Apple has sued Psystar, the marketers of the Open Computer, according to Jorge Espinoza’s article, Apple Goes After Clone Maker Psystar, and ZDnet. Apple seems to have a solid case, as Psystar modified Apple’s software as part of the Florida company’s product offerings. The original name of the Psystar product was the OpenMac, which didn’t please Apple, either.
Firefox, my favorite web browser, will finally release version 3 on Tuesday, 17 June 2008.
If you already use Firefox, this new version should fix the memory leak issue that happens when you open up too many tabs. Add-ons are much easier to find, install and manage, too.
If you don’t use Firefox, try it! It’s a free web browser that is faster and safer than Safari or Internet Explorer.
See these pages for more details:
Tags: browser, Firefox, free, open-source, software, webThere are plenty of great free software applications and services available on the Web.
In some cases, payment removes advertising and enables more features. Some require a subscription or a one-time payment.Sometimes the payment is merely a donation to a one-man operation that wrote the code.
Here’s a few quick lists of what I’m using, inspired by this discussion on Weblog Tools Collection:
Keep in mind that my recommendations are for the consumer or individual versions of each service. Some products are available in corporate or enterprise versions for a fee.
Free software and services that I would pay for, along with links to each service’s “about” or home page:
Here’s a list of free software and services that I wouldn’t pay to use, because the ROI just isn’t that great:
15 April is tax deadline day in the United States. Next month, many US taxpayers will get a rebate check that President Bush hopes they will spend to boost the flagging economy.
Why not spend that check on a new computer? According to Good Morning Silicon Valley, Psystar will sell you an Open Computer. It’s an Intel PC that ships with an ugly case, a fresh copy of Mac OS X Leopard and a few software drivers generated by the open source osx86 project.
Why pay Apple’s hardware prices when an Intel PC can run the Mac operating system? It’s easy to build your own Mac-compatible Intel PC, and use the open source software and a copy of Leopard. In fact, this is a fine project for a student who has the resources and time… as long as they do not sell the final product.
Wired has pointed out one small problem with Psystar’s plan: Apple’s user license for Leopard specifically states that the operating system can only be used on Apple-branded hardware. Psystar cannot really sell a Mac operating system with a beige-box computer.
Perhaps this is why Psystar changed the product’s name yesterday. It was listed as “OpenMac”. The Mac name is trademarked by Apple, of course.
MacRumors has more information for those who are interested.
I sense a cease-and-desist order coming from 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino, California.
Saul Hansell of the New York Times has an updated overview of the proposed Microsoft purchase of Yahoo. As his article’s title implies, merging the two companies is like building a rocket ship from spare parts. Which business units should be kept? What technologies will be used? What strategies will continue, and what new plans will be implemented?
The biggest risk is that engineering teams from Microsoft and Yahoo will spend years fighting to prove their systems are better and their bosses will listen instead of cutting off debate, picking something and trying to actually take on Google.
See my earlier articles from 4 February and 1 February 2008 for more comments.
Tags: business_model, Google, Internet, Microsoft, open-source, Yahoo
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