San Francisco – The Mac’s been on a roll, both due to its highly regarded Mac OS X Leopard operating system and to an unhappy reception for Microsoft’s Windows Vista. The result: For the first time in memory, the Mac’s market share has hit 9.1 percent, according to IDC data, and Windows’ market share has dipped below 90 percent. (Linux distributions make up the rest.)

But can either Mac OS X or Linux be more than a niche OS? After all, Windows runs practically everything, from widely used productivity apps such as spreadsheets to highly niche applications such as chemical modeling. Mac OS X and Linux simply don’t have the app base that Windows does. Of course, the fact you can run Windows on a Mac or Linux system, thanks to Parallels Desktop and EMC VMware Fusion, lets you have your cake and eat it too.

[ Find out the deployment secrets of Vista adopters and see how the beta Windows 7 performs | Follow InfoWorld's guides on switching to Mac OS X and switching to Linux. ]

For some users — often technically savvy people such as engineers, consultants, designers, and CTOs — it is clearly an option that already works quite well. In the past year, running Mac OS X or Linux as your default OS has been made easier by the capability to run Windows in a virtual machine, giving you access to both Windows-only applications and Web sites that rely on Microsoft’s Internet Explorer-only ActiveX technology. But in a business environment, switching to a Mac or Linux PC may not be quite as easy.

The Windows option
Despite the increasing adoption of alternatives to Windows, the Microsoft OS remains the standard choice for the vast majority of businesses. After all, it’s been their standard for nearly two decades; they know it, have become dependent on it, and understand its capabilities and limitations. Plus, it’s backed by a company that puts a lot of resources into maintaining, supporting, and enhancing the OS for its very wide user base — and has a huge third-party support system, from vendors to consultants.

For most businesses, considering something other than Windows is not even a question; their concern is when to shift to a new version of Windows. Still, as users (re)discover the Mac and questions over Windows’ long-term resource requirements hang in the air, some are considering alternatives to, or at least supplements for, Windows in the form of Mac OS X and Linux.

The Mac OS X option
Of the plausible alternatives to Windows, Apple’s Mac OS X has the largest market share and history. InfoWorld chief technologist Tom Yager has written that the latest version of the Mac OS, Leopard (10.5), is simply the best operating system available. And Macs are indeed popping up more frequently even within IT circles — I’ve seen more MacBook Pros in the hands of CTOs and IT execs at conferences in the past year more than ever before. Although there are no real numbers on just the business adoption of Macs, it’s clear that Apple is in growth mode, gaining an increasing proportion of all new computer sales for more than a year now.

Many businesses have already adopted the Mac as a standard platform, discovering that the hardware is typically better designed than equivalent Windows systems for the same price, that security risks are lower, and that there are more enterprise-quality management tools than they expected. InfoWorld has chronicled how to make the switch to Mac OS X.

The drive for Mac adoption often comes from users, not IT. InfoWorld’s Yager has chronicled the adventures of one PC user who switched to the Mac OS, showing that for an individual, the conversion was ultimately a rewarding one.

A key tool for any Mac OS X switcher is a virtual machine to run Windows for those apps and Web sites that require it. Both Parallels Desktop 3.0 and VMware’s Fusion software will do the trick, as InfoWorld’s comparative review has shown.

Although Macs are compatible with most typical hardware, such as monitors and drives, fitting a Mac into an enterprise’s management systems and ERP applications can be a different story. Yager’s Enterprise Mac blog and the Mac Enterprise user group both provide advice on managing Macs in a traditional IT environment.

The Linux option
The more technically inclined may be attracted to Linux, the most popular form of desktop Unix. Linux desktops typically are challenged by limited hardware compatibility (due to lack of drivers), limited application options, and user interfaces that require active participation to get work done, which tends to keep Linux away from the general user population. Still, it’s possible to do, and InfoWorld has chronicled how to make the switch to Linux.

But those who work with a Linux server all day may find that using it on the desktop as well actually makes their lives easier.

Just as Mac users need occasional access to Windows, so do Linux users. Because Linux distributions run on Windows-compatible hardware, it’s straightforward to use desktop virtualization software, such as Parallels Workstation, Sun’s (formerly Innotek’s) VirtualBox, and VMware’s Workstation software, to provide access to both environments.

Although some enterprises have committed to wide Linux deployment — such as automaker Peugeot Citro??n’s plans to install 20,000 Novell Suse Linux desktops — most have left Linux to the engineering and development staff.

InfoWorld Enterprise Desktop blogger Randall Kennedy argues that desktop Linux is doomed to remain a tiny niche OS, given the Linux community’s lack of interest in providing a UI that regular people could use. Kennedy tried to spend a week working on nothing but the Ubuntu distribution of Linux but gave up on the fifth day.

But Kennedy’s take isn’t the last word on desktop Linux. Frequent InfoWorld contributor Neil McAllister put together a special report on how to move from Windows to Linux, concluding that the effort was not as hard as you might think.

Who’s right? As with any platform choice, they both may be. A one-size-fits-all approach may be unrealistic. And that likely explains why many businesses will have a mix, dominated by Windows XP today (and perhaps Windows 7 in a few years) but not exclusively tied to Microsoft’s OS.

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The announcement of the successful kernel porting was made on the Linux on the iPhone blog, complete with instructions and source code.

Although a bootloader, kernel and a Busybox terminal are able to be loaded — many features of the iPhone remain unimplemented: touchscreen, sound, accelerometer, networking. Input to the terminal must be made via a USB interface from another device that the iPhone is attached to (humorously summed up by Geek Hero Comic).

The group that ported the kernel is derived from the iPhone DevTeam group that has been responsible for jailbreaking previous iPhone software.

iPhone Linux Demonstration Video from planetbeing on Vimeo.

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However, the software maker was quick to underline that the product is aimed at developers and not intended to directly compete with popular blogging software such as WordPress or Movable Type.

Microsoft posted the Oxite code on its CodePlex Web site on Friday and made an official announcement on Monday. The software, described as an alpha release, is available under the Microsoft Public License, one of Microsoft’s OSI-certified open-source licenses.

Oxite is a standards-compliant, extensible content-management system designed to support either blogs or larger Web sites, Microsoft said. The platform includes support for features such as pingbacks, trackbacks, anonymous or authenticated commenting, gravatars (globally recognized avatars), and RSS feeds at any page level, the company said.

Users can create and edit a set of pages on a site, add customized HTML into pages, and support multiple blogs on a single site.

Oxite is also able to integrate with Microsoft developer software such as ASP.Net MVC, Visual Studio Team Suite, and Background Services Architecture. The project began as a way of demonstrating the capabilities of ASP.Net MVC to developers, Microsoft said.

The Web site for Mix Online was built using Oxite, and Microsoft is providing the Mix Online Web site code for developers to learn from. Mix Online is the online community centered on Microsoft’s Mix Web developer conference.

Oxite is not a direct competitor to existing, established blogging systems, nor is it intended to challenge Microsoft’s own SharePoint, which includes content-management-system capabilities, according to Oxite project coordinator Erik Porter.

The software is intended for developers but could eventually be made suitable for the general public, Porter wrote in an Oxite discussion forum.

“We have no plans to make this anything but a really good developer sample that should be able to run any site you want,” he wrote. “That said, this is a community project now and, if the community decides to take it a different direction, we won’t stop it.”

Reference: http://tech.yahoo.com/news/cnet/20081209/tc_cnet/8301100131011901792

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The macroeconomy, expected to stop overall growth of IT sales for the better part of the next two quarters, brought little cheer to the holidays. The U.S. Labor Department on Wednesday, the day before markets were closed for a one-day Christmas break, reported that initial requests for jobless benefits rose to a seasonally adjusted 586,000 for the week ending this past Saturday, the highest level in 26 years. Meanwhile, total retail sales excluding automobiles declined from the year-earlier period by 5.5 percent in November and 8 percent in December through Christmas Eve, according to MasterCard’s SpendingPulse unit.

IT is not immune from decreases in business and consumer spending. Overall online spending for November and December declined 1 percent compared to the same period a year earlier, according to comScore. Through Dec. 21 of this year, online shoppers spent US$24.71 billion, compared to $24.96 billion in the year-earlier period, comScore said Wednesday.

There were a few bright spots. U.S. online spending over this past weekend nearly doubled from a year earlier, comScore said.

And on Friday, Amazon announced that the 2008 holiday season was “its best ever,” reporting that more than 6.3 million items were ordered worldwide on the peak day, Dec. 15. Last year Amazon said its busiest day, Dec. 10, saw 5.4 million items ordered. The company did not immediately provide a comparison in terms of dollar totals, however.

Red Hat provided some good news for the software sector, which is expected to fare better than hardware during the next few quarters. For its fiscal year third quarter ended Nov. 30, the company said on Tuesday that revenue totaled $165.3 million, compared to $135.4 million a year earlier, while net income climbed to $24.3 million from $20.3 million.

“Red Hat’s low-cost, high-transaction business model continues its strong renewal performance,” noted analyst Brent Thill in a Citigroup research note. Red Hat offers Linux services and an expanding portfolio of middleware software offerings.

Red Hat shares jumped by more than a dollar to close at $12.99 Tuesday, then drifted down during trading the rest of the week.

The news for hardware this week was, as usual, not promising. U.S. DRAM maker Micron Technology on Wednesday reported a decline for its most recent quarter. Micron reported a net loss of $706 million for the quarter ending Dec. 4, worse than the $262 million loss it posted a year earlier. Sales were $1.40 billion, down from $1.54 billion.

Micron blamed low prices for DRAM chips worldwide, which is not surprising. Hardware and components sales are expected to decline in 2009. Earlier this month, IDC said worldwide 2009 PC sales would decline by 5.3 percent, and last week it forecast mobile phone shipments to decline by more than 2 percent.

In IT, hardware and components are expected to take the brunt of the U.S. recession, since typically, hardware upgrades are the first thing cut when business budgets shrink.

Some bellwether components and mobile device makers this week announced bailouts of sorts. Hynix Semiconductor of South Korea said Wednesday it was granted a loan of 800 billion Korean won (US$600 million) from its creditors, to help weather the crisis and the DRAM downturn.

Smartphone maker Palm kicked off the week announcing it would receive a cash infusion of $100 million from venture capital firm Elevation Partners, to help launch new products in 2009. Palm last week reported revenue of $191.6 million for the second quarter ending Nov. 30, down from $349.6 million it reported a year earlier.

But the recession is affecting all areas of IT. Gartner this month forecast that worldwide spending on enterprise software will reach $244 billion in 2009, down from its prediction of $253 billion made in September.

In the last year the tech-heavy Nasdaq index, at 1524 during Friday afternoon trading, has lost about 45 percent in value. Overall global IT sales are expected to barely climb into the positive territory by the end of 2009, assuming as most economists do that the recession comes to end by mid-year. If the macroeconomic news doesn’t clear up over the next six months, users will need to brace for some IT suppliers to go the way of the failed investment banks.

Reference: http://tech.yahoo.com/news/pcworld/20081227/tc_pcworld/wallstreetbeatitcrawlstoendofatoughyear

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Obama has not settled on a grand total, but after consulting with outside economists of all political stripes, his advisers have begun telling Congress the stimulus should be bigger than the US$600 billion initially envisioned, congressional officials said Wednesday.

Obama is promoting a recovery plan that would feature spending on roads and other infrastructure projects, energy-efficient government buildings, new and renovated schools and environmentally friendly technologies.

There would also be some form of tax relief, according to the Obama team, which is well aware of the political difficulty of pushing such a large package through Congress, even in a time of recession. Any tax cuts would be aimed at middle- and lower-income taxpayers, and aides have said there would be no tax increases for wealthy Americans.

While some economists consulted by Obama’s team recommended spending of up to US$1 trillion over two years, a more likely figure seems to be US$850 billion. There is concern that a package that looks too large could worry financial markets, and the incoming economic team also wants to signal fiscal restraint.

In addition to spending on roads, bridges and similar construction projects, Obama is expected to seek additional funds for numerous programs that experience increased demand when joblessness rises, one Democratic official said.

Among those programs are food stamps and other nutrition programs, health insurance, unemployment insurance and job training programs.

Obama advisers, including Christina Romer and Lawrence Summers, have been contacting economists from across the political spectrum in search of advice as they assemble a spending plan that would meet Obama’s goal of preserving or creating 2.5 million jobs over two years.

Among those whose opinions Obama sought were Lawrence B. Lindsey, a top economic adviser to President George W. Bush during his first term, and Harvard professor Martin Feldstein, an informal John McCain adviser and the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Ronald Reagan.

Feldstein recommended a US$400 billion investment in one year, Obama aides said, and Lindsey said the package should be in the range of US$800 billion to US$1 trillion. The aides revealed the discussions on condition of anonymity because no decisions had been reached.

“I do recommend US$400 billion in year one and expect a similar amount in year two,” Feldstein said in an e-mail message. “The right amount depends on how it is used.”

Lindsey could not be reached.

Obama aides also pointed to recommendations by Mark Zandi, the lead economist at Moody’s Economy.com and an informal McCain adviser who has been proposing a US$600 billion plan.

“I would err on the side of making it larger than making it smaller,” Zandi said in an interview. “The size of the plan depends on the forecast — the economic outlook — and that is darkening by the day.”

“Even a trillion is not inconceivable,” he said.

Only one outside economist contacted by Obama aides, Harvard’s Greg Mankiw, who served on President Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers, voiced skepticism about the need for an economic stimulus, transition officials said.

The advisers say they agree with economic forecasts that predict that without a government infusion unemployment will rise above 9 percent and not begin to come down until 2011.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Wednesday that Obama has indicated that Congress will get his recovery recommendations by the first of the year.

“He’s going to get that to us very quickly and so we would hope within the first 10 days to two weeks that he’s in office, that is after Jan. 20, that we could pass the stimulus plan,” Reid said. “We want to do it very quickly.”

In a letter to Peter Orszag, Obama’s choice to be White House budget chief, Reid asked, among other things, that the stimulus package include tax relief for middle-class families, including a reduction in rates and an extension of the child tax credit.

Obama’s aides have said they hope to work with Republicans in writing the bill, particularly in the Senate, where the GOP could slow action if it chooses. This week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Democrats were preparing their own recovery bill in the range of US$600 billion, blending immediate steps to counter the slumping economy with longer-term federal spending that encompasses Obama’s plan.

A stimulus package that approaches US$1 trillion could run into significant Republican opposition in Congress. It also could cause heartburn for moderate and conservative Democratic lawmakers, known as Blue Dogs, who oppose large budget deficits.

“Republicans want to work with the president-elect to help get our economy on the path to recovery, but we have grave reservations about taking US$1 trillion from struggling taxpayers and spending it on government programs in the name of economic ’stimulus,’” House Republican leader John Boehner said in a statement.

In February, Congress passed an economic stimulus bill costing US$168 billion and featuring US$600 tax rebates for most individual taxpayers and tax breaks for businesses. Pelosi largely bowed to President Bush’s insistence to keep the measure free of spending on federal projects.

The upcoming effort would dwarf that earlier measure as well as a US$61 billion stimulus bill the House passed just before adjourning for the elections. That measure died after a Bush veto threat and GOP opposition in the Senate.

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