Friday, July 18, 2008

Roll your own MS Windows OS!

Just when you think you've seen it all... there is a new twist on everyone's attempts at avoiding Microsoft's Windows Vista OS. Say hello to Windows Workstation 2008!

You've probably heard by now that Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista share the same kernel (right down to the version number). But somehow Server 2008 doesn't seem to be as bloated and sluggish as Vista. So a Microsoft engineer had the bright idea of using Server 2008 as the OS for his workstation (must be nice to get free Windows licenses). Here's his blog entry: The Way I See It by Vijayshinva Karnure

This news caused a number of hackers to get involved and to start experimenting. They've created a dedicated blog for their effort called www.win2008workstation.com. An automated conversion tool has even been created to simplify the installation process. It can be found here. Apparently, in addition to much better stability, benchmarks are reporting a 17% speed increase - all while running your favorite applications.

A reporter with InfoWorld, Randall C. Kennedy even gave it a try and wrote a series of articles on his experience (it doesn't look like he'll be going back to Vista):

If you try this approach, please post your results here. I've got other fish to fry at the moment.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

XP: How to continue getting it after the June cutoff

There have been quite a few articles in the media about XP and people's desire to keep using it rather than moving on to Vista. Microsoft announced XP Support for 6 more years and companies such as Dell and HP announced they would make XP available after the June 30th deadline.

Well now PC World Australia has put it to the test. They actually went to nine US PC manufacturers to see what it would take to get a PC from them with Windows XP preinstalled: What does it take to get a PC with XP?

The article is loaded with great information. It will save you gobs of time when trying to get your favorite hardware bundled with XP. It will also help you cut through all the misinformation you are likely to get from various customer support reps.