life after Windows....Users have until 14 April 2014 to migratefrom Windows XP.

On Mar 25, 1:08*pm, Kcoc Syawedis wrote:
On Mar 25, 12:06*pm, "Sam O'Var" wrote:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-st...h/features/is-...

Linux is free, easy-to-use and is shedding its geeky image, thanks to
fans who prefer it to Microsoft's mighty operating systems. But is it
for everyone? Jamie Merrill asks four rookies to put it to the test

Wednesday, 25 March 2009

Once it was fair to say that Linux was the preserve of small coterie
of computer nerds typing away in their parents' basements and spare
rooms. This is no longer so, however, as the free and easy-to-use
operating system with a reputation for rock-solid reliability is
coming out of the shadows. It's shaking off its geeky reputation by
getting some computing street cred as a fast web browsing and music
platform.

Andrew Miller, technology journalist and founder of thinkabouttech.com
is a self-avowed Linux devotee and typical of its supporters. "For 97
per cent of computer users, Linux is perfect. Nowadays pretty much
everyone is living in the cloud – with all of our data storage based
online – and Linux offers you absolutely everything you need. For
work, you have OpenOffice, for music you have Spotify and for instant
messaging you have Pigeon. So it's not just a case of it being as good
as Windows, because for a large majority of things Linux is actually
better," he says.

"If you talk to a lot of Windows users and ask them what they use,
they say, 'I'm using Firefox and OpenOffice,' and if you boot up, say,
Linux Ubuntu, a community-developed, Linux-based operating system
created for laptops, desktops and servers, both those tools are there,
so it's familiar territory, totally safe and free. So the question
should 'why not use Linux?'".
Related articles

* * * Why are games so expensive?

Miller isn't alone in his enthusiasm. A recent survey of IT
professionals showed that in the midst of recession, free open-source
software such as Linux is gaining in popularity, especially with small
business users. And while still dwarfed by Microsoft, Linux is holding
its own in the netbook stakes, with some estimates suggesting that the
system is running on more than 10 per cent of all models.

Linux's popularity isn't confined to bloggers, netbook users and
software aficionados. In the past few years Ubuntu – one of Linux's
most popular versions – has been adopted as the operating system of
choice by institutions as varied as Google, Amazon, the French
National Assembly and paramilitary police force, the entire South
Korean government, DreamWorks film studio and the government of Mexico
City. Later this year, the Vietnamese government will be the latest to
ditch Microsoft in favour of a Linux-based operating system for all
its computers

The battle between Linux and Windows has been raging for almost as
long as there have been motherboards and wysiwig monitors, and even
now, Linux is still light years away from even beginning to challenge
Microsoft's software hegemony. But some computer experts are starting
to suggest Linux has reached a "critical mass" and that its day has
come.

So tech-savvy bloggers and IT professionals may be increasingly
convinced of the virtues of Linux, but what about the average Windows
user? To put Linux to the test, we set up four novices – from computer
whizzes to self-confessed Luddities – with a new Toshiba netbook
running the latest version of Linux Ubuntu to find out what they
thought.

Merryl Lawrenson, 56

Community nurse from Ashford, Kent

I wouldn't say that I'm a big computer user as I generally only use
them for work. However, I do some quite complicated tasks at work like
writing on patients' records, so reliability is important to me.

The word processor and spreadsheet were all very similar to what I've
used before as our home laptop runs the same version of OpenOffice.
Menus were straightforward and the icons were very clear and easy to
use. The layout was also very clear, so perhaps Ubuntu is a little
easier for somebody like me when compared with a machine running
hundreds of programs on Windows.

One gripe was that the red cross to close pages and programs was stuck
away in a corner, but on the whole it all worked quite intuitively.
Especially as it's free, I'd give serious thought to adopting Ubuntu
if I were in the market to buy a new computer.

Tony Messenger, 55

Music technician from Farningham, Kent

I'm a music technician, so should know my stuff, but to be honest I
really struggled with all the multimedia software that came as
standard with Ubuntu. For the life of me, I couldn't get any of the
sound or video elements to work online. I couldn't get it to play WAV
files, I couldn't get it to play MP3s and it wouldn't play animated
GIFs. I can only assume you have to download all the individual codecs
[A computer program that lets you stream multimedia content] for each
sound or video you want to run, which is a real pain. Nowadays, you
need a good half a dozen or so codecs just to browse the internet and
it didn't seem to come with any of these as standard.

This defeats the whole point of using Ubuntu as a fast web browser if
you have to spend ages setting it up and finding all the codecs, and
would almost certainly pose problems for a computer novice. Don't get
me wrong; I'm not a Windows devotee and the rest of the built-in
software and menu systems seemed fine, but once you've worked on a
system, any rival has to excel to be worth switching over to. Ubuntu
and Linux generally seem to be the domain of the real computer geeks
out there. Everyone that I know who uses Linux tends to be a computer
nerd or work in the industry. They enjoy playing around with the
system and I don't know if they actually do any work – whereas I'm
interested in actually getting things done.

Tim Blake, 23

Teaching assistant from Codicote, Hertfordshire

I'm a pretty dedicated Windows user so I wasn't necessarily expecting
great things from Linux, but my first impressions were very good. I
expected to struggle navigating the menu system, but found it pretty
functional and easy to use. All the information and programs were easy
to access and the layout was fairly intuitive. It also seemed fairly
robust when it comes to viruses and surfing the web. Internet safety
is always a concern, so that's certainly a good feature.

Personally, I'd prefer something a little more complex which allows me
a greater choice of software. It might be great for an older
generation of computer users who just want to browse the web easily
and safely.

I'm training to be a teacher and am on a tight budget at the moment,
so free software should be really attractive to me, but I'm just too
heavily reliant on Microsoft Office and Windows to consider switching
operating systems. I use Word and PowerPoint on a regular basis, both
on my laptop and on machines at school, so it doesn't make any sense
to switch to a system which won't run those programs. So I don't think
Bill Gates and co need to worry about losing my custom just yet.

Androulla Polydorou, 26

Sales manager from Greenwich, London

The first thing that struck me about Ubuntu was the interface. It's
just so bright, breezy and user-friendly. Everyone who's seen me using
it has been very impressed and has wanted to have a go. I had a few
problems at first, such as finding the right icon to turn up the
volume. I think perhaps I'm so used to Windows that I'm not used to
searching around for icons.

I don't have wireless internet and while I'm OK with computers I had
to give in and ask my computer whizz partner for help after 40 minutes
of trying to get a connection. That could have been more
straightforward.

Overall, I found Ubuntu pretty simple to use and a nice change from
Windows. It booted up very quickly and was speedy online. It had
versions of all the basic programs, such as a word processor, as well
as a really good selection of games. The Toshiba I tested it on had an
inbuilt camera, so I played around with the photo-editing software,
which was impressive. Being able to alter colour and lighting and move
things about and erase things was really cool for someone like me who
has no experience of photo editing but wants to have fun with their
pictures

I wouldn't necessarily trust Ubuntu for work, as I wouldn't want to
find I couldn't do everything I wanted to do. But as another system on
my laptop to browse and listen to music I'd think about adopting it.

With Windows XP moving to the extended support phase of its lifecycle
next week, businesses need to plan to upgrade before full support for
the ageing operating system ends.

Users have until 14 April 2014 to migrate from Windows XP.

But between now and then Microsoft will support the operating system
through its Extended Support programme. This means it will continue to
provide security patches and critical updates, but users will have to
pay for any additional support on a per incident basis.

Many businesses are putting off upgrading to Windows Vista as they see
Windows XP as a more stable platform.

Ben Booth, global chief technology officer at Ipsos, says, "In the
current economic situation businesses will want to reduce costs as far
as possible, so if they do not have an ongoing financial commitment to
Microsoft (eg, through Enterprise Agreement) then I expect they will
carry on with XP." Booth predicts that many companies will skip Vista
and move directly to Windows 7, which is expected in September.
ADVERTISEMENT

Users are now faced with a race against the clock before XP support
ends, warns Steve Kleynhans, vice-president for client computing at
Gartner. Assuming Windows 7 does indeed ship in September 2009 and
companies spend up to 18 months testing the new operating system
before deploying, they will start rolling out Windows 7 only in 2011.
"It could take three years for a large business to roll out Windows 7,
which does not give businesses much time before XP support ends."

Kleynhans urges businesses to download the beta release of Windows 7
now and start testing on a small scale within the IT department. "Set
up a small lab, test your applications and let your IT staff use it."

The release candidate software for Windows 7, which represents the
final code that Microsoft will ship, is due out next month. "You can
even start testing now with Windows Vista, because the software
compatibility issues will be the same."

Microsoft offers a full 10 years of support on all products, which
seems generous. But this only works well if companies upgrade without
skipping versions, says Jon Collins, managing director of analyst
Freeform Dynamics. Since many businesses are skipping Vista, Collins
says that Microsoft's policy on support does not offer businesses as
many advantages.

The clock is ticking. Windows XP is a stable operating system and many
businesses are very happy with. But in five years' time it will no
longer be supported by Microsoft. CIOs and IT directors need to plan
to migrate from Windows XP now.

Overcoming software compatibility issues

Microsoft has introduced a virtual machine platform called the
Microsoft Enterprise Desktop, which it says allows users to run older
applications on future versions of Windows in a virtual Windows XP
machine. Lawrence Painell, Windows product manager at Microsoft, says
people will be able to access applications running on the virtual
machine in the same way as they access native Windows 7 software,
which reduces support and training issues.

Belfast Health and Social Care Trust has used the tool to support XP
applications as part of a Windows Vista roll-out across 5000 desktops.

Shawn The Sheep wrote:
On Mar 25, 1:08 pm, Kcoc Syawedis wrote:
On Mar 25, 12:06 pm, "Sam O'Var" wrote:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-st...h/features/is-...
Linux is free, easy-to-use and is shedding its geeky image, thanks to
fans who prefer it to Microsoft's mighty operating systems. But is it
for everyone? Jamie Merrill asks four rookies to put it to the test
Wednesday, 25 March 2009
Once it was fair to say that Linux was the preserve of small coterie
of computer nerds typing away in their parents' basements and spare
rooms. This is no longer so, however, as the free and easy-to-use
operating system with a reputation for rock-solid reliability is
coming out of the shadows. It's shaking off its geeky reputation by
getting some computing street cred as a fast web browsing and music
platform.
Andrew Miller, technology journalist and founder of thinkabouttech.com
is a self-avowed Linux devotee and typical of its supporters. "For 97
per cent of computer users, Linux is perfect. Nowadays pretty much
everyone is living in the cloud – with all of our data storage based
online – and Linux offers you absolutely everything you need. For
work, you have OpenOffice, for music you have Spotify and for instant
messaging you have Pigeon. So it's not just a case of it being as good
as Windows, because for a large majority of things Linux is actually
better," he says.
"If you talk to a lot of Windows users and ask them what they use,
they say, 'I'm using Firefox and OpenOffice,' and if you boot up, say,
Linux Ubuntu, a community-developed, Linux-based operating system
created for laptops, desktops and servers, both those tools are there,
so it's familiar territory, totally safe and free. So the question
should 'why not use Linux?'".
Related articles
* Why are games so expensive?
Miller isn't alone in his enthusiasm. A recent survey of IT
professionals showed that in the midst of recession, free open-source
software such as Linux is gaining in popularity, especially with small
business users. And while still dwarfed by Microsoft, Linux is holding
its own in the netbook stakes, with some estimates suggesting that the
system is running on more than 10 per cent of all models.
Linux's popularity isn't confined to bloggers, netbook users and
software aficionados. In the past few years Ubuntu – one of Linux's
most popular versions – has been adopted as the operating system of
choice by institutions as varied as Google, Amazon, the French
National Assembly and paramilitary police force, the entire South
Korean government, DreamWorks film studio and the government of Mexico
City. Later this year, the Vietnamese government will be the latest to
ditch Microsoft in favour of a Linux-based operating system for all
its computers
The battle between Linux and Windows has been raging for almost as
long as there have been motherboards and wysiwig monitors, and even
now, Linux is still light years away from even beginning to challenge
Microsoft's software hegemony. But some computer experts are starting
to suggest Linux has reached a "critical mass" and that its day has
come.
So tech-savvy bloggers and IT professionals may be increasingly
convinced of the virtues of Linux, but what about the average Windows
user? To put Linux to the test, we set up four novices – from computer
whizzes to self-confessed Luddities – with a new Toshiba netbook
running the latest version of Linux Ubuntu to find out what they
thought.
Merryl Lawrenson, 56
Community nurse from Ashford, Kent
I wouldn't say that I'm a big computer user as I generally only use
them for work. However, I do some quite complicated tasks at work like
writing on patients' records, so reliability is important to me.
The word processor and spreadsheet were all very similar to what I've
used before as our home laptop runs the same version of OpenOffice.
Menus were straightforward and the icons were very clear and easy to
use. The layout was also very clear, so perhaps Ubuntu is a little
easier for somebody like me when compared with a machine running
hundreds of programs on Windows.
One gripe was that the red cross to close pages and programs was stuck
away in a corner, but on the whole it all worked quite intuitively.
Especially as it's free, I'd give serious thought to adopting Ubuntu
if I were in the market to buy a new computer.
Tony Messenger, 55
Music technician from Farningham, Kent
I'm a music technician, so should know my stuff, but to be honest I
really struggled with all the multimedia software that came as
standard with Ubuntu. For the life of me, I couldn't get any of the
sound or video elements to work online. I couldn't get it to play WAV
files, I couldn't get it to play MP3s and it wouldn't play animated
GIFs. I can only assume you have to download all the individual codecs
[A computer program that lets you stream multimedia content] for each
sound or video you want to run, which is a real pain. Nowadays, you
need a good half a dozen or so codecs just to browse the internet and
it didn't seem to come with any of these as standard.
This defeats the whole point of using Ubuntu as a fast web browser if
you have to spend ages setting it up and finding all the codecs, and
would almost certainly pose problems for a computer novice. Don't get
me wrong; I'm not a Windows devotee and the rest of the built-in
software and menu systems seemed fine, but once you've worked on a
system, any rival has to excel to be worth switching over to. Ubuntu
and Linux generally seem to be the domain of the real computer geeks
out there. Everyone that I know who uses Linux tends to be a computer
nerd or work in the industry. They enjoy playing around with the
system and I don't know if they actually do any work – whereas I'm
interested in actually getting things done.
Tim Blake, 23
Teaching assistant from Codicote, Hertfordshire
I'm a pretty dedicated Windows user so I wasn't necessarily expecting
great things from Linux, but my first impressions were very good. I
expected to struggle navigating the menu system, but found it pretty
functional and easy to use. All the information and programs were easy
to access and the layout was fairly intuitive. It also seemed fairly
robust when it comes to viruses and surfing the web. Internet safety
is always a concern, so that's certainly a good feature.
Personally, I'd prefer something a little more complex which allows me
a greater choice of software. It might be great for an older
generation of computer users who just want to browse the web easily
and safely.
I'm training to be a teacher and am on a tight budget at the moment,
so free software should be really attractive to me, but I'm just too
heavily reliant on Microsoft Office and Windows to consider switching
operating systems. I use Word and PowerPoint on a regular basis, both
on my laptop and on machines at school, so it doesn't make any sense
to switch to a system which won't run those programs. So I don't think
Bill Gates and co need to worry about losing my custom just yet.
Androulla Polydorou, 26
Sales manager from Greenwich, London
The first thing that struck me about Ubuntu was the interface. It's
just so bright, breezy and user-friendly. Everyone who's seen me using
it has been very impressed and has wanted to have a go. I had a few
problems at first, such as finding the right icon to turn up the
volume. I think perhaps I'm so used to Windows that I'm not used to
searching around for icons.
I don't have wireless internet and while I'm OK with computers I had
to give in and ask my computer whizz partner for help after 40 minutes
of trying to get a connection. That could have been more
straightforward.
Overall, I found Ubuntu pretty simple to use and a nice change from
Windows. It booted up very quickly and was speedy online. It had
versions of all the basic programs, such as a word processor, as well
as a really good selection of games. The Toshiba I tested it on had an
inbuilt camera, so I played around with the photo-editing software,
which was impressive. Being able to alter colour and lighting and move
things about and erase things was really cool for someone like me who
has no experience of photo editing but wants to have fun with their
pictures
I wouldn't necessarily trust Ubuntu for work, as I wouldn't want to
find I couldn't do everything I wanted to do. But as another system on
my laptop to browse and listen to music I'd think about adopting it.

With Windows XP moving to the extended support phase of its lifecycle
next week, businesses need to plan to upgrade before full support for
the ageing operating system ends.

Users have until 14 April 2014 to migrate from Windows XP.

But between now and then Microsoft will support the operating system
through its Extended Support programme. This means it will continue to
provide security patches and critical updates, but users will have to
pay for any additional support on a per incident basis.

Many businesses are putting off upgrading to Windows Vista as they see
Windows XP as a more stable platform.

Ben Booth, global chief technology officer at Ipsos, says, "In the
current economic situation businesses will want to reduce costs as far
as possible, so if they do not have an ongoing financial commitment to
Microsoft (eg, through Enterprise Agreement) then I expect they will
carry on with XP." Booth predicts that many companies will skip Vista
and move directly to Windows 7, which is expected in September.
ADVERTISEMENT

Users are now faced with a race against the clock before XP support
ends, warns Steve Kleynhans, vice-president for client computing at
Gartner. Assuming Windows 7 does indeed ship in September 2009 and
companies spend up to 18 months testing the new operating system
before deploying, they will start rolling out Windows 7 only in 2011.
"It could take three years for a large business to roll out Windows 7,
which does not give businesses much time before XP support ends."

Kleynhans urges businesses to download the beta release of Windows 7
now and start testing on a small scale within the IT department. "Set
up a small lab, test your applications and let your IT staff use it."

The release candidate software for Windows 7, which represents the
final code that Microsoft will ship, is due out next month. "You can
even start testing now with Windows Vista, because the software
compatibility issues will be the same."

Microsoft offers a full 10 years of support on all products, which
seems generous. But this only works well if companies upgrade without
skipping versions, says Jon Collins, managing director of analyst
Freeform Dynamics. Since many businesses are skipping Vista, Collins
says that Microsoft's policy on support does not offer businesses as
many advantages.

The clock is ticking. Windows XP is a stable operating system and many
businesses are very happy with. But in five years' time it will no
longer be supported by Microsoft. CIOs and IT directors need to plan
to migrate from Windows XP now.

Overcoming software compatibility issues

Microsoft has introduced a virtual machine platform called the
Microsoft Enterprise Desktop, which it says allows users to run older
applications on future versions of Windows in a virtual Windows XP
machine. Lawrence Painell, Windows product manager at Microsoft, says
people will be able to access applications running on the virtual
machine in the same way as they access native Windows 7 software,
which reduces support and training issues.

Belfast Health and Social Care Trust has used the tool to support XP
applications as part of a Windows Vista roll-out across 5000 desktops.

not so.