zdnet posts

Windows 7 or KDE 4?

by Brad Linder Feb 6th 2009

Microsoft's newest operating system may be in beta, but it's already getting a lot of praise for providing a good mix of performance and eye candy. Features like the new taskbar, Aero Shake, and Aero Peek make the operating system both visually attractive and easy to navigate.

But you know what? Windows 7 isn't the only operating system with a flashy new desktop interface. The KDE 4 desktop environment for Linux also offers some pretty nifty features like enhanced support for widgets, a new menu, and animations.

So the folks at ZDNet Australia decided to see what people thought of KDE4. Only taking a cue from Microsoft's Mojave campaign, they didn't tell anyone that they were looking at a Linux desktop. Instead they said it was Windows 7. And people seemed to be impressed. Of course, they also only got to look at it for a few moments and didn't know that it wouldn't run MS Office, Outlook, or Adobe Photoshop. But hey, first impressions matter, right?

[via Slashdot]

Tags: australia, kde4, mojave, windows-7, zdnet

Filed under: Business, News, Windows, E-mail, Office, Productivity, Microsoft

The Ribbon goes to... optional?

by Ryan Carter Sep 4th 2006

Former Weblogs, Inc. blogger Marc Orchant (now of ZDNet fame) alerted me to the fact that Microsoft is giving a bit on the decision to make the new 2007 Office system (still a small "s") ribbon interface the only option. Microsoft is going to provide the ribbon as an ~~optional~~ auto-hide feature that you can use if you want to. I must admit that I hated the ribbon at first, but then used it for a week straight and saw that Microsoft was actually right to implement the ribbon. Has anyone checked Hell lately? Are there icicles, figure-skating, grounded planes due to inclement weather (meaning SNOW), anything like that going on down there? Oh, well, guess it froze over. I never thought I would admit that I liked something new Microsoft put in place. I am still quite ticked off at Microsoft for having to resort to violent goading of users (by that I mean me) toward the light of the new way do to business in the new 2007 Office system. They could have just told me, but hey, that would have been too easy right?

[via ZDNet]

UPDATE: Instead of the ribbon being made optional (which is inaccurate, my bad), Microsoft will include an auto-hide feature in the next technical refresh of Office 2007, which makes more sense than making it optional. The issue seems to be the screen real-estate the ribbon takes up, at least for Microsoft.

Tags: 2007, Excel, Microsoft, Office, PowerPoint, Word, ZDNet

Filed under: Web services

Fox Interactive buying up Web 2.0 companies

by Jordan Running Mar 3rd 2006

What's going down at Under the Radar, the "early stage technology innovation" conference happening right now? News Corp. company Fox Interactive is shopping, apparently. According to ZDNet's Dan Farber, Fox's Ron Levinson revealed yesterday that he had just bought one of the companies at the event. Which company? Well, the ink isn't yet dry on the deal and Levinson isn't saying. Farber speculates that photo search company Riya (whose service isn't even in beta yet) is a good candidate. News Corp., you'll remember, bought MySpace last July for $580 million, and Levinson says he has a $2 billion "war chest" for buying companies and he would bet that he'd end up buying five more of the 32 companies present at the event. Head over to Farber's post for a video clip of the Levinson interview.

Tags: acquisition, Dan Farber, fox, fox interactive, news corp, newscorp, riya, Ron Levinson, under the radar, undertheradar, web20, zdnet

Featured Time Waster

Graveyard Shift - zombie-busting Time Waster

With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

View more Time Wasters

Featured Galleries

Defective by Design, London: Protest Pictures

Download Squad at the Crunchies After-Party

Android First-look: Amazon.com MP3 Store

Flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

Download Squad bloggers (30 days)

#	Blogger	Posts	Cmts
1	Jay Hathaway	114	5
2	Lee Mathews	86	34
3	Sebastian Anthony	57	190
4	Brad Linder	39	7
5	Jason Clarke	24	0
6	Grant Robertson	8	8
7	Dolores Parker	8	2
8	Victor Agreda, Jr.	7	0
9	Nik Fletcher	3	0
10	Matt Heerema	3	3
11	John Burke	2	0
12	Paul O'Brien	2	0
13	Download Squad Staff	1	0

More Tech Coverage

Control Shift It's all about the experience
Somewhat Frank Perspectives on tech as it fuses in everyday life
Switched Gadgets, web news and commentary
Urlesque Exposing bits of the web

Download Squad

zdnet posts

Windows 7 or KDE 4?

The Ribbon goes to... optional?

Fox Interactive buying up Web 2.0 companies

Featured Lists Feed