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.

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.

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Patent, patent on the wall, who’s the scaredest of them all? It’s Friday at IT Blogwatch where Microsoft taps its baton and Linux distros sign. Not to mention, a space shuttle monitor suburban-style …

Linspire’s press release says:

Today Microsoft Corp. and Linux desktop provider Linspire Inc. announced a broad interoperability, technical collaboration that also includes intellectual property assurances.
…
Through the agreement, Microsoft and Linspire have developed a framework to provide patent covenants for Linspire customers. The patent covenants provide customers with confidence that the Linspire technologies they use come with rights to relevant Microsoft patents.

Groklaw’s not kidding around: