Windows 7 - Slamming The Door On The Linux Desktop

Sorry guys, you blew it. Linux had a chance with the train wreck that was Vista. But Microsoft has turned it around.

Yesterday I considered taking Fedora off my netbook and putting Windows 7 on there. Not for long, but it happened. That is so huge that I would expect anyone who knows me to be picking their jaw off the floor as they read this!

There was a chance for Linux to get major, non niche traction on the desktop. XP was great - I really liked it though found it a bit unstable compared to Linux. Then Linux got less stable and ever more heavy with stupid ideas like pulse audio and KDE4 (stop smoking recycled Dunlops people - it is not helping with clear thought processes). However, Vista was so bad (sorry - that is just my view) that if all that silliness had stopped, there door was wide open for Linux to become big on the desktop.

No longer - Windows 7 is good enough

I had run 7 in vms in the past, but a mate raved about it so much that I broke down and installed it on my much unloved e6400 brick as the host OS. I love my e6400 now!

• Fast, wow - like a new computer
• Stable, yes, it just installs - no fuss. Nothing has crashed yet (yes really - nothing).
• Did I mention fast - like it has a new CPU clocked at 5GHz compared to the actual 2.4
• The user interface is cool, but not intrusive. It composits but you don't notice, stuff just works (sorry for not believing you Paul! Am I forgiven?).
• Something else. I just cannot quite figure it out. I suspect it is around the scheduler and the hardware access management areas. The result being that different applications don't constantly argue over who should have the hard drive, memory etc. The result is that using the desktop feels a lot more like running a desktop on a high end server box even though it is a laptop - odd and very very nice at the same time.

Conclusions

Windows 7 _is_ heavier than XP (I have demonstrated this on low end virtualized hardware). So Linux on netbooks and mobile devices may continue to be a huge deal. But, Windows 7 has exterminated any chance of Linux breaking into the mainstream desktop market.

I for one am actually quite glad. I don't really care which OS I use - I just want one that works!

Google Wave: First Impressions

I am lucky enough to have been sent an invite to Google Wave. Here are my initial impressions.

Move over Silverlight/Flash

The interface is amazing to say it is not flash or silverlight. It is slick and easy to use in both Firefox/Linux and Chrome/windows. It does not struggle at all on my netbook and also it fits just fine into the 1024x600 world without tweaks. I really see this as stealing some of the attraction of more complex browser plugging type interfaces like Silverlight or Flash. I clearly is possible to make a really clean, smooth operating interface just with AJAX/HTML. I can only assume it is the power of the GWT (Googles Java->Javascript based web interface toolkit) which has permitted this level of quality.

Yes - there are some bugs in the interface but wow - this is in a new league.

The flip side to this slick interface is that it does not seem to do very much which is actually useful. I suspect this could say more about me than about the application its self. I lost interest in Facebook and ever got into MySpace. Wave definitely has that feel about it; it seems to be about talking a lot and saying very little.

I have tried to figure out how I would run a webinar or presentation from it and failed to be excited. I also suspect it is a long way from being a SharePoint killer yet as it does not seem to support the document handling required. Maybe if Google link up Google Docs with Wave then they will have a killer application indeed?

In Conclusion

The very first thoughts are that the technology of Wave could mark a water shed. If browser based interfaces can be this good, then there might be a time when everything but hard core gaming is browser/html based.

The second thought is that Wave is underwhelming - maybe. It is possible that as multi-site collaboration tool it will be very good - kind of a merge of email and im. I am not sure yet. We will see when more users are on the system.

Rest assured, I'll be blogging the minute I have more thoughts on this!