Practical Technology

for practical people.

November 7, 2011
by sjvn01
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Which of the big five Web Browsers is the Best? (Review)

With Firefox 8’s early arrival, and new major updates to three of the other major Web browsers, Chrome 15; Opera 11.5, and Safari 5.1.1 it’s high time to take another look at our current generation of Internet Web browsers and see what’s what. Only Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) 9 hasn’t seen a significant improvement in the last few months.

Why did I choose these browsers? The answer is simple. These are the most popular Web browsers out there. While Internet Explorer has dropped below 50% of the total Web browser market, it’s still the most popular Web browser. In most of the world, IE is followed by Mozilla Firefox, although in some places, such as much of Latin America, number three, Google’s Chrome, has already moved up to second place. After that Apple’s Safari, which owns the mobile Web browser market, comes in number four, and Opera hangs out to the fifth spot.

As time has gone on, Web browsers have been improving. For example, it wasn’t that long ago that Microsoft’s Internet Explorer was a major security problem in and of itself. True, the pre-historic IE 6 is still an infamous security hole, but only a fool would run it. Today, IE 9 is probably as secure as Google Chrome and they don’t come any safer. But, in all honesty, all the 2011 Web browsers are far more secure than their predecessors.

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November 2, 2011
by sjvn01
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Microsoft contributes open-source code to Samba

Freak snowstorm reported in hell. Tea party agrees Obama is the best candidate for 2012 presidential election. Microsoft submits open-source code under the GPLv3 to Samba. Those are all pretty unlikely, but Microsoft really did submit code to the Samba file server open-source project.

This might not strike you as too amazing. After all, Microsoft has supported some open-source projects at CodePlex for some time now and they will work with some other projects such as the Python and PHP languages and the Drupal content management system (CMS). But, Samba, Samba is different. They’re an old Microsoft enemy.

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November 2, 2011
by sjvn01
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Is Internet Explorer Dying?

Sometime in 1998 or 1999, Internet Explorer (IE) became the number one Web browser in the world. It did so thanks to Microsoft illegally bundling IE with Windows. But, while Microsoft lost the anti-trust case, instead of being broken up as it was first ruled, Microsoft only had its hands slapped and Internet Explorer’s main competitor, Netscape, was destroyed. By 2004, Microsoft’s IE owned 95%+ of the Web browser marker. That was then. This is now.

In that same year, Firefox started taking market-share from IE. At first IE lost ground, ironically enough, because of its de facto victory over Netscape. For years, Microsoft neglected improving IE 6, and Firefox was able to quickly establish itself as the better option. Then, when Chrome was introduced in 2008, it made the Web browser races far more competitive.

In October 2011, according to NetMarketShare, IE is barely above the 50% mark of desktop browsers with 52.63%. That only tells part of the story though.

On the smartphone/tablet market, IE is a total non-player with IE and Microsoft Pocket IE combined having only 0.17% of the market. Put the total Web browser markets together, and you’ll see IE has finally dropped below the 50% mark. IE now has only 49.58% of the total market.

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November 2, 2011
by sjvn01
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What CIOs Need to Know about Intellectual Property Law

Do you think that intellectual property (IP) matters have little to nothing to do with your job as a CIO? You do? Oh my, how 20th century of you. Sure, it used to be that patent lawsuits and the like only happened to big companies, but these days every business has to worry about it.

It’s “Apple vs. Samsung” or “Oracle vs. Google” that make the headlines, but these days patent trolls such as Innovato, are going after even small and medium-sized businesses, franchises and even mom-and-pop sized businesses.

And is your software licensing all that it should be? Are you sure?

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November 2, 2011
by sjvn01
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Windows 7 finally beats XP, or does it?

It took Windows 7 a little more than two years, but according to StatCounter, the Website analytics company, Windows 7 is now being used by more people than its decade old brother XP.

According to StatCounter’s research arm StatCounter Global Stats in October 2011 Windows 7 took 40.5% of global Web market share with XP at 38.5%. Windows Vista, which was meant to replace XP and failed miserably, is down at 11.2% globally.

“Vista was like the ugly sister that few wanted to dance with,” said Aodhan Cullen, StatCounter’s CEO, in a statement. “Despite Microsoft trying to keep it back in the kitchen, XP has retained tremendous loyalty over the last decade. However, it looks like the younger Windows 7 is now emerging in the Cinderella role.”

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