18 January 2009 by Ross McLean
The second thing that caught my eye in this weeks micro mart was a review of word processors. There where a few I’ve not seen before, which was interesting in itself. One I found really interesting, for two reasons was iWrite Pro. The first is the description of the UI:
It’s all very reminiscent of word 2007, but is that a good idea? Word is confusing for people not used to it because it is hard to find the function you want and some people prefer the old style of menus used in previous versions. Iwrite Pro’s ribbon is a different kettle of fish though and it’s not nearly as irritating. This is because it is a simpler program with fewer functions and it’s easier to find the one you need on the tabs.
here’s a picture:
Well, what can you say? Fail?
But perhaps the more surprising aspect is that iWrite Pro can actually implement the ribbon UI, – OK perhaps the most surprising thing is that anyone would want to, but regardless doesn’t this contravene the ridiculous ribbon Licensing agreement, and if they’ve rolled there own (which it looks like) and not signed with MS, then how long before MS come knocking?
Tags: Ribbion, XL 2007
Categories: General, MS, White Noise •
2 Comments »
17 January 2009 by Ross McLean
I’ve been reading micro mart for years, its focus is hardware and OS stuff, but it also has other interesting bits and bobs, it’s a good bathroom read all round!
There were a couple of things in this week’s issue that stood out and I’d thought I’d share them here.
The first is independent OS’s. I’ve only just started to use Linux in anger, so the fact that there are even more OS’s out there throw me a bit. To be clear, what we are talking about here are OS that are not derived from OSX, Windows, Linux or Unix, they are built from the ground up. Having said that, it’s not quite true! For example, Syllable is based around Amgia OS, and Haiku is based on BeOS. But they are only based on these; the kernels are either rewritten from scratch, or extensions of the base functionality. As you might expect these are not all signing all dancing OS’s yet, but its surprising how stable some of them are for Alpha releases.
The one that stands out most is ReactOS. It’s basically a copy of Windows XP. Is is based around the wine API code, and aims to run all software that currently runs on windows XP thus solving one of the main problems with none windows base OS’s no game and limit software!
Don’t expect too much from React, it has a handful of developers and is an open source project at alpha level. I installed it on Virtual box OSE running in Ubuntu 8, from a mounted ISO on a HDD. I’m not fibbing here, it installed in about 30 seconds ok it only had to format a 6gb virtual HDD, but still that’s bloody quick!!! What’s it like to use? Well it’s a bit unstable and is not pretty, but its somehow still impressive. If you have a VM, why not take a look, and watch this space!
I have rambled on a bit here so I will start a new post for the next thing!
P.S. please no comments saying why not just uses Linux and run Wine if you need to ask that you need to think harder!
Tags: Downloads, OS
Categories: Linux •
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More Google Evil??
21 January 2009 by Ross McLean
A few months ago I highlighted my worries over Goggle Chrome. Now it seams that Google are turning on MS, and IE. As much as I dislike IE (7 + is ok) it’s a bit worrying, because its not a huge leap of imagination to see how Firefox could be next. I don’t like Chrome and it worries me that the people behind the main stays of the internet (powerful searching) have now entered in to the arena of the browser. I’m sure Google wont, but there is opportunity to bias it’s web service in favour of it’s own browser, and that would make them Microsoft, a case of hunted turning hunter if ever there was one!
Tags: Comment, Google
Categories: General • 2 Comments »