There are three corporate giants that dominate tech news. All of them have recently made headlines with innovative new products, and all of them have a dedicated following among tech fans, and are hated intensely by just as many. Time to gather pros and cons for Google, Microsoft and Apple and decide who truly deserves your devotion. Please feel free to add yours in the comments.
More So, are you an Apple, Microsoft or Google fan?

My main work PC still runs a copy of Windows Vista. I’ve tried switching to Ubuntu, but I still need Windows-only software too often for that to work out. So for now I’m stuck with Windows, and as long as I am, I figured I might as well upgrade to ‘7′. But as I found out today there’s a catch.
More Upgrading your Vista could severely limit Windows 7

Google launched Chrome Frame yesterday. It’s a browser plugin for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser that, if the website you’re visiting prefers so, turns it into Chrome. At first glance, this looked to me like a great solution and a well-deserved slap in the face for Microsoft, but then it hit me. Nobody will use this.
More Does Chrome Frame have a target audience?

I came across this post on Smashing Magazine yesterday, and while it offers some fine reasons for web developers to use a PC, I thought it missed a few too. Most of these venture into web designer territory somewhat, but I wanted to mention them nontheless.
More Why web designers should consider using a PC too

It’s funny how I just discovered a great feature in Vista by reading up on how to install Ubuntu alongside it. I didn’t know Vista could shrink partitions without the need for 3rd party tools. Well it can and I did. To make room for Ubuntu. I plan to move away from Windows for anything but design work. I’ll need Photoshop for that and there isn’t a viable Linux alternative for Flash either. But other than that I can’t wait to switch to Linux full time.
More That’s it, I’m switching!

My father-in-law just stopped by because his new computer was giving him trouble. He was about to return his brand new Vista laptop because he found himself unable to configure his email accounts. The problem? He couldn’t type an ‘@’. It turned out he was running into the same issue that kept my own dad from succesfully typing in his WPA key when he bought a new notebook. The same issue that my wife’s laptop unboxing a frustrating one too. Windows was expecting a Dutch keyboard.
More Windows Dutch keyboard trouble

Not many people remember this, and Microsoft probably isn’t very proud of it either, but when it was introduced, MSN wasn’t about the internet at all. Instead, Microsoft had hopes of creating a ‘walled garden’ network with similar content, but ultimately controlled by them. They may have had usability in mind (the web was just as chaotic then as it is today), but chances are it was plain arrogance. With Windows’ enormous market dominance they thought they could control this whole ‘online’ phenomenon.
More What if MSN’s original approach had succeeded?

For the last couple of years, people have mostly used a Microsoft browser to use Google websites. I know this is a rather crude statement, but what I mean is that of the two Google has been most successful online while MS continues dominate the desktop and browser market.

Today, Microsoft announced they will be launching a web version of their Office suite. This made me chuckle, as it could lead to a strangely reversed situation where many users use a Google desktop application (Chrome) to use a Microsoft web application.

Chrome isn’t currently on the list of supported browsers, but the whole idea behind it is to create a browser that is ideally suited for online applications (as opposed to traditional, page-based websites). its lightning fast javascript engine could make those spreadsheets fly (by comparison that is).

My guess is that the Office brand name will help to quickly popularize its online exponent, and Chrome might turn out to be the best desktop application to go visit it. Go figure.