Windows Vs. Linux Boot Times Illustrated

OK, I've never associated the word "fast" with waiting for a modern PC to boot, but this video has given me a new appreciation for how quickly Ubuntu Linux gets itself running. It's interesting to see just how long it takes Windows to get from "logged in" to useful.  I guess there's one more reason I'm glad I made the jump to Kubuntu last year:

I suspect an identically equipped Mac would have performed very, very well in this race, too.

windows, ubuntu, linux, boottime, video

Wait, What? Vista's Failure was Due to Security?

Everyone has a theory on why Vista was underwhelming. The most curious theory is that of Steve Balmer who said to the Telegraph:

"We got some uneven reception when [Vista] first launched in large part because we made some design decisions to improve security at the expense of compatibility. I don't think from a word-of-mouth perspective we ever recovered from that."

Hmm.  Something tells me that Steve is right about security being the problem, but it wasn't because of compatibility issues.  Security was improved at the expense of usability.  Remember this little Apple commercial that lampooned Window's security?

Vista's application security features were so annoying that it was laughable - and in the end poor security. Security expert Bruce Schneider has a  take on this as well:

"There was also the problem of Vista's endless security warnings. The problem is that they were almost always false alarms, and there were no adverse effects of ignoring them. So users did, which means they ended up being nothing but an annoyance."

So what's the takeaway?  Security doesn't work if users become conditioned to ignore your security features.

vista, windows, balmer, mac commercial

Is Windows 7 Relevent?

With Windows release date set for October 22, there's a lot of buzz in Microsoft reseller community. I have to ask this question: is Windows 7 even relevent?

• Many organizations have stated they have no intention of upgrading.
• It's late to the party. In many ways the competition is defining what desktop computing is, from open source web browsers, to Apple and Linux GUI innovations (yes I said, Linux GUI innovations) to the emerging and widely popular open source and platform independent scripting languages that are rapidly becoming popular with developers and forcing Microsoft to support them.
• Are consumers going to be leary of Windows after the debacle that was Vista?
• What about the new low end - netbooks that turn the performance clock back to 2002 and may not have the muscle even for Win 7?

Then there's the question of winning the battle, but losing the war as computing becomes lighter and more mobile as Microsoft is in full retreat in the mobile marketplace:

• Unix has had a big comeback between Apple products, Android powered cell phones and Linux powered servers.

I still have doubts that Windows 7 is the magic bullet for Microsoft, which seems to be a $600 Mac away from hitting a rapid decline. What do you think?