Google’s new motto: pi** off Microsoft

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

Google’s official motto may be “do no evil”, but I rather suspect the company has a new unofficial mission statement: “pi** off Microsoft”.

That can be the only explanation for the events of the past couple of days. First the company announced one of the most audacious moves I’ve ever seen with the Google Chrome Frame.

Not content with having its own browser, Google now wants to hijack Microsoft’s as well. Google Chrome Frame is an IE plug-in that replaces the IE rendering engine with the WebKit engine that underpins Chrome. Why? Because like the boy racers that hang around the McDonalds car park in my local town centre, Google wants to show off that it has the fastest engine.

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The real reason Microsoft has given in over Internet Explorer

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

So why is Microsoft giving in over Internet Explorer? What’s the true motivation for the so-called browser ballot? It hasn’t been forced into the matter, although it could be argued that this was coming over the hill from the EU.

No, I think there is another reason, but this is pure speculation. I think Microsoft is actually walking away from Internet Explorer because it knows the battle is going to move elsewhere. It’s a kind of inversion, but the logic goes like this. (more…)

Broken Windows – are you happy now EU?

Friday, June 12th, 2009

And so the EU’s pointless vendetta against Microsoft reaches its ridiculous conclusion: Microsoft will now ship Windows 7 in Europe without any web browser whatsoever.  The pathetic gripes of a vastly inferior competitor – yes, I’m talking about you Opera – have concluded with the EU making life harder for consumers, PC manufacturers and, ironically, Opera itself.

PC manufacturers will of course bundle a browser with any new Windows 7 PC, and I wouldn’t mind betting that the only browser the vast majority will choose to bundle is Internet Explorer.

And what about people who buy Windows 7 off the shelf? A spokesperson for Microsoft Europe said the company will provide a free IE8 CD-ROM with every retail copy of Windows 7. So the company’s still effectively bundling IE8 – it’s just making consumers jump through a few more hoops to install the browser. Utterly, utterly pointless.

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Will Microsoft put bloggers back in their box after IE scare?

Wednesday, December 17th, 2008

The new-found hole in Internet Explorer has certainly sparked a mainstream media storm. My security-expert colleague, Darien Graham-Smith, has been getting more media exposure than the X-Factor winner over the past couple of days, culminating in an appearance on BBC News last night. Meanwhile, I fielded a last-minute call from that veritable hot-house of technical gossip – the Chris Evans show on Radio 2.

The widespread coverage of the IE flaw will be doing Microsoft no favours at a time when it’s struggling to fend off the emerging Google Chrome and the enduringly popular Firefox. Even worse, the pain was entirely self-inflicted.

News of the hole broke on Microsoft’s own Malware Protection Center blog, and while you have to admire the company’s candour, you can’t help but wonder if the bloggers inadvertently spun the threat for more than it was actually worth. 

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Don’t tell Microsoft, but…

Friday, November 14th, 2008

We’ve got in trouble with Microsoft on a number of occasions, as for some odd reason it’s quite protective about their logos. Something to do with brand identity, I believe, so when we may have taken a liberty or two with the Windows logo in the past it’s always been keen to have a word with us shortly after.

But it probably hasn’t seen this beautiful piece of, well, creativity from CnM – makers of the minibook or, as it’s sometimes called, the CnMbook.

Now this is a fascinating piece of kit that’s being sold for £115 exc VAT by Scan, and for a little more by Maplin. Indeed, if you search around you’ll find it on sale at various online stores. (more…)

Windows 7: multitouch controls

Tuesday, October 28th, 2008

One of the few things we knew about Windows 7 prior to PDC was the existence of multitouch – using multiple fingers to swish around the Windows menus and applications instead of the mouse and keyboard.

Sadly, our test laptop isn’t touchscreen, so we’re forced to rely on the demos and a brief play with a HP Touchsmart PC to form our early opinion on the multitouch features.

Touch works well on the Windows desktop. As soon as you tap the screen with your finger, the now redundant mouse cursor disappears, and images of water droplets appear underneath your finger, providing an intuitive visual guide to the accuracy of your finger jabbing.

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Google Chrome: first impressions

Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008

Tonight, I attended a Google briefing on its hastily-launched web browser, Chrome – which is now available for download here.

At first glance, the browser looked extremely impressive. In fact, it’s the only browser I’ve seen that could seriously tempt me away from my snug-fitting default browser, Firefox. However, I must stress that I was only privy to a Google demonstration of the browser before tonight’s 8pm launch, and haven’t actually played with it hands-on myself. For that, you’ll have to wait for PC Pro’s full preview tomorrow.

Here, however, are my early thoughts on what I saw:

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Firefox 3 already rules the roost

Friday, June 27th, 2008

The full version of Firefox 3 has been available for all of 10 days now, and already it’s the most popular version of the browser being used to visit our website. I know Mozilla had a huge publicity drive to encourage people to download on day one and that Firefox is pretty active at encouraging people to upgrade to the latest version, but even still, the rapid take up of the new browser is impressive.

Here’s the breakdown of Firefox browser versions visiting www.pcpro.co.uk this week:

1. Firefox 3.0 – 55.13%
2. Firefox 2.0.0.14 – 39.27%
3. Firefox 2.0.0.11 – 0.96%

And for comparison, here’s the breakdown for Internet Explorer:

1. Internet Explorer 7 – 68.86%
2. Internet Explorer 6 – 30.97%
3. Internet Explorer 8 – 0.09%

So Microsoft still has three out of ten people running an old version of its browser more than 18 months after Internet Explorer 7 launched, while Firefox has converted more than half of its users to the latest version in just over a week.  That should set a few alarm bells ringing in Redmond…

The big question, reader David Wright asks on comments below, is what has Firefox 3 done to its overall market share with PC Pro readers? Here’s the answer:

1. Internet Explorer – 53.74%

2. Firefox – 39.40%

3. Safari – 3.83%

4. Opera – 2.15%

Watch out Microsoft. The Fox is gaining fast.

Check out next month’s PC Pro – on sale 17 July – for our Power User’s Guide to Firefox 3.