As part of this launch, Microsoft is attempting to create a hype that has been unparalleled since the release of Windows 95. Is this a reaction to the desktop war initiated by the folks at Google, or is Microsoft just looking to strengthen it’s gargantuan bottom line? There’s no doubt that Microsoft will sell tons of copies of it’s new operating system, the question is, what percentage of market share of the desktop operating system will they be able to hold onto.

It’s no doubt that the migration will be a slow one for people living in an economy where the luxury of upgrading an operating system is tied to the public’s disposable income. Perhaps a lot of people are tired of being on the upgrade merry-go-round. I will hold off on upgrading my system for a while – if only because the new operating system requires a more powerful system to run – and staying with my old operating system will give me better performance.

So recently, I have been trying out the Ubuntu Linux distribution. This is a community-supported linux distribution that isn’t tied to a major corpporation. It is a Debian-based linux solution that is easy-to-install and easy-to-use. I am a former user of Fedora Core and was getting tired of their technical interface. I wanted something even simpler to use but without the ties to a major corporation.

So far, I have been really happy with Ubuntu. From the default theme it installs, to the combination of update manager (high-level) and Synaptic (low-level) package manager – Ubuntu manages to do everything right. I was even more pleasantly surprised when I looked at how the upgrade process works for migrating from one release to another. Ubuntu has a pretty frequent release schedule to make sure the system is on the bleeding edge (not always a good thing.)

Ubuntu uses the Gnome 2.0 desktop by default. If you are more interested in using a KDE desktop, you can always use the Kubuntu distribution. I definitely recommend checking out this Linux Distro. It is my new distribution of choice from now on.

These pathes fix various vulnerabilities in the operating system which you can read about on the Windows Update site. I just updated my computers.

In an act of defiance, they are releasing a new file-sharing program that works like bit-torrent without a centralized server. Unfortunately, the program is only being released for windows and is going to be loaded with “adware”. Even though the program will be free to download, they will make money off the program through the mandatory “adware” provided by Gain.

Gain is one of the most intrusive spyware applications available and I wouldn’t trust having it on my computer. If you have any doubts whether or not you have spyware on your computer, you should download a trial version of ad-aware or similar software to scan your computer.