Software

Somehow, a rumor has started that Dell will no longer be offering Ubuntu. It's false. Dell is sticking with Ubuntu. That said, the company is considering Google Chrome OS for the future.

Google is often seen as the anti-Microsoft. But with Google's Chrome announcement it's clear that the the company cultures are a lot more alike than they are different. Microsoft's competitive DNA is embedded in Google's core.

I'm rubbing my hands with glee with the thought of Google Chrome OS punishing Windows in the desktop market, but I also fear trading one desktop operating system overlord for another.

Over the last month, it seems like everyone and their brother in free software circles has been stomping on Mono, the open-source version of Microsoft's .NET architecture. Get over it!

Gmail has finally gone out of beta, after more than five years of carrying the "beta" label. But it's leaving beta not because of any great technological leap forward, but because Google has been having a hard time selling software labeled beta to enterprises.

Google hit the bad news trifecta today: The federal government has announced that it's investigating Google for possible violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act; Nokia says it has no plans to develop an Android phone; and YouTube is under attack from Disney. Could this be the day people realize that the search giant is not invulnerable?

What will be the single most expensive piece of your next PC? The answer: Windows 7.

Ex-Netscape dude Marc Andreessen and old chum Ben Horowitz have started a $300 million VC fund. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers watch the eponymous Andreessen-Horowitz and wonder where the money's going.

By Richi Jennings: your humble blogwatcher, who selected these bloggy morsels for your enjoyment. Not to mention how the Norwegians advertise cellphones...

Consultant pilot fish is hired to help debug a company's homegrown purchase-order system, which worked fine when it was installed three years ago -- but has been slowing down ever since.

Having trouble finding a Linux netbook? Consider Toys R Us. No seriously. They may be one of the last retail places you'll be able to find any Linux netbook.

Microsoft seems to have heeded the critics who were less than enthralled with the company's recent Internet Explorer ad that featured a housewife spewing vomit on her husband after she saw the porn he was viewing on his computer. The ad has been pulled from a Microsoft YouTube channel, as well as from a Web site launched for the ad campaign.

This company's pension distribution system is a heavily customized version of a well-known package. And it works fine for years -- until the COO retires.

In this special IT Blogwatch, we look back at what bloggers were saying about IT news in June. From iPhones to aviation and from H-1B workers to Windows 7, bloggers blogged it and your humble blogwatcher watched it.

By Richi Jennings: your humble blogwatcher, who selects bloggy morsels for your enjoyment every day. Not to mention how we used to play games on phones...

In September 2008, the London Stock Exchange collapsed because its Windows-based electronic trading platform, TradElect completely failed. Now, under new leadership, the Exchange will finally do away with its fatally flawed Windows system.

Microsoft has launched a new ad campaign for Internet Explorer that is either clever and slyly humorous, or obnoxious and snarky, depending on your point of view. But in one ad promoting IE 8's so-called porn mode, the software giant has crossed the line of bad taste --- by about three miles. I've got details and the video itself in my blog.