I’m not pleased with the way that the BBC are reporting the Barry George appeal. I know the murder of Jill Dando was particularly cold blooded and cruel (as are most murders) and I know that many BBC staff will feel a strong personal tie with the story, but it doesn’t mean that you can report circumstantial evidence as cast iron proof the man did it. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – he might be a loser and a wierdo, but it doesn’t make him a killer. There were no witnesses, no forensics and no smoking gun. Let the man out and take the time to do the job properly.

On a Citrix course this week and looking into the CCA certification. Pretty good product, wish I’d looked at it sooner. Also, Manchester City Council get the decision on the congestion charge. What a waste of time. Stop taxing us to death before someone goes postal with an Uzi, US-style.

Wow, June already. So I did Christmas, 2 x Broken Arms, New Year and BrainShare ’08. Then I did the Great Manchester Run 10K in just under an hour, finally completed the master bedroom makeover (very sore now, all over).

Saw Joe Satriani at the Apollo and Mark Knopfler at the MEN, bought a new Dell laptop (more later) and um…well, I think that’s it. Doesn’t look like a lot when you cram it all into two paragraphs I suppose, but there you go, life is often more hectic than you give it credit for.

Now then, the laptop. The short story is that I bought a Dell with 3GB RAM, Dual Core, 250GB HDD, blah blah. It came with Windows Vista, which I was expecting, so I took the decision to stay with Vista and not downgrade to XP or even trash the beast and install openSUSE.

Why did I do this? I’ve been part of the vocal group that has criticised Vista from the day it shipped. There’s no doubt it’s carrying too much timber, but I have to say that I added SP1, and I’ve had no issues with it at ll so far. So much so that I don’t see me going to openSUSE11 any time soon. Why is that? Well, the devil is in the detail, and really for an OS to be workable, you need the applications. Whilst Linux can do wine and apps such as iTunes-alike Banshee, it doesn’t have the real things, and that is the killer. The apps drive the platform.

It’s something I argued at BrainShare 2007, it’s less about the underlying OS and more about the applications people need to do their jobs, coursework, novel writing, number crunching, accounting, designing, photo management, iPod manipulating etc.

Yes, we have Banshee and Amarok and F-Spot and GIMP and OpenOffice and others, but with possibly the latter’s exception, we don’t have the originals, the “real McCoys”. What gets me about something like iTunes for example, is that Mac OSX is a *nix variant, but Apple refuse to port it to Linux. Why not? Is it that much more difficult than getting it onto Windows? Theoretically, no.

Also, Linux still has issues with package management. I can’t speak for the other distros as I haven’t checked them out in some time,  but openSUSE has taken some steps in the right direction with 1-click-install. Great idea, well implemented. I also gather that openSUSE 11 has made huge strides with the speed of the package management and patching, which became a total millstone when you were plugged into several different repositories.

Finally, Linux, stop calling your software stupid names – call it something meaningful to it’s purpose. Yes, I know it’s cute in a geeky kind of way to give an app a silly name (Pratchett influenced no doubt), but look elsewhere – iTunes for um..tunes, PhotoShop for um..photos, Outlook for mail. Ahem, OK, bad example with the last one. For someone completely new to Linux, what is Banshee? What is GIMP? What is F-Spot? How do I know what these apps do just by looking at them? Do I need to install them?

This sounds a little negative on Linux, it isn’t. Open source has made amazing strides in the last couple of years alone, and now it’s making an impression on the market with the likes of the EeePC, it’s growth can only accelerate. That said, remember the cliche that “never let the facts get in the way of a good story”? I’ve been using Windows Vista for several days – no performance issues, no driver support issues, no BSOD, no limping along (granted, it’s a beefy laptop – it’s a pain on a Celeron, but wouldn’t anything be?).

Never let it be said that just because I don’t blog, I haven’t been doing anything. Quite amongst anything else, this is what has been going on lately :-

– Completed the Great Manchester Run 10K in 59 minutes and 17 seconds. Woot!

– Bought a new Dell Inspiron 1525 with Windows Vista on it (not going to scrap it, either!)

– Went on a VMWare course (good, but not worth two grand!)

– Rebuilding the bedroom at home, new carpets, curtains, bed, cupboards et al

And I’m sure there’s more, but I can’t think what at the moment. Finally, thanks to those who sponsored me on the GMR – I raised around £200 for Cancer Research.

Tried the Remote Play abilities of the PS3 + PSP last night, what an anti-climax. It turns out after a shufti at Wikipedia that there are only about 12 games you can play in this manner (play on PS3, display and controls on PSP), none of which I’ve heard of. Nor can you play Blu-Rays or DRM-ed content. What cack. If you’re going to dangle such a carrot Sony, make it worth our while.

Meanwhile, the revolt to the “Baby + Bath Water” project gathers momentum (the Microsoft rip and replace at work). No-one yet that I’ve spoken to thinks it’s a good idea and thinks we should fight dirty. At this stage, I’m not sure I can be bothered.

And so it has come to pass, after eight or so years of fruitful (not to mention award winning) endeavours, my erstwhile employer has decided to tear out the fully functioning and well integrated Novell heartbeat of our network in favour of it’s Microsoft bastard cousin. Like most decisions of this type, there has been little or no consultation, no chats with the people who’ve made it all tick. There has been no chance for Novell to state it’s case. There has been no working party as such, no dialogue. One man has chosen this path, is sticking rigidly to it and we all have to put a square peg into a round hole.

To say I don’t agree is a violent understatement. This is on many levels, none of which I can be bothered to annunciate. However, we all have bills to pay and food to buy, so for now, I’ll suck it up. Needless to say, if you’re a Novell house in need of a good honest, time served and battled hardened pro – give me a call – chris at chrisbeckett dot org dot uk.

Finally, in today’s news – “Head on beach was migrant worker“. “That’s OK, then” say locals.

Back home after my BrainShare week. Boring flights, but had great fun circling Wigan in the plane whilst Manchester cleared the runway of snow. Jeez, never realised how closely they stack planes in a holding pattern – made me nervous, to be honest. Dog tired now, feel a bit woozy. What day is it? It’s daytime already, need a sleep =-(