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For the past months, Peter Bright, a former Win32 Programmer, has given a in-depth overview to the perspective of being a developer for Win32 and for Cocoa. Part one in the series described how misfortune and adversity left Apple with a new OS platform free of legacy constraints; part two discussed how Microsoft had failed to do the same, choosing instead to hobble its new OS with way too much legacy baggage. Now in the third part, Peter exposes in detail what Apple has done with its platform to make it so appealing.

The series is a very interesting read, even if you’re not into Cocoa development, as it explains just why Mac OS X offers so many advances to a normal Developer - especially compared to Win32. If you haven’t read the other parts yet, it’d be wise to start at the beginning before you start to read part three.

When it comes down to feature-richness in UI Libraries Cocoa really shines. Especially the 10.5 bump, bringing Core Animation to the table, really extended the graphicall capabilities of Cocoa. The Windows Vista pendant, “Avalon”, for example, offers a wide set of features just as well, but still lacks a extensive integrated animation package (apart from many other smaller details).
Avalon however, just as well as Cocoa, is bound to the underlying operating system and thus not available for other platforms.

So if one intends to write a multiplatform graphically extensive application, one either has to write seperate backends for each operating system, or use a agnostic framework, like for example Trolltech’s Qt or the open source Clutter.

Clutter has a lot to offer:

• OpenGL / OpenGL ES compatible
• 2D Layered scenes with possible 3D transformations
• Built-in Effects and Filters
• Media Playback
• WebKit Support, meaning one can mix WebKit with UI Elements just as with Cocoa
• Built-In Animation engine, much like Core Animation (albeit less powerfull)
• Linux, Windows, MacOSX and even iPhone Support
• Written in C, bindings for Perl, Python, C#, C++, Vala and Ruby

And much more. As you can see, Clutter has a lot to offer. It’s still at version 0.6.2, so maybe not yet ready for production use. However, if you’re thinking about developing a graphically extensive application that has to be deployed to several platforms at the same time, including iPhone, Clutter could come to the rescue.

Microsoft released its latest revision of the Windows OS on January 30th, 2007 to great fanfare. Even after a year and a half of beta testing, Windows Vista still suffered a few opening day hiccups.

Right out of the box you can see that once installed, Vista looks a lot like a certain other operating system on the market that features widgets and an extremely user-friendly interface. Indeed, Vista’s AERO interface does look, and feel, like Mac OS X’s Aqua interface. Whereas AERO, which invokes images of “air” has a glass-like presence, Aqua naturally invokes a watery feel to it.

Speaking of AERO, to get the full Vista Experience, including AERO, you have to buy one of the more expensive versions of the OS. Unlike XP, which had two versions, Vista comes in a total of six versions. The versions depend on the market in which the OS is being sold. The Vista Starter Edition will not be sold in the US, but only to so-called “emerging markets.”

In the US, there’s Home Basic, Home Premium, and Vista Ultimate for the normal “home” user. For business, there’s Vista Business and Vista Enterprise. In the European Union, there’s the “N” series of Vista that does not feature Windows Media Player 11 due to certain anti-trust laws in those regions.

The possibility of further anti-trust lawsuits looms closer everyday as several software manufacturers have been pushed by the wayside, as Vista already includes programs similar to, or identical several other offerings.

First and foremost is Windows Defender, an anti-spyware tool. Anti-spyware has long been the domain of companies such as McAfee and Symantec, but now, not only has Microsoft beaten them to the punch, until Symantec released Norton Internet Security suite 7, it was incompatible with Vista due to a scripting error in Internet Explorer 7. Again, Vista comes preinstalled with a firewall, well, there goes Symantec’s offering.

Windows Vista also comes with the capability to burn DVDs right out of the box. Doesn’t Nero does that?

In the end, it seems as though Microsoft is slowly trying to bully software developers out of business.

In the past, various companies have released free, ad-supported versions of their software to differing degrees of success (such as Opera’s web browser). The Febuary 2006 issue of Smart Computing mentions an internal memo from Microsoft that hints at the possibility of them releasing ad-supported versions of some their most popular software.

Clearly mentioned in the article were Windows, Works, and Money. No mention of Office, which Microsoft is alleged to be developing for Web use. It would be interesting to see where Microsoft goes with this, particualarly on the free version of their Windows XP operating system. Odds are that it will feature rotating ads on the desktop or random pop-up ads that can’t be turned off.

I just tried this application recently (they offer a downloadable trial). It’s awesome, offers great usability and, if you’re a bit comfortable with 3D / game stuff, allows to create games in a blaze.

http://otee.dk/

More and more Microsoft employees are concerned about the speed and the priorities with which Internet Explorer 7 is being developed. Although we all know by now that Microsoft has started working on IE7 again, it’s still unknown in how far they’ll tune it so it complies with the W3C’s specs.
One interesting quote from the linked discussion is the following one from an Ex Mac-IE developer at Microsoft:

Over the whole sad journey, the single most surprising thing I ever discovered was from a small conversation that went:

Me: “Look, if it makes sense to devote dozens of people to WinIE, then surely it makes sense to devote half a dozen to MacIE!”

Higher-up: (confused look) “There aren’t dozens of people on WinIE. WinIE had some great people on it! We need those great people on products that make money!”

Me: “Then why on earth did we pursue IE in the first place? Just so that the DOJ would sue us?”

Higher-up: (confused look)

Read the other comments here
Microsoft, IE, Internet Explorer 7, IE7, Firefox, CSS

InformIT posted an article which deals just with the problems that arise when trying to include Macs into Windows networks:

Are you Mac-savvy? Many Windows administrators and technicians have never had to support Macs on their networks, so the idea of suddenly having a handful of Mac workstations might seem really challenging. Luckily for you, it’s an easier task than you probably think. Ryan Faas gives you a simple guide to supporting Mac workstations and Mac users within your Windows network.

I’ve found it most troubline when I tried to actually print something from my Mac to our Windows SMB printer. Sometimes it worked, sometimes the printer just threw a giant pile of white paper. I think I should give this guide to our network administrator.

Articles

By now you’ve probably heard about the mess regarding Sony inserting anti-piracy software in its latest batch of CDs. In all, about 53 titles were shown to be affected. In order to play one of these CDs on a Windows based computer, you had to download software from the CD that monitored your use of the CD, such as you could only make a small number of copies, though you could not transfer the songs to an iPod.
This past Monday, Texas brought a lawsuit against Sony for violating its anti-spyware laws. Several other states are expected to jump on the band wagon soon if they haven’t already. Sony has since recalled all affected CDs and is offering exchanges.
Today, I went to my local Wal-Mart to see if they still had the CDs for sale. I didn’t want to go because the last time I went to that store my car was stolen. Lo and behold, the CDs were still there. I picked up a copy of Van Zant’s newest album and right on the front it warns that it has copy controlled software. The back also states that you can’t transfer the songs to an iPod (but a Sony digital Walkman is fine).
I’ve not been able to inspect any of the CDs myself; though I would like to know if they have the “Compact Disc Digital Audio” logo on them. You see, a few years ago when Japanese music publisher Avex debuted its Copy-Controlled Compact Discs, or CCCD’s, Phillips refused to allow the familiar logo to be stamped on the CDs.

I have some friends who rely on Active Directory Services and had a great deal of trouble using it. Seemlingly especially with Tiger there were several problems which hindered them from actively using Active Directory.

Now Tuaw has information on how to solve these problems.
Apart from the actual link one should also note the interesting reader comments in this article which offer even more details on the subject

Sign on to your mac using a windows account

I was asked to do a little introduction as to why this sudden barrage of Microsoft has infiltrated this place, well…

My name’s Brad Hall and I’ve used Windows for the past five years. Before that, I read every computer magazine I could get my hands on (and still do). My family didn’t have a computer while I was growing up. Then one day, one of my mom’s friends upgraded to a new computer and gave us their old one. It was an old Packard-Bell with a 72Mhz Pentium, 1 gig HD, 16MB RAM, and a 9.6kbps modem. We named it “Mr. Coffee” because it sounded like it churned and bubbled. Getting a program to run was cause for celebration, heck, just getting it to turn on was cause for a party.

It wasn’t much, but it was enough to check email and write reports for school with. Over the past year, I’ve since recieved a Dell laptop that was the same age as Mr. Coffee, but had a bit better configuration and a new desktop. Just last week, I bought my first new laptop, I call it Wintermute. Fitting name for a computer with an OS from the world’s most evil company, right? This weekend I plan to install a Linux distro and configure it to dual boot with Windows. I promise that the next system I buy will have the Mac OS on it. I work with Macs at school. I don’t like the keyboards the G5’s at the college use, they’re slippery.

Well, that’s my story.