Alexander’s Blog

TechRepublic’s Editor in Chief, Jason Hiner, has done a very detailed analysis on why Linux has miserably failed to take over the desktop market from Windows. He writes:

In the decade since it was first proclaimed as the “Windows killer,” Linux on the desktop has made virtually no progress in real adoption numbers. According to market share trackers (based on real PC activity and not just sales) such Net Applications, StatCounter, W3Counter, and others, the market share of Linux has been hovering around just 1-2% of total PC operating system installations for a decade.

In his article, Jason also gives reasons why he believes Linux has not been the “Windows killer” that a lot of people have been predicting.

Despite this consistent evidence that Linux desktops were going nowhere, pundits, analysts and Linux enthusiasts have been repeatedly predicting that Linux was on the verge of a breakthrough on the desktop. At the end of nearly every year, some writer or publication has prognosticated that the following year would be “The year of the Linux desktop.”

While Linux has made progress in the servers and mobile devices arena, it has failed to conquer the desktop world. You can read Jason’s complete analysis on TechRepublic’s Web site here.

If you accidentally drag the Show Desktop icon from your Quick Launch bar in Windows XP and then try to drag it back , it only creates a shortcut to the Show Desktop icon. Which means that you can’t delete the icon that you dragged on your desktop otherwise the Show Desktop icon won’t work because it’s only a shortcut. Here’s what you can do to quickly restore the Show Desktop icon.

1. Copy the following code in Notepad.

[Shell]

Command=2

IconFile=explorer.exe,3

[Taskbar]

Command=ToggleDesktop

2. Save the file as Show Desktop.scf in the folder C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch, where Username is the account name that you are logged in as. For example, if you are logged in as Matt, the path to the folder will be “C:\Documents and Settings\Matt\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch.” You should now see the Show Desktop icon in the Quick Launch bar.

Make sure that when you save the file in Notepad you change the Save as Type to “All files”, otherwise it will add the .txt extension to the file.

In Windows XP and earlier operating systems it was easy to add or remove Windows components. In Window Vista the feature is rather hidden. To add or remove a built-in Windows Vista program, for example Internet Information Services (IIS) or Windows Fax and Scan, you need to go to Control Panel, Programs, and under Programs and Features click Turn Windows features on or off.

Like cool Vista gadgets? Here’s an interactive, AJAX based tool that shows traffic in your zip code on major highways. It’s refreshed every 2 minutes and hopefully your city is included in the list. Metro area traffic currently supported in this gadget includes Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, New York, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, Providence, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, St Louis, Tampa, Washington DC. You can download the gadget here.

Do not be fooled by the graphic. The traffic in Seattle area is not this good. I took the screen shot on a Sunday afternoon.

By the way, if you have gone through the trouble to make Google your default search engine in Internet Explorer, when prompted, DO NOT make Live Search your default search engine.

Windows Vista’s new Aero user interface allows you to take advantage of the Vista’s fancy 3-D platform. This feature off-loads the GUI from your PC to the graphics card resulting in better performance for multimedia applications, screen switching, video playback, and lets you take advantage of Macintosh-like opaque windows.

In order for you to take advantage of Aero user interface, your computer hardware must support this feature. Most nVidia and ATi cards support Aero. To enable or disable the Aero feature, use the following procedure.