windows

Linux runs 85 percent of the world's fastest computers

Windows rules on the desktop, but if you want serious performance, there's only one choice: Linux.

As The 451 Group captures in a great write-up of the most recent Top500 report of the world's fastest supercomputers, Linux is the default choice for 85 percent of the world's fastest computers. Windows? It can barely scrape together 1 percent market share.

The world's fastest supercomputer, built by IBM, uses the xCAT distributed computing management and provisioning tool, created by Egan Ford (a friend and IBM's supercomputer guru). The good news for Microsoft? It's open source. Microsoft … Read more

Featured Freeware: UltraExplorer

UltraExplorer overhauls the Windows file-browsing experience. Many things will seem similar, yet several key features have radically different work flows from the Microsoft file navigator. It also combines the best aspects of Windows Vista's Explorer with those from XP, and then throws in a few spices of its own to come up with a delicious meal of file management.

The UltraExplorer interface is entirely customizable, from the toolbar menu to the various icons, tools, and options that live below. You can permanently hide any of the 17 toolbars and nine windows that come with the program, so you never … Read more

Viigo 3.0 beta chases Yahoo Go 3.0 beta

Another Yahoo department has cause for concern. Up until last week, Yahoo Go was top dog in the mobile widget arena, pulling everything from weather, news, and finance to local listings, Flickr photos, and search onto Yahoo Go 3.0 beta, the company's rich application for smartphones. But Viigo 3.0 beta has added many of the same elements to what is essentially a faster-loading and more visually straightforward wrapper.

I've sung Viigo's praises when it was flexing new-found muscle as a superb RSS reader for Windows Mobile and BlackBerry devices. The new beta, released June 19, … Read more

Will Intel's snub of Vista be the first of many?

Whatever happened to that chummy Wintel alliance? You know, the Microsoft Windows/Intel chip cartel that has long helped to cement Microsoft's hold on the industry?

In a significant snub, Intel has decided not to upgrade its 80,000 desktops from Windows XP to Windows Vista.

As an inside source put it:

This isn't a matter of dissing Microsoft, but Intel information technology staff just found no compelling case for adopting Vista.

Is Intel a sign of things to come for Microsoft? Will the rest of corporate America discover that Microsoft essentially stopped innovating long ago and has … Read more

Microsoft to acquire mobile-data company

Microsoft announced Thursday it has made plans to acquire MobiComp, a mobile-data company founded in 2000

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. MobiComp, which is based in Braga, Portugal, will become part of Microsoft's Mobile Communications Business division.

The acquisition will be used to bolster a number of services on the Windows Mobile smartphone platform as well as the Windows Live Web services division.

MobiComp has developed an array of products: MobileKeeper Backup & Restore, MobileKeeper Sharing & Communities, and Active mTicker. They're used by companies to back up data stored on mobile phones, submit content from … Read more

Four hard-to-find fixes for common Windows annoyances

You start typing only to realize 10 seconds later that the focus is on the wrong window. You see a Windows notification pop out of the taskbar only to have it fade away before you can figure out what it means. You get distracted by all of Windows' pointless animations. You miss seeing keyboard-shortcut hints on menu entries and elsewhere in Windows dialog boxes.

You could spend hours hunting for the settings that will do away with these four Windows annoyances. At least Vista collects them all in the Ease of Access Center. These usability settings are spread far and … Read more

Reports: Intel to skip Vista upgrade

For any given release of Windows, there are companies that choose to skip it. But when the company is Intel, it's a big deal.

Following a report Monday on the Inquirer, the New York Times reported Wednesday that Intel's IT department "found no compelling case" for upgrading. Ouch.

And that's despite the fact that it's been nearly seven years since XP debuted. It's not a good thing, if your customers are electing to stick with 7-year-old technology. (In fairness, XP did get a fairly big update with Windows XP Service Pack 2, but … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 753: RIAA killed the radio star

OK, now this is weird: the music industry is trying to undermine the way the music industry distributes and promotes music and has always distributed and promoted music. They're calling radio piracy. What has the world come to? Also, RIM totally biffs it with the BlackBerry Bold; hackers crack the London Tube and ride around for free; and Microsoft sets a date for Windows 7. Somebody reserve the church. Listen now: Download today's podcast Episode 753

Internet provider halts plan to track, sell users’ surfing data http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/24/AR2008062401033.html… Read more

Microsoft plans to release hypervisor

Microsoft is expected this week to announce that it has completed work on Hyper-V, a virtualization technology that allows a single server to act as many separate servers.

ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley reported Tuesday that Microsoft is expected tomorrow to say it has released the product.

The move will allow Microsoft to fulfill its pledge of releasing Hyper-V within 180 days of the release of Windows Server 2008, which launched in February. The company issued a near-final "release candidate" version in March.

To make its target, however, Microsoft was forced last year to strip out several features from the product, … Read more