What's hot in the PC side of things (well, the Windows side of the PC side, that is)? It's what you've been waiting for, Windows gamer. At this year's D: All Things Digital, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer of Microsoft have demoed one of the new facets of Windows 7 in front of an audience that once witnessed the one-on-one between Gates and Jobs. And guess what? Windows 7's new features starts off with touch.

In a bid to make the Windows brand become more involved in the ultra low-cost PC market, Microsoft has been prepping up the usually-pricey Windows XP into becoming OS of choice for the budget machines, including OLPC's XO notebooks, which are aimed towards developing countries. More in the full article.

Linux is the first choice when it comes to pre-loading an operating system onto ultra low-cost PCs, but not for long. Microsoft is making a move to make Windows XP an option as an ULPC OS, and it should be good news to those looking for more options in their budget laptops. More details in the full article.

If you put pit laptops running on the Mac OS, Windows Vista, and Linux against hackers, which OS do you think would last the longest? Apparently, it's Linux. In this year's PWN 2 OWN contest, no one was able to hack the laptop running on the Linux OS. Which of the other two went down first? Better read the full article to find out.

 Last week, Microsoft issued a statement that the Linux and Open Office makers could be violating hundreds of patents with the open-source development of the two popular software sets, prompting news sites and blogs to issue different reactions.

For their part, the Linux foundation didn't take it well. As a matter of fact, their general ire was invoked, and they're as unfazed as ever in the face of a potential patent war. An article in businessweek written by a Linux community member proves so.

The article described Microsoft as a "threatened giant" and a "rational actor" all in one. According to the analysis, Microsoft makes about US$34 million a day mainly on the strength of its Windows OS and Office application suite. When these two big assets are under competition, measures must be taken to quell the uprising.

The article, echoing other Linux-community responses,  described Microsoft's action as fear, uncertainty and doubt-causing measures to scare off people who want to make the move to open source software. That way, even if they only delay the ship-jump, the giant would have saved a bundle already.

The article also pointed to the current patent system as a flawed one that can be abused by powerful companies to have their way with smaller competitors. This, in a sense, stagnates the competition and leaves little motivation to innovate.

As a parting shot, the article stated that the Linux Foundation is willing and ready to use its considerable resources to defend its turf and fore counter-claims against Microsoft. The article also urged Microsoft to cooperate in improving software patent laws instead of resorting to the tactics that it uses now.

If you like Dell computers and you're looking for an alternative to Windows, you can get the best of both worlds soon with the company's E520, 1505 and XPS 410 models which sport Ubuntu, a Linux-based OS, ;aunch.

Dell says that it wants to offer its clientele the most options possible to ensure their satisfaction on the product. The company recognizes the existence of a solid crowd devoted to the free OS and says "providing more options to our Linux Enthusiast customer group will hopefully create even more raving fans!!"

Dell says the move will comprise of 1 percent of the total OS mix pf the company that it has installer in its systems. The company says that this translates into roughly 20,000 units a year.

While the Linux community applauds the move by the giant computer distributor, they say that one percent is still not enough to call the move a big step in the proliferation of the OS.

Linux is chosen by a lot of people because of the fact that its free to download and can be customized by programming-savvy users according to their whims. Issues with user-friendliness, however, has kept the mainstream steadily out of reach for Linux.

The Aero Glass interface is what Vista uses to implement the pretty animated transitions and clear windows when switching between applications. Now, this could also be the reason why Vista has been draining laptop batteries faster. When Aero isn't active, it's been said that the battery consumption is comparable (if not better) than Windows XP.

A technologist from Hewlett-Packard John Wozniak has spoken about the inherent problem of the system, saying "They've really made it complex from a power management standpoint. The potential is there to do some good things, the bad thing is that it comes with the canned settings... and we didn't like any of them." This is a pretty common reaction because even Lenovo has done the same thing with their laptops.

Microsoft is unfazed by this. They are actually encouraging PC companies to customize the power settings saying "We actively encourage (PC companies) to customize the default power profiles so that users get the most out of their hardware." in their statement about the current "power draining issues" of Vista. Now, we have to remember that Vista had been marketed as being more power efficient before, unfortunately a lot of people feel that this isn't true and want more from the OS.

A lot of other distinguished people have spoken on the current problem and how they are addressing it. If you want to read more, you can see the full article via our read link.

A report by APC identified that the computer manufacturers were told that OEM copies of Windows XP will no longer be distributed through new computer packages. Even with a huge resistance from the Windows community, Microsoft is adamant to closing any and all options to skimp on their flagship OS.

Even with the many publicity stunts to market Vista to the PC community, there is still demand for preloaded Windows XP in newly purchased computers, especially in the home and small office segment. The plan, as it stands, is to force all computer manufacturers to ship Vista-only machines by early 2008.

It seems that despite Dell's stand that they recognize "the needs of small business customers," the general consensus among PC manufacturers - that Vista contributed a minor boost in computer hardware sales - was enough to steer Dell into adopting "no more XP" move earlier than the specified January 2008 deadline. As a premier home and business computing solutions provider, Dell plans to continue distributing Windows XP "on select Dimension and Inspiron systems until later this [northern] summer."

So it looks like the PC gaming community has their work cut out for them. Now while we go and scan our hard drives, defragment those files and clean out that registry, let's give Windows XP its last days one more chance to shine. Come 2008, it may just officially be the "Year of the Penguin."

 

A few days ago we reported on the different launch parties that were going on around the world to celebrate the release of what's set to be the world's next most popular Operating System, and today we bring you coverage from the Vista launch at the British library in the UK.

Windows is everywhere: from your home, to work, to entertainment; you just can't get away from it. Windows Vista is the successor to Windows XP and is supposed to be more efficient, more secure and more reliable than it's predecessor. But according to Bill Gates himself at the London shindig, we can expect much more from Vista that will shape the future of gaming.

Mr. Gates said, "Today is a big day, and it's really the start of something different," proceeding to comment on the future of games in Vista, the Operating System which will allow us to "play games that are of a whole new level of realism and connecting up with other people around the world". He talked about the developer tools which will be available for Vista will 'empower' the software industry, giving them the ability to create high quality software at low prices. He concluded by saying "We're unleashing people's creativity and we're excited about what can happen."

This speech appears to have been made in response to the Vista compatibility questions that have sprouted up all around the internet, but if Microsoft get this right it could be the sale of the century. Developer tools in Vista are going to be one of the huge factors in the development of games in the future.

Developers are only as good as the tools they can use to create their games, and with the use of extensive information and documents Gates has promised devs, we should be seeing more huge games with amazing graphics that challenge the boundaries between reality and virtual reality. We could even see a game better than World of Warcraft.

Many enthusiasts of the PC and those who have come to be (reluctantly?) reliant on Bill Gates' money grabber are probably waiting for Vista's release this coming January 30 with a bang.

Some of you have your eyes pretty much set on the upgrade versions of the editions coming out, huh? Remember the good ol' days when you could use your trusty upgrade key to start a completely new installation? All it took was an authentic installation CD of a previous version of Windows and voila! You don't even have to have the previous version installed to start the new OS setup. Now you remember? Well that is now all GONE.

Yep. The ol' misers of Redmond thought it would be best to stick to one machine licensing even after addressing armies of customers having quibbles about the difficulty they undertook to upgrade their machines and reactivate Windows XP every step of the way (well, not really, but hey, it feels like that sometimes).

Microsoft's Knowledge Base info (KB930985) specifically states that "you cannot use an upgrade key to perform a clean installation of Windows Vista." Why? Well that's because the all-new, all-powerful Vista has revealed its first Achilles' heel: compliance checking.

That said, it would be wise for all those customers hoping for a smooth upgrade from their old Windows to the new Vista to simply order a license to allow the user to make a clean installation. Maybe it's a tactic to get everyone to shell out money for the Ultimate edition, since it does not have this limitation. The editions that the limitation does apply for are:

• Home
• Home Premium
• Starter
• Home Premium 64-bit
• Home 64-bit

Way to dampen the spirit, eh?