Readers yesterday will remember our article “Microsoft China steals code from Plurk?” and the question I asked at the time was who will Microsoft blame?  Well, heres what Microsoft has been reported to have said on the incident:

On Monday, December 14, questions arose over a beta application called Juku developed by a Chinese vendor for our MSN China joint venture.

Ok, so immediately we can see where this is going.  The key words here would be “developed by a Chinese vendor for our MSN…..”.

The vendor has now acknowledged that a portion of the code they provided was indeed copied.

Great and don’t tell me, Microsoft knew nothing?

When we hire an outside company to do development work, our practice is to include strong language in our contract that clearly states the company must provide work that does not infringe the intellectual property rights of others. We are a company that respects intellectual property and it was never our intent to have a site that was not respectful of the work that others in the industry have done.

Really? but then this isn’t the first time we’ve had “code issues” is it Microsoft?  Are there any more 3rd parties that are going to  ”borrow” code from elsewhere (or violate the GPL)?

We will be suspending access to the Juku beta indefinitely.

Well then maybe is not all bad news then.

Later on in the statement Microsoft say:

In the wake of this incident, Microsoft and our MSN China joint venture will be taking a look at our practices around applications code provided by third-party vendors.

To which I would ask, why didn’t you do this the first time you had issues?  I have a few other points to include in the conclusions, but Microsoft statement can be found here

Plurk though don’t seem convinced they had this to say in regards to the incident:

we have a very hard time believing, given the size and scope of the undertaking, that there was no active involvement or development taking place directly within Microsoft itself on this service,

Conclusions

Please read my article yesterday and take note of my closing words:

Maybe we should run a book for the odds on who Microsoft will blame?

and when I posted the link to the article in comp.os.linux.advocacy I said:

I wonder who they will “blame” this time?   Maybe I should start a book…odds on favorite is a 3rd party.

and we all see now that I only had to wait a day for the answer.  I wish I was a betting man since I was spot on with the “odds on favorite”.

So yet again we find ourselves looking at an allegation that Microsoft has code issues (and IMO at best supervision of 3rd party issues) and yet again its a 3rd party at fault (allegedly) what I would ask is why does Microsoft appear to have lost control of its projects? (IMO).

I don’t care if they are written by a 3rd party or not, it appears to me that Microsoft really does not know what is going on and in respect of its many other schemes, programs, packages and deals, how many more issues like these are to be found?  Lets hope that the naughty 3rd parties are merely copying the code of others (or violating the GPL) and not using this apparent lack of supervision for more dubious means.

I wonder what the shareholders make of this, yet another allegation against Microsoft and yet another project suspended?

Of course it was only last month that it was reported:

Microsoft has pulled the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool from the Microsoft Store website after a report indicating that the tool incorporated open source code in a way that violated the GNU’s General Public License (GPL).

and the site Withinwindows.com said in regards to this:

…revealed the source code was obviously lifted from the CodePlex-hosted (yikes) GPLv2-licensed ImageMaster project.

You can read the original article here. Under the title “Microsoft pulls Windows 7 tool after GPL violation claims” Microsoft allegedly had this to say about this particular claim:

although it was not intentional on our part. While we had contracted with a third party to create the tool, we share responsibility as we did not catch it as part of our code review process.

So another 3rd party eh? and yet again Microsoft didn’t notice?  What on earth is going on here?

Goblin – bytes4free@googlemail.com

Regular readers here will remember we mentioned Microsoft China’s innovative service of 140 char Microblogging.   In an allegation from Plurk, another established Microblogging service in China, it is claimed that Microsoft’s “latest innovation” has taken code from the Plurk project.

Watch out, code thief about? Have a look at what Plurk has to say about Microsoft's latest "innovation"

This is the second code issue in as many months with Microsoft being alleged to have infringed on the GPL with code in their software.  As usual it doesn’t take long for the “Microsoft blames” statements to arrive and in this instance it was in the form of blaming 3rd party developers for the “dodgy” code.  The question I had at the time was, if Microsoft don’t have control of their own code (in that they were not aware) what else lurks inside their products which we may not be aware of.

I digress, this article is about Microsoft and alleged using of Plurk code.  There is an interesting link to this, which can be found here and this site actually compares line by line the code of the two projects.

At the present time Microsoft has yet to comment.  Who will they blame? (if anyone).  Whilst Microsoft at present time appears to be silent, Plurk is not so:

If this was just a case of visual inspiration gone too far, we could probably have lived with it. We would have taken the time to reach out to Microsoft, get colour on the matter and try to amicably resolve it. That’s not the case here. This is something far more sinister. On closer inspection, we found that MUCH of the codebase and data structures that Microsoft’s MClub uses are identical snapshots of our code.

and you can visit the Plurk blog here.  Which also says:

We were first tipped off by high profile bloggers and Taiwanese users of our community that Microsoft had just launched a new Chinese microblogging service that looked eerily similar to Plurk. Needless to say we were absolutely shocked and outraged when we first saw with our own eyes the cosmetic similarities Microsoft’s new offering had with Plurk. From the filter tabs, emoticons, qualifier/verb placement, Karma scoring system, media support, new user walkthroughs to pretty much everything else that gives Plurk its trademark appeal, Microsoft China’s offering ripped off our service.

Maybe we should run a book for the odds on who Microsoft will blame?

Goblin – bytes4free@googlemail.com

Ive been a user of the excellent Google Wave for some weeks now.  Ive written about how impressed I was even though its still in its development phase.  Whilst using the service, I wondered from day 1 how long it would be before the Microsoft faithful would start to take a dislike to the suggestion of alternatives to Microsoft products.  I didn’t have to wait long.

I was chatting in a Wave entitled “Do you like Windows 7?” which had been created by the user Jayant.  As the wave became more popular it became apparent that more people were voting “no” to a poll which asked the above question.  From memory the figures stood at approx 20 “yes” 9 “no” and 3 undecided.  Of course (IMO) the MS faithful cannot have anyone saying they don’t like Windows 7 (at least until Windows 8 is ready for sale) so the Wave was deleted by an unknown user.

The creator of the wave had this to say:

2 days before there were 34 people who voted here but one “idiot F***” deleted this wave…otherwise now it should have 67 voters. F*** that idiot.

As more of the Microsoft faithful discover Google Wave we can (IMO) expect more of this behaviour and perhaps highlights an issue which Google need to sort out quickly in respect of features, that being, only the creator of a wave can delete it and users own comments cannot be edited by any other user.  Its a shame that there are people that appear to be so frightened of an alternative to Microsoft that they have to engage in actions like this.  Its also a shame that I believe the creator of this wave actually is a Windows 7 user and now they too have had their first experience of the Microsoft faithful.

Goblin – bytes4free@googlemail.com

Cant get your own following?  No problem acquire someone else’s!

Microsoft (masters of Innovation as many of their faithful will like you to believe) have just taken another step in trying to create a popular web service of some description (any description in my opinion)  Looking at Bing and also considering Google apps, its easy to see why this next piece of news has happened (IMO).

Its being reported that Microsoft have “acquired” a Twitter account started by a 19 year old which offered news reports and has over 1 million followers.  Michael van Poppel allegedly set up the account two years ago and on December the 1st a (very thankful Microsoft I believe) took possession of it.

Another example of Microsoft “not getting it” when they turn to the successes of a 19 year old in order to get their hands on a successful service?

Michael from the Netherlands is alleged to be planning to set up a subscription based news service and if his success with the Twitter account is anything to go by then Microsoft may soon come knocking again.

Mr Poppel had this to say:

Our Twitter feed has always aimed at American subscribers, which means some local news in the United States would be posted on @BreakingNews – and something similar which would have happened for example in the UK would not have reached our service…

You can read more about this here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8389436.stm and more importantly you can note the Twitter account that is now in Microsoft hands: http://twitter.com/BreakingNews

So why is this a problem? Well its not, however Ive covered those “dubious” Twitter accounts that promote Microsoft products and then suddenly stop when challenged.  I’ve covered the Twitter account which was using a legitimate (and innocent) company name to promote Microsoft stock.  Who is behind this?  I could (and would) not say for sure.  I will let you decide however when you see all the Microsoft product RT bots on Twitter, you have to wonder how much is officially Microsoft and how much of the Twitter servers bandwidth is being taken up by the RT of MS PR around it.

Whilst I will still use Twitter (and those Microsoft RT bots are handy for circulating Openbytes articles) I find Identi.ca far better, its faster, it has less of an infestation of the above behaviour and there are many sensible discussions actually happening on it.

Windows 7 new feature? – Black Screen of DEATH!

Maybe I was a little premature when I suggested that Windows 7 was merely a little lipstick on Vista.  From reports coming in it appears those coders at Redmond have actually made a few more improvements which are only coming to light now.

If reports are correct then the tradition blue “BSOD” that we all know and love, has been “upgraded” and is now black.  I wonder if maybe this is an intentional feature to conserve power of laptops and in turn for Microsoft to do their bit for the environment.  I certainly was no stranger to the BSOD on previous versions of Windows, so it would make sense that Microsoft would want to be more eco-friendly in todays energy saving age.

On a serious note though, the new BSOD has seen Microsoft release a fix, although its reported this “feature” could affect over a million machines and the fix would not resolve the issue in all cases, to add further woe its being reported that:

at least 10 different scenarios which will trigger the same black screen conditions

Sounds like the bugs been narrowed right down?

Of course you can put money on it not being Microsoft’s fault (it never is) and Ive often reported that there always seems to be a 3rd party to blame rather than Microsoft.  From BSOD to exploits to GPL violations, theres always someone else at fault.  When you next have a few minutes to spare, search Google for “Microsoft blames” and see for yourself.

Talking of blaming, the report found here from the beginning of November says:

SOFTWARE GIANT Microsoft is claiming that PCs in countries with high rates of software ‘piracy’ are more likely to be infected by malicious code because users don’t install security patches.

Which you need to keep in mind that Bill Gates himself is reported to have said:

as long as they’re going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They’ll get sort of addicted, and then we’ll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade.

which was recently echoed (IMO) in a flippant way by his padawan learner Steve Ballmer (in relation to pirated Windows having 2nd place in market share):

“That’s a competitor that’s tough to beat, they’ve got a good price and a heck of a product…..”

But as always, its always somone elses fault.

A point of interest (maybe) and fitting for the feature on the BSOD, is a picture which is made up of BSOD’s forming an image of Steve Ballmer.  You can see that here.

A new service by Microsoft? – Really?

In the first part of this article I covered Microsoft “acquiring” that which it HADN’T innovated, but now we move on to an example of Microsoft Innovation.  Im sure you will be impressed as much as I am.

Microsoft China has developed a service called Juku which allows you to post 140 char messages to people in the MSN live network.  I have to say that I was blown away at the originality of such a scheme.

Yes of course, its merely Twitter (to all intents and purposes IMO) but since its Microsoft, its faithful will have you know its “sooooo” much better than anything else.

As per usual Microsoft seems to get detractors from even its own user base, with people already saying its a rip off of a similar existing service called Plurk.  Microsoft missed the target yet again?

Mashable is reporting on their article:

Microsoft hasn t announced any plans to internationalize the service and perhaps position it as a direct competitor to Twitter.

So at least we can be thankful we won’t have to suffer Microsoft innovation (and the accompanying PR campaign that relates to it) over here.

For a very apt Microsoft poster (IMO) visit here: http://pix.motivatedphotos.com/2009/7/31/633846323455770420-microsoft.jpg

Goblin – Bytes4free@googlemail.com

Not a coder?  You know nothing, you have no opinion and Mono is great!!!!! ?

A shorter post on the ongoing story of Mono.  I am not going back into if you should use it or not and re-iterate what I always say, decide for yourself.  This piece is a short response to the points made by Mr De Icaza on Information week, which can be found in context here: http://tinyurl.com/y9xhcc9

Firstly I will start off with what I agree fully with Mr De Icaza:

Programmers are people with strong opinions. Some people would like more Python or Java; more power to you. Use what you want!

and I would say the same to the end-users who are deciding if they want to run Mono apps.

Then (IMO) Mr De Icaza lets himself down by making this remark:

But people like [the anti-Mono advocacy group] Boycott Novell do not write a single line of code, so I think there’s advocacy coming from people who do not contribute in any real way. They don’t even come to the conferences; they’re not part of the community in a substantive fashion.

Firstly let me set this straight, you can hold me to this and I stand by it 100%.  There is no anti-mono advocacy group that I am aware of in the IRC group or the BN site.  The website is Roys opinion and the chat room contains people with diverse opinion.  The BN chat logs are even published so that people can see for themselves if there is any conspiracy there.  I would not seek to speak for Roy or anyone else on the channel, but what I will say (and repeat for the Nth time) is that my reasons for not wanting Mono and its associated wares are wholly different to other people in that chat room.

Mr De Icaza, if you are trying to suggest that there is some organized conspiracy/plan at work here then I put it to you that you are a wrong. Plain and simple.

Furthermore, there is no Boycott Novell group, the room is a collection of people who enjoy chatting to each other, nothing more.  Do not hold a group responsible for a single persons opinions/views whoever they belong to or whatever they say.  Mr De Icaza, remember how I didn’t agree that Jo Shields recent behaviour (documented here) was representative of Mono?  Remember?

As Ive said before, an opinion not in favor of Mono is often met with all sorts of allegations (not as part of some concerted effort but more, IMO because of some truly anti-social users).  Talking of which: “ do not write a single line of code, so I think there’s advocacy coming from people who do not contribute in any real way. ” - are you really sure about that Mr De Icaza? and even if you were right, why should anyone’s opinion be supressed? Like I said before, free speech appears to be fine as long as its pro-mono. Oh and you can’t dislike Mono if your not a coder, so all you “normal” users better “suck it up“? (my words)

Now going back to Mr De Icaza and his statement of:

They don’t even come to the conferences; they’re not part of the community in a substantive fashion.

I would completely agree (if we are talking Mono) I want no association with _that_ community.

I hope that clears it up.  The Mono topic gets far more attention than it should, at least with Mr De Icaza speaking on Informationweek it appears you can’t post comments without registering, that should prevent too much “anti-mono advocacy” eh Mr De Icaza?

Goblin – bytes4free@googlemail.com

You may be a UK license payer, but that means nothing to Microsoft. (IMO)

Xbox 360 owners who were hoping for a BBC iPlayer experience may have to hold off a little longer (or maybe even for good).

In my opinion the following comment made allegedly by a source close to the BBC shows exactly how Microsoft likes to operate.  How much money can it make out of a product?  As much as people will blindly shell out! (IMO)

Microsoft only wants to offer its users access to platforms it can charge for as this is the model it is pursuing. It wants to ensure that only those paying for Xbox Live Gold accounts can access its additional content services and even then there is usually a charge on top to get access to those. For example, to access the Sky Player on Xbox, you have to pay for a Gold subscription as well as a Sky subscription,

I think this type of attitude highlights perfectly why the proprietary model is so restrictive.  We see a menu of options that you can have with Windows 7 (at a price of course) and in my opinion if Microsoft’s dream of becoming the sole entertainment supplier in your home came to fruition, you could expect more of the above.  It doesnt matter if its MSoffice, Windows 7 or Xbox 360 theres always something to spend money on.

You can read the article here: http://tinyurl.com/yh5zryn

The BBC allegedly went on to say:

The BBC cannot charge the British public for access to the iPlayer as it is already included in the licence fee

Maybe not, but in my opinion Microsoft will be more than happy to.  So what do Nintendo and Sony do?  Well, they offer the iPlayer service for free on their respective consoles.

It could be said (and its my opinion) that Microsoft never really grasped the online TV market.  Since ITV and Channel 4 both dumped Silverlight, that must have been a cutting blow to them, Microsoft didn’t even seem to see the potential in the Bluray, opting instead for the HDvd and then getting burnt when it lost to Bluray.  Microsoft mainstay in the home?  I don’t think so.

Goblin – bytes4free@googlemail.com

It is being reported on the net that Datel Design has filed an anti-trust lawsuit in San-Francisco federal court against Microsoft.  The reason behind this move?  Because its alleged that a recent update caused 3rd party memory packs (namely Datels) to become incompatible.

Of course since the memory packs don’t come from Microsoft, it appears they can be bought cheaper and makes one wonder if the distasteful practice of the user saving money has caused Microsoft to switch them off? Id say no, its more likely that Microsoft just wants you to “do it their way, or not at all” (IMO)

In respect of the Datel Card compared to the official Microsoft one, Datel had this say:

The Microsoft memory card does exactly the same thing – with the difference that it offers only one-quarter the memory while listing for the same retail price…

Datel go on to say:

Antitrust law protects the right of consumers to choose. Just as a car manufacturer can’t require a buyer to purchase tires for the life of the car from the manufacturer, Microsoft cannot force consumers to buy accessories only from it. Free competition in the marketplace allows consumers the most choices at the best prices. Datel believes that its antitrust lawsuit will restore competition and permit consumers to enjoy the benefits of their Max Memory cards, as well as the many other innovative products Datel has in the pipeline…

“Microsoft cannot force consumers to buy accessories only from it”? – In my opinion, I wouldn’t count on it.

For those people “lucky” enough to have an Xbox 360, the following music video may bring back some happy memories.

Further reading

http://www.xbitlabs.com

http://www.escapistmagazine.com

http://www.hirdyman.co.uk

Goblin – bytes4free@googlemail.com

Its Apple products that their kids want says one shareholder and Microsoft is seen as the "evil empire"? Now, I wonder what past actions have caused Microsoft to get such a bad image?

Here for your enjoyment are the best bits of the Microsoft annual shareholders meeting 19/11/2009.  If you wish, you can download the complete document for yourselves here.

Before we delve a little into that, lets consider what opinions on the net are saying about some Microsoft technologies, we are seeing Zune making attempts to dethrone the household name of Ipod, we see Bing foraging in the scraps left from Googles dinner table (IMO) and we see Windows 7 being presented by some as being great because…..”its better than Vista”

I’ve often said that Microsoft has its fingers in too many pies and instead of being able to concentrate on making a few world class products it has become “jack of all trades, master of none” (IMO) The sheer size of the corporate slug Microsoft means in my opinion that its revenue stream just cannot support all the employee’s, schemes and innovations that it currently has.  To me Microsoft is well aware of its bad image and that’s why I think we see Microsoft selling parts of its patent portfolio in the hope of attacking its competitors by proxy.

So now we move onto the shareholders meeting.

It certainly makes interesting reading and for me asks the question “how focused and organized are Microsoft?” Read the answers that Steve Ballmer gives to some of the questioned put to him.  Do they sound like the answers of a well crafted plan or an attempt to merely defend the company?  I’ll let you answer that yourselves.

So whilst Microsoft tries to become trendy (IMO) it again seems to miss the mark when even its shareholders can’t convince their own children that Microsoft products are the ones they want and it seems that Apple gets the prize with them for producing the tech which is used.

I don’t really think this shareholders comment will come as a surprise to anyone.

All four of my kids in undergraduate got Macs. When they went on to graduate school, they all got Macs. They claim that 65 percent of college students have Macs. They claim that Microsoft, the evil empire, is stodgy on the current ad that Apple has, you all look like a buffoon.

If Microsoft are not aware of the stiff competition it appears in my opinion that atleast its shareholders are:

Just a really short question. I’m a rather new shareholder and I would like to know why Microsoft can’t beat, together with Nokia, Apple iPhone, and Google’s Android. What are you going to do about it?

and if I was present at that meeting representing Microsoft, I’d shout proudly “Zune and Bing!” and possibly “Oh yeah and Winmob. I know we messed up last time, but dig deep and give us another go!” – Yep that ought to pacify the shareholders!?!?

Its coincidence in the last article I covered Bill Gates and his comment about people “stealing” Microsoft products and working out how to get a return later, lets look at that comment again (said in the early 90’s)

Although about 3 million computers get sold every year in China, but people don’t pay for the software,” he said. “Someday they will, though. As long as they are going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They’ll get sort of addicted, and then we’ll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade.

and now Steve Ballmer 2009 at the shareholders meeting:

…I think we feel very good about our position. Whether we prevail or not, we’re going through the legal process in China…..

So, there’s a lot of work to be done on intellectual property protection in China. We both want to be at the forefront of doing that well ourselves. And we expect to see our own intellectual property much better protected in China. That is very important to us.

It sure seems time to pay the reaper.

So with Microsoft shareholders even making comments like evil empire and buffoon.  Has Microsoft still got “the right stuff” to last as the biggest player in the IT world?  Whilst in my opinion Microsoft is trying to cash in with old concepts that have already established a customer base (Zune/Bing) whilst also trying to convince people that they’ve got it wrong about Vista, Windows 7 is great and XP is only supported with security updates, one has to wonder if in fact the comment Mr Ballmer made about Google being a “house of cards” is more relevant to Microsoft?

Mr Ballmer says at this meeting,

And we are excited to be bringing our cloud computing platform to market with Windows Azure and SQL Azure, which we announced this week, will be available commercially by the first of next year.

which is strange because Andre Da Costa seems to imply that we are far away from a cloud computing future.  Having said that, if Andre has seen the comments where Mr Ballmer calls Google a house of cards, maybe Andre holds no worth in what Mr Ballmer has to say.

But wait….it does get better!?!?!

Of course theres “great” news which wasn’t mentioned at this meeting and I would suggest that maybe you don’t get too comfortable with Windows 7….Why? because according to the Microsoft road map (and this article) Windows 8 is on its way for 2012!  So enjoy Windows 7 and get ready to buy into Windows 8 in just over 2 years…remember, “its always better the next time”.

Goblin – bytes4free@googlemail.com

 

Does Zune have the same image as the Ipod? Microsoft seems to think it can flog you one...I wonder if Microsoft have worked out that one of the things that sold the Ipod was image. Microsoft image? lol. A complete Microsoft solution in the home? We've talked about that before haven't we?

As long as its not a new year one!

New year will be remembered by some as a bit of a flop.   Thats if they were relying on a Zune to provide the entertainment for their festivities since it was well documented that some Zunes epic fail over the new year was something that Microsoft is no stranger to, that being a bug.

For those that even knew what a Zune was, we were safe in the knowledge that it had only been inflicted on the US market and whilst Microsoft was dabbling in yet another area of the tech market, the Ipod was gathering pace in the UK.   Of course the Zune brand is more than a piece of hardware and Microsoft is wanting to bring that brand to your TV, Mobile and anything else it lays it grubby little protuberances on (IMO).

Now it seems Microsoft want a part of that market.  Though since its Microsoft IMO it wants it all…”Do it our way or not at all” and the Zune and its associated product line is the answer.?!?

Of course Microsoft doesn’t seem to understand that the tech behind the Ipod wasn’t the only thing that sold it, it was also (rightly or wrongly) the brand image of Apple.  From what Ive seen, its hardly the same to have a Microsoft piece of hardware in your pocket as it is an Apple Ipod and it appears even the legendary MS faithful Andre Da Costa is in love with his Ipod, where he says:

Came back from gathering early in the evening, I was so amazed how the iPod Touch can be such a lengthy conversation piece

or

…I am in love with my iPod Touch…

and he’s been banging on about various Ipod related topics ever since.  Lets hope he paid for the Ipod and its not another laptop example…(Andre since you’ve commented here and read the blog, maybe you would like to clear that up?)

The same cannot be said for the Zune (IMO) and if here in the UK its image that sold the Ipod, what will happen to the young person who turns up at school with Microsoft’s offering?  Mind you could the Zune be a crime prevention tool?  Carry a Zune and you won’t get robbed?

Of course Microsoft is looking forward to bringing Zune to its other platforms and maybe highlights what I said in a previous article about “theres always something to buy and always someone who wants to sell it to you”.  Microsoft are alleged to have said:

Tapping into the Xbox community is great for us, and hopefully can add to our 35 million users

Although they won’t be “tapping in” to the customers they recently switched off live and they won’t be tapping into the customer who were plagued with the “red rings of death” problem and left for the greener pastures of a PS3 or WII.

Lets have a look at some of the comments on Zune and all look forward to its “UK invasion”:

…the Zune gave me more problems. But being a good sport I stuck with it. But it would constantly freeze, the software eventually wouldn’t work on my computer…

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/computers/microsoft_zune_p3.html

and moving on heres an unhappy parent who had a bad purchase of Zune:

Subsequently I bought my daugther an Apple Itouch but I don”t think it will ever erase my memory of her tears and disappointment

http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/microsoftzune-c149569.html

theres a forum thread where one unhappy user wants Zune issues to be listed:

the software sucks ass, one time it can sync my videos. When i delete it and try again. It doesn’t work

http://www.zunescene.mobi/forums/index.php?topic=35149.msg420970

but lets save the best (or the funniest) for last:

Its the weirdest thing, but the squircle (the touchpad interface) on my zune 80 is just slightly misaligned.  Its a little bit off being parallel with the bottom of the player and the screen, it took me a few days to even notice.  Its like a really hot girl with a pimple right in the middle of her forehead,

and its seems the quality of the build is not limited to one “lucky” user:

The squirkle on my Zune 80 is crooked and not aligned either.

We all know about the build issues of some 360’s, so this to me comes as no surprise.  You can visit that forum here.

The complaints of the Zune are well documented on the net, although thats of little consequence since Zune has failed (IMO) to grasp the interest of the mainstream US market.   Its reported from earlier this year here that whilst Apple continues to shift their product at around 250,000 units per day, Zune has about 3.2 million total unit sales.  Readers of Microsoft-Watch may remember that roughly this time last year a reader was reporting seeing the Zune in his local stores “bargain bin” whilst Apples offering were locked behind the counter to prevent theft.

Microsoft are alleged to have said:

The strategy and vision of Zune is to continue to build out that full entertainment experience…

and anyone with access to a search engine can find out exactly what that “full entertainment experience” really is.

You can read more about the Zune here: http://www.techradar.com/news/portable-devices/microsoft-zune-finally-arrives-in-the-uk-650913

Goblin – bytes4free@googlemail.com

Karmic Gnome V KDE. Who will win? One things for sure, theres a few things you need to know about the Koala, see the end of this article for more info!

Ladies and gentlemen! In the blue corner weighing in at 9.10 is KDE and in the red corner also weighing in at 9.10 is Gnome..”For the thousands in attendance and the millions watching around the world..lets get ready to rrrrrrrumble!”

I am going to keep this article short(ish) since there have already been many reviews of both DE’s and this is more for a side by side to either strengthen my case for moving to KDE or infact having me returning back to a DE that has always been there for me…Gnome!!!

I reviewed Kubuntu 9.10 a short while ago and it was due to me commenting on completing a migration away from Gnome that prompted another user to question my reasoning.  Of course I had my own good reasons, KDE felt smoother, looked more polished and the graphical glitches seemed to be ironed out in the version packaged with 9.10.

Having said that I started to question how realistic that impression was since I had never compared Gnome on a like for like basis.

Being a massive supporter of Xfce and a follower of Fluxbox et al, the only rig previously to have had Gnome (for any extended period of time) on it was a heavily mod’ed Ubuntu 8.04 which I had loving called DeepRed (which itself was derived from the somewhat controversial Ubuntu Satanic Edition.

So with Kubuntu 9.10 already having a permanent place on one of my rigs (and a very strong possibility of getting onto a few more), I thought I would give it the head to head treatment with the Gnome version of the same title.   Theres always been some snobbery around Linux distro’s and it seems that some people go out of their way to use a “l337″ distro.   Is that really necessary?  We all know how to install Nvidia drivers regardless of the distro and if you don’t its nothing more complicated than a quick Google and a few copy and paste commands.  I like to compile my software but then theres one hell of a time saving by using Software Center for example.  This is where Ubuntu has always really shone for me, it provides quick setup time and as with any distro, the scope for those who have used Linux for a while to “fiddle”.  Having said that my main rig is Wolvix!

INSTALLATION

Both Gnome and KDE offer a pretty simple installation process, which offered no issues on either rig I used.  Ive already been into the install process for KDE and you can see that review here.

Both installs took roughly the same time, that being about 25mins a piece (thats not scientific) Hardware was recognised by both without difficulty.  The proprietary drivers had to be installed separately (obviously) but there was no flaws and the problem I experienced with Mandriva 2010 (which I documented on Twitter recently) of 1280 x 800 not being allowed (despite it claiming otherwise) was not present with Gnome and Karmic.  Please don’t try to offer me advice on that issue, I did attempt in the end to try and sort it and couldn’t. I commented that Gnome and Mandriva offered me more work than a fresh Gentoo install!  Having said that, this is about Gnome V KDE with 9.10 so I will move on.

In the first round of install/hardware compat, it was a draw between the two.

SPEED/OPERATION

Despite not being up to the speed of my beloved Wolvix, both performed very well and considering at the present time I am also using Windows 7 for a later review, it makes you appreciate how great a Linux platform is when you can get the same performance and eye candy with a 4 year old machine running the latest distro as you can with Windows 7 on the latest top of the range specs.  I digress, the Windows 7 article is for another day.

In terms of FPS both are almost identical and without a scientific means of measuring, I am going to say that they both draw here too.

 

Watch out, the Koala can bite back. So which has more teeth? Gnome or KDE?

CONCLUSIONS

I’ll start with what I don’t like about KDE, I really don’t like the toolbar that pops out when an icon or widget has focus.  It looks a mess.  Having said that KDE is natively more pretty than Gnome and although KDE does put me in mind of a Vista past I’d rather forget, its smooth and you can’t fault it.  Looking at Gnome, Ive always loved the default panel at the top and bottom.  It makes sense for me and feels natural, bottom for the open programs/windows and top for my shortcuts.  KDE’s default panel does not feel as good so Id say Gnome has the upperhand here.

Comparing KPackageKit to Software Center is a no contest, I think Software Center is not only far more user friendly, but I love the layout and preview screens to get a good idea of what you are about to download.

Its not all good news for Gnome 2.28.1 though as Ubuntu did introduce something which Ive never experienced before (and something which was not an issue with the KDE version)  Sound gliches….there was a noticeable pop when sound was initialized in order to play and what a pop too!  Ive read many detractors write about Ubuntu sound issues and this was the first one Ive ever experienced.  The problem was simple to fix:

1. sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

2. options snd-hda-intel power_save=0 power_save_controller=N

Then simply reset your rig.  This solution worked for me and was very simple, however since Ubuntu is aimed towards the new user (and particularly the migrating Windows user) is this really what a Linux “newbie” is going to feel comfortable doing?  Of course this is not a global issue, so I assume its rig dependent.  The other issue I had with Ubuntu 9.10 is that changing the DNS server is not as straightforward as it was in 8.04.  In 8.04 it was literally a 2 second job, 9.10?  Nope!  Trying to change it through the DE was just not playing nicely and it required a quick modification to /etc/resolv.conf in order to get the little blighter using a DNS server other than the godawful (IMO) o2 one.

Ive made no secret Ive been following the Chromium project since the early builds and Im happy to say it plays nicely with both DE’s of Ubuntu 9.10.

After all said and done (and its taken me about 2 hours to get my 9.10 rig to roughly what I want) I am swayed more towards the Gnome version of Karmic. Looking at both screens side by side, I feel far more at home with a Gnome DE and that is reinforced when I remember “theres a K for everything” in KDE (I cite Kscreensaver NOT being installed as default as a good example) Providing I am not misguided into believing the popping issue is relatively on a small scale, I think Gnome DE is the better version.   I am a little disappointed that Karmic installed with a few issues with Gnome and I would hope these are ironed out shortly.

The preview on the taskbar of running programs is a feature heralded by Microsoft supporters as if its the greatest thing since the microchip.  This is available in Gnome and performs in the same way as a Windows counterpart, its not amazing, but it certainly doesn’t take anywhere near the specs that Windows 7 does (IMO) to get it running smoothly. – Just thought Id add that in if you are considering a Linux option rather than a Windows 7 purchase.

WARNING

Whilst they may look cute Koalas can be quite dangerous!

….will drop from the branches onto the shoulders of bushwalkers below, and proceed to claw and bite. There has been the occasional fatality caused by a jugular being punctured but usually the victim suffers nothing more than a nasty shock and a couple of scratches. Source: Convictcreations.com

Goblin – bytes4free@googlemail.com