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    09 luglio

    NatWest Online Banking

    I was going to make an enquiry to NatWest about their online banking service. Specifically, I was wondering why the "available" amount and the "account balance" don't add up. For positive amounts they should be the same plus/minus any recent transactions. For negatvie amounts (like my account) they should add up to equal the size of my overdraft. Except over the last few weeks I've noticed they're always slightly out, regardless of any account activity. It's only ever a small amount, but right now I'd like to know where £6.75 has dissapeared to...
     
    Anyway, I was going to enquire as to why there seems to be this minor but in the system. It's not a complaint, honestly, but looking at NatWest's feedback form, they don't expect anything positive to be said...
    19.11 | Aggiungi un commento | Leggi commenti - (4) | Collegamento permanente | Pubblica su blog | Computers and Internet

    Vista Press Materials

    I just read Mary Jo Foley's article confirming a mid-July beta for Vista SP1 and then wondered if Mirosoft had posted anything on their own website about it. The answer is "not yet", but I clicked a few other links as well and went to look at the Windows Vista Press Materials. And then I noticed that noone had told the press department what features are available in each edition of Vista, as demonstrated by the "Windows Vista Business Desktop" image whose front screen is the unavailable Media Center.
    Windows Vista Business Desktop
     As for SP1, I can't help but feel it's coming a bit early. Whilst part of me is glad that they're fixing these issues, this isn't going to be for nearly as many problems as any other service pack for Windows.
    10.10 | Aggiungi un commento | Leggi commenti - (1) | Collegamento permanente | Pubblica su blog | Computers and Internet
    07 luglio

    The Year of the Linux Desktop

    Just a quick bit of Google-ing would bring up any number of articles where people may have been right about any particular year being "The year ofLinux"; the year where Linux finally gains a sizable proportion of the home desktop market.
     
     
    Apart from the 2008 article, they're all obviously wrong (Have to wait till 2009 to say the 2008 article is wrong). I'm not saying Linux won't ever become popular on the desktop. But if it does, there won't be a specific year for it. The reasons behind this are simple.
    1. When an easy to use desktop version of Linux finally comes out, it will be one of a thousand distrobutions clamouring for attention and will take time to get noticed. When it finally gets noticed, other distros will probably borrow some ideas and eventually thee will be a few hundred easy to use versions of Linux. They'll still need to get installed over the top of an operating system that people aren't that unhappy to use.
    2. This isn't a fight of just Linux V Windows. It's Linux V Mac OS as well, and if I had to choose between those 2, Mac OS will win. There's more likely to be a Year of Mac OS than a Year of Linux. Imagine Apple turn around and say "from now on, you may install Mac OS on a PC) - wouldn't that be amazing? I know I'd install it. PC Vendors would become free to pre-install Mac OS and at that point all the people who have been holding back due to the expense of Mac hardware would run out of excuses. And in the situation where Mac OS becomes popular, then the vendors need only support 2 OSes, Windows and Mac OS. If Linux became popular, variations between distros would make it appear as though hundreds of OSes needed supporting.
    3. Coming back to reason 1 - The Linux desktop won't suddenly become "easy to use". So many apps and ways of thinking need to change for that to happen, that assuming the ease of use ever arrives, it will arrive slowly.
    4. Hardware support is a catch 22 situation. The Linux drivers for X don't exist because the hardware vendors don't see Linux as popular enough to require them. And Linux will be unable to become properly popular unless it supports all new hardware out of the box. Which it won't be able to because of the drivers. It's a situation which will take time to properly solve itself.

    For what it's worth, I do think there will come a day when Linux is as popular as Mac OS is now. But I think that day will be sometime between 2015 and 2020. Hang in there.

    12.31 | Aggiungi un commento | Collegamento permanente | Pubblica su blog | Computers and Internet