing of information to the cache and history.
Crash recoveryIf your IE locks up of crashes while you’ve a shed-load of tabs open, with IE8 there’s a good chance that when you fire up the browser again that it will remember what what sites you had open and fire them up again. It can also reload information that you had typed into forms.
Your current favorite browser ... (Public view)
Firefox (52%)
Internet Explorer (32%)
Chrome (8%)
Opera (4%)
Safari (2%)
Other (2%)

Near-final IE 8 test build ready for download

On January 26, Microsoft made available to the public for download a near-final test build of its Internet Explorer (IE) 8 browser.
The IE 8 Release Candidate (RC) 1 is the last public build Microsoft expects to deliver before releasing the final version of the product, which will be available as a standalone download and part of Windows 7. (Microsoft will continue to make smaller private builds of the browser available to select testers in the coming weeks/months.)
Microsoft has made the IE 8 RC1 bits for 32-bit Vista, 64-bit Vista and Windows XP available on its Download Center for anyone interested in trying out the newest browser build.
The RC 1 build includes performance tweaks, compatibility enhancers and a few other fairly minor changes to the Beta 2 version of the product Microsoft made available to testers last summer. Microsoft officials are calling the IE 8 RC 1 build “platform-complete,” meaning that developers and users should expect no more programming- or user-interface changes in the product from here on out.
What’s changed since Beta 2?
The compatibility list enhancements: Microsoft is going to provide users who want it with a list of 2,000 sites that will automatically be viewed by default in compatibility view without users having to press the compatibility view button. (Microsoft will update this list every two months to reflect sites that are updated to be compatible with IE 8, officials said).
A new ClickJacking prevention option: Developers will be able to add a tage in a page header that will help detect and prevent click-jacking. According to Microsoft, IE 8 “will detect sites that insert the tag and give users a new error screen indicating that the content host has chosen not to allow their content to be framed, while giving users the option to open the content in a new window.”
Changes to the Smart Address bar: Besides matching URLs in a user’s site history the bar now also better matches titles in their history and favorites.
Other changes include performance tweaks that will speed up page loading; changes to the Instant Search Box (to include a “quick pick menu” at the bottom, so users can toggle between their favorite search suggestions from different search providers); full support for CSS 2.1; and a renaming of InPrivate Blocking (part of “porn mode”) to InPrivate Filtering. With IE 8 RC1, users can manually adjust the threshold between 3 and 30 in InPrivate Filtering settings. A full list of what’s changed in IE 8 since the beta is here.
As Microsoft acknowledged recently, IE 8 RC1 won’t work on the Windows 7 Beta; Windows 7 testers who want to try the RC need to run it in a virtual machine.

Windows kicks Linux to the curb

Gosh, that didn’t take long!Last July Linux had a huge opportunity to beat Windows in the red-hot netbook market (see Linux for housewives. XP for geeks. ). But faster than I’d expected Microsoft has kicked Linux to the curb, claiming an 80% attach rate for netbooks.
Windows 7 is the final nail in the desktop Linux market’s coffin. Unless Microsoft gets stupid on pricing, it is game over for Linux netbook market share.
Linux, we hardly knew ye - on the desktop, anyway.
It is tough to compete with “free”Not that Microsoft got off easy. Their 5,000 man layoff is a direct result of the cost of competing with Linux - their client business revenue slid $335 million.
Ballmer’s layoffs mean this is no one-time blip. Linux has changed the competitive landscape in a way Apple never could - after all Mac OS costs twice as much as Windows. And this is just a taste: the economics going forward are brutal.
The birth of free Windows?Windows 7 will run fine on netbooks - a smart move. But how to price it?
Linux is free, and as Moore’s Law drives down netbook prices, any difference will become more obvious. For the several billion people in the developing world, even $20 for Windows 7 may be too much.
If the Window’s netbook share drops below 70%, Microsoft will have no choice but to offer it for free to netbook OEMs. Sure, some nominal dollar figure will attach, but after marketing and developer support costs are figured in, it will be a wash.
This is as it should be: operating systems are becoming commodities, like a cell phone OS. The real innovation will be in netbook pricing models and new applications.
The Storage Bits takeLinux has lost the fight for netbook dominance, but it has inflicted significant pain on Windows. Microsoft faces a do-or-die defense of the Windows monopoly which will no doubt be successful.
The important fact is that for the first time in decades, Microsoft is playing defense, not offense. This is good for everyone, as even a 10% Linux share is enough for a future Linux breakout if Microsoft fails to stay current or raises prices.
Apple gets to watch Linux and Windows fight. If and when Apple offers a netbook, the OS will be an integral part of the package, not a choice. And they won’t be competing on price.

Desktop Unix: MacOS X and SUSE Linux

As regular readers know my general preference in making IT decisions is to keep the hardware and software as simple as possible while putting the real focus on empowering the people using it. In general, therefore, I see “the right way” as one that centralizes processing for simplicity while decentralizing control for empowerment - but sometimes there’s no sensible way to meet user needs without giving them laptops and the question then is, which ones you should get?

All three of the main OS candidates: MacOS X, Novell’s “Sousa Linicks” and Microsoft’s Windows Vista run on pretty much the same hardware and run broadly comparable applications suites, so the decision must ultimately come down to which one best balances cost versus productivity in your applications area.

Two of these are Unix desktop implementations - as are both outlier options: Solaris and OpenBSD - making Windows Vista the odd man out from an OS technology perspective.

Put them side by side and I think you’ll notice some consequential differences too: MacOS X and Linux (specifically Novell’s latest “enterprise desktop”) have a very different feel to them than Vista does.

In the ideal experiment to see this, you get three OS advocates to put their favorites on similar Apple hardware and then watch as they load email from a common server, find and watch a video from my favorite hot air site and bring three working documents up in separate, side by side, windows.

That’s ideal, but of course most people don’t just happen to have three identical x86 Macs laying around - so try the next best thing: recruit two friends favoring whichever two desktops you don’t, and go do as much of the trial as you can get away with at your favorite local x86 shop: Office Depot, BestBuy, whatever.

It’s worth doing, particularly if you’re a Windows advocate, because it’s absolutely eye-opening. By itself Windows Vista (or XP) looks decent enough: you click, it does - something; the fonts work, the colors look nice, and IE comes up. But, put it right between the two Unix versions and you’ll see that the two Unix desktops, although very different, share a responsiveness, a directness of focus, and a simplicity of operation, that are completely missing in the Windows products - showing Windows Vista as a kind of click hungry hippopotamus in a tutu that simply doesn’t belong on stage with the other two.

Windows 7 will, at least according to the Microsoft press, fix this: recapturing XP’s place in the competition - although even two minutes with the latest Linux desktop should convince you that if Microsoft were showing that to their focus groups as their Next Generation product they wouldn’t have to fake the enthusiasm. Back on planet earth, however, it’s hard to think of an argument for buying a Microsoft desktop that doesn’t start and end with: “because we already have Microsoft…”

If you’re halfway objective about it, that leaves you to choose between the latest Linux desktop and MacOS X for your users - a choice most people will, I think, find to be an absolute no brainer.

For those who put a premium on cost savings, Linux is the no brainer option: it runs on cheaper hardware and you get it for free or nearly free and with, or without, paid support.

For those who put a premium on user productivity, MacOS X is the no brainer option: it’s more matter of fact than Novell’s new GUI skin and packaging, and mostly just stays out of the way of knowledgeable users. In fact, for many it meets the IT ideal: it works so well, they don’t know it’s there or doing anything to help them - they just click and expect it to work; because, well, it just does.

That’s a different horses for different courses situation: my own bottom line is that a few hundred bucks per laptop is meaningless when set against even a small improvement in user productivity - so I’m picking the Mac. You, on the other hand, may have higher volume, lower complexity, requirements for which cost becomes the decisive criterion - and so pick Linux.

It’s that choice, I think, that forms the real bottom line here: they’re both good choices, and they’re genuinely different - offering different values to different people.

And it’s been awhile since we’ve had a real choice, so how great is that?