Windows 7 to Ubuntu... will it get wiped out by M$

Reacting that Windows 7 will wipe out Ubuntu.

There were recent comments from ZDNET people that there are people from MS who said that Microsoft 7 will wipe out Ubuntu.

However,Dana Blankenhorn of ZDNET says other wise, she gives the following reasons in her blog:

"Not exactly. Not even approximately.

First let’s understand what 7’s target is. It’s not so much desktop Linux as a particular Linux distro — Ubuntu — that targets the desktop.

Some of these reasons are technological, others social. But the biggest reason is a business reason:

1. Ubuntu has an entrepreneur at the helm. Microsoft beat IBM because it had Bill Gates up against a bunch of suits. Now Microsoft is a bunch of suits and Ubuntu has Mark Shuttleworth.

2. Ubuntu has more server compatibility. Linux continues to beat Windows on the server, and servers (in the form of clouds) are becoming dominant over clients.

3. Ubuntu’s friends will not desert it. HP and Dell have gotten a taste of freedom from Microsoft tyranny. They won’t give that up easily. They will continue seeking product line niches where Ubuntu can succeed.

4. The Netbook will continue to evolve. The “no moving parts” PC is still at Version 1.0. There is a niche for a cheap, profitable “online machine” that can be used in Airports, hotel rooms and sandy deserts.

5. Applications will come. It’s true there are more Windows apps than Linux, by a logarithmic factor. But many are being ported, and the developed world will create many more.

6. Windows is losing the mobility wars. Linux is playing well, Apple is winning big, RIM is hanging in. Where’s Windows? PCs are servers to mobile clients. The clients will tire of waiting.

7. The open source model. Software development has become like the old Steve Jackson game Ogre, and Microsoft’s the Ogre. Ubuntu and other open source pieces are small, but there are a lot of them, and they can work together. Or as Kermit said in The Muppet Movie “who are your friends, Doc?”

This does not mean that Microsoft will cease to be a desktop player, that Ubuntu is going to take over. Far from it. Ubuntu will retain enough interest to stay in the game, that’s all it needs to do.

Ubuntu is doing fine with its present market share. How much more can it get over the next year? Perhaps just a little. I suspect this will be a year when desktop Linux consolidates around Ubuntu, so some gain is nearly assured.

Microsoft will also not disappear under the open source onslaught, just as IBM did not disappear under the weight of Microsoft. But it will change.

It will be fun to watch how it changes, and when. It has yet to see the need, but when Ubuntu fails to fall under the weight of Windows 7 perhaps it will."

dana is one of the resident bloggers of ZDNET

G.ho.st personal impressions

I've recently tried G.ho.st, a new virtual PC/Operating system thats web based. You can open it from a browser and youll have lots of features that you will definitely like.

Imagine having your own virtual PC online that you can use and utilize, whose hard disk space increases as you invite others to join you in using G.ho.st.

I recently was visited by Gene Morada, the Philippine representative of G.ho.st and he introduced me to its features, I like the idea of Cloud computing specially when majority of my students com from class CD and E families, imagine what huge amount of storage space my students can have as well as a virtual desktop PC. Im a google fan, dedicated somewhat, but seiing its features, I feel like combining the usage of Google and G.ho.st and see how big my online virtual desktop space can get.

Ive arranged with our IT guy Sir Bryan to have Gene have a seminar on G.ho.st here in school for our students, and i feel like we have a lot of projects and collaboration to do eventually later.

Eventually i hope that G.ho.st would sponsor educational collaborational tools on their desktop so that we can use them to teach programming to our students.

to know more about G.host please click here

For a view of the screen shots of the G.ho.st OS plse click here.

The cloud finally comes to education

Cloud computing is one of those great buzzwords in IT that, so far, has meant very little to the average Ed Tech customer. We all have a pretty good idea what it means: lots of computers somewhere (we don’t actually care where) doing lots of processing to deliver services to our desktops via the Internet. On the other hand, with the maturation of virtualization technology, the idea of virtual desktops and virtual servers is certainly rearing its head in education as we try to cut energy costs, ease management, and consolidate resources.

SIMtone Corporation has now brought these two ideas together and, although business applications abound, is piloting educational applications of virtual desktop PCs delivered to students via the cloud. Partnering with Frank Porter Graham Elementary School in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, SIMtone is using its cloud computing technologies to go beyond thin client computing and deliver state-of-the-art educational content designed by the US Fund for Unicef to pilot the idea of virtual computers in the cloud for students and staff.

According to their press release,

[the school] will use SIMtone’s Universal Cloud Computing products to provide approximately 600 students and faculty with “PCs in the Cloud” usable everywhere without a computer…The pilot is being launched during the current fall 2008 semester. SIMtone has also identified other schools and institutions to expand the Education Thunder Program on a national and global scale.

The so-called Education Thunder Program “aims to help close the digital divide and provide access to full PCs in the cloud to the estimated five billion people who cannot afford it, without requiring them to own a computer.” While this is certainly ambitious, to say the least, it is also conceivable that cloud computing just might provide some highly affordable ways to deliver educational content and easily (and remotely) managed PC functionality to emerging markets.

While students/schools won’t necessarily need to purchase new dedicated computers for use with this technology, some sort of presentation hardware will be necessary for the virtual PC to be displayed to the student. However, any computer, netbook, nettop, thin client, MID, or, potentially, even a smartphone with a high-speed connection can provide a student with access to their PC in the cloud. Thus, no matter how old the computer (or how “thin” the device), as long as it can run graphical Linux with Firefox, can access a virtual PC via SIMtone’s “WebSNAP” portal. Similarly, slightly newer machines running Windows XP (or even Vista) can use terminal emulator software (called SoftSNAP) to access the Virtual PC.

Although costs are still up in the air at this time, SIMtone also provides a desktop thin client and an Asus Eee-based notebook (called a SNAPbook) for easy access to the cloud. These devices do not have an operating system or any internal processing; prices can be expected to be quite low. SIMtone will be shipping me a SNAPbook shortly for review (including a test account on one of their virtual PCs), but a first look at their products can be had here.

Here is where netbooks and MIDs are really headed, folks: anytime, anywhere access to your PC. The exciting piece of this for ed tech, though, is the ability to deliver huge amounts of educational content on extremely cheap hardware, limited only by the penetration of broadband. Stay tuned for a review of the device and service. Click here for the full press release.