There IS an Alternative; Two of them, at least … !!

You know, you’ve probably guessed I’d be putting up a quick something, today, wouldn’t you?

Well, you would, wouldn’t you?

After all, today sees the Great Satan release Windoze 7, and frankly, I’m sick of hearing about it, already … !

Especially as I — of all people — know perfectly well that there’s alternatives.

For starters, as a Certified Mac Fan Boy, I’m very aware that the Mac OS X Snow Leopard upgrade disc only costs £25; and if it hadn’t been for the Great Fridge Disaster, I’d’ve gone and got a copy on the day!!

Actually, I’ve got to admit, the Gift Pack looks rather good value, as well. I know Apple have it listed at £129, but that includes both a copy of Snow Leopard and the most recent version of the iLife suite; something that retails, on its own, for £69.

Go Figure!

On top of that, I’ve a girlfriend, and a couple of old friends the free — and open source — OS, Ubuntu; which releases its most recent version, Karmic Koala, next Thursday.

And Canonical’s telling they’ve improved the speed of the thing; Tim, I’m expecting excited comments!!

News and A Funky Experience …

Hmmm …

Well …

That was a quick experience!!

Kind of a Funky one, as well, if accessing the net on Ubuntu can be described as ‘Funky’?

Trevor, Dan, Adrian?

Funky?

Let me know, there, guys …

But I managed — all on me ownsome — to wirelessly hook up the Ubuntu laptop to the net!

Which is what that rather big shot of the blog’s front page is; the very same one you’ve just looked at, via a copy of Firefox, running on the Ubuntu’d laptop.

The shame of it is, is that the temporary loan looks like it’ll be coming to an end, fairly soon, as Movie Night Adrian’s managed to sell it to Graham; he of the World’s Tallest Midgets.

With a little help from Yours Truly!!

But I wish I’d’ve had the money, meself; I wouldn’t have minded writing this entry on it, just to see how it worked! And I know Denny — when I mentioned it to him at the shop, tonight — said he wouldn’t have minded putting in a bid for it, either!!

Looks like Ubuntu’s more appealing to us home users than I thought!

I’m also wishing I had a little more time, I’d probably be having a play with it, at the mo; Adrian’s only been encouraging me to learn Python for the past half a decade … !

•••••

At any rate, one thing I do know is that the BBC News channel had a little item flash quickly past, which I looked up on their site, before I got here.

Microsoft — who I’m working hard to avoid referring to as ‘The Great Satan’ — has been ordered by the EU competition Commission to try and come up with a way to not bundle Internet Explorer with Windoze 7; pretty much an on-going story as the more tech savvy of us will realise.

And, about a month back, announced Windoze 7 wouldn’t come with a web browser.

And followed that up, today, with an announcement that the European version of its new OS would be offered a list of potential browser’s when they first install the new software. Something the EU approves of, and will be investigating further, to see how practical it is.

Either way, I hope that does the open source browsers out there a favour.

But I’m also thinking that many people will — much like me — have been happy with whatever browser has been pre-installed with their machine, up until now, and so won’t necessarily be prepared to change.

Who knows.

We’ll have to see, won’t we?