jzemlin's blog

The Wall St. Journal reported today that, “For months, Microsoft has jabbed at Apple with an, at times, baffling advertising campaign for Windows PCs. Now Microsoft may finally land a solid blow against its rival [with its new campaign].”

According to the article:

Calm Down

I’ve written on Red Hat before and the confidence I feel in their operational strengths. It is one of the best run companies I’ve seen. Red Hat’s leadership in the Linux space and its steadfast belief in open source software has been a key factor in Linux adoption in the enterprise. This year’s numbers with Linux capturing greater than 20% of server shipments, a major success, are due in large part to Red Hat’s competitiveness and hard work.

Times are tough in the banking industry. According to the AP, 100,000 bank employees have been laid off over the past two years. Overall, banking industry unemployment has almost tripled and bank stocks have cratered. Even with astronomical bailout money becoming available, banks are looking for ways to consolidate.

As a blogger myself I can appreciate a catchy headline as much as the next guy, but this one is insane. ZDNet’s Robin Harris is declaring an early victory in the netbook market with his story, “Windows Kicks Linux to the Curb.”

The Palm Pre, described as a phone that’s “always thinking ahead,” debuted at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this month. The phone is running Palm’s all-new Linux-based webOS platform. The form factor is downright sexy with a 3.1″ 320 x 480 multitouch display with accelerometer-sensed widescreen browsing and a full pull-out qwerty keyboard. It includes 802.11b/g WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth and 8GB of built-in flash storage. There’s a 3MP camera with LED flash, a mass storage-friendly microUSB plug and a 3.5mm headphone jack. There is also a wireless charger.

The 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) just finished its annual flagship event in Las Vegas. Known as the biggest show in electronics, it’s covered by mainstream press and technology bloggers with relish. Keynotes, product announcements, parties, celebrities… CES has it all.

It is hard for the executive director of the Linux Foundation to feel bad for Microsoft, but they are having a bad week while Linux continues to move forward in innovative ways into new markets for computing. Let’s take a look at the difference between Microsoft and Linux this week:

Intel announced today (Thursday) its plans to partner with the Taiwanese government and invest in the island nation’s IT industry to launch an Open Source Software Development Center for mobile devices. Building on Taiwan’s undisputed role as a leading center for creating connected consumer devices, CEO Paul Otellini indicated that Intel had signed an agreement with the Taiwan Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA). MOEA and Intel will establish a center for enabling Moblin and other OSS optimized for devices based on the Intel Atom.

For those that decry the constant prediction of the “year of the Linux desktop” I am happy to say that next year Linux may actually ship on more desktops than Windows or the Mac. That is right, I said next year. What is driving this? Two words: fast boot.