Vistas work on Virtual Machines

John Kerry would be proud with the buzz Microsoft Vista has created - you don’t know whether to love it, or hate it. Whether to buy it or bury it . Our readers are so smart that only 10% of them are willing to take a chance on it.

Nevertheless, if you wish to install Windows Vista on your Intel powered Mac, you need to spend a lot more money that regular people. Folks at the Parallels, the company that makes an awesome virtualization software of the same name dug into the Microsoft End User License Agreement (EULA) and realized that …

“only certain versions of Vista – Business and Ultimate (and Enterprise for corporate customers) are eligible to be run in a virtual machine. The EULA says that Home Basic and Home Premium CANNOT be run in a virtual machine.”

Now Mac users are used to overpaying for everything, but Windows Vista too! Ultimate costs $399 and the Business Vista is only slightly cheaper at $299. Well, maybe Bill has finally realized that Mac users want top of the line stuff. But seriously, looks like Microsoft is leaving money on the table. For Mac users, well another reason not to think about Vista.

PS: this is true of Parallels Workstation for PC as well.

Mythbusting Linux

Download Squad wrote another excellent article debunking some of the most common myths surrounding Linux. My favorite myth from the list is debunked below:

Linux won’t allow you to watch your favorite video files.

False. Out of the box many Linux distributions have so-so support for common video formats but, did you know there are open source players which can handle almost anything you can throw at them? It’s true. Due to patent restrictions you may have to install them yourself but, fear not, there are great forums for popular Linux distributions and, installing an application under Linux is usually a snap. For Ubuntu or Debian users, check out Automatix, which will help you install a whole host of useful but patent restricted applications and add-ons which make Linux a force to reckon with.

There are several other common Linux myths addressed by the folks over at Download Squad. The article is on the cusp of being dugg — so go check it out and push them over the edge.

Microsoft Internal Emails Show Mac Envy

The bane of Windows was when OS X was launched. And copying OS X into Longhor– err Vista was the sincerest form of flattery. What’s rather hard to understand,at least from a computer enthusiast perspective, is why, with the addition of OS X-like features on Vista, the problem of efficiency comes in when trying to run Spotlight search, “gadgets” and Aero on Vista.

I guess the fact is that Apple IS a hardware company and I would be damned to open up a Mac and know what to do, as compared to opening up a some damned PC and disassembling it to bits.

In any case, this article shows how Microsoft was indeed bowled over with how quick OS X Spotlight was, apart from the many FUNCTIONAL and ATTRACTIVE features there are.

I Love It When The World Goes Crazy Breaking Windows Vista

This is crazy. There are already false claims circulating that Windows Vista has already been hacked; but until now, no one has earned the recognition and these hackers would remain as rumors.

News among different sources are reporting that hackers are working extra hard to gain recognition to be the first one to hack Windows Vista. Fame and financial gains could come to be the guy who put shame to the thousand of hours put on by thousands of engineers who have worked hard to make Windows Vista the most secure application Microsoft has ever launched.

Google’s 2006 Money Shot, $10 billion in revenues

If you are a baseball fan, then you have seen Gary Sheffield swing the bat, you get a feeling that if the bat connects with the ball, then the leather is in for some serious hiding. The non scientific description of such an act is called ‘hitting the covers” off the ball. Well, that’s exactly how one feels about Google’s fiscal performance for the fourth quarter 2006 and for fiscal 2006.

Google just reported¹ its fourth quarter 2006 sales of $3.2 billion, and net income of $1.03 billion. The sales for fiscal 2006 are $10.6 billion, and profits for the year came in just over $3 billion. By itself, these numbers don’t mean anything. However, if you put them in context of what Wall Street was expecting, then you understand why Google just took a Sheffield type swing.

For starters, the most optimistic estimate for the 2006 revenues was $7.3 billion, and they just blew past that number. They were supposed to do $10 billion-plus in sales in 2007. Google is in a bit of a hurry. For the fourth quarter 2006, the high end revenue expectation were $2.31 billion. This is a moon shot.

Interesting tidbit from the earnings release:

Other cost of revenues, which is comprised primarily of data center operational expenses, as well as credit card processing charges, increased to $307 million, or 10% of revenues, in the fourth quarter of 2006, compared to $223 million, or 8% of revenues, in the third quarter.