About South Korea's 'dependency' on Microsoft

A couple of people recently have alleged that South Korea is being pushed around by Microsoft. It's not nearly as bad as it sounds.

"This nation is also a unique monoculture where 99.9% of all the computer users are on Microsoft Windows. This nation is a place where Apple Macintosh users cannot bank online, make any purchases online, or interact with any of the nation's e-government sites online," wrote South Korean blogger Gen Kanai. Commentators on technology news site Slashdot have also tsk-tsk-ed the situation.

The pending release of Vista has prompted many to speculate that it could increase security risks.

To some, this looks like the ugly face of monopolism and bad decisions by government leaders and large corporations. But there is actually a much simpler reason why people in South Korea have so much Microsoft software.

They steal it.

Read more...

Analysts: Latest breakthroughs won't alter chip race

Intel is set to capitalize on a new breakthrough in microchip technology more quickly than its rival Advanced Micro Devices, but analysts say the advantage will only be temporary.

Like two superpowers announcing successful nuclear tests at the same time, last Friday Intel and IBM both said they had solved a vexing electricity leakage problem in microchips.

While hailed as the biggest breakthrough in transistor design in four decades, the advances do not alter the product roadmaps for the two companies, which call for their chips to shrink roughly every two years.

"It sounds more evolutionary to me rather than revolutionary," said Eric Ross, an analyst with ThinkEquity Partners.

Read more...

Windows Cheif Bows Out

REDMOND, Wash.--Sitting behind a one-way mirror, a white-haired man struggles to access a shared music library within Windows Vista.

"I'm lost," he says. "I'm in trouble here."

On the other side of the glass, several Microsoft executives try to talk him through the experience. Thousands of people have gone through similar tests inside Microsoft's usability lab. But on this day, February 1, 2006, the person inside Building 28 isn't just some random beta tester. It's Windows boss Jim Allchin.

Read more...

Borland to throw down Gauntlet in life cycle tools strategy

Borland Software on Monday is expected to release a product meant to further its strategy of selling broad product suites for corporate software development.

Borland Gauntlet is an application that allows software development teams to track and measure the progress of ongoing projects. The release marks the first time Gauntlet is being issued under the Borland name. The company acquired the technology when it bought Gauntlet Systems in May.

Read more...

Adobe to send PDF to standards group

Adobe Systems on Monday is expected to detail plans to submit its Portable Document Format specifications to the International Organization for Standardization, a body of particular importance to governments and large corporations.

Subsets of the PDF format have already been standardized, including one for archiving documents. But Adobe customers, particularly governments, have told Adobe that making PDF an ISO-approved standard would raise their level of confidence that the format would be around in the long term, said Kevin Lynch, Adobe's chief software architect.

"We've already been taking feedback and updating the specification over time. Now we'll be doing it in a more formal way, through a standards body," he said.

Read more...