Archive for 'Operating Systems'
Microsoft, You Have Made Vista Hard to Develop For!
Posted on May 5, 2008, under Development, Operating Systems, Software.
I have learned to like, even love some things about Vista. That is not to say I think it’s perfect. It’s far from perfect. It’s unfortunate that it took Microsoft this long to implement some of the great features, and they still did not have enough time to implement things well; which is what makes Vista suck in it’s own right. It’s incomplete, it’s buggy, things were not thought through or over thought.
The one thing Microsoft had going for it, was it gave developers tools to make applications for its operating systems. Microsoft did not alienate past versions, something Apple is not afraid of. All this, and more, contributes to why it is largely adopted by businesses, and why you can find an application for just about anything you need on Windows. I am afraid that Microsoft has lost sight of this with Vista.
Vista is not easy to develop for. We are extremely behind with the release of NetGrid Studio, and the outstanding issues are Vista related. User Access Control is not only a nightmare for users, but for developers as well. You have to use specific API’s to "elevate" an application whenever you need to do something that could cause harm, like accessing certain parts of the registry. Which means you have to make a specific build for Vista, and make it seamless to the end user so they do not have to download a "made for Vista" version.
Apple got it right, granted they are built off of Linux and arguably do not have as much of a security problem because they are not as widely adopted; but non-the-less they got it right. Something as monumental and important as security with an Operating System should have been priority #1 for Microsoft making it easy for users and developers. I have not enjoyed making sure our applications are compatible with Vista. And do not even get me started on the ridiculous process you need to take in order to get your application certified "Vista Ready". The whole thing just was not thought out an implemented correctly.
I am a Windows user, and as much as I praise the things Microsoft has done I am hard on them as well. They should have split the Windows division from their online, Office, and IE teams like they did when making the XBox 360. Cut out the noise, and make a better product.
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Why Google, and Other Services Don’t Make Off-line Backup Tools for Their Services
Posted on August 20, 2007, under Email, Operating Systems, Software, Tools and Services.
Web services are everywhere, I do not need to go into examples like Google Docs, Gmail, Office Live, etc. Everything is moving toward the web, and the security of having everything on your local hard drive will be no more. The one thing that will prevent a lot of people, and corporations, from moving everything to a web based email or document solution is the feeling of not owning the content. To that point, the one thing that you do not see for these online services are backup tools. Why is this?
A backup tool in mine and most definitions, is an automated way of exporting all data in the event of a failure on either the service or the client side. This does not mean manually going in an exporting emails or documents, rather pressing a button and getting a local copy.
I understand that a lot of these web services are new, and a backup tool is probably not the first, or the second, feature that a Google or Microsoft would bring to market. Beyond that, what is taking so long? GMail still does not have an API, and if you apply this time line to Google Docs; it will be a while before we see it for that as well. An API would open up the ability for third party developers to create a backup application.
The way I see the answer is control. If Google or Microsoft make a way to easily backup your email or documents, it makes it that much easier to go to another service. If I were a betting man I would say that Microsoft will create a backup tool for its online services long before Google will, because Microsoft already owns the desktop and Word Processing market. For them, they need to give the ability to go from Microsoft Office on the desktop to Office Live on the server and back again seamlessly. The same goes for Windows Mail on the desktop to Live Mail on the server. This in itself is a backup solution, the ability to download your email or documents on a web service to your local hard drive. In true Microsoft fashion I see it being a closed source formats you can’t easily go over to GMail or Google Docs.
Additionally with the soon-to-be released Windows Home Server, Microsoft has another opportunity to one-up Google by giving the ability to backup Office Live or Live Mail, after all this is what the Home Server is all about; seamless backups.
The ironic thing about all of this, is choosing a business model over your customer wants and needs is sometimes enough to push someone to another service. Your thoughts?
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Clearer Screen Type on Windows with ClearType
Posted on August 2, 2007, under How To, Operating Systems, Tools and Services.
I had to install Vista for a job coming up, so I decided to install it on an actual machine as apposed to a VM machine. I spent a week settin it up, and playing with all of the neat new settings, and after a week explorer kept crashing and after two hours I could not find a solution so out came the XP CD again and Vista went back to a VM machine.
When going back to XP the biggest thing I missed about Vista was actually the clearer fonts used, there were a pleasure to read. Note: you can get the Vista fonts on XP though a simple search, or even easier if you install Office 2007 you will get the Vista fonts.
So what makes the fonts smoother and easier to read on Vista? Well it’s called ClearType and there is a PowerToy for XP that you can install for free. Download, install, and configure in the control panel, and you will have smoother fonts similar to Vista.
I knew about this before Vista, but actually couldn’t stand using it. A week of using Vista everyday changed my view on that; no pun intended.
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How to Setup a Subversion Server on Windows
Posted on July 24, 2007, under Development, How To, Operating Systems, Software, Tools and Services.
A while back I wrote an How To on how to setup a Subversion server on Linux. So anything you can do on Linux you should be able to do on Windows, right? Well I am not getting into that debate, but yes you can setup a Subversion server on Windows. Much like Linux there are many ways to accomplish this, today I will be talking about how to set it up using Apache. So let’s take a look…
Downloads:
These are the recent versions of this date, please check for the latest stable versions at time of install.
Install:
First lets install Apache. You should be able to select all of the defaults during the installation process, unless you know what you are specifically trying to accomplish. Be sure to select “Apache Modules” where it talks about the SVN module.
Second lets install SVN, again the defaults work fine.
Third, and last install TortoiseSVN, yup defaults work good for this as well.
Configure Apache Password File:
First lets create a Apache password file, from a command line run:
[ftf]
C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\bin\htpasswd.exe -c C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\passwd myuser
[/ftf]
Be sure to replace “myuser” with the username you wish to use for your login.
Create a Repository:
Next we need to create a subversion repository:
[ftf]
C:\Program Files\Subversion\bin\svnadmin.exe create C:\MyRepos
[/ftf]
Configure Apache:
In Notepad open up the file “C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\conf\httpd.conf” and put the following at the end of the file:
[ftf]
DAV svn
SVNPath “C:\MyRepos”
AuthType Basic
AuthName “My Subversion Repository”
AuthUserFile passwd
Require valid-user
[/ftf]
Presto! All you need to do is restart Apache via the neat little system tray icon, and import your repository and you are up and rolling.
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The End of Stickers and Crapware on Your New CPU
Posted on May 29, 2007, under Operating Systems, Software.
Dell has been in a reinventing state, first starting to use AMD processors in some of its CPU’s and now it is launching a line where you can get Ubuntu installed as your operating system. This is a huge step in the OEM market, and means several things for consumers.
For one it means the end of the “Microsoft Tax“, which is the extra $80 or so you have to pay for a copy of Windows when you buy a computer from a manufacturer.
The second large important step this brings is the end of all the crap ware and hidden partitioning that manufactures do to your new computer. This tactic started to earn an extra buck has gotten way out hand. When you get a new computer it is so bogged down with unnecessary software, that you really aren’t getting the fast computer you hoped and paid for. Additionally the recovery partitions are getting larger and larger, taking up more of your precious hard drive space. The only sure way around this is to format the whole computer, which isn’t likely going to be done by the novice consumer.
This third is a bit smaller, but still unnecessary. This might just mean the end of those stupid and annoying “Intel” and “Windows” stickers plastered all over your nice new shinny case. There are especially annoying on laptops because they usually stick them right where your palms go while typing. Yes easily removable, but really unnecessary. Windows owns the consumer desktop market, unfortunately, do we really need a sticker on the outside of every machine to remind us of that?
These changes from Dell will most likely mean other manufacturers will follow suite, maybe even trying to one up Dell with even something bigger. For me, it’s a fresh of breath air, and a much needed one. Consumers need, deserve, and want choice. Some companies have gone to great lengths to make sure that doesn’t happen. So when a major player like Dell steps up to put that power back in to consumers hands, it’s good thing. If Gateway wasn’t too scared to do it when people suggested it to them, it might have been the lifeline that company so greatly needs.
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Why Microsoft will Never Succeed In Search
Posted on May 21, 2007, under Email, Operating Systems, Search, Tools and Services.
My recent change over to a Linux desktop has really given me some different perspective on things. It has allowed me to see things differently. The task of trying to find Linux replacements for some of my “must have” Windows desktop applications proved to not as easy as I thought. In the process I quickly learned what big name companies support Linux by making their applications and products cross platform. Google was on one side with their Linux versions of Picasa and Google Earth. this really had me thinking about how Microsoft plans on succeeding in the search market when they are too stubborn to embrace other communities like Linux and Macintosh. The search business involves managing data, take Google the undisputed leader in search. For email it’s GMail, for instant messaging it’s Google Talk, for documents and spreadsheets it’s Google Docs and Google Desktop Search, and the list goes on. So how is Microsoft going to compete with this? Is Microsoft’s online Office going to be compatible with Firefox with absolutely no feature different? Is Microsoft going to release a Linux or Macintosh version for their Desktop search product? Is Microsoft’s Picasa killer going to support other image and video formats that are not Windows dependent and plugged into to their DRM system.
Microsoft has never really been platform independent. They stopped releasing Internet Explorer for the Mac, the web-mail for Microsoft Exchange is completely less usable and has less features if running on a browser other than Internet Explorer, and IMAP in Outlook has never worked the way IMAP is supposed to work. Microsoft has always had the problem of needed to own the entire market, and complete the circle from Desktop, to Internet, to Mobile; this does not play well when you want to be a service company.
Enter in the ongoing rumor that Microsoft has been looking at Yahoo for an acquisition, and I am completely dumbfounded. Yahoo uses open source technology like PHP and MySQL. How long is it going to take for Microsoft to convert all of that over to Microsoft proprietary software? And what is the cost in doing so in terms of advancing your product from its current state?
Maybe I am missing something in all of this, but I just am not sure how Microsoft plans on putting the pieces together. When you are a service company, you have no platform in the term of Windows, Linux, or Mac, you need to bee diverse, which is something Microsoft built a monopoly on top of not being.
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Cool Things For Linux: gDesklets
Posted on May 14, 2007, under Operating Systems, Software.
No this will not become a Linux blog, but there are just so many cool things for the Linux desktop that I have been discovering lately. Today a buddy at work pointed me int the direction of gDesklets. A little application that creates little widgets for your desktop, much like the sidebar in Windows Vista. There site does not have as many desklets on it as you can install with the manager in Ubuntu, but they have a few.
The application does not seem as memory intensive as some of the other desktop widget applications I have used, like Konfabulator, now Yahoo Widgets, or the Windows sidebar. The project still seems young, but seems like there are more Widgets out there to download. I am still hunting for a great repository.
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PortableApps.com: Taking Your Apps on The Road
Posted on April 23, 2007, under Development, Operating Systems, Software, Tools and Services.
A while back I read about being able to install Firefox on a USB drive and being able to plug it into any computer and just use Firefox right of the key fob. Better yet, no personal information; passwords, history, cookies, etc. would be left on the computer… it’s all on the USB drive. I didn’t realize that this functionality had bee made from other great software I use until I came across PortableApps.com.
PortableApps has many popular software titles available to be installed right on a USB drive for portable use. They mark themselves on Convenient, Open, Free. If you are a developer looking to make your application portable there is a very helpful development page and forum available.
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How To: Remove Thumbs.db
Posted on April 3, 2007, under How To, Operating Systems.
Thumbs.db is a very annoying file if you are showing all files in Windows. Thumbs.db is a cache file for thumbnails shown in Windows Explorer, and they litter your hard drive. There are two really good reasons to remove these files from your computer:
- I am not sure of anyone who uses the thumbnail view in Explorer, maybe I am limiting who I asked… but I can’t find a one.
- Computers and graphics cards are much more powerful then when Windows XP was released, and while caching can sometimes be good it’s usually not needed.
To me these are about as annoying as the .DS_STORE files that Macs put all over the place on networked attached drives. So how do we get rid of them? Easy:
- From “My Computer” click on the “Tools” menu item
- Click on “Folder Options”, and the folder options dialog will appear
- Click on the “View” tab
- Check the “Do not cache thumbnails” option
You may also want to search your hard drive for “Thumbs.db” and delete all of them. I wish there was a way to hide this file in Explorer without hiding all system files. This tip, unfortunately, does not save you if you download one of these files in a ZIP file from someone else’s computer.
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Why I Can’t Upgrade My Development Machine to Vista
Posted on April 2, 2007, under Development, Operating Systems, Software.
I have a Vista Ultimate on a test machine, and lately I have been wanting to update my main development machine to Vista. Why? Well despite others being very unhappy with Vista, I am ready to switch. There is really no solid reason I need to switch over to Vista for, but I feel myself reliving the days when Windows XP was released. I was so unhappy with the new direction and some of the unneeded features of XP, I waited so long to switch to Windows XP from Windows 2000. No XP is a part of everyones daily life, and I have a feeling that sooner or later Vista will be a part of everyones life; whether we like it or not. I don’t want to be late to the game for Vista, not that I feel I am missing out on anything - I have just been so stuck in my ways in the past that I am trying to change that.
Yes, this is where all of the mac fans shout out “Walk away from the dark side!”, “Get a Mac”, etc., etc., etc. Well as much as I might like that, I develop for Windows… it’s what I get paid to do; so at this fork in my life converting to a Mac is not possible. So back to the point; why can’t I update to Vista? Well, here’s why:
The development team I work with is small, and we use older versions of software. We use older versions because the time and effort that it would take to update versions is too much. We are so small, and strapped for time as is: it would take time out of everyone’s schedule to up convert. For example Visual InterDev. We use Visual InterDev from the Visual Studio 6.0 days. Yes, old, yes our own fault. But we use Visual InterDev to manage our staging and production websites. Why? Well it’s easy for non “techies” to modify HTML code. As if retraining everyone on the new Vista compatible Visual InterDev wouldn’t be time consuming enough, we would have to update the server side as well. We use ASP classic, no .NET stuff. We have never needed any of the “features” that .NET brings so the investment in time and money was never worth it. Lastly, the decision on if Visual InterDev is best for our needs, or moving over to some CRM solution would need to be discussed. Then testing, installing, and training starts all over again.
Second Visual Studio: Again, we use Visual Studio .NET 2003 which we have reaad has mixed results with Vista. Moving over to the latest and greatest Visual Studio would require updating project files, SDK’s, etc. Yes not difficult, but time consuming.
Partly it’s our own fault for not keeping up with the latest and greatest from Microsoft all of these years. On the flip side of that coin, it’s unreasonable for a company like Microsoft to expect a company to always shell out loads of cash for the latest and greatest. Companies want a return on the investment for all of those licenses, and companies don’t like having to spend a bunch of money upgrading and retraining. But the bigger question that has to be asked is are these software products truly not compatible, or is Microsoft just being lazy about “supporting” them on Vista. I will say Microsoft has always been good about allowing backwards compatible, and I understand that some applications are just too old; but in our case I will not be able to give more money to Microsoft and upgrade to Vista on my development machine, because the applications I need at this moment don’t play well.
Upset? Yes a little. We share the blame a little here, but it’s discouraging that Microsoft expects us to revamp to all new versions to to be compliant with the operating system.
The last note that I should make is that since we are not developing on Vista, it makes it harder to develop for Vista; which in turn helps people convert over to new operating systems when they see cool application features that are Vista only.
