operating systems

Retail software sales rang in at $278 million for the 2009 holidays, a dip of 1 percent from the prior year, NPD Group reported Wednesday. But the results were far more joyous than in December 2008 when software revenue fell by 13 percent.

Thanks largely to Windows 7, operating systems enjoyed the greatest improvement of any category for the five-week 2009 holiday season, climbing to $29 million from $10 million in 2008. Educational software also proved a popular gift for the November 22 to December 26 period, with sales jumping by 15 percent courtesy of strong titles like Rosetta Stone … Read more

The world's second-largest PC maker has designs on being the first to offer a Chrome OS Netbook.

Acer Chairman J.T. Wang said in an interview with Digitimes that he's "confident" his company will be first out of the gate with Google's open-source operating system pre-installed.

The earliest it would be available is mid-2010, according to Digitimes' unnamed sources.

Acer was just one of several hardware makers previously announced to be working with Google on implementing Chrome OS, along with Asus, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, and Toshiba. Dell, which hasn't committed to it fully yet, has … Read more

Google is hosting a press event at 10 a.m. PST at its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters to update the world on its plans for world domination via the release of its second operating system (after Android), the Google Chrome OS (FAQ). Google VP Sundar Pichai and Engineering Director Matthew Papakipos will reveal technical details and launch plans, and will have demos. Google will be streaming the announcement.

I'll be in the audience when the event kicks off and will be live-blogging my thoughts on the talk as it happens. Josh Lowensohn will be handling reader feedback during the … Read more

You like high-profile cage matches? It doesn't get more intense than the operating system that encompasses Microsoft's hopes and dreams, Windows 7, going processor-to-processor against a refreshed and re-invigorated Snow Leopard from Apple. Can Windows 7 move past the failures of its predecessor Vista, or will Snow Leopard turn this into a one-cat fight? See what three CNET editors think of Windows 7 versus Snow Leopard in our latest Prizefight. You better believe it's subjective.

In the second part of this series, I took a look at how cloud computing and virtualization will drive homogenization of data center infrastructure over time, and how that is a contributing factor to the adoption of "just enough" systems software. That, in turn, will signal the beginning of the end for the traditional operating system, and in turn, the virtual server.

However, this change is not simply being driven by infrastructure. There is a much more powerful force at work here as well--a force that is emboldened by the software-centric aspects of the cloud computing model. That … Read more

Chris Hoff, my friend and colleague at Cisco Systems, has reached enlightenment regarding the role of the operating system and, subsequently, the need for the virtual machine in a cloud-centric world.

His post last week reflects a realization attained by those who consider the big picture of cloud computing long enough.

He summarizes his thoughts nicely at the opening of the post:

Virtual machines (VMs) represent the symptoms of a set of legacy problems packaged up to provide a placebo effect as an answer that in some cases we have, until lately, appeared disinclined and not technologically empowered to solve.… Read more

This was originally posted at ZDNet's Between the Lines.

VMware on Monday will roll out a product family dubbed vCenter to automate data center tasks and manage to service level agreements.

The announcements will kick off VMworld 2009 in San Francisco this week.

VMware's vCenter products are designed to ride shotgun with the company's vSphere cloud computing operating system.

In a nutshell, vCenter is designed to automate tasks such as data center provisioning, monitoring, change and performance management. VMware added that vCenter is also designed to manage toward policies and service level agreements. Each virtual server that … Read more

With the public release of Apple's Snow Leopard operating system upgrade today, there have been some concerns about legacy compatibility. Perhaps the biggest worry was with Adobe Photoshop CS3, which has proven to be a nonissue, but there have been others, too.

If you're curious about whether your current software will work on OS X 10.6, checking out this list is a good place to start. Comprehensive and alphabetized, it offers a simple red, yellow, or green light to indicate a program's status. Games are included, too, so Age of Empires and World of Warcraft fans … Read more

Today's stories:

Home appliances to get Cash for Clunkers-like rebate

Google adds translation to Docs

Italian antitrust group examining Google News

Is Pirate Bay sold? Don't believe it… Read more