Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium

Microsoft Win Home Prem 7 English US Only DVD

Price: $199.99

Click here to buy from Amazon

Microsoft Windows 7 Anytime Upgrade [Starter to Home Premium]

Windows 7 Home Premium offers a rich, dynamic entertainment experience on your PC, making it easy to create a home network and share all of your favorite photos, videos, and music. You can even watch, pause, and rewind TV or record it to watch whenever and wherever you want.

Price: $79.95

Click here to buy from Amazon

Top Ten Free Quality Software Programs You Should Know About

Top Ten Free Quality Software Programs to download

Who would have thought that you would be able to buy a decent-spec laptop for less than the office software that would make it usable? Well, if you would like to use your flexible friend and hard-earned cash for something other than contributing to Mr Gates' next Billion, then read on. (Small print bit: The following programs are listed without any guarantee or implied accreditation of quality, compatibility, etc. So don't sue me if you don't like them, they don't work, your computer blows-up, etc.)

OpenOffice The first in the list has to be OpenOffice (also known as Star Office in a Google version). OpenOffice is a suite of five programs (Impress, Write, Draw, Calc and Base) compatible with 'all major office suites' and industry standard file formats - free to download, no adverts, pop-ups, or anything. At first glance, almost too good to be true. As the website says: "OpenOffice.org is a multiplatform and multilingualoffice suite and an open-source project. Compatible with all other major office suites, the product is free to download, use, and distribute. To help build the community." Not sure what community - community of people who don't want to spend any more money with Microsoft than they have to probably! There are few little quirks (i.e.. differences), but overall it actually is faster and slicker than you might expect. Now being used as standard software in many larger organisations. Highly recommended.

Picasa The great thing about digital cameras is that they take lots of pictures. The worst thing is that they take lots of pictures! Within no time you have 5,000 images clogging up your hard drive and you need an easy (or at least free) way of indexing and sharing with friends. Pick of the crop is almost certainly Picasa.

It is very easy to use, idiot-proof enough that even people like me can use it. Just point it at any and all files on your drive and it automatically catalogues images. It allows fast searches, various browsing options, plus image enhancement and a huge 1GB online photo album. Tip: use it to create slideshows, and 'movies' - two neat features. It also steps in to help with downloading from cameras and scanners. One click will take you to a choice of sites for online printing.

DoubleKiller This is not really a 'program'; more a utility, but incredibly useful. If your hard drive looks like a teenage fashion store on Saturday afternoon - stuff everywhere - then DoubleKiller is a life-saver. It simply scans any folder or drive and finds duplicate files. You can then easily archive and/or delete as the case may be.

RealPlayer Yes, everyone loves iTunes, except me! (Never forgiven it for reformatting and moving all my tracks when I clicked the wrong button once.) I have tried numerous music players, until settling on RealPlayer as the recommended option. Why? Good functionality, good sound, copes with my library of 25,000 tracks, can save streaming video from the net, device support, etc. Best of all - does not try and force a player format on you! Try it, free version is fine for most applications. Get it!

SeaMonkey Internet Explorer is free, everyone knows that, and Mozilla is a very able program too. I have recently been converted to SeaMonkey (don't ask me why it is called that!). Underneath SeaMonkey is Mozilla, but on top are lots of useful extras. As well as a very fast and stable web-browser, there is an advanced email and newsgroup client, IRC chat client, and HTML editing made simple - basically all your Internet needs in one application. Definitely scores points in the easy and speed categories too. A really serious alternative to both IE and the Outlook stable of products. Best bit - freezes less!

AVG An uber-geek friend of mine put me on to this after I was complaining how slow my PC was. After removing a very popular name-brand virus protection package (which cost me over £100), he installed AVG. PC speeded up, both loading and running and it seems to protect me just fine. Auto checks in the background as well as doing weekly sweep of my disks. Often finds lots of little nasties and deals with them all. Daily free updates keeps it abreast of all new problems too. A recent survey also found it to be the number one anti-virus tool in use. Whilst there are many sites where you can pay to download it, the basic program is a available for free.

BlueVoda As the website says: "BlueVoda is a fully functional website builder and is 100% Completely Clean. There is NO Spyware or Adware inside of it." This is really a very easy to use WYSIWYG type of program. If you have ever struggled with popular main web design programs, try this one. Great for using to build a prototype or test site before passing on to your web designer. However, whilst it is free, as are the many templates and add-ins, a VodaHost web hosting account is required in order for you to publish on the Internet.. Small price to pay though compared to the cost of some software programs.

CutePDF Writer Portable Document Format (PDF) is the best way to send documents by email. They cannot be altered, retain their formatting, etc. However, Word 2003 does not allow you to save or output to PDF format (BTW - OpenOffice does!) The solution - use this simple free utilty to print to a PDF format. CutePDF Writer installs itself as a "printer subsystem". This enables virtually any Windows applications (must be able to print) to create professional quality PDF documents. Tried others, this one is quick and easy and does the job. No adware, unlike other similar programs.

Rather bizarrely, not the easiest thing to find amongst the various offerings from the world's favourite search engine people, but well worth the hunt. As well as programs such as Picasa and StarOffice (aka OpenOffice) downloading the Google software pack will give you several excellent software programs free of charge. Best amongst these (that has not already been mentioned) is Spyware Doctor. It is as paid download from the author's site - PC Tools, but free from Google. Every day, this tireless bit of code uncovers some kind of evil thing on my hard drive, and I don't even visit any 'dodgy' sites anymore! Essential.

Google Desktop and Sidebar

Whilst this article is in danger of becoming a little lop-sided towards Google, that really is just a co-incidence, even though it might be part of Google's masterplan for world domination (if they have one that is). Google Desktop basically puts the famous search engine technology to work on your own hard drives. It allows ultra-fast and intelligent searching. No more waiting while Explorer churns around for hours and freezes your PC (You as well? Just me then!). I use this application every day and it allows me to be chronically untidy and undisciplined in managing folders and files. I love it! Works on Windows, Macs and Linux. Shame it cannot find keys though!

-Graham Roberts-Phelps, VirtualPAplus

Hope you found this article useful. Please let me know any suggestions or comments. graham@virtualpaplus.co.uk - If you would like more ideas on how to save time and money.

Copyright Graham Roberts-Phelps 2008

Virtual PA Plus, Childwickbury House, Harpenden Road, St Albans AL3 6JX

Tel: 07739 847 950

CRM Software - Comparing Microsoft Dynamics CRM To Salesforce

CRM Software solutions are an integral part of the sales, marketing and customer service of most organisations. Today, CRM Software dwells far further than these functions to manage all business requirements. This has been termed by the people at Microsoft as xRM - (x) anything Relationship Management. Choosing which solution is right for your company is not easy and often companies compare different CRM offerings. Two of the major CRM software applications on the market today are Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Salesforce.

There was a time with these two CRM software applications the choice was more black and white. You either looked at software deployed in-house (Microsoft Dynamics CRM) v the software-as-a-service model (Salesforce).

Now that Microsoft has moved into the cloud with their software as a service model and Salesforce now has a development platform with its "Force" offering your options are now blurred.

Salesforce was founded in 1999 with a vision to create an on-demand information management service that would replace traditional enterprise software technology. Salesforce calls itself "the enterprise cloud-computing company". Sales Cloud™ and Service Cloud™ are Salesforce's applications for sales and customer service. Their approach to the cloud computing deployment model has led to them developing the force.com cloud platform that allows developers and users to build business applications on top of the Salesforce offering.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM, created by Microsoft product team with vast resources was designed with a long-term vision that will allow Customers to use CRM with multiple Microsoft products and choose deployment options to meet organisational needs.

IT researcher Springboard found Australian and New Zealand was already the most mature market for SaaS applications in the Asia-Pacific region.

According to BRW Magazine the market is tipped to grow 45% a year in Australia and New Zealand from $UA 1.7 billion in 2008 to $US7.7 billion by 2012. The magazine also referred to customer relationship management software as the most popular SaaS application (35 percent) and that "companies in Australia are using SaaS because it's cheaper, rather than because it's easier to use. Only 9 percent cited "ease of use" as the reason for choosing SaaS.

Choice and Flexibility

With a multitenant CRM solution, Microsoft Dynamics CRM offers any number of deployment options, depending on your needs. On-demand, on-premise, and partner-hosted models are available for Microsoft Dynamic CRM. If your deployment requirements change so too can your CRM software deployment options as each deployment option is built on the same modern architecture and data model. For example, you can take your configurations and data hosted by Microsoft and move to In-House or to a Microsoft Partner web based CRM software hosted model. Salesforce platform offers SaaS by the Cloud and you don't own the software and configurations. If you want to change to an in-house solution you need to move to another CRM application. You need to factor the cost of getting your data out of Salesforce. Depending on the level of subscription you purchase for Salesforce there have been reports of your data being held hostage. This is, depending on your level of subscription you need to upgrade your subscription in order to export your data.

Cost

Salesforce claims to cost significantly less but Microsoft Dynamics CRM insists that the comparison is not for like services. A-la-carte pricing that is additional to potential price hikes at contract renewal time can significantly affect the total cost of Salesforce. When assessing comparable online products between the two opponents, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online is available for less than 50% of the Salesforce fee. The latest pricing in the USA indicates that "Microsoft CRM [Online] runs $44-59 per user per month, compared to $125 for Salesforce" Professional Edition.

Entry price for Salesforce is cheaper but if you want more functionality you obviously have to pay more. With Microsoft CRM you have access to the complete system from the moment you first purchase. Your purchase decision should never be based on solely on price as its only one component in the decision making process. Those that buy first time around on price usually call back 6-24 months later asking for help. From personal experience decision makers who purchase solely on price first time around re-purchase the second time around on service. To compare in-house versus hosted pricing you need to calculate over a 3-5 year period and not just 1 year.

Ownership of Data

Salesforce, as a software-as-a-service provider, does not own the data collected by its customers. Instead, its data centres are outsourced to Equinix, a third party company in the USA and Singapore. With Microsoft CRM for in-house, and partner hosted options, customers have full control over the security and physical location of their data. You can swap and take your data between these options. Microsoft CRM Online hosted by Microsoft will be released in Australia late 2010 and the data will be hosted in Singapore. Again, you will have the ability to move from hosted to in-house but the online model will have some restrictions around customisation code. In order for Salesforce customers to get development platform capabilities they must buy the unlimited version.

Ease of Use

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is designed for easy user adoption because of its similarity and compatibility with Microsoft Office and Outlook. Simply put, it is designed to minimize the need for training, reduce application switching, and produce high productivity. With the launch of Microsoft CRM 5 or 2011 its release name), Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 the GUI (interface) between the three product suites becomes very similar in look and feel. This provides users with an easy to learn experience and greater chance of user uptake.

Salesforce graphical interface is modern and should be easy to use for most users. The integration to Microsoft Outlook and Office is reported as not as strong as Dynamics CRM especially for MS Excel and Outlook. Those using Google Mail will find Salesforce to their liking.

Both Salesforce and Dynamics CRM have similar modules including sales force automation, customer service and support, marketing automation, document management, contract management, product catalogue management and reports. Although each module for each product has its strengths and weaknesses side by side you need to evaluate each application module against your business requirements (and not user likeability).

Often an organisation short lists three CRM applications to be presented to its users. Evaluation should not be based heavily (if at all) on the users liking the look and feel of the graphical interface. The users of an organisation tend to agree on one CRM application as by nature we feel most comfortable with what we already know. If you ask a salesperson who has been using a paper diary for 30 years, what is better? A paper based or CRM system the answer is always paper! Over the years I have witnessed three different systems put in front of users at different organisations and there is never a clear winner for the CRM application chosen.

At present, Salesforce has a lot of easy to use business add-on products for its core offerings built on its force.com platform. Microsoft has a host of ISV Partners who have built add-on products to Microsoft CRM but it's not as easy to find these add-on's spread out across the globe on various websites. Microsoft has just launched PinPoint that allows you to search globally for Partner software solutions. Also, Microsoft CRM Dynamics Online does not provide the same access to write custom code in a sandbox because Microsoft did not want outside code in its own application, but with Microsoft Azure, ISVs can execute their own code.

Access to CRM and Email

Microsoft CRM is available either through a web browser, through a mobile device or through a plug-in to MS Outlook. Salesforce integrates with Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes, or Google App's. Salesforce will run on a mobile device, through a web browser and if you want some level of Email (Outlook, Lotus Notes, or Google App's) integration, however you will still need to download and install a Salesforce connector.

Scope and Support

According to Wikipedia, Salesforce offers support for 16 languages, while Microsoft Dynamics CRM offers support for 25. Microsoft Dynamics CRM's ecosystem includes 750,000 solutions partners; 2,200 users groups, and 400 community web sites globally. Standard support included in Salesforce's subscription fee allows for a 2 business day response time. With Microsoft, support is dependent on the licensing module used to purchase the software and the support offered by a Microsoft CRM Partner. You can choose from ad-hoc through to dedicated support.

The Future and Investments

It has been reported in online publication The Inquirer.com that Microsoft will spend US$9.5 billion dollars in 2010 on research and development making it the largest R&D technology spender in the world.

In 2008, Salesforce spent $63.8 million, or 8% of its revenue, on research and development, much of which went towards expanding the Salesforce's cloud computing abilities. In addition, 91% of salesforce's revenue comes from subscription and support fees from their cloud computing services.

The CEO of Zoho, Sridhar Vembu first made this good point in April 2008 by noting the disparities in R&D and sales & marketing spending by Salesforce. Using the financial data from the last 12 months, Salesforce's sales and marketing spending of $605 million was almost 5 times its R&D spending of $131 million. It has been reported in businessinsider.com that Google, R&D spending of $2.8 billion was almost 1.5 times that of its S&M expense of $2 billion.

There is no doubt Salesforce is a leader in the SaaS market. The question will be whether the heavy weights including Microsoft (with Azure and BPOS) and Google with its GoogleApps MarketPlace will be able to stay in the game as the heavy weights begin gaining heavy market share in the cloud.

SaaS versus In-House

A note on SaaS versus In-House deployment. "In 2009, within enterprise applications, SaaS represented 3.4 per cent of total enterprise spending, slightly up from 2008 at 2.8 per cent," said David Cearley, vice president of Gartner. This market will reach $8.8 billion in 2010, according to the company's forecasts.

From a market perspective, most of the spending for SaaS is occurring in the content, collaboration communication, and customer relationship management markets. Collectively, they represented 65 per cent of the global enterprise applications software market in 2009. Many of the bad practices that occurred in the on premises world are now moving their way into SaaS.

The biggest example is shelfware. "Shelfware-as-a-service is the concept of paying for a software subscription that is not being accessed by an end user," said Cearley. "This most commonly occurs in large organisations, but it could happen to any company, especially those that have downsized their workforce, or one that has oversubscribed to trigger a volume discount." "SaaS may not have delivered on its early grand promises - of the current SaaS deployments we estimate that a total of 90 per cent of SaaS deployments are not pay-per use - but it has reenergised the software market and added choice," Cearley said.

First Steps in Choosing Your CRM Solution

Your first step in determining which solution is right for your company is to document your CRM requirements. Secondly, research to see what CRM applications are going to meet your requirements. Third, bring in a CRM consultancy firm and/or CRM Vendor to discuss your requirements and demonstrate their knowledge and application to you. Whether you go hosted or in-house should always come after you've gone through the above steps.

Antony Dutton is Managing Director of Aaromba - CRM software & service management software specialists. Aaromba uses best of breed technology and methodologies, designing solutions to improve sales and marketing for CRM software. Working with over 800 clients Aaromba specialises in Microsoft CRM Software, CRM and web based CRM software.

On Microsoft (MSFT)

Microsoft is a difficult situation for me to evaluate. I think the company still has a lot of growth ahead in some areas. But, that depends on where management wants to take it.

There are three core businesses that are already well developed: Windows, Office, and Servers.

The moat in the first two are wide. The Windows moat is huge.

The business model in operating systems is great. You keep upgrading every few years; the hardware needn't progress for you to find things to tweak and get people to buy the next step up. It's insanely profitable.

I think the new launch (Vista) will be bigger than people expect (eventually) in how it allows for cross selling other Microsoft products (but we'll see about that). I expect the press to be very negative at least until well after the launch, because there will always be some bugs and delays.

Games

Eventually, video games will be a big business for Microsoft. I hate the economics of the console business, but love the economics of the publishing (and development) side of things.

I'm sorry to see that Microsoft didn't use its cash pile to buy up an established business here (publishers were cheap in the market a few years ago; an all cash deal would have worked well. Now, everyone thinks video games will be the next big thing).

The console wars are going well for Microsoft. The two keys to establishing a dominant console are launching first and getting good games on your platform. We'll see how Sony (SNE) does this round, but I expect them to be the big loser.

Nintendo may surprise here. I think the Xbox 360 and Nintendo's new console (Wii) will do very well. It'll be interesting to see the breakdown of the consoles in both the domestic and foreign markets. I think Sony may still be strong overseas, but could be in a much poorer position at the end of this round than they were with the PS2.

Search

Long-term I am optimistic about search. I think Google's position is much weaker than most people think. I don't think Microsoft will be the only one to benefit here.

Search is a very natural cross sell with Windows. That's the direction everything seems to be headed in (combining online and desktop search). For future growth in terms of market share I think Microsoft is in a better position than either Yahoo (YHOO) or Google (GOOG).

I also think we might see a couple other (largely unknown) search engines gain some share.

I think Google's strength is its brand. Its dominance helps with advertisers more than users. I don't think it has a lock on users. Also, I think Google has been poorly positioned for doing much of anything outside of keyword search.

I expect to see a lot more in the way of intelligent, social search inspired stuff. Years from now, much of search will have to be helping you find what you didn't know you wanted to find.

Google is dominant in a different business: helping you find what you know you want to find (but don't know the name / location). The two types of search are very different. Both will be important, but the growth in other forms of search will be coming off a smaller base and will likely integrate with keyword search. Google has the most to lose here.

Other Devices

Microsoft wants to perform well on mobile devices and on your TV. Compared to competitors it is very strong in these respects.

The strategy seems to be the one I would favor - to control the point of initial contact wherever software is used and then to only venture into the actual application or content side of the business where it is highly profitable to do so. In video games it will be highly profitable. In other areas it is less likely to be very profitable.

I expect to see more generic, web-based applications. These will be less profitable for everyone. Office should hold up well, but not as well as Windows. Basically, Microsoft needs to take what it has in PCs and import that to TVs, Handheld Devices, Consoles, and the Web.

That should be the strategy. I think that is the strategy. These aren't unrelated businesses that need to be broken up to unlock creativity (as some have suggested). Rather, the profit potential for each is greatly enhanced by being part of Microsoft. If you take these pieces apart they are worth very little. There would only be the three businesses I started off talking about and the console / games business.

Internationally, there is going to be natural growth for Microsoft's dominant businesses. It won't be a tremendous growth rate, but it will be strong and will require virtually no additional investment to secure.

Obsolescence Issues

Overall, I like the future for software a lot more than hardware, because the marginal gains in the quality of hardware will slow greatly in the years ahead.

The question isn't what can be done mathematically in terms of increasing specs; it's what that translates to for the user. We are reaching a point where the individual user will not directly see the benefits of increased hardware performance as clearly as he did in the past.

Much of the research that goes in to this area will only serve to bring down prices and benefit memory intensive businesses - it will not provide as much of a "wow" factor for the user anymore.

This is especially true in games. The situation in desktop applications is already such that improving the software design is where most gains will come from.

Computing power is simply not a scarce resource for most individuals sitting at home or in a cubicle. Advances will benefit some users a lot and will trickle down to the end user (often via the web) through fast responses and cheap services. But, that's a barely noticeable change.

You'll see something here akin to the kind of thing you see in the brokerage business. It won't be obvious, because price competition will never be as great in software.

Generally, you'll just see the prices for doing anything electronically come down. That's very different from what we've seen over the last few decades, where you also had advancements that attracted new users, because they allowed developers to do something differently, not just more cheaply.

This is a very long-term trend I'm worried about. It could weigh heavily on a business like Dell (DELL), because PCs are actually quite durable; once the rate of obsolescence slows, sales will have to slow as the cycle lengthens.

Management

I think Microsoft's management is absolutely the best in the business. In fact, I think it's one of the best in any business.

It would be hard for me to find more than a handful of people I'd rather have managing a business I was part owner of. I also think the current arrangement is a good one.

There is enough of a line between current operations and future investments in the Chairman / CEO split that investors will probably get the greatest benefit from the brilliance of the Chairman this way.

Everyone underestimates Bill Gates. It's easy, because his great triumph came some time ago now. But, he's interested in building something lasting. I trust him more than anyone in tech without a question. He always impresses me whether he's talking about his own industry or some other topic. He has exactly the right kind of mind for someone running a business where the long-run is such a concern.

Qualitatively, I think Microsoft scores close to perfectly. I could cite the profitability stats, but I won't, because you know they're better than almost any other business on the planet - and that's with a huge siphoning off of resources to investments in the future that aren't required to maintain the cash cow, wide-moat Windows franchise.

Valuation

Valuation is a bit more troubling. Microsoft is not at the point on an EV/EBIT basis where I'd be buying the stock if there was a risk of no extraordinarily profitable growth in the future. In other words, at the current price, it clearly makes for a bad bond.

The key is earnings growth. I think you have to believe MSFT will have a real future in search, games, and non-PC devices that will fuel future, highly profitable growth.

I think that future is there. As far as a truly large cap stock (say $10 billion or more) it's about as attractive as anything on the planet right now - and certainly it's the most attractive stock of any very large U.S. business. Even though Intel (INTC) and Dell are cheap looking, I don't like them nearly as much. Dell is an interesting situation, but I don't understand the business well enough.

I have a better idea of where MSFT is headed - and I like it.

Conclusion

I don't own shares of MSFT. I won't be buying any either. I don't normally own such large stocks. I prefer much smaller businesses, because the mispricings tend to get more out of whack. You aren't going to see MSFT trade at an EV/EBIT of 7.5 or something like that, but you do sometimes get those chances in small (high quality) businesses.

There are a lot of chances to find wild mispricings without much of the future being a concern. Those are the situations I prefer to invest in, because businesses like MSFT have an awfully large anchor with the amount of capital they've got - plus, they tend to be less likely to be wildly mispriced.

However, if I had to own one business with a market cap of more than $10 billion and hold it for a lifetime I would buy Microsoft here without hesitation.

Copyright 2006 Geoff Gannon

Geoff Gannon writes a daily value investing blog and produces a twice weekly (half hour) value investing podcast at: http://www.gannononinvesting.com

Cutting Costs With Free Software

Running your own business can be very trying. Managing any enterprise properly is not an easy task. However, you're not worried because you've made a great start. You have a well thought out business plan. You've purchased your own computer. And now, presto chango you're an entrepreneur with a well equipped business -- or so you think.

Once you begin to organize your daily tasks you quickly discover that running a small business requires you to constantly multitask. You must perform the duties of an accountant, marketer, sales representative and human resource manager. This quickly leads you to another discovery, that you need not only a computer but also a vast array of software to operate and manage your business. You need to write letters, store addresses and personnel information in a database and maintain financial records in a spreadsheet. You also need software to help you create web pages for your new site.

No problem, you say. You know that business software can be used to reduce the workload and improve the efficiency of your business. You're already looking at the standard software, Microsoft Office and Adobe Dreamweaver. Unfortunately, you've also discovered that you don't have the spare capital required to make all the purchases you require.

Take heart. There is an inexpensive alternative to both Microsoft Office and Dreamweaver -- OpenOffice and Amaya. In fact, they're free.

OpenOffice Suite -- the free office suite

OpenOffice, a suite of desktop applications, has practically the same features and functionality as Microsoft Office, and, is compatible with Microsoft Office, i.e. it can open Microsoft files. OpenOffice distribution is unlimited. You can use it anyway you want, use it anywhere you want and give it to anyone you want. For example, if you have three employees you can give it to each of them because there are no licensing restrictions of any kind.

In addition, OpenOffice provides excellent support services plus the following documentation:


Release Notes
Product information
System Requirements
Installation Instructions
User Guides

OpenOffice contains


Word processing software (Writer) -- compatible with MS Word
Spreadsheet software (Calc) -- compatible with MS Excel
Presentation software (Impress) -- Compatible with MS PowerPoint
Vector drawing software (Draw) -- compatible with all vector applications
Database system software (Base) -- compatible with MS Access

Open Office works on Windows, Mac and Linux platforms and it also allows you to create PDF files easily.

W3C Amaya -- the free browser and web page design tool

Amaya is a W3C web editing tool that lets you create web pages and also browse the web. Like Dreamweaver, Amaya provides the tools you need to create a viable website without having to become an IT expert developer. Amaya is produced by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). W3C establishes the standards used for web development.

Amaya has a vast array of features that allows you to write code in HTML, XHTML, XML, and CSS. It also provides a means of validating your code so you can quickly find errors.

Final Word

With the tools described here, you can do business without prohibitive cost and overhead. There is also free project management software and web collaboration software that you can use to manage your business. Searching on Google and reading articles on Wikipedia will help you identify other open source products.

So, what are you waiting for?

Grace Walker is an IT professional with an artistic soul. As one of the original partners in Walker Automated Services, http://www.walkerautomated.com, she provides business and technical consulting advise to many Fortune 500 companies.

Her artistic soul has also led her to create websites that speak to culture, http://www.culturalview.com, and to create culturally based designs that are sold on apparel and home decor items through Cafepress, http://www.cafepress.com/cultper

Web Site Promotion - What Will Be the Effect of the Google Chrome Operating System?

Web Site Promotion - Google Chrome Operating System

What will be the effect of Google's new Chrome Operating system on web site promotion efforts ?  The simple answer to this question is that it probably will have little or no effect.  Google's search engine rules and methods will not change appreciably under a new operating system. What will be the impact of a new Chrome Operating System on the computing world ? It may significantly affect the type of computer you buy in the future.  It may also have a significant affect on Microsoft, and this is why.   

We have yet to see really low-cost netbooks hit the market, but it is quite possible that we will see sub $ 200.00 netboooks in the very near future. We already see cell phones with multi-function capability, namely Internet and e-mail capability, and this trend will likely continue.  We probably will also see hybrid types of devices that are not quite a computer, but more than a cell phone.  

 In order to keep the price of netbooks and hybrid devices as low as possible, it will necessary to eliminate the cost of software.  The only practical way to do this is to use Open Source software with this type of appliance computer.  It is quite impossible to bundle any of Microsoft's operating systems, or Office Productivity software in at such a low price.  Windows plus any other piece of software is already more than $ 200.00 retail, even in OEM versions.  

 Linux is an alternative, but it doesn't quite measure up to Windows in terms of usability and user-friendliness.  It has been around for quite a while, and although servers run Linux quite effectively, Linux has not really shown it's strength as a personal computer operating system in the way it has as a network operating system.  Google Chrome actually sits on top of a Linux kernel, but it is not Linux itself, but something new.

  If you think for a moment about how many computers are used mainly to access the Internet, read e-mail, and for some kind of simple office-related task; that accounts for a very large number of computers, easily fifty percent, or more, of the PC's in use right now.  Microsoft products dominate this market today, but 5 or 10 years from now, there may be a much different looking landscape in the world of personal computers. There are computers in libraries, schools, second and third family computers at home, Internet cafes, and guest computers in offices, that really have no compelling reason to run Windows or other Microsoft software.  (Sorry Microsoft, but that's the way I see it).

 It is these types of shared computers, that would benefit the most from a Google Chrome Operating System.  Especially if this kind of computer could be made to access the Internet faster, start nearly immediately on boot-up, and run on-line applications faster than the equivalent software running under Windows, wouldn't that be rather obvious choice to opt for the free, (and faster), alternative ?

 The keys to the success of this new operating system are threefold.  

 1) It must run an Internet browser and Internet applications faster than Windows.  

 2) It must be more stable than Windows.  This means it must have bullet-proof security.  This is a tall order for any operating system, but it should have built-in protection against viruses,  spyware, and other type of intrusions.  This could easily be the key differentiation between Windows and Chrome. since Windows has had, (and continues to have), so many security vulnerabilities.  It should be a top priority for Chrome.

 3) It should run the widest possible array of software programs.  Google has done a good job of providing internet applications up until now, but there needs to be a Chrome, (or online) application to match, or nearly match most of the software that currently runs on Windows.  Chrome will not go head-to-head with Windows across the software spectrum, but the wider the choice of Internet-based software available, the more success Chrome will enjoy.  It it not intended to be a network server operating system in the same way that Windows server is, but just the operating system of choice for computers connected to the Internet.

Google is probably the only company in the world today with the resources to be able to develop and maintain an operating system like Chrome.  On the other hand, since it is open source, Google may be content to manage from the sidelines and eventually let the Open Source community take it over.  Note:  At least that way Google may not be tempted to have sponsored links pop up on your screen as you work.  (lol - Sorry Google)

It is true that Google as a company cares little how you access the Internet.  In other words, they are computer hardware and operating system neutral.  Of course, I'm sure Google's management and software engineers will be smiling ear to ear if they are able to compete head to head with Microsoft, (Google's main search rival), on Microsoft's home turf of the PC operating system. Nothing would be sweeter for Google than to have Google Chrome enjoy a resounding success in the marketplace.  Google has everything to gain, the more computers there are on the Internet, and nothing to lose.

 We will have to wait until the second half of 2010 to see Google Chrome, according the Official Google Blog.  It is possible that the most significant beneficiaries of Google Chrome will be thirld world computer users. The dream of a $ 100.00 computer is not yet a reality, and remember that 75 % of the world's population does not yet have e-mail. 

The availability of free computer operating systems and software is essential to begin to close the gap between have's and have not's in this world.  This author, for one, hopes that Google Chrome becomes the operating system of choice for many of the world's PC's, and helps to hasten the day when the vast majority of the word's people have access to computers and the Internet.

 Good Luck in all your web site promotion efforts.

by John Lombaerde, a CNC programmer with over 15 years experience designing, programming and cutting complex parts on multi-axis computer numerically controlled, (CNC) milling machines. He is an experienced Product Designer, CNC Programmer, CNC Machinist, and CAD CAM Consultant. He also is an SEO Consultant specialized in Search Engine Placement for Web Site Promotion.

For information on web site promotion, see: The Web Site Promotion Blog

For CAD CAM information see CAD CAM Consulting