Windows 8 migrations manageable, argues support firm
Windows 8 may be the most disruptive operating system upgrade in 17 years, but the learning curve isn't as steep as some have claimed, enterprise support company PC Helps said today.
"It will be very difficult to adjust to, no doubt of that," said Joe Puckett, PC Helps' director of training. "But there are a lot of things that can be done to minimize the disruption."
Many would disagree.
Windows 8 has been knocked by reviewers, analysts and online pundits as a difficult-if-not-impossible upgrade because of its dual, and dueling, user interfaces (UI), one that supports the touch-first, tile-style apps formerly known as Metro, the other very similar to Windows 7's traditional desktop. Read more...
Google says it had Sun’s full support in building Android
Google built Android using parts of Java that didn't require a license and it had the full support of Sun Microsystems in doing so, a lawyer for Google said in court Tuesday.
"The source code in Android was written by Google engineers or taken from open source platforms that were available and open for use," attorney Robert Van Nest told the jury in Google's opening statement.
Sun's own chief executive, Jonathan Schwartz, congratulated Google when it released Android, saying it strapped a "set of rockets" to Java that would help ensure its success, Van Nest said. Read more...
What JavaScript’s inventor really thinks about Google Dart
Google's Dart language, which attempts to address JavaScript's supposed weaknesses, is getting a mixed reaction from the inventor of JavaScript itself, Brendan Eich.
While admiring Google's efforts to make the Document Object Model more usable as part of Dart, Eich was skeptical about its chance for support in browsers. "Dart is one of the many languages that currently compiles to JavaScript, and that's a lot to say about that because like in Native Client from Google, I don't think Dart is going to be natively supported ever in other browsers. Not in Safari, not in IE (Internet Explorer)," said Eich, who is CTO at Mozilla, at the Node Summit conference in San Francisco on Wednesday. JavaScript has been supported in popular browsers, including Mozilla's own Firefox browser. Read more...
Google leaves Android App Inventor to the open source community
Last month's surprising closure of Google Labs may have its first significant casualty: Google has announced it is ending support for App Inventor for Android, but the company is ultimately leaving the fate of the project to the open source community.
Released in July of last year, App Inventor for Android was designed to enable nontechnical users to easily create Android smartphone apps, albeit ones that are relatively limited in functionality. The project hasn't enjoyed much in the way of broad success that could equate to future profits, which is why Google is cutting support for it along with the other slacker projects in the shuttered Labs.
However, Google recognizes that App Inventor has garnered success in the educational space, so the company plans to make the code open source and to "[explore] opportunities to support the educational use of App Inventor on an open source platform," according to the official Google App Inventor blog. Read more...
Response to Firewall Report Shows Contrasts in Customer Service Philosophy
One of the most important aspects of choosing a hardware or software vendor is the customer service relationship, and the confidence that the vendor will be there to support you when the need arises. The response from vendors to the recent NSS Labs firewall report illustrates the stark differences in how vendors address and resolve issues.
NSS Labs is an independent third-party firm that provides research and analysis for its customers. It is not trying to sell a competing product or service, and its ability to get and keep customers depends on the accuracy of its report findings and remediation advice. In a nutshell, NSS Labs does not have an axe to grind, and it would be a very poor business model to exaggerate issues just to grab headlines. Read more...