Monday, July 28, 2008

Ace in the hole

IT’S difficult to write about the Aspire One from Acer without gushing. Out of the box, this mini-notebook is the perfect traveling companion for anyone who simply needs to surf the Web, send e-mail and perform typical office tasks such as typing up documents, working on spreadsheets or giving a presentation. Its compact size—6.7”x9.8” and less than an inch thick—and weight—less than a kilo—make the Aspire One extremely easy to bring along anywhere. The netbook is slightly longer than the pioneering Asus Eee PC, but Acer has put that extra space to good use by building in a larger keyboard that most touch typists will appreciate (about 85 percent of a full-sized one) and a glossy black frame around the LCD screen that makes it look brighter.

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Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Ubuntu for business

Ubuntu on a mobile Internet device

At this point, whether you’re running a small company with a few PCs or a large corporation with thousands of computers running Windows, it makes sense to consider shifting some of them over to Linux. Ubuntu, because of its ease of use, growing user base and a large, active and helpful community, is a particularly attractive option. What follows are answers to questions you might have before considering such a shift.

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Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Empires lost

Gates and Ballmer, with the best line at D6

Although its Windows operating system has a lock on more than 90 percent of the PC market, Microsoft is smart enough to know that this is no guarantee of survival. That’s probably why it has tried to bludgeon any threats to its dominance. Unfortunately, the struggle for commercial supremacy--which looks almost desperate--doesn’t seem to be matched with any compelling new vision.

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Monday, July 07, 2008

The shape of things to come

First shot of Dell’s mini-notebook, courtesy of Gizmodo

In the next month or two, it should be interesting to watch as Dell, the world’s third largest computer company, rolls out its “Dell E” series of mini-notebooks. The company has not announced the new line, but the new netbook has been making waves on the Internet ever since Gizmodo bumped into Michael Dell at the All Things Digital conference in May and took pictures of his shiny new notebook that sported a fire-engine red high-gloss finish. Since then, more intriguing details have surfaced.

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