kootie report...

Symantec Security folks just reported on their findings for 2008. It appears that they saw a 256% increase in malware such as virus and/or spyware infections. As is usually pointed out, these attacks come from some poor forlorn third-world country, well, not so McGee. The US was the world leader in web based attacks. More info for those that are interested may be had at:

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/163390/malware_had_a_great_year_in_2008.html

Jim

Vista -> XP -> Windows 7 upgrade path defined!

Jibberish? Yeah, just about but there is some information here if you will hang in with me for a few minutes.

What this all means is that those of you that purchase a new computer between June, 2009 and January, 2010 with EITHER Vista or Windows XP downgrade factory installed will be able to upgrade to Windows 7 when it hits the streets for little or nothing. This idea behind this is to help the equipment vendors continue to sell computers to people that will want to upgrade. If they, the vendors and MS, don't take this approach there are a lot of buyers out there that will be lookers until Windows 7 is released.

Here is a link to an article from Computerworld that gives more details:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9131169

Jim

Windows 7 - sooner than we think!

Not substantiated yet but strong rumors that Windows 7 will be out in September. This would be wonderful if it happens.
Probably still a very good idea to wait a few months and let the bugs shake out unless you have a Vista computer that is a problem child (most are). In the later case you are better off switching sooner than later...Windows 7 beta version is better than Vista after two service packs.

Windows 7 - the next release

Windows 7, the next release of Windows, is in beta testing. Based on my experience with the beta and the comments from others using the product it is a MAJOR improvement on Vista. Don't have a release date yet but I would not be terribly surprised to see it in the market place for the Christmas season...just my thoughts, though, nothing official. More as I have more to comment on.

What is Microsoft going to support going forward...

Pretty much the bottom line is that MS is going to support Windows XP, as long as it is patched to the most current service pack (SP3 right now), until 2014. There is information as to what they plan to do to support Vista, but, frankly, who cares. You can get more info from the pages to which this link points.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycle/servicepacks.mspx

Vaious operating sytem market shares

Her is a link to the Market Share website that gives you some idea of what operating systems are out there and what share of the market each has.

http://marketshare.hitslink.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10

Hi and how are ya!!

This is the beginnings of what I hope will be an informative resource for my clients and friends about things that are happening in the computer world. I will attempt to post happenings, alerts, failures, and successes. Suggestions as to content are encouraged; if there is something of interest that I can post please let me know.

Jim