Paul Rubens

If you ask Microsoft’s COO Kevin Turner, he’ll tell you this: “Vista today, post-Service Pack 2, which is now in the marketplace, is the safest, most reliable OS we’ve ever built. It’s also the most secure OS on the planet, including Linux and open source and Apple Leopard.” That’s what he said at the MidMarket […]

Which lasts longer: an Apple computer or a jelly baby? One reason Apple will never supply enterprise operating systems is that the company treats its customers’ investments in its products with contempt. It encourages them to buy machines based on a particular processor or OS, only to turn around and abandon it as the company […]

Hold on to your horses! The wheels could be about to come off the OS X Apple cart. The Cupertino-based gadget-maker is well known for its highly successful iPhones and excellent iPod media players, but it is still trying to convince the world that it is serious about its legacy computer business as well. The […]

A competitive market, in which a number of producers offer a variety of similar products that all have their own unique selling points, is good for consumers. That’s because producers gain customers only by tailoring products to match consumers’ demands. Or put another way, consumers can look at a selection of competing products and choose […]

The collapse in value of Sun’s shares during the past 12 months is so comprehensive that it makes some bank shares look like shrewd investments in comparison. The company’s share price has been heading progressively south for the past year, from $21.55 to as low as $2.60 — a staggering fall of more than 86 […]

Companies concentrating their datacenter automation efforts on server automation are making a strategic mistake. That’s the view of Glenn O’Donnell, a senior analyst at Forrester Research. He believes what’s needed is a more holistic view of datacenter automation. “It’s misguided to give server automation all your attention,” he said. “You have to look at servers, […]

Poor old Apple. Every time it arrives at a party it seems like the caterers are packing away the empty champagne crates, and the cool young things are moving on to the next hot place to strut their funky stuff. Apple has yet to make an entrance at the enterprise server operating system party. For […]

A few weeks back in OS Roundup I wrote a piece about Apple, which generated a fair level of response, so I thought it would be sensible to take another look at it. As well as pointing out that I share a name (albeit spelled differently) with the TV and film character Pee-wee Herman, many […]

Of all the announcements to come out of last week’s LinuxWorld expo in San Francisco, the two most interesting takeaways are Ubuntu’s imminent assault on the enterprise space and the fact that the rise of community Linux distros in large organizations is at hand. A well-timed series of announcements from Canonical (the company behind Ubuntu), […]

Why use an operating system other organizations have rejected? That’s a question many enterprises will be asking themselves when considering moving some or all of their Windows desktops to Microsoft Vista. A small minority of organizations run Linux or Mac OS X on the desktop and have no interest in Vista for that reason. But […]

Here’s a great idea to put to your CIO: Why not run the company using a server operating system made by Mattel? It’s the company behind Barbie and Hot Wheels (not to mention Tumblin’ Monkeys), so it certainly knows a thing or two about toys. Maybe its designers have enough time to put together an […]

Apple’s 160GB iPod Classic, introduced last September, is a music and movie lover’s dream machine. But for IT departments, it’s a security nightmare. That’s because any employee can plug this pocket-sized USB storage device into their computer and use it to steal vast amounts of corporate information, including mailing lists, databases, financial records and confidential […]