Linux vs Windows vs Mac

Windows and Linux only: Amarok 2, the next version of the free, open-source media player, has just rolled out an official beta release, Nerrivik. The beta of the media manager we previewed back in June, improves memory management, overhauls the add-on scripting and metadata tracking, adds gapless playback, and streamlines the interface. Center-rail widgets still seem a little rough, but it’s a usable preview of what’s to come. Amarok 2 is a free download; Windows users can install it through the KDE on Windows Project, while Linux users can download the source or add the nightly build repository listed in our screenshot tour.

Some of the changes since alpha 2:

Features

• Inline editing of tracks in the Collection is now possible.
• Album moves can be undone
• Grouped albums can be moved in the playlist by draggin the album header
• Track moves in the playlist can now be undone
• Gapless playback.
• New "fuzzy" bias type, which matches values loosely.
• Collection Setup automatically expands to show selected directories. (BR 123637)
• Tag editing and file deletion for MTP devices
• Add toolbox to context view
• Allow selecting multiple playlist items.
• Implement "Move to collection" functionality in file browser.
• Saving/loading of biased playlists.
• Improved script console
• Set items in directory selector to partially checked when relevant. patch by Sebastian Trueg
• Album is now added to the playlist when clicked in Albums applet.
• Trigger play/pause when middle-clicking systray icon. (BR 167162)
• New start flag –multipleinstances allows to run multiple instances of Amarok.
• Full cover support for Nepomuk collection
• Search local collection for albums to show in the album applet when playing non local content
• Context view state is saved on exit and restored on start up.
• New functions available to the scripting interface, under Amarok.Info.

Changes

• New filename scheme widget in the Organize Collection dialog.
• New laylout of the main toolbar using the new graphics.
• Greatly reduced memory usage when using dynamic playlists.
• Reworked layout and more intuitive interface in the Guess Tags from Filenames dialog.
• New artwork by Nuno Pinheiro
• Better zooming animation in the context view
• Better usage of the available space in the context view.
• Show url in the playlist if track has no name. patch by Edward Hades

Bugfixes

• Fix crash when dragging media from an external source (or the file browser) to the playlist (BR 169035)
• Fix crash when opening the setting dialog (BR 169215)
• Many fixes to the behavior of the playlist when dragging things around.
• Don’t pop up multiple cover search dialogs when cancelling search in the Cover Manager (BR 167462)
• Amarok would not respect the user’s changes in the cover search dialog.
• Amarok would submit tracks to lastfm reguardless of whether the user chose to enable scrobbling.
• OSD translucency works now. (BR 166567)
• Use name based sorting of tracks without a track number (fixes sorting in shoutcast and cool streams services)
• Don’t try to scan the whole $HOME on first startup.
• Don’t pop up the OSD after changing Amarok settings. (BR: 168197)
• Fix crash when exiting while collection scan was running. (BR 167872)
• Automatically re-authenticate connection if the Ampache server has logged us out. (BR 166958)
• Status bar now allows shrinking main window beyond it’s width and does not enlarge main window by itself. Patch by Daniel Molkentin
• Submit tracks to Last.fm also when playing Last.fm Radio. (BR 164156)
• Check if the file is writable before allowing the tags to be edited in SqlMeta. ( BR 122797 )
• Properly insert items dragged from the collection view. (BR: 166609)
• Don’t remove all the tracks in the group when removing the first. (BR: 167251)
• Only increment playcount if we’ve played more than half of the song. (BR 121587)
• Added protection against endless looping when a playlist contains only unplayable tracks.
• Missing default playlist does not produce error message now. (BR 167385)
• Fixed playlist bias drop-down box showing multiple empty and duplicate entries. (BR 167153)
• Fixed the "Toggle Main Window" shortcut. (BR 167218)
• Script manager now could stop scripts which use qt bindings.
• Fix crash when calling GetCaps from the DBus Player interface
• Update album applet on track change. (BR 167256)

Nerrivik - Beta 1 of Amarok 2.0 released! [Amarok]

New DirectX downloads are available for Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Windows XP Service Pack 3. The August 2008 DirectX Software Development Kit and DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer went live on the Microsoft Download Center this past week. In addition to the 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Vista RTM, SP1, as well as XP SP2 and SP3, x86 and x64 versions of DirectX End-User Runtime and SDK Available (August 2008) have also been delivered for Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Server 2008.

The Microsoft DirectX End-User Runtime provides updates to 9.0c and previous versions of DirectX — the core Windows technology that drives high-speed multimedia and games on the PC. Microsoft DirectX is a group of technologies designed to make Windows-based computers an ideal platform for running and displaying applications rich in multimedia elements such as full-color graphics, video, 3D animation, and rich audio. DirectX includes security and performance updates, along with many new features across all technologies, which can be accessed by applications using the DirectX APIs

The August 2008 release of the DirectX SDK offers a bundle of DirectX Runtime and adjacent DirectX solutions designed to permit developers to take advantage of the graphics technology included in Windows. With every DirectX SDK version, Microsoft essentially offers an update, helping DirectX resources, from tools to utilities, but also samples, runtime debug files as well as the associated documentation, evolve.

The August 2008 DirectX SDK brings to the table new samples, the Games for Windows Branding Tool, Echo Effect Added to XAPO Effects Library, Notch Filter Added to XAudio2 and PIX enhancements. "This release introduces the Games for Windows Branding tool. This tool helps developers and publishers test their compliance against the Games for Windows technical requirements and test requirements," said Microsoft.

Microsoft is preparing to release a new set of patches for Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Windows XP Service Pack 3.

"I did want to remind you that this information is intended to help with your planning for testing and deployment for next week’s release. It is preliminary information and it is subject to change," revealed Christopher Budd, Security Program Manager Microsoft Security Response Center. "As part of our regularly scheduled bulletin release, we’re currently planning to release seven Microsoft Security Bulletins with maximum severity of Critical, and five with maximum severity of Important. These updates may require a restart and will be detectable using the newly released version of the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer. As we do each month, we’ll be releasing an updated version of the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool."

32-bit Windows XP SP2 and SP3, as well as 64-bit XP and XP SP2 are directly impacted by one Critical and one Important vulnerabilities. Indirectly, the operating systems could also be affected by attacks leveraging Critical holes in Internet Explorer 6 and 7 and Windows Media Player 11, and two Important flaws in Outlook Express and Windows Messenger 4.7 and 5.1.

Users running Windows Vista RTM or SP1 are at risk from attacks designed to exploit a pair of Important vulnerabilities in the latest Windows client. Windows Mail, which is a default component of Windows Vista, also features security holes labeled with a severity rating of Important. However, the Critical vulnerabilities in IE7 and Windows Media Player 11, included by default into the operating system, can act as vectors for attacks.

Slowly but surely, the last major update of the Immortal OS, Windows XP is becoming available via almost every method, with the last thing that needs to be checked by Microsoft being Automatic Updates. The Redmond company will roll out XP SP3 through Automatic Updates ’shortly,’ thus making the 1000+ updates-including package available to practically anyone with XP installed (and an internet connection).

Hopefully ’shortly’ in MS talk means before the end of this week.

Windows® XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) includes all previously released updates for the operating system. This update also includes a small number of new functionalities, which do not significantly change customers’ experience with the operating system. This white paper summarizes what is new in Windows XP SP3.

When a computer that is running Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 is under high stress, the TCP/IP Registry Compatibility (Tcpipreg) service may stop responding. Or, a malfunction may occur in the service. Additionally, some applications that are related to the network do not function as expected.

For example, when you resume a Windows Vista-based computer from hibernation or from suspend, a malfunction occurs in the Tcpipreg service. In this case, when you try to use the net stop tcpipreg command to stop the Tcpipreg service, the command may stop responding.

Fortunatelly, a supported hotfix is now available from Microsoft. However, this hotfix is intended to correct only the problem with TCP/IP Registry Compatibility Service described in this article. Apply this hotfix only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem. This hotfix might receive additional testing. Therefore, if you are not severely affected by this problem, Microsoft recommends that you wait for the next Windows Vista service pack (SP2) that contains this hotfix.

Microsoft readies patches for critical vulnerabilities affecting its Windows client and server operating systems, as well as components that ship by default with the platform.

The Redmond company is wrapping up no less than seven security bulletins for an unspecified number of vulnerabilities impacting even Windows Vista and Windows XP, updated with Service Pack 1 and respectively Service Pack 3. The seven security bulletins are scheduled for delivery on June 10, 2008, in accordance with the Redmond company’s monthly patch cycle.

"It is important to remember that while the information posted below is intended to help with your planning, because it is preliminary information, it is subject to change. As part of our regularly scheduled bulletin release, we’re currently planning to release: three Microsoft Security Bulletins rated Critical, three Important, and one Moderate. As we do each month, the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool will be updated," revealed Bill Sisk, security response communications manager for Microsoft.

The three Critical security bulletins will impact both the 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows Vista RTM and SP1, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000 and Windows XP SP2 and SP3. The patches will address vulnerabilities which could allow for Remote Code Execution in the eventuality of successful exploits. According to Microsoft, the Bluetooth service is at risk, along with various versions of Internet Explorer, including 7, 6, 5.01 SP4, and DirectX 10, 9.08.1 and 7.0. Windows XP SP3 and Windows Vista SP1 contain all the high-risk security holes which will be patched by the Critical bulletin on June 10.

"Finally, we are planning to release high-priority, non-security updates on Windows Update and Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) as well as high-priority, non-security updates on Microsoft Update and Windows Server Update Services (WSUS)," Sisk added.

SOURCE: softpedia.com

Statistics for the operating system market come in different flavors and from a variety of sources but they all have one thing in common: indicating that Windows is losing ground to Mac OS X and Linux. As far as Microsoft is concerned, it reached the apex of the operating system market with the launch of Service Pack 2 for Windows XP back in 2004.

Since then, it has been all down hill for the Redmond giant. Sure, the slope is by no means steep enough for a hard Windows fall, just sufficiently inclined through the erosion produced by Mac OS X and Linux that the ground is slipping from under Microsoft’s proprietary platform, slowly but surely…

While Windows is not at risk from a landslide, it has been on a descendant trajectory for the past years, with consumers suffering from Windows fatigue, and increasingly looking for alternatives. Recent releases such as Windows Vista in 2007, and Vista Service Pack 1 as well as Windows XP Service Pack 3 have done little to impact the general trend. As of May 2008 Windows is credited with 91.13% of the operating system market according to Net Applications, with 91.11% by W3Counter and with 95.94% by OneState (but only as of April 2008).

In January 2007, when Windows Vista hit the shelves, Net Applications revealed a share of 93.33% for Windows, approximately two percent higher than in January 2008. Back in July 2007, OneStat gave Windows a share of 96.97%, also larger than the 95.94% from a couple of months ago. W3Counter seem to be on par with Net Applications indicating that Windows was at 93.6% of the market in May 2007, and as low as 91.11% in the past month.

Windows Saturation

The release of Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista and of Service Pack 3 for Windows XP has done little to help break what appears to be a generalized and accentuating case of Windows fatigue. Net Applications stated that SP3 for XP failed to impact the operating system’s continuous market share lost for over a year. Even with SP3 available as of May 6, 2008, XP continued to lose audience and is down from 73.07% in April to 72.12% the past month. Vista continues to climb in statistics, but SP1 didn’t deliver the kick needed to accelerate growth to the levels where focus will no longer shift to XP SP3, Windows 7 or rival products. Vista only climbed from 14.02% in March to 15.26% in May.

Statistics from W3Counter indicate a similar trend with XP dropping from 78.56% to 78.24% in the past two months while Vista jumped from 7.34% to 7.69%. It’s not that Microsoft can’t spare a few tens of millions of users, and it’s not that a large proportion of the Windows audience is shifting toward Mac OS X and Linux, but the Redmond company is finding it harder and harder to boost its share on a market already saturated by its operating system. The software giant is indeed at the top, but the only way is not necessarily down, even if the general trend seems to contradict this perspective.

Windows Vista, the Default Growth

Windows Vista climbed up in the space occupied by Windows XP to claim the second most used operating system on the market since mid-2007. Since the January 2007 launch, Vista’s growth has somewhat stabilized at around 10 million units per month. At the end of March 2008, Microsoft revealed that it had sold over 140 million Vista licenses worldwide. As of May, Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer claimed that Vista had passed the 150 million mark.

W3Counter puts Vista at 7.69% in May 2008 compared to 1.91% the same month of the past year. In March 2008, OneStat indicated that in its statistics, Vista is at 13.76% up from July 2007 when it accounted only for 12.72%. Net Applications reveal the most consistent growth for the latest Windows client, from 0.93% in February 2007, to 15.26% in May 2008.

Without establishing the records Microsoft was aiming for it, Vista’s adoption rate does not qualify the operating system for a failure by any measure. However, the biggest catch behind the uptake of Vista is the fact that it is almost entirely governed by the sales of new OEM computers. Original equipment manufacturers are responsible for over 80% of the revenues of the Windows Client Division, and concomitantly for the largest volumes of sales of the new Windows operating systems.

A very accurate prediction is that Windows Vista adoption will only accelerate after June 30, 2008, when XP is no longer available through retail and OEM channels. With only Vista preloaded on new machines, there is nowhere to go but up for the latest Windows client. Still, even at over 10 million new licenses a month, Vista will remain far from the dominant OS on the market, Windows XP.

Don’t Expect Miracles from Windows 7

Even though Windows Vista has taken all the heavy hits, acting as a buffer release for Windows 7, the next iteration of Microsoft’s proprietary operating system will drop in a market which has started to experience Windows fatigue for a number of years. But unlike Vista, Windows 7 will benefit from the get go from a mature ecosystem of software and hardware products. Microsoft is essentially promising a Windows 7 apple which will fall far tom the Vista tree, while at the same time featuring the same architecture as its predecessor, in terms of the kernel, and the graphics and audio subsystems, security and search functionality, etc.

In January 2007, data from Net Applications placed Mac OS X at 6.22% of the operating system market and Linux at 0.35%. In over a year, the market share of Windows’ rivals went up to 7.83% and respectively 0.68%. OneStat claims that Mac OS X jumped from 1.79% in July 2007 to 2.18% in April 2008, and Linux to just 0.42% from 0.36%, while W3Counter gives OS X 4.73% in May 2008 up from 3.72% in the same month in 2007.

Both Mac OS X and Linux have been slowly converting the default audience of Windows now looking for additional solutions on top of what Microsoft has to offer. The most consistent growth is that of Apple, because of the winning hardware plus operating system combination. This is something that only the Cupertino-based hardware company can deliver, without Microsoft or a Linux distribution vendor being able to match it.

Microsoft is indeed working with its OEM partners harder than ever in order to produce bundles that will rival the Mac computers and OS X in terms of consumer appeal. This month, it has become clear that the Redmond company’s main weapon against Apple will be the natural user interface. Delivering an entirely new interaction model as mainstream technology might seem like a big bet for Microsoft, with traditional Windows users experiencing instincts to resist such a move.

However, touch, gestures, voice commands, object and motion recognition will become a standard model of interaction in the future, and Windows 7 has the largest potential to bring this niche technology to the masses and get it adopted fast. At the same time Apple is not exactly standing still, as touch-based interfaces are already widely available in products such as the iPhone and the latest Mac models. At this point in time, it seems that Linux will be the last comment at the natural user interface feast, unless the major developers of Linux distribution take matters into their own hands and convince OEMs to to for the open source operating system what they are doing for Windows 7.

Good, Old XP

Innovation is a mandatory item in the recipe for Windows 7 if the next iteration of Windows attempts to stop its install base from migrating to Mac OS X and Linux. But Windows 7 is planned to drop at the end of 2009, and for the time being Windows Vista proved incapable of not letting the Windows momentum from slowing down. But don’t count XP out just yet. Vista’s predecessor will continue to have a consistent impact even after Windows 7 will be made available. This because Windows XP is no less than Microsoft’s way of reaching the next five billion users.

The Redmond company has already committed to offering Windows XP Home Edition until 2010 or one year after the release of Windows 7, whichever comes first, on ultra-low-cost mobile and desktop computers. While ultra-low-cost machines will be sold in developed countries, the focus falls on first time users in emerging markets, where Microsoft has identified the next five billion potential customers. But, here, the company has to first fend off Linux, whose biggest advantage is the fact that it is free.

SOURCE: softpedia.com

The introduction of Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista and of Service Pack 3 for Windows XP, along with the June 30 retail and OEM availability cut-off date for XP, have generated a consistent a mount of confusion over the future of the two Windows clients.

Especially over Vista’s predecessor in terms of its retirement from the retail and OEM channels, but also in regard to support and downgrade rights. As far as support is concerned, XP SP3 will live to see 2014 (read more about it here). And when it comes down to Vista SP1 to XP SP3 downgrades, nothing has changed from Vista RTM and XP SP2.

"You will still be able to get Windows XP Professional installed on computers after June 30th. This is more important for sysadmins who have a large current installation of Windows XP-based systems and have not yet migrated to Windows Vista. If you’re a consumer, consider getting a new computer with Windows Vista installed: with Business and Ultimate, you have downgrade rights to XP Pro," revealed the Chief of Staff of the Windows Core Operating System Division at Microsoft.

Downgrade rights permit end users to access two versions of the Windows operating system, in this context either Vista or XP, with the same license. Namely, a single OEM license permits customers to install XP, and subsequently remove it and deploy Vista on the same machine. Microsoft is essentially interested in offering clients the ability to buy Windows Vista, but continue to run Windows XP until they are capable of moving to the latest Windows operating system.

Essentially, OEM versions of Vista Business and Ultimate versions with a downgrade license allow users to install and run XP Professional, XP Professional x64 Edition, and XP Tablet PC Edition. This is also valid for the Service Pack 1 variants of Vista, respectively for XP SP3.

"End users who downgrade may reinstall the original software when they are ready to migrate. For example, an end user who downgrades to Windows XP Professional may later return to Windows Vista Business software provided that the end user deletes the Windows XP Professional software from the PC," the COSD lead added.

SOURCE: softpedia.com