Virtualization technology was initially embraced by large enterprises.  These large IT shops had the resources to invest in the hardware, software, consulting, and training necessary to take advantage of virtualization technology.  These early adopters paid the price in terms of high costs for virtualization software and early blade servers, and also in terms of dealing with the inevitable bugs that accompany any new technology.  On the other hand, these early adopters also benefited significantly from the reduced TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) which is made possible by virtualization.  They saw Read More

One of the novelties coming with Windows 8 is support for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) secure boot protocol which, when enabled, requires the boot loader of an operating system to provide a certified signing key in order to be allowed to boot. In fact, Microsoft made enabling secure boot by default a requirement for vendors who participate in the Windows 8 logo program, meaning that all PCs coming with Windows 8 pre-installed or branded as Windows 8 ready will come with secure boot enabled by default. The reasoning behind Read More

Last week Microsoft blessed us with the most detailed presentation of Windows 8 in a keynote that was a part of its BUILD developer conference. Attendees were given a free Samsung preview tablet with Windows 8 pre-installed, and everyone else was offered a free download of the Windows 8 Developer Preview from Microsoft Developer Network site. As many have said, and as is pretty obvious, Windows 8 is a pretty dramatic shift for Windows since it adds an entirely new user interface on top of Windows we’ve become used to. Read More

The trend of new processors increasing performance while decreasing power consumption continues unabated, and Intel just presented just one of the latest examples. On its Intel Developers Conference they demonstrated the new Haswell architecture, to become available in 2013, which will consume so little power that it would allow a notebook based on it to run for 24h on a single charge in use, and whopping 10 days on connected standby. In fact, the power consumption is so low that the notebook could remain connected to Wi-Fi and fetch updates, Read More