The Windows era is over

By Joe Wilcox

About five years ago, when blogging as an analyst, I asserted that computing and informational relevance had started shifting from the Windows desktop to cloud services delivered anytime, anywhere and on anything. The day of Windows' reckoning is come: 2010 will mark dramatic shifts away from Microsoft's monopoly to something else. Change is inevitable, and like IBM in the 1980s, Microsoft can't hold back its destiny during this decade. The Windows era is over.

What's surprising: New competition encroaching on Microsoft's Windows territory. Mobile device-to-cloud competition's shifting relevance bears striking similarities to the move from mainframes to PCs, and it is a long, ongoing trend. Microsoft's newer problem is sudden and unexpected: Competing operating systems moving up from smartphones to PCs or PC-like devices. Apple's iPhone OS on iPad is one example. More startling: HP's acquisition of Palm and plans to release WebOS tablets this year; and Android's push upwards to Sony TVs.

Some readers of this post will balk at such assertion. Windows is a huge, profitable monopoly coming off version 7's successful launch. Windows & Windows Live accounted for 48 percent of the five Microsoft divisions' combined operating profit during fiscal 2010 third quarter -- that's without factoring in expenses or other charges.

Windows is a cash machine. But so was the IBM mainframe monopoly before the dawn of the PC era and for many years afterwards. The DOS/Windows PC didn't destroy IBM or its mainframe monopoly, but simply diminish its computing and informational relevance. Windows is on the same track. The mobile device-to-cloud applications stack will merely displace Windows' relevance. It's inevitable.

Before the PC, computers were large and expensive. Only large corporations really could afford them. The PC extended computational and informational utility to more people, and at much lower cost. Information could be accessed in many more places, too. IBM's mainframe monopoly made the company slow moving to adaptation, even when launching its own personal computer in 1981. The company's huge ecosystem and customer base made executives cautious, with many decisions made for fear of losing customers.

Nearly three decades later, Microsoft's situation is so similar to IBM at the height of its mainframe monopoly's dominance. Microsoft's main business is reselling to the same corporate customers running the company's software, much the same as IBM 30 years ago. Many Microsoft business strategies follow a similar track: Making concessions and avoiding risks to keep existing customers coming back for more.

Sudden Changes are Long Coming

Still, it might not be obvious to many people that the Windows cash machine could run out. That's because change can be dramatic and sudden, although the causes and progression tend to be long-time coming. The Berlin Wall fell suddenly in 1989, but not without Perestroika and a warming of the Cold War preceding it. Similarly, Windows' dominance will seemingly change suddenly and, I predict, during the first half of this decade. A new era dawns.

Microsoft has long known this day would come. It's why the company fought the browser wars with Netscape. During the US antitrust case, Microsoft repeatedly asserted it faced competition, not that the US Justice Department, suing state attorneys general or presiding judge believed it. The trial ignored how much Microsoft invested on sales, marketing and its huge channel of partners. The competition Microsoft feared has come, and there is some irony to it. Last week, Google announced the Chrome Web Store, which makes reality what Microsoft feared in the late 1990s: The browser as competing applications platform to Windows.

Microsoft lumbers along, avoiding risks, clinging to Office and Windows revenues. Meanwhile, companies without Microsoft's existing monopoly-bound customers drive change, and they are willing to take risks. The mobile-to-cloud service platform is to the PC what the PC was to the mainframe: It extends computational and informational utility to more people and places -- and for lower cost. The Windows era is giving way to the anytime, anywhere, on-anything era. The most dynamic innovations are occurring outside the Windows monopoly.

Perhaps it's no coincidence that 2005, the year Microsoft originally planned to release Windows XP's successor, marks the beginning of dramatic changes affecting the company today. This month, YouTube celebrated its fifth anniversary -- of posting the first video, anyway. The service opened to the public in late 2005. In August 2005, Google bought Android, while seemingly innocuous then it is hugely problematic for Microsoft today. In 2006, Facebook opened to the public and Twitter launched. In the vacuum left by Windows, innovators, well, innovated. Most of the popular transforming cloud services in use today didn't exist before 2006. Then there is iPhone (released in June 2007) and Apple's App Store (launched in July 2008). Google followed with Android and Chrome in autumn 2008.

The numbers show how dramatically computing and informational relevance is shifting to the mobile device-to-cloud app stack and how suddenly change can come:

• Firefox launched in late 2004; according to Net Applications, its usage share was 24.59 percent in April.
• Internet Explorer usage share dropped from around 95 percent six years ago to 59.95 percent in April, according to Net Applications.
• Android and iPhone OS outsell Windows Mobile on smartphones; Windows Mobile was ranked fifth in Q1 by Gartner.
• Google claims 100,000 new Android activations per day. Apple's iPhone run rate is close but just a little behind based on first-quarter phone sales.
• App Store has more than 200,000 applications, and the Android Marketplace more than 50,000.
• Facebook has close to 500 million subscribers, up from 30 million in July 2007.
• Americans watched 31.2 billion videos in March, 42 percent of them at YouTube, according to ComScore.
• Apple's market capitalization is $227.95 billion and Microsoft's $228.47 billion. Apple's market cap was $88.68 billion on Oct. 2, 2008 and Microsoft's was $228.35 billion on Sept. 29, 2008. Mmmm, do you see a difference?
  

Unsurprisingly, all this competition -- and innovation -- is beyond Windows, much as the PC ecosystem was to the IBM mainframe during the 1980s.

Loyal Partners Go Rogue

Microsoft has a much bigger problem. Competition from without is to be expected. Competition from once loyal partners is something else. Nokia and Intel are partnering on MeeGo, which the companies plan to bring to mobile devices. In March I declared the end to the Wintel (Windows-Intel) hegemony when asking: "Which is eviler? Apple, Facebook and Google?" -- all Microsoft competitors. Microsoft can no longer count on Intel's loyalty, which has been in doubt since Apple shipped the first Intel-based Macs in 2006.

But matters are worse. Compaq was Microsoft's most important partner. In the 1980s, Compaq popularized the IBM PC clone, which allowed Microsoft to broadly license DOS and later Windows. HP assumed the loyal partner role after acquiring Compaq, particularly for servers. Now, because of the Palm acquisition, HP is a turncoat.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer should have listened to me. In December, I gave 10 reasons why Microsoft should buy Palm. Had he bought Palm, Microsoft's future phone strategy would be stronger and Windows wouldn't be weakened by a major partner adopting an alternative-OS strategy.

HP already has announced a WebOS-based tablet. HP's next, logical step is to release a laptop running WebOS. Losing HP is bad, but there may be more trouble coming. Sony is yet another traitor in the making. Last week, Sony announced plans to support Google TV by offering a television running Android. As part of a recent reorganization, Sony execs responsible for VAIO PCs are in charge of TVs. OS migration from Sony smartphone (the Xperia X10) or Google TV-based television to tablet or PC is logical next step. What about Dell, which already has adopted Android for smartphones? Windows is bloated and moribund compared to these lither mobile OSes pushing up into the PC market.

I'm making my proclamation today that the Windows era is over. But perhaps it's slightly premature. The defining moment, where people look back and say, "Ah, ha!", likely will be when Apple's market capitalization exceeds Microsoft's. As I write, $520 million separates the companies. How unbelievable is that?

Related articles

• iPad: The Reason Behind Microsoft's Reorg? (technologizer.com)
• Apple Is Now Bigger Than Microsoft [Apple] (gizmodo.com)
• Windows Phone chief and Xbox brain exit Microsoft (go.theregister.com)
• Making sense of Microsoft's reorg (news.cnet.com)

Enhance Desktop Security Using Virtualization

Image via Wikipedia

By Aaron Weiss

You might have seen this scene during the climactic shoot-out in any number of movies and television shows—the hunted character lures his hunters into a room full of mirrors, who fire their weapons at the reflections, mistaking them for the real person. Like most of what we see on the screen, this probably isn’t a very plausible scenario in real life (who gets so confused by a reflection, besides my cat?). But it is an apt metaphor when we think about using PC virtualization to add a layer of defense against malware and other types of security compromises.

The most popular, and ballyhooed, type of virtualization today is known as OS virtualization—wherein an entire operating system is encapsulated in a self-contained running environment atop a “real” operating system. You can use virtualization to run a full copy of Windows 7 inside a window on an Ubuntu Linux desktop. Or you could run Ubuntu Linux inside a window on Windows 7. You could run Windows XP on Windows 7, or, again, vice versa.
Virtually useful

There are numerous reasons why virtualization has taken off. One is that today’s computers are so powerful that they often have processor cycles and memory to spare, giving them the horsepower to drive multiple operating systems at the same time. Another is that virtual operating systems are easier to deploy, backup, and restore than “real” operating systems. You can quite simply take “snapshots” of a virtual OS, preserving its exact state. Virtualization can make more efficient use of computing resources—for example, running a virtualized Linux-based server on a Windows desktop lets one physical machine serve different kinds of uses simultaneously.

When considering security, the greatest benefit of virtualization is that it runs in a “sandbox.” Think of a sandbox as a walled space, isolated from the real (often called “host”) operating system installed on the physical computer. They say that “whatever happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”—well, the same is (usually) true for a sandbox.
Many eggs, one basket

Consider the typical desktop security scenario: your computer probably contains lots of important information. You might have files with sensitive data, such as passwords, or work in various stages of maturity, which is important to preserve. Configuring your desktop machine the way you want is itself a kind of sensitive data—look at how much time is lost when you have to setup a brand new machine and re-install all your software.

You already know about “safe computing” practices, like not opening e-mail attachments from unknown senders. You already run anti-malware software to catch viruses and spyware before infection. But it might not be enough. Although these defenses are important and useful, they aren’t perfect.

An effective way to further protect your desktop is to run your “riskiest” online activities inside a sandbox. Using a virtual OS makes this easy.
Keep ‘em separated

First you’ll need to choose a virtualization solution. Some, like VMware Workstation and Parallels, are commercial products with a price tag. Others, like VMware Player and VirtualBox, are free. To run a virtual OS, you must use a virtual image—a file (or set of files), which contains the installed and configured operating system along with any additional software.

The free VMware Player can be used to “play” (launch) pre-rolled virtual images, sometimes known as “virtual appliances.” The other virtualization products can either play existing virtual images or create new ones. To create a new virtual OS, you’ll need the install disc for the OS of your choice—either a physical CD/DVD or a digital disc in iso format. You can get started with virtualization without spending a dime using VirtualBox and downloading a disc image of a popular Linux distribution, like Ubuntu or SUSE.

A full walkthrough for setting up a virtual OS is beyond the scope of this article (there are many tutorials online), but let’s consider how you might use a virtual OS to enhance security:

* Run a virtualized install of Windows XP to support legacy software. Both Windows Vista and especially Windows 7 are more secure than Windows XP, but sometimes you need to use a piece of software that only runs in XP.
* Similarly, use a virtualized Windows XP to run Internet Explorer 6, which—sadly—is still needed to access many proprietary corporate intranet services. Doing this will protect your valuable desktop OS from the notorious security holes in IE6.
* Run a virtualized Linux distribution to surf the Web, using a browser, such as Firefox. Sure, you can use Firefox on your primary desktop, but if your primary OS is Windows, it still may not be fully secure against “drive-by” downloads and infected advertising, which can appear on legitimate Web sites.
* For the ultra-paranoid, setup your virtual OS so that it is the only way to access the Internet from your machine. You can do this using a USB network adapter for either a wired or wireless network. The USB adapter can be assigned to the virtual OS, allowing it to connect to the Internet even if your primary OS has no network connection at all.

Using a virtual OS to sandbox Internet access can have some drawbacks. One is resource usage—the virtual machine will be consuming memory on top of your “real” desktop. If you’re simply using the virtual OS to browse the Web, this can be a resource-heavy way to enhance security. One alternative is to build a lightweight virtual OS, one that has only the minimally necessary components to run a browser.

If the prospect of building any virtual OS is beyond your comfort zone, you can download pre-made images already tailored to certain types of use—such as a turnkey image that runs Google’s Chrome browser right out of the box.
Shedding the OS

To be fair, if all you hope to accomplish is safer Web browsing (or securing other specific applications), running an entire virtual OS can be overkill. There is an emerging alternative, known as “application virtualization.”

Using application virtualization, the principle behind the sandbox is applied only to a specific program. The program itself continues to run within your main desktop, but anytime that program tries to write data back to the system, these transactions are captured and redirected within the sandbox.

For example, consider how applications function in Windows. The typical Web browser will store data received from the Internet, such as cookies and cached files like images and flash objects. Typically this data is stored in locations created by Windows, but this also means that malicious software could potentially access other files in Windows.

The same browser run within an application virtualization environment will only “see” a false Windows environment. It will save the same data, but the sandbox will intercept it. As far as the browser is concerned, everything is functioning normally—but when you close the application, the sandbox is destroyed, along with everything it accumulated during your session.

Besides using fewer resources than a full virtual OS, running a virtualized application can be much simpler to get going. Windows users can download a free copy of Sandboxie. Once installed, you can launch any program either normally or inside its own sandbox. It is a simple solution that lets you easily run regular and sandboxed applications side-by-side.

Similarly, application virtualization is being introduced in other Windows security products including BufferZone and Kaspersky Internet Security 2010.

A more advanced approach to application virtualization is VMware ThinApp. Using ThinApp, you actually install a Windows application inside a virtualized environment. The result is an installed “application image,” which is not only securely ensconced inside a sandbox, but also portable. Because the virtual environment wrapped around the application simulates the Windows repositories where software normally keeps settings and other data, you can copy a ThinApp image to another PC, or onto a thumb drive, and launch it on any other Windows machine without requiring a formal install.
Safe surfing

Virtualization technology will continue to mature. It could still be easier to use, even though it’s worth it. There is a small performance penalty when you virtualize applications, especially if they are graphically intensive and involve high frame-rate video.

Related articles

• Citrix fires up desktop virtualization (infoworld.com)
• Virtualization (slideshare.net)
• Utilizing System Virtualization with SAP (slideshare.net)
• An Introduction to Virtualization on Linux Highlighting the ... (slideshare.net)
• Excellent Free Virtual Machine Software - VirtualBox (shankrila.com)
• Run XP Mode in VirtualBox Instead of Virtual PC [Virtualization] (lifehacker.com)

Windows “activation” ransomware

by Tom Kelchner
with manual repair by The Computer Doctor

Trojan-Ransom.Win32.Winac.A

Our analyst Adam Thomas found this: a piece of ransomware that locks up Windows until you enter your credit card data.

First it claims you are running a pirated version of Windows and they need your billing details. “…but your credit card will NOT be charged.”

And of course that’s true.


Once you enter your credit card details, it will “activate” your “pirated” OS and make it legitimate:



Basically, the Trojan locks your system. The only thing you can do is complete the "activation". You can choose to "activate windows" or "do it later". If you choose to do it later, you machine reboots.

If you go through the process of entering your data (including your credit card number), then your system will work again.



Your credit card information is shipped off to a network of fast-flux bots standing by ready to receive it.



VIPRE detects it as Trojan-Ransom.Win32.Winac.A


The Manual Removal Instructions:

Kill processes: corpstats.exe, data2.exe, data3.exe, data4.exe, svchost.exe, winstart.exe, 002.exe, 004.exe, 006.exe, 007.exe, 008.exe, 009.exe

Delete registry values: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnceEx\cleanup

Delete files: corpstats.exe, data2.exe, data3.exe, data4.exe, svchost.exe, winstart.exe, 002.exe, 004.exe, 006.exe, 007.exe, 008.exe, 009.exe, dat1.bat

Exact file location: corpstats.exe - C:\Windows\System\oobe\Setup, C:\Windows\System32\oobe\Setup or C:\Winnt\System32\oobe\Setup
data2.exe, data3.exe, data4.exe, svchost.exe, winstart.exe, 002.exe, 004.exe, 006.exe, 007.exe, 008.exe, 009.exe, dat1.bat - C:\Windows or C:\Winnt

Related articles

• McAfee Antivirus Detects 'svchost.exe' As Infected With W32/wecorl.a Virus; Causes Computers to Restart Repeatedly (lockergnome.com)
• Ransoming your Windows activation (winextra.com)
• Few answers after McAfee antivirus update hits Intel, others (infoworld.com)

Trouble Updating Windows Vista

Image via CrunchBase

If you’re getting an error message with a code 0×80072F8F when you try to use the Windows Update site, check the date and time settings on the PC. If the computer’s date and time are too far off from the Windows Update servers, you may see errors. Microsoft has a full explanation online; the article also explains how certain system files may be causing the update error, and what to do about it.

If you find yourself regularly changing the system’s date and time in the Control Panel every time you start it up, the little CMOS battery on the computer’s motherboard may be dying. Your PC’s manual probably has specific instructions for replacing the battery or seek the help of a computer repair shop.

Reminder: Microsoft ended update support last month for Windows Vista systems that haven’t been updated with service packs. If you haven’t downloaded and installed any of the Vista service packs, you can get them online.

Related articles

• Microsoft Will Soon Discontinue Security Support For Windows XP Service Pack 2 (techie-buzz.com)
• Good-by Windows XP - it was good knowing you (winextra.com)
• Microsoft: End of the Road for Vista RTM (appscout.com)
• With Microsoft Killing Support for Windows XP SP2, What's Next? (lockergnome.com)
• Does Windows 7 Make Up for Vista? (e1evation.com)

Office 2010: Can it beat Google Docs at its own game?

By Christopher Dawson

Image by michperu via Flickr

Although it was hard not to be enthusiastic about some of the Office and SharePoint features unveiled at Wednesday’s Office 2010 launch, I had to wonder how much of what was unveiled was just a pretty, expensive face on Google Docs. I also had to wonder if that pretty face was enough to beat Google Docs at its own collaborative game.

As Janice Kapner, Microsoft’s Senior Director of Information Worker Product Management, noted when we spoke after the launch, the word “collaboration” means different things to different people. From my perspective, Google had the market cornered on collaboration for quite a while, though, allowing for the simultaneous creation of content in their Docs products. For the low, low price of $50/user/year (or for free if you were an educator or were willing to sacrifice some features), Google Apps subscribers could share and create everything from websites to presentations to spreadsheets together, regardless of their physical location.

Sure, the documents might not be the most beautiful creations unveiled to mankind, but they could genuinely be team efforts without complicated commenting and versioning, emailing, and reconciling.

Other people, as Ms. Kapner noted, viewed collaboration in the context of social and communication mechanisms. While Google wasn’t Facebook, it certainly bundled enough powerful, fast communication tools with Apps that businesses could tap this aspect of collaboration quite handily as well.

Microsoft had introduced SharePoint a while back, improving document management and sharing capabilities within Microsoft-centric organizations, but the real time capabilities that Google could offer just weren’t there. Where Apps lived and breathed the connected Web for organizations that adopted it, Office and its approach to collaboration (however you want to define it) among information workers felt decidedly pre-Facebook.

That feeling changed, however, on Wednesday. Office 2010 combined with SharePoint 2010 is such a polished, powerful platform that it feels like it’s leapt ahead of Google Docs in collaborative potential. But was that just marketing spin and a great presentation at NBC Studios? After all, when the presenters noted that they could finally simultaneously edit documents using the features of SharePoint, I couldn’t help but wonder just how long that had been possible in Google Docs. Later, I tweeted

Speaker from KPN is talking about the idea of workspace so workers to [sic] do their jobs anytime anywhere. Sounds like Apps :)

As the presenters demoed Outlook 2010, it was like deja vu all over again:

Outlook now supports conversations. I think Gmail has been doing that for a while. Like since its inception.

So was Microsoft introducing anything particularly new in the 2010 products or were they just putting a better UI on old Google features? As it turns out, I think it was a bit of both.

To some extent, Office 2010 takes the best collaborative features of Google Docs, combines them with an improved Office look and feel, and even manages to render them on the Web and Windows Mobile smartphones with incredible fidelity. Not new, but pretty and highly usable.

On the other hand, the social layer introduced by SharePoint out of the box gives organizations an immediate in-house social network that can rival anything Facebook has to offer. The Office suite itself provides everything from extraordinary data mining and business intelligence capabilities natively within Excel to social networking and noise reduction features in Outlook that don’t exist anywhere else in terms of productivity software (in the cloud or on the desktop).

The trouble comes when trying to really assess the value proposition in the Microsoft vs. Google war. Google gives you everything it has with frequent updates to features and service for $50/user/year. SharePoint Online (Microsoft’s hosted version of SharePoint and the only product for which enterprise pricing is published) starts at $63/user/year and this doesn’t even include the initial cost of Office licensing. Microsoft cited Forrester research suggesting extraordinary returns on investment due to increased productivity from Office/SharePoint 2010 adopters, but the initial costs (particularly if organizations look to deploy SharePoint internally instead of using Microsoft’s hosted service) are tough to ignore.

In the end, as always, organizations must fully understand their needs if they want to invest in the right platform. However, while I think that ZDNet’s Zack Whittaker is wrong when he says that Google Docs no longer stands a chance, Google is suddenly the one playing catchup to some powerful and compelling features in Microsoft’s 2010 offerings.

So, um, Google…Got any plans for that Apps-integrated social network I was talking about?

Related articles

• Office 2010: Can it beat Google Docs at its own game? (zdnet.com)
• Microsoft launches Office 2010 for businesses (seattlepi.com)
• Google: Don't upgrade Office, add Docs (news.cnet.com)
• Google's underhanded approach to killing Office (seattlepi.com)
• Microsoft launches new Office, but will it sell? (cbc.ca)
• Google Wants You to Upgrade Office with Google Docs (e1evation.com)
• Google and Zoho attack Office 2010 launch day (v3.co.uk)

Replace OpenOffice.org With The Zoho Webservice Suite In Ubuntu 10.04

by Asian Angel (firefox_fangirl)

If you have already installed (or are thinking about installing) Ubuntu 10.04 on your computer then I have something great to show you here. By default OpenOffice.org is included with Ubuntu but it can be a little slow or clunky sometimes. That is where the Zoho Webservice Suite comes in…it is gentle on your system’s resources and great to use.

Know what else is great about it? You do not even have to have a Zoho account or log in to Zoho to use it! ^__^ If you are really wanting a terrific alternative to OpenOffice.org then keep reading! ~__^

Adding the Zoho Webservice Suite to Ubuntu

To get things started go to the “Applications Menu” and select “Ubuntu Software Center”.



When the “Ubuntu Software Center Window” opens enter “Zoho” as a search term to quickly find the three “Zoho Suite” components. On my system I started with installing the “Webservice Spreadsheet” component.



Once you click on “Install” you will have to enter your password before you can proceed with adding all three components to your system.



Once you start the installation process all three components will install together without any further prompts.



When you look at the “Office Sub-menu” you will be able to see all of that Zoho goodness nicely tucked in at the bottom of the menu.

Note: The Zoho Webservices will open up in your system’s default browser.



A Good Look at the Word Processor, Presentation, & Spreadsheet Components

When you create a new document you will have a nice clean looking setup to work with….zero clutter on the sides and everything that you need at the top.



Here is a closer look at both sides of the toolbar shown above…

To give you an idea of just how nice the Zoho Webservices can be here is a quick look at the “ribbon-style toolbar sections” for the Word Processor. You can access each portion either through a drop-down menu or by bringing that “section” forward. There are plenty of tools available to create and/or edit documents on your system.


Adding an image to the example document that I created was extremely easy.



You can create beautiful documents in just a few minutes.



Ready for the Presentation Component? You will find most of the tools are located in the sidebar on the right side. Notice the “tabbed interface” at the top and the “collapsible sections” at the bottom. Looks like a great presentation just waiting to happen.



A nice start on a new presentation…



The Spreadsheet Component has the simplest toolbar layout of the three but is still ready to help you get your work done.



I had all three running at the same time in Firefox…you literally turn your default browser into an “instant office suite”.

Note: It is possible to run multiples of the same type at one time (i.e. word document, etc.).



Saving and Reopening Files

To save your documents after working on them you will need to export them. Each of the Zoho Webservice components has an “Export Drop-Down Menu” that lets you choose the format that you wish to save your documents in. When you export your documents it goes through the same process as downloading a file. The choices available for the Word Processor…

Note: For each of the documents shown here I chose Microsoft formats.



The formats available to save your presentations in…



And finally the formats available for spreadsheets.



There are the three example documents saved to the hard-drive and ready for use later.



Opening up and editing existing documents on your hard-drive is extremely easy to do. Just right click on them and select the “Open with Zoho Webservice option” that matches the document type.



If you have been wanting a good alternative to OpenOffice.org on your Ubuntu 10.04 system then I think that you will be really pleased with the Zoho Webservice Suite. I know that I am. ~__^

Note: For anyone wanting to add the Zoho Webservice Suite to an older version of Ubuntu visit the Official Homepage for details.

New To Ubuntu Or Just New To 10.04

Image by [- Benja -] via Flickr

Many of my readers often comment to me that Linux is just too hard to bother with, but more often than not that really means that it's a little bit scary.

I'm going to share a secret with you... once upon a time I was a little scared too. I've been working on PC's since 1983 and all I ever knew was the Microsoft way. It's time to change some thinking. When you bought your PC you bought two things. First you bought some hardware (PC case, hard drive, CD/DVD drive, power supply, ethernet card, ect.) and Secondly you bought an operating system (Microsoft Windows, or Macintosh OSX, or something similar). The hardware has basic rules of functionality like how many partitions can be created on the hard drive, how much memory can be installed, what speed can the processor safely run at. The operating system has rule on how it functions and how it will let the hardware function. There is no rule that states that the computer you bought must remain exactly the same as the day you purchased it (besides the rules governing the warranty).

The question really is, if all you know is all you know then how do you learn something new? One of the easiest ways to learn some of the Linux distributions is to use a live CD. This is a CD that has the basic operating system and it can run off of the CD (albeit a lot slower than on a hard drive) and you can see how things work without worrying about bonking your hard drive.

My first Linux OS was using a Knoppix live CD in German as a Pre-Install environment for Windows XP to repair something. I didn't even know I was using Linux and it was so intuitive that I was able to use the functionality without even having the benefit of my native language.
My second Linux OS was Mepis which I loved for about a year, but I moved to Ubuntu for a larger support community (let the hate mail flow).

I used the basics of Ubuntu for almost a year before I found the Ubuntu Pocket Guide which was a free guide based on Ubuntu 8.04. In addition to that guide I would suggest new users to check out the Ubuntu Users Manual for 10.04 and take a look at their free users manual.

Use these manuals to get your feet wet and then you can check out user forums for specific questions and answers to help you go further than these manuals will take you.

Related articles

• Free Getting Started with Ubuntu [Ebook] (lifehacker.com)
• Free Getting Started with Ubuntu Manual Helps Out Linux Rookies [Ebook] (lifehacker.com)
• Ubuntu 10.04 Manual Released (techie-buzz.com)
• Press reaction to Ubuntu 10.04 (omgubuntu.co.uk)