AlternativeTo - Alternatives to Windows, Mac, Linux and online software

"AlternativeTo is a new approach to finding good software. Tell us what application you want to replace and we give you suggestions on great alternatives! Instead of listing thousands of more or less crappy applications in a category, we make each application into a category. Think of it like forever evolving blog posts about good alternatives to the software that you're not satisfied with. And the "blog posts" are generated by you through suggestions, comments and votes. "

http://alternativeto.net/

If the Matrix ran on Windows

http://www.snotr.com/video/1828

Testing the KDE 4.2 release candidate on Windows

"The popular open source desktop environment has moved beyond Linux and is becoming increasingly robust on other platforms. Even KDE's Plasma desktop shell is now Windows-compatible."

http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/01/testing-kde-42-release-candidate-on-windows.ars


http://windows.kde.org/

How To Create A Windows Batch File To Map Multiple Drives At Once

"So to create a batch file that will map a drive to different computers that are sharing folders, we'll use the following commands:

net use W: \\computer1\MP3

net use X: \\computer2\Photos "

http://www.watchingthenet.com/create-a-batch-file-to-map-drives-folders.html

Lotus Symphony - Best Desktop Application

"Lotus Symphony acts much like Microsoft Office, which is good if you are looking for something to replace Office at a fraction of the cost (free!). It's not so good if you are looking for something entirely different from Office, but there aren't many free suites that accomplish that yet. There are plenty of individual applications out there, but most office productivity suites at the moment are, more or less, Office clones."

http://lotussymphonyblog.com/blog/symblog.nsf/dx/best-desktop-application-wow

The end of an era - Windows 3.x

"An application has expectedly quit.

Windows 3.x has come to the closing moments of its long life.

On 1 November Microsoft stopped issuing licences for the software that made its debut in May 1990 in the US"

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7707016.stm

Duplicate Cleaner Keeps Your Hard Drive Clean

"Unlike a number of apps that promise to help you clean duplicate files from your system, Duplicate Cleaner can scan files for content, not just by filename. You can customize a wide range of filters when performing a duplicate search, and choose to limit your search only to images and pictures, music, movies, text or Office documents, or just scan entire drives.

Additionally, you can tell Duplicate Cleaner to scan for content, or restrict its search to filename, file size, or creation date. You can even specify a range of file sizes to filter search results on, so if two files have the same name but are vastly different in size, Duplicate Cleaner will ignore them."

http://www.appscout.com/2008/09/duplicate_checker_keeps_your_h.php

How To Navigate Through Folders When Using Windows Command Prompt

"One of the reasons why many Windows users are deathly afraid of using the command prompt in Windows is because they simple don't know what to do when that black screen pops open.

It doesn't look or act like their favorite word document or browser program, and it gives you that "lost in space" feeling.

One way to give yourself a sense of orientation when using the command prompt, is being able to navigate around the file system and into different folders. To do this, you just need to know two simple commands, and, learn how to type less with a simple trick."

http://www.watchingthenet.com/how-to-navigate-through-folders-when-using-windows-command-prompt.html

Five reasons why Windows Vista failed

"With Vista, there are simply no major incentives for IT to use it over XP. Security isn’t even that big of an issue because XP SP2 (and above) are solid and most IT departments have it locked down quite well. As I wrote in the article Prediction: Microsoft will leapfrog Vista, release Windows 7 early, and change its OS business, Microsoft needs to abandon the strategy of releasing a new OS every 3-5 years and simply stick with a single version of Windows and release updates, patches, and new features on a regular basis. Most IT departments are essentially already on a subscription model with Microsoft so the business strategy is already in place there."


http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/?p=849&tag=nl.e102

Windows: Use the Command Line to List Applications that Run at Startup

"It is quite helpful to know what applications are running at startup to help troubleshoot any slowdowns in system performance or to help track down malware infections. By using the Windows Instrumentation command-line interface (WMIC), you can easily generate a list of all applications set to run at startup as well as the location of each application. You can even generate a file to print out the information or for later review."

http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/2958/windows_command_line_list_applications_startup/

Windows Sysinternals Releases Desktops: Virtual Desktops for Windows

"Desktops v1.0, from the folks at Windows Sysinternals, was released last week. Free to download and use, this app instantly adds four desktops you can use to keep your running applications organized.



Virtual Desktop Manager has been around for a while, but comes as part of the XP PowerToys package, which may include utilities and apps you might not be interested in. Desktops, on the other hand, comes in the form of a 62KB executable that can be run from any location on your system.
You can copy Desktops to a USB drive or portable storage device and take it from computer to computer if you need virtual desktops at home and at the office, and because it doesn't install anything to your system, you don't need administrative rights to use it. That's something that will benefit users in locked-down corporate environments."

http://www.appscout.com/2008/08/windows_sysinternals_releases.php

Top 10 Windows Built-In Command Line Tools

"For many Windows users, the thought of using the Command Prompt is either a scary experience or something that they will never need. But for some, the command prompt is a powerful tool that can be far more useful than many graphical tools available in Windows.

Being a System Administrator, I constantly use the command prompt, mostly because I access systems remotely and many tasks can be performed quickly with out the graphics over head (even though connecting via Terminal Server is very convenient).

So if you are an avid user of the command line, here are my top 10 built-in (non third party) command line tools for XP, Vista and WIndows server versions (remember these commands are not your typical tools, such as find, copy, move, dir, etc..)."

http://www.watchingthenet.com/top-10-windows-command-prompt.html

How Dropbox ended my search for seamless sync on Linux

"Dropbox is a cloud storage service with really smooth native platform integration on Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X. The Dropbox client software will automatically keep files synchronized between multiple computers and the user's Dropbox web storage space. It detects when files are modified on the local filesystem and will immediately upload the changes. The web service then propagates those changes to all other computers on which the user is running the Dropbox software."


http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080914-how-dropbox-ended-my-search-for-seamless-sync-on-linux.html

Midori OS: Microsoft Sees End of Windows Era

 

"Microsoft has kicked off a research project to create software that will take over when it retires Windows. Called Midori, the cut-down operating system is radically different to Microsoft's older programs. It is centred on the internet and does away with the dependencies that tie Windows to a single PC. It is seen as Microsoft's answer to rivals' use of "virtualisation" as a way to solve many of the problems of modern-day computing"

http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/midori-operating-system.html

http://www.appscout.com/2008/08/midori_the_death_of_windows.php 

http://technologizer.com/2008/07/31/microsofts-post-windows-midori-it-must-exist/ 

http://bink.nu/news/microsoft-s-plans-for-post-windows-os-revealed-minori-details-leaked.aspx

An Open Letter to Windows Vista

"We haven’t talked, but I’ve been watching you from afar and feeling your pain as you’ve dealt with more than your fair share of challenges. Eighteen months after your debut, you simply don’t have an aura of success about you. Worse, your aging predecessor, Windows XP, has unexpectedly gained armies of devotees who refuse to give it up. It’s a pretty sad state of affairs–your original marketing tagline may have been “The Wow Starts Now,” but many people remain steadfastly unwowed."


http://technologizer.com/2008/08/06/an-open-letter-to-windows-vista/

Microsoft looks to 'Mojave' to revive Vista's image

"Spurred by an e-mail from someone deep in the marketing ranks, Microsoft last week traveled to San Francisco, rounding up Windows XP users who had negative impressions of Vista. The subjects were put on video, asked about their Vista impressions, and then shown a "new" operating system, code-named Mojave. More than 90 percent gave positive feedback on what they saw. Then they were told that "Mojave" was actually Windows Vista. "

"The Mojave project is likely to be just one of many efforts designed to resuscitate Vista's image as well as lend strength to the Windows platform among stepped-up competition from Apple and Google. In an interview Wednesday, Windows unit business chief Bill Veghte told CNET News that he wants to see his unit try new things to get the message across.

"We have a huge perception opportunity," he said, offering a glass half-full assessment of things. "We are going to try a bunch of stuff.""


http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-9998336-56.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

also


http://www.appscout.com/2008/07/vista_microsoft_tricks_people.php


http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,10008956o-2000331777b,00.htm


http://technologizer.com/2008/07/29/microsofts-mojave-experiment-fooled-ya-pc-users/

"Microsoft has managed to prove that if you have a friendly expert on a controlled machine (with Vista pre-installed) showing a carefully selected subset of Vista features to an ignorant XP user for a few minutes, the XP user will often say he finds Vista acceptable. Wow."


http://wilshipley.com/blog/2008/07/mojave-experiment-bad-science-bad.html

Microsoft’s Vista Mea-Sorta-Culpa

"In short, it’s 18 months into Vista’s lifetime and the company is pretty much scrambling to convince the world that its flagship product doesn’t suck as much as its reputation would suggest. It’s hard to imagine that any ad campaign will be enough to turn Vista from a disappointment with a murky reputation into a beloved hit."



http://technologizer.com/2008/07/22/microsofts-vista-mea-sorta-culpa/



"The first move in this bold (and expensive) ad campaign? Comparing those who bash Vista to archaic notions that the earth is flat. Clearly the lukewarm (at best) reception to the operating system is some form of mass hysteria. "



http://www.appscout.com/2008/07/micrsofts_shiny_new_vista_camp.php



"The idea of the medieval flat-earther is entirely a 19th century concoction, a combination of anti-clerical propaganda and popular fiction. Microsoft's advert – set sail for the new world, bravely ignoring everyone else's ignorance – perpetuates that myth. It's setting the scene for the entire campaign – one designed to make Microsoft seem up-to-the-minute, trustworthy and effective – by peddling an outdated chunk of propagandistic fiction."



http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,10008810o-2000331777b,00.htm

Get a better view of the Windows XP Tree command with Word

"To find out how many folders there are on your Microsoft Windows XP hard disk, you can open a Command Prompt and use the Tree command. You’ll get a very nice looking graphical tree structure showing all the folders on your hard disk. The only problem is that the display will scroll by your screen so fast and exceed the buffer size, so you’ll never be able to see it.

Instead, try using the old MS-DOS pipe to funnel the output of the Tree command to a Rich Text Format (RTF) file. You can then import that RTF file into a specially formatted Word document and have the same graphical tree structure, showing all the folders on your hard disk, in an easy to read format. "

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/window-on-windows/?p=731&tag=nl.e064

XP is dead; long live XP

"Monday is the last day on which Windows XP will be sold as a boxed product or licensed to PC manufacturers.

However, 30 June is not the end of the road for the venerable operating system, which was introduced back in 2001. Although Microsoft is keen for users to switch to XP's successor, Windows Vista, that operating system has not been the success that was hoped for by Redmond.

XP will, therefore, continue to be made available in certain circuitous ways. Here is the sequence of events that led to the dilution of Microsoft's XP-killing strategy."

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39440953,00.htm

10 Things You Need to Know About the End of Windows XP

"... Microsoft will supply patches (mostly for security) until 2014 and offer per-call support (once you're past your two-free-call limit--and not counting unlimited installation support) for $59 a call, also until 2014. ..."





http://www.appscout.com/2008/06/10_things_you_need_to_know_abo.php