I’ve been installing a lot of different operating systems recently for testing different things, and there’s an interesting issue going on with the location of the ‘traditional’ terminal or command prompt.

I’ll admit, I’m a command line junkie after years of first DOS and then Unix. Despite being a complete Mac zealot as well, the first application I start after a browser and email when OS X starts up is either the Terminal or Apple’s X Windows System implementation.

But I’m noticing something odd. On Linux and Solaris the ‘Terminal’ application is often hidden away under the ‘System Tools’ or ‘Administration Tools’ part of the menu within whatever interface you choose. I suspect this is because these operating systems have been pushing for the ’standard’ (read not power or developer user) who don’t want to use a shell to use their OS.

It’s Tuesday’s IT Blogwatch: in which the state of Massachusetts thinks it likes Office 2007 after all. Not to mention why not to mess with two yuppies in a BMW…

Eric Lai has the scoop:

Massachusetts today released draft specifications that would allow state workers to continue using Microsoft’s Office Open XML (OOXML) format. The latest proposal comes about two years after state IT officials kicked off a raging political battle by unveiling  specifications that would have required state workers to use applications that support only "open" technologies like the OpenDocument format (ODF).
…
According to pages 18-22 of the proposed Massachusetts Enterprise Technical Reference Model 4.0, OOXML, along with ODF, plain text and HTML formats, meets the IT division’s criteria for an open document format. Other formats that are not considered open but could be used by Massachusetts state employees include Adobe Corp.’s Portable Document Format and Rich Text Format.
…
Microsoft has played hardball by lobbying hard in Massachusetts and other states, and to the federal government. On the other side, ODF supporter IBM has also lobbied governments.

Comments Off

That’ll be Thursday’s IT Blogwatch then: in which Microsoft responds to Google’s antitrust complaint about Vista’s desktop search features. Not to mention the seven most annoying things about the future…

Gregg Keizer reports:

Microsoft Corp. has agreed to make changes to Windows Vista’s desktop search and indexing tool, but it did not concede, as Google Inc. charged, that the feature violated a 2002 antitrust settlement … In Vista SP1, Microsoft will allow users and computer manufacturers to select a default search program by using the process already in place for choosing a default browser or media player.
…
Google’s complaint revolved around whether Vista’s search was a new feature, as Google claimed, or an extension of a feature in earlier editions of Windows, as Microsoft said. The point was important, since by the 2002 settlement agreement … Microsoft must help rivals build software that runs smoothly on Windows.

Comments Off

It’s IT Blogwatch in which we ask: Why? Why would anyone think Windows users need another browser? Not to mention an unusual Cold War missile defense strategy…
Gregg Keizer saw it happen:

For his traditional last-minute surprise near the end of the Worldwide Developers Conference keynote today, Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs announced that the company is releasing a beta of its Safari browser that runs on the rival Windows operating system.
…
In a brief pitch, Jobs claimed that the beta of Safari 3 is more than twice as fast as Internet Explorer on Windows XP, and 1.6 times faster than Firefox. "What we’ve got here is the most innovative browser in the world, and the fastest browser on Windows," said Jobs, according to a transcript posted to the Engadget Web site as the keynote unfolded.

Apple Gazette’s first impressions were quick, but Safari wasn’t:

‘Twas a busy weekend of finger pointing with the DoJ pointing to Google, which pointed to Microsoft, which beckoned its former attorney — at the DoJ! Not to mention effective procrastination …

Joe Wilcox blows the whistle:

Back in November, a mystery company filed a legal complaint about Windows Vista. The company has been revealed to be Google, in a breach of legal protocol.
…
Suddenly there is chatter about the Google complaint, as seen in a New York Times story posted [Saturday], with a Sunday dateline. The public disclosure, which fingers Google as the November complainant, violates the court’s protocol for protecting the privacy of companies filing complaints. Apparently, there is division among some states and the Justice Department about the Google complaint.
…
As for the complaint: Apparently, Google contends that Windows Vista’s built-in search feature is anticompetitive because the search indexer can’t be turned off. So, for people choosing Google Desktop Search, there would be two indexers running, which allegedly would degrade performance and the overall end user experience.