Dutch Consumer-protection agency calls for Vista boycot

The “Consumentenbond” , a dutch association, who protects the rights of consumers, advise that consumers who are buying a new pc, should explicitly ask for Windows XP as main operating system, instead of Windows VISTA, that comes preinstalled on new computers.

They also ask computer retailers/stores,who have customers that have problems with vista, to offer windows XP as a free service. The association came to this conclusion on thursday, after having a debate with microsoft about problems that consumers have with vista.

The dutch association for the rights of consumers already launched a website earlier, where consumers could post their complaints about windows vista. The amount of complaints became that high ,that the association decided to strongly advise the consumers, not to buy vista yet. Especially the usage of ‘older’ equipment like printers and scanners create too much problems in vista.

Microsoft netherlands replied to this, and launched a website, for dutch customers:

www.windowsvistaservice.nl

The company also said that the roll-back to windows xp would not be reccomended, because newer hardware is made for windows vista already.They also demand that the dutch association for consumer-rights tell microsoft exactly what the problems are, but according to microsoft the association doesn’t want to share that information.

My first ustream video!

Yes yes...

I know have an account on ustream.tv and i recorded my first video, to test some things out. I see that my webcam is not giving a very good image, so i need to buy a better one. In the future i am hoping to do live streams, and give people some advise about computers, linux or windows(?), and maybe do some live help with things, like how to get started, and how to set things up Linux.

If you have questions about how to get started with linux, or you need some help with settings, software whatsoever, just go to my blogprofile and leave me a mail with your question. maybe i will do a show about your question. in the meantime watch my first video!

a few words...

At the moment i haven't found any time yet to write new fresh blogs about great topics. The reason is, that i need to go to the hospital every day for my own reasons, and sometimes i don't find the time spitting out the latest news, no one has blogged about yet. I am also adding more and more links and information on my blog. I also started a ustream.tv channel, so in the near future you will see me either live or i will record some video's about topics, that keep me busy.
Untill that time, keep an eye on this blog and check back daily!

greetings Mike-Linux

Microsoft crushed in europe!

Microsoft Gets Crushed in Europe

- The company has to cough up 497 million euros

This week debuted with a bang of bad news for the Redmond company from over the pond. The antitrust authorities in Europe have won their face-off with Microsoft. Today, September 17, the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg (Grand Chamber) found that Microsoft abused its dominant market position leveraging the Windows operating system’s monopoly as an unfair advantage over its rivals. The Court of First Instancerejected the Redmond company's appeal filed following the 2004 antitrust decision delivered by the European competition regulators.

read the full article here

here an additional video:

Europe Today: Microsoft loses battle with European Commission

RE: Forget Linux on the desktop!

today i found a post on the net, saying that linux isn't ready for the desktop. the full article and video that is included can be found here:

Forget Linux on the desktop

here's the video that was placed in the post as well:




I placed an answer on that site where the article was blogged, but i will post MY opinion also here:

The problem is that people expect that everything should work out of the box right away. But lets not forget that Ubuntu or any Linux OS is a "free" operating system that axually is "free of charge" as well. And just because it is free, they can't build in mp3,dvd codecs or that sort of things, because they are patented. However, installing these things afterwards is very easy, and the multimedia codecs, java, flash, libdvdcss can be found in the packagemanager already. And installing from a package manager is also way more secure then downloading something from websites.

Another problem is that most people try out linux the "windows way". But it doesn't work that way, and to be honest, i like the linux way more, cause the most software can be installed with just one program.

Drivers are a problem, but it depends how you see it.
When we have soundcards, there is one driver for all, called ALSA.for printers there is SANE. things like webcams,phones or other usb equipment is a bit more complicated, but its only because the vendors don't WANT to make linux drivers, because they dont want to reveal the source code. And that is also the problem that Dell faces, because dell are not manufacturers, but computer builders, and they use third party hardware form other vendors. Mark shuttleworth and Dell are negotiating with their hardware suppliers to make drivers for ubuntu, and linux in general. So its only a matter of time till that is fixed.

When we talk about if linux is ready for small business use, i would say yes, because linux is cheaper and more secure at the moment. let me list some benefits small company's would have,using linux:

-No costs for the OS itself, since it is free, and free to copy legally.
-no costs for licences, in terms of desktop use.
-no costs for renewing hardware all the time, cause newer versions of linux still can use hardware much longer than windows.
-Linux is more secure than windows.
-no costs for office software (openoffice)

translating these examples into money, small businesses would save a lot.

And you can't give an clear opinion that linux isn't ready for the desktop, by using it only for 1 week. I use linux for almost 2 years now (opensuse 10.2 with KDE), and i still learn things today, which makes the use of my desktop more efficient, and things can be done a lot quicker.I would reccomend not to only look at ubuntu with its Gnome desktop, but also try out more distro's and other desktop enviroments. Opensuse is also a very good OS which comes with lots of software in its repositories, and installing software with the SMART package manager makes life a lot easier. i also would reccomend to use linux for a longer time, before you form an opinion.

greetings, mike-linux ,netherlands