“My personal view is that it’s not the right outcome,” he said. “The choice [when installing Windows] would be weird. There’s no good UI [user interface] for that.”

He went ahead and blasted Opera for bringing on the original lawsuit which resulted in EU decision.

Connor also attacked Opera’s claims that bundling harms competition. “Opera’s asserting something that’s provably false,” Connor said, referring to Firefox’s ever improving market share, which now stands at just over 20% worldwide. “It’s asserting that bundling leads to market share. I don’t know how you can make the claim with a

This the original article: Firefox exec: we don’t want to be bundled with Windows

Microsoft, as a part of its efforts to overcome the language barrier to computing, has showcased a variety of custom made products directed specifically at the vernacular language market – a market that has been largely left untapped till now.

The new initiatives include Language Interface Packs (LIPs) in 12 Indian languages – Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Hindi, Kannada, Konkani, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Tamil and Telugu – for MS Office and Windows.

MS does even one better and created tools for developers.

There’s more in store for developers as well. Directed at vernacular language developers, it has launched the Captions Language Interface Pack (or CLIP) in Hindi, Malayalam, Oriya, and Tamil. CLIP uses a tool tip caption to display translations for user interface items in Visual Studio 2008 making it the first ever instance of Microsoft releasing a tool specifically to help students and beginner developers in India use the product in their own language.

The original article from Techtree.com is Microsoft Launches Windows 7 in Hindi

The second and controversial is the launch of $20 laptop which would come down to $10 w/ mass production. The model is called Sakshat. This is an excerpt from India Unveils $20 Laptop:

The Sakshat model scheduled for display in the city of Tirupati Tuesday has 2 GB of memory, which is expandable. It has Wi-Fi and fixed Ethernet capability and will consume just 2 watts of power. The laptop was created over several months in a cooperative effort involving government, academic, and commercial interests.

…

The Sakshat is thought to use a simple version of Linux open source software as an operating system.

There are little details available about the “notebook” and as it is government backed there is doubt if the cost is actually that low or government subsidies are involved. An article in the Indian Daily “Hindu” has some more details and the device really is an hand-held and not a “laptop”.

The 10” long and 5” wide hand-held device, resembling a palmtop or a modem, helps e-learners access the Web easily. Priced versions of e-content available on the Net can be accessed through this device.

It doesn’t seem to have any input devices build-in and a very small display. This is from a Times of India article, $10-laptop proves to be a damp squib:

The so-called laptop actually turned out to be a storage device containing megabytes of data info which can be accessed by a user by connecting this device to a laptop. It meant that unlike the internet, this device can display that information that has already been stored.

But Microsoft revealed some details of the charges.

“The Commission is considering ordering Microsoft and OEMs to obligate users to choose a particular browser when setting up a new PC,” said Microsoft in its quarterly filing with the SEC, referring to the computer makers who preinstall Windows. “Such a remedy might include a requirement that OEMs distribute multiple browsers on new Windows-based PCs.”

I generally like the idea as I firmly believe one should have a choice of software. But playing the devil’s advocate,  do most users of Windows really care? They want the thing to work out of the box, they run default installations, etc. + you have one vendor support, agreed to sucks, but still all the magic updates and all. And who will educate such users that all browers are not born equal. It is safe to assume that most applications are tested on IE and Firefox but can the same be said for Opera or Chrome? It is more of a pain.

And of course, you can argue that we have a choice and what about the advanced users? Well, if you are using IE you are connected to the internet and nothing in Windows prevents you to download and install the other browsers. And yes, MS should provide an option to install IE.

And one more thing: EU can you do something about Apple installing Bonjour and Safari by default w/ iTunes?

Disclaimer: I use both Windows and Linux.

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• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6300
• Mobo: ASUS P5N32-E SLI
• GPU: eVGA GeForce 8800GTS 640MB (640-P2-N821-AR)
• HDD: Seagate 3.0Gbps 250GB 7200RPM 16MB Barracuda 7200.10 * 3 in raid 5.
• Antec P180b case
• Memory: OCZ 2GB PC2-6400
• PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX
• Monitor: Gateway FPD2485W 24″
• NEC 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Beige IDE Model ND-3550A
• ARCTIC COOLING FREEZER 7 PRO CPU COOLER
• ANTEC 120MM TRICOOL
• ANTEC 80MM TRICOOL
• NEXUS ANTI-VIBRATION MOUNTING KIT
• ARCTIC ALUMINA HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL COMPOUND 1.75G

The P180b is the only thing I have bought yet

What I makes me think is his response to the idea that a ‘helper’ programs that allows people to take up programming. He says: -

The idea of programming as a semiskilled task, practiced by people with a few months’ training, is dangerous. We wouldn’t tolerate plumbers or accountants that poorly educated. We don’t have as an aim that architecture (of buildings) and engineering (of bridges and trains) should become more accessible to people with progressively less training. Indeed, one serious problem is that currently, too many software developers are undereducated and undertrained.

I agree and disagree. We have 2 classes of software professionals; Software Developers/Engineers and programmers. The former design and create software. They need more training & broader skill set. The second group write programs; they have a design, the algorithm, which they need to translate from spoken language to computer language. I think this group needs less training and would greatly benefit from these ‘helper’ tools. Another think to remember is that all software is not mission critical and I believe needs to be academically perfect.