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Construction needs cloud flexibility
Australia’s embattled construction sector could benefit from cloud based information systems that can be switched on and off in lockstep with individual projects – with the exception of those organisations based in remote areas like the Kimberleys.
read moreVista spyware may give filip to Linux and OS X
Stan Beer
Sunday, 08 October 2006 18:22
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Until a couple of days ago, like many others, I was looking forward to the long awaited release of Windows Vista. Then the news broke about Microsoft's intention to crack down on software piracy by putting what amounts to spyware on users' computers. Now I'm thinking twice about whether I really need or want this new operating system.Microsoft's so-called Software Protection Program (SPP) has been presented to intending users as a fait accompli just a month ahead of Vista's scheduled release. It will mean that those who use Vista and other Microsoft products will have to put up with their systems constantly being checked online to make sure they're not using any products deemed to be pirated software.
I say deemed to be pirated software because as sure as night follows day there will be many cases in which the SPP will make mistakes and label legitimately acquired software as pirated.
In such cases, users will have to convince Microsoft that they bought their software legitimately and, if they don't succeed, they will have to hand over extra money or their system will be disabled.
In some cases, users who have activated a legitimate copy of Vista may need to do a number of reinstalls because they have suffered a hardware failure or their system isn't running well. Hopefully, Microsoft will be able to differentiate between that and users installing a single copy of Vista on multiple computers.
Perhaps we should be grateful to Microsoft for letting its intentions be known in advance of the Vista release. It gives us a chance to evaluate the alternatives.
There is of course Linux, an operating system that enterprises are considering with increasing frequency. Relatively few have made the jump to the Linux desktop but they now have a clear choice between moving to Vista with its tight validation controls and Linux distributions without such controls from Vendors such as Red Hat and Novell, as well as freely available distributions such as Ubuntu.
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