Cybersurf

In the last week or so – there has been a lot of bit and bytes about VISTA – Microsoft’s long awaited new operating system. It appears that the first full versions will hit the shelves early next year, but already you can see adverts for laptops that claim to be Vista compliant.

There has been some controversy though about the ability of Vista to check on its own authenticity – Yup, Vista will check itself to see if it is a pirated copy – and if it is indeed pirated then the operating system goes into what Microsoft calls "reduced functionality mode".

It works like this – you buy the product, and then you have to activate the system using a product key within 30 days. So if you pay Microsoft a lot of money, jump through all the hoops - set by Microsoft - hope that the software giant has recognized its own product key - then you will be able to use what you’ve paid for.

If you don’t follow Microsoft instructions properly, prepare for reduced functionality mode:

No start menu, no desktop icons and the desktop background is changed to black. I believe that after a while more things start to go wrong until your machine is, for all practical purposes, useless.

While few people would quibble with the right of a software producer to protect its intellectual property – the whole process presupposes that consumers are thieves, and that you have to prove your innocence by submitting a product key to Redmond.

(T) Let’s leave Vista for later programs and take a look at two internet browsers that have recently been released within days of each other.

FireFox 2 – was only officially launched this week and already it is shaking up the virtual firmament. Building on from the highly successful one point five version – Firefox two has improved on its tabbed browsing so that now when you open a new link, the default setting takes it to a new tab rather than a new window.

This is great because tabs are much easier to work with than windows, as anyone who has worked with Firefox will tell you. One new feature that I still need to factor in is the little cross on the top of each tab that allows you to close tabs individually. On the old system – you had to move your cursor over to the right hand side of the screen to close tabs one at a time.

It still is a little awkward, but I think it will be very practical when I am used to it.

The new Firefox also has a spell checker that could save you some embarrassment if you are doing your web mail or working the chatrooms. It also allows you to download spell checkers in many different languages – all free of charge.

The Firefox release came only days after Microsoft launched IE7 its first new browser in many years.

It took the giant some time to wake up to the Firefox threat, but since Microsoft enjoyed a 96% market share after obliterating Netscape way back in 2002, a little complacency is to be expected.

Internet Explorer is still dominant with around 85% of the world browser market, and it latest release with tabs certainly won’t do it any harm. But in the most recent version of browser wars, the initiative is now firmly with Firefox.

With that it’s time to end today’s’ version of Cybersurf – please join me again next Wednesday for more on the best of the web.

// posted by Steven Lang @ 8:24 am