Additional features include updates to Gnome version 2.32.1 and KDE version 4.7.3, support for high performance SSH, an update to the NFS subsystem which now supports NFSv4 in addition to version 3 and 2, and kernel support for Capsicum Capability Mode, “an experimental set of features for sandboxing support”.

Support for USB 3.0 and Fast File System TRIM support are without doubt two of the most important feature additions in FreeBSD 9.0. The USB subsystem furthermore supports USB packet filtering now, which can be used to capture packets which go through the USB host controller.

FreeBSD 9.0 is the first update of the operating system after the February 2011 FreeBSD 8.2 release, and the first major version update in two years.

Users interested in all of the changes can access the highlights here or detailed change log here. Please note that both release logs are highly technical.

Users who never came into contact with FreeBSD or another BSD variant before should start at the Resources for Newbies that offers help in selecting the right FreeBSD version, installation instructions and tutorials that should get most people started after installation.

FreeBSD 9.0 can be downloaded from the official website. The operating system can be downloaded as an ISO image which needs to be burned to DVD first, before the computer can be booted from it to start the installation of the operating system.

Additional information are available at the official website.

Speccy, which has been updated yesterday, is the latest to receive that treatment. And since the last review dates two years back, I thought it is as good a reason as any to take another look at the latest version of the PC information tool.

The interface looks exactly the same as it did two years ago when the first public beta of the program was released by Piriform. The program displays a summary of some of the most important system components on startup. This includes cpu, ram, motherboard, graphics card, monitor, hard drives, audio devices and the operating system.

The temperature of components with heat sensors is displayed in the interface which is excellent for a quick look if any of the temperatures are critical.

Sidebar links lead to software and hardware groups that are examined in detail by the program. Most of the links lead to hardware related information, from cpu and memory to peripherals and network.

The hard drives are for instance all listed on a single page. Each hrd drive is listed with detailed information about its model and manufacturer, the hard drive partitions and SMART values.

That’s a lot of useful information right there. From transfer modes to raid types, the hard drive’s capacity, real size and features supported by the hard drive.

Especially the operating system listing is interesting, as it lists not only the serial number and basic information about the OS, but also system configuration states. It informs the user about UAC levels, Windows Update, Antivirus, Environment Variables, Power Profiles, System folders, contents of the scheduler, the process list, installed hotfixes and services among other information. That’s excellent troubleshooting information.

Some of the information have been added in the latest version of Speccy. This includes the system folders, hotfix information and uptime information among others.

Snapshots can be saved internally or exported into txt or xml files. Snapshots can furthermore be published online. This creates a unique url on the Internet where the system information report can be accessed.

It is good to see that Piriform continues to add features that make sense to their programs. The new information that Speccy gathers can definitely be helpful for users who troubleshoot a PC system.

Windows users can download the free version of Speccy from the Piriform website. A portable version is available here.

If you look at the statistics you will notice that Windows 7 has surpassed Windows XP in one already (W3Schools) and that the operating system is about to surpass XP in another in the coming month (Statcounter) if current trends continue.

Only Net Market Share sees Windows XP still in the lead by a large margin.

One of the interesting things here is that Windows 7 managed to surpass Vista’s market share in less than a year in all three statistics. If you project the rates at which Windows 7 grows in market share you will come to the conclusion that the operating system may gain another 15% to 20% of market share in the coming 12 months. Why is that period important? Because after that time Windows 8 will be released. An earlier release of Windows 8 may slow down the rise of Windows 7, but it won’t halt the market share drops of Windows XP and Vista.

There will still be plenty of users working on Windows XP and at least some that use Windows Vista. When you look at global operating system brands and their market share, you will notice that Microsoft with Windows is still the big fish in the pond. Depending on the statistics service used the company has a worldwide market share between 85% and 93%.

Can Windows 7 be called a success because of this? I’d say yes it can, especially when compared to Windows Vista. The biggest feat in my opinion is that Windows 7 turned around the perception of Windows from a bloated slow operating system to something that people love to work with.

It will be interesting to see how the public perceives Windows 8 once it comes out. Will Microsoft be able to break the good OS bad OS cycle (Windows 98 good, Windows ME bad, Windows XP good, Windows Vista bad, Windows 7 good) and deliver two great operating systems in a row, or will the new operating system fail to impress with its new Metro start page and design changes.

What’s your take on this?

When you look at the posts over at the official blog you may notice a trend there. This blog is one of Microsoft’s main marketing efforts to get the word out. While it caters more to a tech savvy audience it contains vital information for all users.

I have been testing Windows 8 ever since it was released by Microsoft. I have also followed the Build conference, read every article on the Building Windows 8 site and more than a hundred on other sites.

And even though I did that, I think that Microsoft is making a mistake. When you analyze the posts you notice that Microsoft is concentrating on Metro UI big time. You also get a handful of other posts that talk about faster boot times, the new Windows Explorer or under-the-hood improvements of the operating system.

What I think is missing is official word on how computer users without touch based devices will be able to work with the operating system. If you are like me, you see the potential of the Metro UI for touch based devices. But you also see that it does not work well if you use a mouse and keyboard. I for one do not need this new interface at all. I think it slows me down, that it is impracticable to work with if a mouse and keyboard combination is used.

I know that I’m not alone in this assessment. I have talked to a few desktop only users and they all said the same. Great for touch devices, not so great for the desktop.

Microsoft could appease users like me by commenting on a question that is currently keep me from being super-thrilled about the new operating system.

What are Microsoft’s plans for desktop users who work solely with the keyboard and mouse?

I basically would like to know if Microsoft has something in store that they have not revealed yet that will make work more comfortable for desktop users under Windows 8.

This will basically determine if I will make the switch to Windows 8 once it comes out, or if I will skip the operating system completely on my desktop PC.

What’s your take on this?

Metro UI in its current form is something that I have no intention of using. I can see how the UI shines on tablets, touch enabled devices and maybe even netbooks and other low resolution devices.

On my desktop PC though, I feel like it adds weight to the workflow. As it stands now, I have to boot into Metro UI whenever I start the operating system. There I see buttons (Microsoft calls them Tiles) that launch applications, websites or information. It is like a full screen application launcher that you cannot deactivate.

Update: You can boot into desktop if that was active when Windows shut down.

I can type in there to launch applications that are not displayed as tiles, but that’s not that intuitive and I foresee an increase in support related incidents when the operating system launches.

Here are basic things that I had difficulties with:

• How to switch between apps (you move your mouse to the left screen border and cycle through them with the mouse wheel.)
• How to close apps (No idea
• How to add apps to the new Metro start UI (you type the app name, right-click the app in the search results list and select Pin)
• How to remove apps from the UI (you right-click and select unpin or uninstall depending on the type of program).
• How to access the standard Start Menu (see Registry fix here, but it disables Metro apps)
• How to stay on the desktop and not switch back to the Metro UI. Remember, there is no start menu, and you cannot use the Windows key either)
• How to shut down Windows 8 (press Alt-F4 with no Windows open in desktop mode)

I would assume that inexperienced users may have even more troubles with the new design and layout than I have.

The main issue that I have is the Metro UI. I know that I won’t be using it, and I hope that Microsoft will be adding options to disable Metro and stick with the classic desktop all the time.

This is not a question of adaption. It is just that I feel that work will take longer to complete with Metro UI enabled, than it would without. I mean, what is the difference between a Metro UI that displays links to applications and features, and the classic desktop with shortcuts, pinned Taskbar items and the start menu?

Then again, I may be biased as I have been working with the classic desktop for a long time. I will give the operating a spin on my desktop when it comes out. First in a dual boot scenario, later on maybe as my primary operating system.

Microsoft still has time to please everyone. Users who embrace the change and think that Metro UI looks pretty and is functional, and those who think that it will slow them down in their day to day activities.

I’d really like to read your opinions on this.

Mounting ISO images can have lots of advantages. For one, you may not need to burn an ISO to DVD if you have downloaded it from the Internet to play media or install software. Another benefit are holiday tours with your laptop. Instead of having to take your precious DVD movies or Blu-Ray movies with you, you can create ISO images instead and store them on the hard drive.

If you ever had the pleasure of going on holiday with children, you might know how media can look like on the return home (if you ever find it again that is).

Windows 7 came with capabilities to burn iso images to disc, but it lacked the ability to mount iso images natively. A recent blog post at the Building Windows 8 blog highlights that Microsoft will support iso mounting under Windows 8 natively.

ISO images are mounted either with a double-click in the new Windows Explorer or by selecting the Mount option from the actions menu.

The ISO image then becomes available as a new drive on the operating system. All of its files are then accessible directly in Windows. This behavior is similar to that of third party ISO mounting tools like ISODisk, WinCDEmu or Virtual Clone Drive.

The very same mounting options are available for virtual hard drive files as well, with the difference that they appear as hard drives and not optical drives in Windows Explorer.

Here is a video that demonstrates both the ISO and VHD mounting capabilities of Windows 8.

ISO is definitely the most used formats when it comes to virtual disk image formats. Third party tools still offer some advantages like additional disk format support that Windows 8 still does not support. (via Windows 8 To Have Native ISO Support).

Windows Explorer will receive a complete redesign and will ship with many changes when the Windows 8 operating system comes out. Many users of Windows feel that the current file manager of the operating system is in desperate need of a redesign, or at least some form of optimization.

The biggest change is a new Ribbon based user interface that many Windows users know from Microsoft Office. Ribbons have been criticized in the past, especially by experienced computer users. The main points of criticism are that a ribbon interface takes up to much space, and that its tabbed interface does not speed up all operations.

The new Windows Explorer on Windows 8 looks like this:

You see the ribbon interface at the top. To make up for the space requirements the status bar was reduced to a single row in Windows Explorer. Other changes that are visible immediately are a new font used for displaying files and folders and the dynamic Tools listing on the title bar.

The Home tab of the new interface offers buttons for the most popular Windows Explorer features. Microsoft analyzed the command usage and found out that only two of the top 10 Windows Explorer commands are currently visible in the command bar in Windows 7. Windows Explorer on Windows 8 will provide access to all those commands directly from the Home tab.

If you are wondering, here is the top 10 Windows Explorer command list:

• Paste: 19%
• Copy: 11%
• Properties: 11%
• Delete: 10%
• Rename: 8%
• Cut: 7%
• Search: 7%
• New Item: 6%
• Open: 2%
• Edit: 2%

The Share and View tabs are always displayed in Windows Explorer.

• Share: The Share tab provides access to features like emailing or zipping files or printing and faxing documents.
• View: Options to enable or disable panes, change the view mode of a folder or grouping and sorting options.

Dynamic tabs are displayed in addition to that. They depend largely on the current location that is displayed in Windows Explorer. Disk Tools are for instance added as a tab to the computer location. Here it is possible to format, cleanup or optimize a drive, use the Bitlocker encryption or work with removable media and rewritable discs.

Here is a video that showcases the new Explorer of Windows 8.

It is interesting to note that the Windows 8 Explorer will display more files and folders than Explorer of Windows 7. What I’m personally curious about is if Microsoft manages to get the view modes working properly in the new operating system. Another requested feature, the ability to display two Explorer panes with files in one Windows Explorer menu does not seem to have made it into the new version of Windows Explorer.

The most interesting part of the whole blog post is the end, if you ask me. Microsoft confirms that power users will be able to create their own personalized version by minimizing the ribbon ui and configuring a quick access bar instead. Plus, they get access to nearly every command available via keyboard shortcuts.

Here are a few screenshots that showcase the new design:

What’s your take on this new Explorer, and especially the Ribbon UI? (via Microsoft Showcases New Windows Explorer With Ribbon UI)

The changes address issues that Microsoft has identified after analyzing usage statistics of hundreds of millions of Windows users. Findings include that 20% of all copy jobs take longer than 2 minutes to complete, and that 5.61% of all copy jobs fail.

Microsoft based on statistics and usability studies decided to improve the copy experience in the following ways:

• Consolidate the copy experience to improve managing and monitoring capabilities.
• Remove distractions and concentrate on the information that users need.
• Give Windows users more control over the copy operations.

Copy jobs now run in one window, instead of multiple ones. If you currently start multiple copy jobs in Windows, you will notice that each displays the copy process and information in its own copying window. In Windows 8, users will see all of their jobs in one window.

Experienced users may have already noticed the pause icon next to each copy job in the above screenshot. It is now possible to pause specific jobs, for instance to speed up an important copy job.

A click on More Details is now revealing detailed information about each copy job, including realtime throughput data of each job.

Microsoft is also addressing the conflict window that is for instance displayed when a file already exists in the destination folder. The current conflict resolution dialog is confusing and not clear at all.

The new conflict resolution dialog displays less information on the screen, but enough to allow the user to make a decision right on the screen.

While I’m not entirely sure how the dialog will look like if there are dozens or even hundreds of conflicts, I can see its use for a small number of conflicts.

You can read up on all the improvements at the Building Windows 8 blog. (via Windows 8)

It appears as if Microsoft is intent do repeat the exact same steps that helped them create a buzz around the Windows 7 operating system. Steven Sinofsky today posted an introductory post on the new Building Windows 8 blog over at the MSDN website. While clearing aimed at developers and engineers, it is a great source of valuable information for end-users to find out more about the upcoming operating system.

If you look back at the Engineering Windows 7 blog, you will notice that it was established in August 2008, exactly 14 months before the RTM release of the operating system. It is surely no coincidence that Microsoft published the first Windows 8 blog post in August as well.

This could indicate that Microsoft intents to repeat the exact release cycle of Windows 7.

Probably the most interesting part of the – rather long – opening post is the hint that a pre-release version may be coming out in the next months.

We’ve been hard at work designing and building Windows 8, and today we want to begin an open dialog with those of you who will be trying out the pre-release version over the coming months.

There is no mentioning of a Windows 8 Beta, but since it is the public that is addressed by the blog post, it is fair to assume that Steven Sinofsky is speaking of the beta version of the operating system.

I’d also like to mention that the blog’s name is Building Windows 8 which is another strong indicator that Microsoft will stick to the development name of the operating system.

He also promised to start revealing features with the team in the coming weeks.

o in the next weeks we will just start talking specifics of features, since there is no obvious place to start given the varying perspectives. From fundamentals, to user interface, to hardware support, and more, if something is important to you, we promise we’ll get to it in some form or another.

The post itself does not reveal to much about the new Microsoft operating system.

I invite you to visit the Windows 8 site that I run with Everton where we, and other authors, post all the news we find about the new operating system.

As far as Windows 8 is concerned, we have just made another step towards the release of the operating system.

What’s your take on Microsoft’s public relations strategy?

The project, which was announced on a Mozilla forum, aims to provide a direct competitor to Android on these devices now that Nokia and Intel’s tablet OS, Meego is being discontinued.

In some ways the platform will be a hybrid of two Google operating systems, Android and Chrome OS, in that Mozilla want to harness their Gecko rendering engine from their Firefox browser and Thunderbird email package, to run applications that are web-centered but that run independently of the need of a browser.

This isn’t a new concept, Adobe’s AIR platform has been doing this for some considerable time now, but Mozilla’s offering will aim to bring HTML and other web apps out of the browser.  While we can be certain they are not the only technology company headed this way, they’re certainly the first to announce it.

The project is currently in its “infancy”, but the core building blocks of the OS already exist.  Mozilla began publicising the existence of their new OS to try and get experts from within their user communities to help and contribute.  This will make it the first properly open-source mobile OS.

While Google’s Android is powering ahead in popularity it has been plagued by security and malware issues.  Mozilla’s Firefox browser has a tremendous reputation when it comes to security, and as such the goodwill carried with the Mozilla name will inevitably give any new product form the company a huge boost both from hardware vendors and the public at large.

The ultimate goal of the project is “breaking the stranglehold of proprietary technologies over the mobile device world” and making an open source operating system “the way we think open source should be done.”

The tablet operating system market is already very crowded with products already available from Apple, Google, HP and RIM dominating the space and Microsoft releasing their Windows 8 OS next year.  Some people may say therefore that another OS may confuse matters and consumers even more or even dilute the market to the point where any new OS release becomes pointless.

Anybody who lived through the home computing revolution of the 1980′s will be familiar with how successful multiple consumer operating systems can be when made available side by side.  Back then, companies such as Sinclair, Acorn, Commodore and Texas Instruments were among literally dozens of companies all releasing products with their own proprietary operating systems.

The difference between then and what we have now is the the communications technologies that bind devices together have become standardised.  Therefore anything that you could ever want to do on one tablet is possible on all the others.

This means that the operating system itself is becoming less of an issue as it essentially disappears, to an extent anyway, into the background and the focus is placed on the content that users want to access and the web pages they visit.  This was what Microsoft said they want to achieve with Windows Phone, and many people will argue they were successful in bringing the content to the front and centre of the user experience.

How successful Mozilla are in this space though depends on a variety of factors.  These include the amount of time it will take to develop the OS and what their competitors do in the mean time.  Mozilla have a very fast development process, with a new version of Firefox out every three months.  This is aided by a strong user community of programmers and developers.  What they don’t have though is money and we can see from operating systems such as Google’s Chrome OS that development of a mobile OS can be a complicated and time-consuming process.

We’ll bring you all the latest updates on Mozilla’s entry into the tablet space here at gHacks.

You can read more about the leak here on Windows 8 News. The screenshots are the first as far as I know that have been posted publicly.

Windows 8 News has all the Windows 8 screenshots for you. The good news is, you not only find the leaked screenshots of the Windows 8 version on the site, but also annotations that describe new features that are shown on each individual screenshot.

The leak was installed on a tablet PC and the user who submitted the photos managed to get the metro UI working on the tablet. The metro UI was not the one built into Windows 8, but a Rainmeter theme.

The screenshots show several new features, including:

• A new onscreen keyboard layout, with fewer keys per layer, but additional layers for emotes and stuff.
• Handwriting recognition works very well, with enough room to write.
• The new touch interface uses a bubble and trail to visualize the fingers and movement. Dual touch is activated on the build.
• The system configuration screen has been revamped
• Windows Smartscreen is active, and will display a warning message if unwanted programs are detected.
• The new metro ui is included but deactivated

I’d say the findings are not super spectacular but confirm some of the rumors of the past months.

Visit Windows 8 News for all screenshots and descriptions of features. Be aware that the build is still pre-beta which means that the features shown may be changed or even removed at any time during the development process.

If things go ahead as planned, we showed see a public beta of Windows 8 later this year. What is your take on Windows 8 so far? Let us know in the comments.

It’s no big secret that Google has been preparing a streamlined, Chrome-esque operating system to challenge Microsoft’s double decade monopoly. They claim it will be faster, more powerful, and less expensive (read: free) than anything Microsoft has ever put out. Most interesting of all, it appears Google is prepared to fight a two front war: first, with its open source Chromium OS, downloadable by individuals for any use, and second, Chrome OS, to be shipped on-board select tablets and mobile devices.

Attacking the PC market is a serious undertaking, but Microsoft has been working very hard lately to become more competitive in the handheld realm. They are gaining ground on Apple and are holding back Android, so surely things are looking up for them, right?

That might have been true a few days ago, before HP announced its plans to expand usage of its lightweight operating system, webOS. In the past the company had limited the operating system’s applications to its own products. Soon things may be very different, in ways that don’t well suit Microsoft’s interests.

In an interview with Reuters, HP CEO Leo Apotheker let slip that “it’s not correct to believe that [webOS] should only be on HP devices.” And the company seems to believe him. Rumor has it that a fresh batch of PCs will roll off the HP assembly line with the operating system dual-booting alongside Windows.

Ok, so HP has plans to start pushing its OS against those of others, namely Microsoft. So what?

For starters, webOS is widely respected for combining the three golden words of contemporary tech: cloud, social, and mobile. While Windows may have been the gold standard of the past, it hasn’t made strong moves toward cloud computing (although we will see what happens when 8 actually comes out). The future of social media sits on the cloud, and many aspects of mobile usage rely on consumers’ love of social media.

Keep in mind that HP isn’t even the main challenger. Google owns mobile, is moving toward cloud and is getting pretty chummy with social giants like Facebook after failing to put up a challenger to face them. Apple is holding onto its piece of the pie, and tablet and netbook manufacturers are still interested in the prospects of linux-based operating systems.

So where does all this leave Microsoft and their upcoming Windows 8? Desperately trying to find its place in an evolving tech world. Things were so much more simple when they were just the great big bad guy…

But will Microsoft use that name for their next client operating system? Or will the Redmond company go crazy once again and name it Windows Balahua or something like that. We do not know yet, and will not know for quite some time. There are however indicators that suggest that Windows 8 will indeed be the name of the next Microsoft operating system.

When you look at Microsoft’s wordings you notice that company officials and documents try to avoid calling and naming the next operating system Windows 8. The operating system is usually referred to as The Next Windows which many see as an indication that Microsoft might indeed use a different name for the final product. It could on the other hand be a strategic decision, to avoid that news about Windows 8 break Windows 7′s momentum. The Next Windows is an abstract term, whereas Windows 8 refers directly to the successor of Windows 7.

The recent leaks highlight Microsoft’s dilemma. While it is usually a good thing that people are excited about an operating system, it may at the very same time torpedo Windows 7′s rise to become the most used Microsoft operating system. Not to forget that leaks may reveal features that may be canned at a later point in development.

Back to Windows 8. Lets see if we can eliminate some alternatives. Microsoft could stick with The Next Windows, but that would be shortsighted, considering that they would get naming problems for the Windows version after that. They could also mimic how the server operating systems are named, Windows Client 2012 comes to mind. But that may not be as helpful as it looks on first glance. First, it is easy enough to distinguish client and server operating systems as all server operating systems have server in their name. Second, a switch to Windows Client Year would be a technical name, which could intimidate some customers. In the same group fall descriptive names, e.g. Windows Touch, or Windows Touch 2012 which would reduce the operating system to a single feature. Not very likely either.

The third possibility would be a a Vistaesque name, like Windows Suave. Problem with these kind of names is that they break a naming pattern. Windows XP > Windows Vista > Windows 7 > Windows Suave. It does not feel right and it is very unlikely that Microsoft will opt for such a name.

Now that we have looked at some possibilities, it is time to look at Windows 8, and why it is likely that Microsoft will use that name for the next Windows.

• Windows 8 automatically indicates that it is the successor of Windows 7, which is a good thing considering that Windows 7 is highly successful and that users will associate that success with Windows 8
• The name is already widely used on the Internet. Everyone and their mom know about Windows 8. It would take time and money to make a different name known.
• While Microsoft tries their best to avoid using Windows 8, it has already been used in recent builds, for instance on the Homegroup screen.

If I had to bet, I’d bet on Windows 8 as the name of the next Microsoft operating system. What’s your opinion?

So why do I have this bad feeling in the pit of my stomach that whatever Microsoft deliver next year won’t be good enough?  Microsoft tout the features of Windows 7, its stability and reliability almost to excess.  Certainly it’s the most stable, reliable and dependable operating system the company has ever produced.

Windows 8, when it finally arrives, will no doubt be even more reliable, stable and dependable than even Windows 7 is capable of being.  Then there’s been all the tablet talk in the last year or so.  Google rushed a new version of its Android OS out of the door, Steve Ballmer has said that the next version of Windows will be tablet friendly and the world is looking forward to all that.

If we look at the, now mature, smartphone market though what do we see?  Probably the biggest and most popular smartphone OS out there at the moment, Google’s Android, is still based around a desktop with widgets on it.  Indeed its handsets still come with a cursor you can move around.  This is a good example I feel that no matter how good this particular smartphone OS might be, its still a step behind its users.

If you look back historically for instance to the days of MS DOS and Windows 1.  By the time Windows and Mac OS were first released, users had already been clamoring for a GUI OS with alternatives such as DesqView and GEM rising to fill the temporary gap.  With almost every OS the world has seen it’s been a step behind its users.

But surely this is the problem, as new technology comes along we find more and more innovative uses for it and so the technology keeps getting left behind.  Operating systems suffer from this problem even more.  Look at Windows.  The current version is leagues behind where its users want it to be.  Only now are Microsoft taking features such as tablet functionality and System on a Chip seriously.  All the companies responsible for hardware and operating systems are staying one step behind their users.  There’s one exception to this however and that’s Apple.

Apple are the only technology company that’s being proactive and trying to anticipate what its users will want to do in the coming years.  It’s this forward-thinking attitude that have put the company firmly in the lead, and that will keep it there until anybody else is brave enough to catch up.  Nintendo and Microsoft have both achieved this to a lesser degree in recent years with innovative new ways to interact with their games consoles.  These innovations aside though there’s very little that’s staying ahead of the users of modern technology.

So where does this leave any OS?  If you look at any of the desktop operating systems, OS X, GNU/Linux and Windows, they’re all currently playing catch up with their users.  Now smartphone and tablet operating systems are doing the same with Google and Microsoft rushing to finish products they should really have brought to market a couple of years ago.

That was the time when people wanted these features, right back at the beginning.  Unfortunately unless and until the big technology and software companies realise that the consumer is now ahead of them, no operating system will ever be good enough.

Please keep in mind that the following screenshots show a work of progress. They are not for the faint-hearted.

You can see that the ribbon interface has replaced the menubar and previously available toolbars with the exception of the navigational toolbar. It takes up quite the amount of space. I’d estimate that the header space in Windows Explorer had to be doubled because of the new ribbon interface.

If you look closer at the available options you notice that Microsoft plans to display most functions that have previously been accessible via the menubar or the right-click context menu directly in the ribbon interface.

The Home tab for instance offers buttons to create new files or folders, to perform a variety of file operations like deleting, renaming or copying, as well as file selection and opening options. Part of the ribbon interface is displayed dynamically. A library management tab is added to the interface if a library is selected.

A new File button has been placed in the upper left corner of the screen, resembling the file button of Office. A click on that button opens a menu with management options. Here it seems to be possible to pin frequently used places to the sidebar for faster access, to clear the history, access folder options and perform various other tasks.

It is not clear why the frequent places have been added to the menu, instead of the Windows Explorer sidebar where they would be accessible directly without an additional click.

New or inexperienced computer users will likely benefit from the new interface, as many functions are now directly visible on screen and not hidden behind a menu or context menu entry. This may look like a step back for many experienced users on the other hand, considering that they have to give up screen estate for a larger header with functions that they can access faster with keyboard shortcuts or the mouse.

It seems that Microsoft plans to add options to hide the ribbon interface in Windows Explorer, which many users would probably do in a heartbeat. (via Windows 8 Windows Explorer Ribbon UI Revealed)

What’s your take on the new interface, aesthetics aside?

Blogs and other news portals have picked up a story on the Russian website Wzor recently which detailed the Windows 8 development plan up to the retail release data of the operating system.

According to that post, Windows 8 would be available in stores on January 7, 2013.

The development allegedly is scheduled the following way:

• Windows 8 Milestone 1, 2 and 3, with Milestone 3 development beginning in March 2011.
• Followed by two public betas, Windows 8 Beta 1 and 2 which will both be offered publicly.
• The Windows 8 release candidate follows and then three months later the Windows 8 RTM release.
• Boxed retail versions are available from January 7, 2013 on.

Without confirmation that’s just another rumor out of the many available that try to pinpoint the release date of the operating system.

It would however coincide well with the projected Windows 8 release three years after the release of Windows 7 which a news post on Microsoft Netherlands’ website suggested.

The actual release data is determined by factors that are not under complete control right now, problems during development for instance could delay the release of the operating system. It is however still fair to assume that Windows 8 will not be released before the fourth quarter of 2012.

You can read Mike’s editorial on the top: Windows 8 will NOT be out January 7th 2013… Here’s Why

Still, some early adopters cannot resist the temptation and buy SSDs, despite their price tag and relatively low storage capacities. Sometimes, users buy a SSD for their old system, with the intention to replace the current hard drive the system is installed on.

Those users face a problem. How can they migrate the operating system from the old hard drive to the new and faster Solid State Drive.

Paragon Migrate OS to SSD offers a solution for those users. The software is currently in testing, and available for all early adopters at the Paragon website. All it takes is to enter some registration information and the product keys and download links will be delivered to the email account entered in the registration form.

After program installation, launch the tool using the program list in Windows start menu, or by clicking the corresponding shortcut on your desktop.

On the wizard welcome screen, read the warning about data on the second disk drive. According to the program logic, all data on this drive will be overwritten by copying data from the source drive. Before you click next, make sure you have saved any important data on the second drive to an outside source.

Clicking the Learn more link in the bottom left corner opens a program tip-window with useful information about the tool.

Click Next>, and the program analyzes the disk configuration of your computer and searches for any system volumes.

In the next screen, you will be presented with possible migration scenarios. You can either agree to perform the operation, or cancel it.

In the next window, specify which files and folders to exclude during migration. This option is very useful if you want to reduce the space you will use on the final partition, or copy the system to a smaller drive than the original one.

After migration, shutdown the computer and remove the source drive. Make the remaining drive bootable in BIOS and restart the computer. Your newly migrated system will boot after the system finishes processing.

Paragon Migrate OS to SSD will detect all operating systems installed on the hard drives automatically, and prompt the user to pick one of the systems that have been discovered.

The user is then asked to pick the target drive for the OS migration, which in this case is the SSD. If the SSD has a larger size than the data on the OS partition all data can be transferred. If the target drive has a lower size then the user is asked to select data that is then excluded from the migration.

Paragon Migrate OS to SSD’s biggest strength is that it is very easy and convenient to use. In addition, users do need a deeper knowledge of partitions and system disks, as this is mostly handled by the program.

Even inexperienced users can migrate an operating system to a SSD with the program comfortably.

I say it’s unusual though you have to take into account here that neither of these products are cheap, but neither will be the development for the operating system.

The update is being distributed via iTunes with users being alerted that it is available.  It fixes very little by the way of bugs but does add some interesting new features including the new game centre for multi-player gaming, the abaility to take HDR pictures, rent TV shows from the iTunes store and work with HD video on YouTube.

The update is available for the iPhone 3G, 3GS and iPhone 4 and for the 3rd and 4th generation iPod Touch.

Version 4.2 of iOS is expected to be launched in November.

StatCounter, the W3Schools OS platform statistics and NetMarketShare have recorded a steady rise of Windows 7 ever since its introduction in October 2009.

Overall numbers differ because of the different data sets used in the calculation of the operating system market share.

Statcounter for instance recorded a Windows 7 market share of 19.86%, while NetMarketshare one of 14.46% and W3Schools of 19.8%. Vista’s market share respectively has been calculated to be 19.18%, 14.34% and 11.7%.

statcounter

netmarketshare

w3schools

It took Windows 7 less than a year to surpass Windows Vista, an operating system with a two and a half year head start. That’s not as surprising as it may sounds though, as Microsoft seems to be selling More Than 7 Copies Of Windows 7 A Second, resulting in more than 150 million Windows 7 copies sold in June 2010.

What may be surprising to some users is the steady decline of the Windows XP operating system, and the more or less stable market share of Windows Vista.

According to StatCounter, Windows XP dropped from an all-time high market share of 69.95% in July 2009 to 54.13% in August 2010. Netmarketshare saw a drop from 71.51% in September 2009 to 61.87% in July 2010, W3Schools a drop from 65.3% in October 2009 to 54.6% in June 2010.

Vista on the other hand did not drop that much. StatCounter recorded the market share of the Os with 22.71% in June 2009, and 19.18% in August 2010.

Netmarketshare similarly saw a drop from 18.62% in September 2009 to 14.34% in July 2010, while W3schools saw a drop from 18.6% to 11.7% in that period.

Windows XP is losing between 1-2% every month, while Windows 7 is gaining the same percentage in the same period. It will still be interesting to see if Windows 7 can keep up the momentum. Many experts believe that the market share will increase faster with the release of the first Windows 7 service pack, which is expected to be released in the beginning of 2011.

Windows XP is losing more absolute market share than Windows Vista. It is likely that Windows XP users who have waited a long time to migrate to another operating system pick Windows 7, Windows Vista users on the other hand sit on a relatively new operating system and computer, and are less likely the migrate yet.

StatCounter stats for individual continents show interesting trends as well.
Windows XP has dropped to 36% in July, while both Vista and Windows 7 gained market share and sit at 28% and 22%. Stats are similar in Europe, with Vista again in front of Windows 7 market share wise. Windows XP dropped to 46% over the last 12 months, Vista increased its market share to 24% and Windows 7 its to 22%.

The two continents where adoption rates are not as steep are Africa and Asia. Windows XP has a market share of over 70% in both continents.

Oh, and just for the laughs, Mac OS has a market share of 100% in Antarctica, at least for now.. [source: Statcounter, W3Schools, NetMarketShare]

Windows 7 started with a market share of 2.15% in October and managed to gain more than 10% in the following seven months. Windows Vista at the same time declined from 18% to 15% while Windows XP dropped from 70% to 62% in that time period.

Windows 7 will surpass Windows Vista if current trends continue in less than three months time.

But Windows Vista is not Microsoft’s prime target in the market share race. Windows XP is still going strong with its market share of 62.5%. It would take more than two years, assuming current trends continue, before Windows 7 would surpass Windows XP as the operating system with the biggest market share.

It has to be noted that usage share statistics depend on the tracking methods used. The operating system statistics over at W3c paint a different picture as they see Windows 7 in the lead over Vista by about 6%.