It seems what was left of Microsoft’s diminishing lead in market capitalisation has finally been eaten up by Apple (or at least by one measure of market capitalization). While this probably will not come as a surprise to those who are interested in such things; when looking at the history of both companies it does mark an important milestone.

With both companies founded in 1975 this has been no short journey for either. However since that time Microsoft has maintained its dominance pretty much consistently, and it has only really been in the last 10 years (which has seen the release of such iconic Apple products as the iPod, iPhone and the Macbook) that Apple providing a challenge to Microsoft’s market supremacy.

Through out the ’00′s Apple  created several iconic, genre leading products with which Microsoft have seemed to struggled to compete . Business products aside, we would challenge you to offer a Microsoft product in the last 5 years that rivals Apples innovation. One possible exception worth considering is the Xbox 360, which was  ground breaking in terms of online connectivity when released in 2005. That said Apple have yet to enter the console gaming market!

More information and figures can be found in the following articles: Engadget, Financial Times, TGDaily

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According to this link on an Microsoft blog they are about to upset a lot of Windows 7 users. In the next few days a Windows Activation Technologies Update will be released and it’s sole purpose is to detect 70 known activation exploits. So if you’ve hacked / crack Windows to keep it working you may fid it’s about to break.

Of course those that have paid for a legit copy of Windows 7 need worry about nothing but if you have a problem in the next few days give us a shout and we’ll get you sorted (the right way).

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Anyone that does work on networks will at least a little but understand subnets. In days gone by people would work out subnets on scientific calculators. Now there are a multitude of websites offering different ways to do it.

The website we use is subnet-calculator.com, not very pretty by does exactly what you want in a clear interface.

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Is this ready for a the first service pack for Windows or more likely Windows 8 is moving along nicely ? Nothing in puters stands still for long (phew).

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Core Parking is a new feature in Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 designed to cut energy usage without impacting on system performance.

Made for systems with multi-core processors, it is able to reduce energy consumption by moving all processing to just a few of the cores (or even just one) if they are able to handle the load, and putting the other cores into a ‘Parked’ or inactive state. While in this parked state the cores use less energy but are still ready to resume normal use pretty much instantly!

The energy savings when dealing with systems with 2-4 cores will not be too dramatic, however with more cores (Server 2008 supports up to 256 cores!) this could soon add up.

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Apple have released a big update today with a whole range of fixes including one for the new late 2009 iMac’s video and performance issue, the update is 500MB do you might want to start downloading it.

Full details of the update can be found here

This is Apple’s first big update for Snow Leopard taking the version to 10.6.2 with more than 30 fixes in the list, we have already downloaded and installed it on our own Mac’s with no issues so far.

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As you may have heard Windows 7 has now launched, With Windows 7 comes a new Remote Desktop Client which has a lot of new features, the main ones you might be interested in are -

• Bidirectional Audio – You can redirect audio recording devices such as microphones on the client computer.
• Multiple Monitor Support – With the new Server 2008 R2 Remote Desktop Services now has support for up to 16 monitors.
• Enhanced Video Playback – Bitmap acceleration improves graphics-intensive applications such as powerpoint, flash and silverlight.

You can find a full list of the changes and the download for Windows XP (SP3) and Windows Vista here

This new Remote Desktop Client is mainly to work with the new Remote Desktop Services (formally known as Terminal Services) of the new Windows Server 2008 R2 but can also be used to connect to remote Windows 7 computers whether it is phyiscal computer or a virtual one running on Server 2008 R2 Hyper-v host.

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As you may have already heard  Microsoft launched their brand new client OS (oprerating system)  today, indeed Windows 7 is now officialy on sale to both businesses and the general public.

As Glo Networks were lucky enough to take part in the Beta testing of the product we have had  loads of experience with it. Throughout the Beta and RC stages we have been very impressed with the OS and are very pleased with the final product.  We feel the pricing of the product is a great deal and would higly reccomend this OS to anyone.

For anyone upgrading to Windows 7 from Windows Vista the process should be very smooth as Windows 7 has been designed with this compatability in mind, however for Windows XP users wishing to upgrade a sytem rebuild will be required.

We would be more than happy to offer our advice on the new product, please do not hesitate to contact us for more info!

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Earlier this week there was an anouncment made in a Microsoft Technet blog from the Windows Server Division. The post is about the support lifecycle changes for Windows 2000 Server and Windows Server 2003, planned for next year.

The key points made in this post are as follows:

• Extended Support for Windows 2000 Server will end on July 13, 2010
• Also on July 13, 2010, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 R2 will move from the Mainstream Support phase to the Extended Support phase.
• There will be no further Service Packs for Windows Server 2003

As you can probably guess this essentialy means Microsoft are scaling back the support available for both of the products, no surprise really as they have newer operating systems on the market (Windows Server 2008 is now available).

Windows Server 2000 will no longer be publicly supported, the only help available after the cut off will be Self-Help Online Support (Knowledge Base articles, FAQs, troubleshooting tools).

Windows Server 2003 is moving to what they call Extended Support, this means that Microsoft support is only available if paid for, either by buying a support contract or on a per-incident basis. During Extended Support security updates will continue to be released publicly however hotfixes will only be available to customers who have a Premier support contract.

We at Glo Networks see this as one more reason to move away from these older operating systems, our advise to any who may still be using either OS is to seriously consider upgrading before July 2010. If you would like any further information and/or advise please do not hesitate to contact us.

Should you be interested the original post can be found here :

http://blogs.technet.com/windowsserver/archive/2009/09/15/support-changes-coming-july-2010-for-windows-2000-server-and-windows-server-2003.aspx

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Well Snow Leopard has been out for a few days now and it looks like there’s alot of happy people out there. The upgrade process is very simple and from the looks of it, it works 99% of the time which is pretty impressive.

Just waiting on Microsoft to fix Windows Live Sync that is currently broken.

When OS X 10.6 was being marketed alot was said about it being full 64bit and that that will make things faster. After the upgrade everything does appear to run quicker and booting is deffinatly quicker. However something that a few people probably don’t know is that OS X 10.6 in most cases will still be running in 32bit mode.

To check your install and change it there are many different ways, one of the simplest ways to do so is to run this software called Startup Mode Selector. (If the software mirror isn’t liked then we’ll remove it right away on request.) Be aware as it changes the Kernal mode you could experience problems. Just make sure you have an up to date Time Machine backup before you use it !

All credit to this website for the simple tool to check and change your mode.

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