5 greediest consumer softwares to avoid

Here is my compilation.Feel free to suggest more.There are some wonderful open source and slick alternatives like KLite Codec, VLC, Firefox etc. to these greedy ones.

• Real Player (Please let me know if you could find any greedier software than this)
  

• Adobe Reader (Someday the size will reach 100MB)
  

• iTunes (Minimum update size is 50MB and Quicktime, Safari bundling)
  

• DivX (Unwanted desktop icons and trial softwares annoyance)
  

• Internet Explorer (We all know how good it is)

Bootnote: Add Antivirus softwares to this list.

A tribute to great artist Vincent van Gogh

Last week, I was reading about Vincent van Gogh on wikipedia and it was truly moving.I was totally in the awe of this amazing painter after reading that.I know that I deserve very little to talk about this great passionate person, but It's good to know that both of us have a "french connection" ;-).

Here is a wonderful soothing song from You Tube which features some of his paintings.

iPhone debuts unprepared Indian market with irrational and ludicrous price tag

Last night, I almost fall off of my chair laughing, after reading some dumbass PR surrounding iPhone India launch. As a guy who is closely attached with the handset industry, can totally understand the price tag as it takes at least 4 years to break- even, even if you give 500 INR profit every month to your operator after paying 10K INR initially. So it's understandable in some senses, but it's also a clear acknowledgement from operators that they have no hopes on service (post-sales) revenue.

My shots at iPhone India to uncover the reality,

• It's just a GPRS phone.Calm down! I doubt that too.
  

• If there is no subsidy, why network lock-in? Apple should answer this half-assed strategy.

• No special tariffs for iPhone users.Forget data, at least voice.

• Don't fall for bells and whistles! iPhone is just a PR drum for operators.

• Prepare for dumbass spam stuff from your network operator.To be honest, Indian operators have nothing special to offer to your iPhone.

• Remember that it's an Apple's product.It's not Airtel's or Vodafone's.
  

• More than half the features are useless in India.

• By the time you get 3G here in India, Apple would release at least 3 new models.Even if 3G starts in 2009, it will be experimental only and mass-market adoption can happen only in 2011.

• Don't pin your hopes on Wi-Fi hotspots , you can rarely find them in India.
  

• If you don't have a PC and broadband, it's useless to buy an iPhone.PC and broadband connection are prerequisites for iPod and iPhone.

• If you are style conscious and just want to flaunt your richness in public then iPhone is just for you and just for you only.

• If you get any hardware problem, then prepare to run here and there.

• It's a significant risk to carry 30K device in your pocket in India.

• You can buy a reasonable notebook or couple of high-end assembled desktop PCs for the same price. If show-off is your need, then go for iPhone.

• The price will stay same, at least until Apple releases a new model next year. So, don't expect any price reduction for at least one year.
  

• iPod touch is far better option and could be a good companion to existing phone if you desperately need some "touchy".

• iPhone is not yet a corporate device in US itself and I am almost certain that over-cautious Indian businesses will never adopt it.So, no corporate offers and tariffs.yada yada yada.Calm down!!
  

Temporary Solution to "Could not start kstartconfig. Check your installation"

Few weeks ago, I have installed KDE and after restarting and changing the session I get an error message "Could not start kstartconfig. Check your installation" and takes me back to the login screen. Back to the Gnome session, I have tried few from usual Gsearch but nothing worked. Here is a temporary solution.

• Create a new user (System->Administration->Users and Groups)

• Feel free to add user privileges according to your needs.

• Log out and login to KDE session with the new user name and password.

• Happy happy KDE.
  

Weekend Download:APTonCD

APTonCD is a really handy app for Ubuntu users and it saved my day many a times.To me, it's a great backup utility and I can restore all my former updates and apps with a single click without connecting to the internet again.It's a good utility to share all your packages and updates with your friends.It's a must for all the Ubuntu users and the latest Ubuntu versions bundling this app.If you don't have, you can download from the website. APTonCD usually restores your packages in the cache folder.It's a 2step process to install them.Thanks to Ubuntu forums.

1.Open the terminal and navigate to cache folder by typing "cd /var/cache/apt/archives".

2.Type "sudo dpkg -i *.deb" to install all the packages restored there by APTonCD.

Updating iTunes software is one of the most avoidable tasks

I don't know about others, but whenever I try to update the iTunes, I get a welcome message with an update size of at least 50MB.Should I call this update??Seriously.To me, update means less than 5MB size only and in this case I have to download the entire software again.What a waste of time.I haven't seen any complaints over this on the internet.May be people are so tolerant to this non-sense.But not me.iTunes is a good software but this kind of bloated updates could drive away loyal users like me.May be Apple should take notice of this and they shouldn't pump more than 5MB size updates.If you see this post by any chance, please share your feelings on this.

Windows Mobile on Nokia handsets still possible

After seeing Symbian Foundation announcement by Nokia most people might think that Nokia would never use Windows Mobile. But somehow I believe that this combination is still possible.Using Windows Mobile may be kind of irony to Nokia but it has the potential to create value to both Microsoft and Nokia.

My reasoning is,

• Nokia needs to beef up its North American presence and one way to do is shipping Windows Mobile handsets there.If Nokia wants to increase its market share beyond 40% this must be one way to do it.

• Nokia currently lacks touch screen portfolio and Windows Mobile can definitely help it there.Usually touch screen phones are software intensive and Nokia still seems to be developing S60 touch software and expected to get one out by end of this year.But Nokia's competitors HTC, LG, and Samsung are already been very active in the touch screen phone market.All these phones are using Windows Mobile.Even Sony Ericsson also preferred Windows Mobile for its touch phone XPERIA X1.

• Nokia's relations with Microsoft are better in the recent times as Nokia is using Microsoft DRM technology, Live services and also agreed to ship Silverlight on its S40, S60 based handsets by end of this year.

• Microsoft can also benefit from this kind of move as Nokia ships hundreds of millions of consumer oriented handsets which could improve Microsoft's image in the consumer market.

It may not happen any time soon but it's quite possible.

Stop complaining:Linux is OK for average consumer

I always wonder why people keep complain about the usability of Linux on the desktop PC.I am sure they must be the people who never tried Linux or must be living under some rock.The usability of Linux has improved leaps and bounds over the last two years thanks to the likes of Ubuntu.People who have been using Ubuntu vouch for it.In fact, I set up Ubuntu on my home PC for my parents and they never complained about it.If they could use without any pain then anybody can try it.It never catches viruses and it's free too.Personally my evangelism influenced more than ten people to try Linux.Hmm,that's a good number to me at least.Most people I talked to have the perception that Linux is all about command line UI.This is the problem.Without even trying Linux they are forming opinions.

Linux may not be ready to replace Windows but it is certainly a good choice to consider. Personally I encourage people who use piracy versions of Windows to try out Linux.If you can't afford Windows then Linux is a really good choice and it can do every thing average consumer wants it to.It can do multimedia, web browsing, productivity etc. without giving you much pain.Linux is perfect for people who run internet cafes in countries like India.

Having said that, I am not against Windows and it has its own strengths like vast eco system and huge ISV support.I attribute Windows success mainly to MS Office.Yes,that's right.Most people use Windows because it can run MS Office.Macs too can run Office software but there are other issues like cost,lack of hardware flexibility and Apple's lack of enterprise ambitions limited its uptake.I am sure if Microsoft releases Office software for Unix/Linux platform one day then it can also be on par with Windows.There are alternatives to MS Office like Open Office, Star Office,IBM's Symphony and web based offerings like Google Docs,Zoho but MS Office still beats them. There are likes of Wine to run Windows softwares on Linux but it's still a long shot.

Linux has achieved significant success in the server and embedded markets but its desktop position is nowhere near it wants to be.This is partly because of lack of strong support from commercial Linux vendors, ISVs, PC manufacturers and you can list few more.So what happens to Linux then?The recent happenings suggests that it still has a lot of life left in it.The emergence of sub-notebook, mobile internet device and smart phone markets should help its uptake.