Daily Archives: December 18, 2007

linux

Asus Eee PC down to £199

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The price of the Asus mini PC running Linux is falling. UK computer superstore PC World is advertising the 4GB model for £199 including VAT – and yes, right now there seems to be stock in hand.

An improved model with an 8GB solid state drive and 1GB RAM is available in the USA, and my guess is that this will come to the UK early in the new year.

It is not without annoyances but nevertheless a great little device, and will give desktop Linux a significant boost.

Presumably we will see Linux and Windows variants side-by-side in the shops before long. It will be interesting to see how the sales proportions shake out.

Update

I reserved one of these myself, for collection at a local store. 30 minutes later I got a telephone call from PC World (yes, at 9.00pm). It was someone who “just wanted to check” that I understood that this runs Linux and is “not a laptop running Windows or anything”. Fascinating. I have no objection to being called, but I wonder what prompted this ring-round? Customers complaining? Or just a retailer nervous about this strange new thing? Should have asked, bother.

I’ve also noticed something odd about the product description. PC World has the white and the black at the same price – well, I am guessing, but one product is -GW and the other is -GB. However, the code and description for the white (PC2-GW) suggests it is the 2GB variant, which you would expect to be cheaper. There’s also no mention of the webcam (not that I really care about that). If you go for one of these, I suggest checking it is really what you are expecting before parting with money. I will.

Further update

Price is back up to £219.99 for the 4GB this morning. Looks like a temporary pricing snafu. Never mind, it is still a good deal.

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microsoft, software development

Visual Studio 2008 review, and the WPF business apps debate

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Review just posted on RegDeveloper.

In it I quote Peter Lindsey of component vendor Infragistics, who says that:

Microsoft, in trying to capture credibility within the media market, has poorly represented the value of WPF to business application developers.

The problem is that Microsoft decided to tell its customers not to use WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) for line-of-business applications, which is a strange way to launch your next-generation GUI API, and tough on vendors such as Infragistics who have been busy providing business-oriented components like xamDataGrid.

Not everyone agrees that WPF is a no-hoper for business apps. See this post from software architect Ivan Towlson:

For me, the killer application of WPF is not bouncing buttons with dancing elves trapped inside them.  The killer application is information visualisation, the kind of things you get from Tufte and the periodic table.  And that’s something that even forms-style, line-of-business applications will find worthwhile.

When Microsoft introduced .NET it made great efforts to get VB 6 developers to upgrade and migrate their projects, even though there were sound technical reasons for caution. Why is it that with WPF those reasons for caution, valid though they are, have been allowed to dominate the messaging to the extent that most developers probably have the impression that WPF is irrelevant?

Curious.