windows

Apple's recent announcement that Mac Java support is deprecated inspired me to look at the so-called "Apple Tax" -- the premium price tag you're going to pay when buying an Apple computer, whether that be a MacBook, MacBook Pro, iMac, or Mac Pro instead of a Windows PC.

I just ran a comparison of a base model Apple MacBook versus two different Dell Windows notebook PCs, and the numbers are pretty scary:

The Apple Tax on a base MacBook is a whopping $219 to $299
more than faster, better-equipped Dell notebook models.

Mac Office apps FAQ: I just made the switch from Windows to Mac; what Mac Office software can I use?

One of my family members just wrote and said that despite having a firewall, anti-virus software, and spybot software installed, their Windows computer appears to have been infected for the third time in six months. She asked what they'd be facing if they made the switch to a Mac system, particularly from an "Office" applications standpoint. Here is my reply:

Today's announcement that Google is buying BumpTop continues the string of Google and Apple buying up technology companies so fast you'd think they were, well, Microsoft, at least "Microsoft back in the day".

I'm reminded that ~10 years ago Bill Gates said about Sun Microsystems (and I'm paraphrasing here):

"Sun is dead, they just don't know it yet. Their business model consists of selling overpriced servers, and sooner or later the market will realize that."

Having watch RISC processors lose their speed advantage -- and then switching to Linux as a result -- I agreed with that assessment, and in 2009 it finally came to fruition as Sun was bought by Oracle.

Which leads to the question: If Bill Gates could look at it objectively, would he say the same thing now about Microsoft?

For anyone interested in web browser statistics -- specifically the people that visit the devdaily.com website -- here's a chart that shows the web browser usage data for the devdaily.com website over the last 30 days (late November through early December, 2009):

Wow, last night Google announced a new project named the "Google Chrome Operating System" -- and it's not April 1st. Here's a brief blurb from their blog post: