There’s a lot of hype at the moment about Splashtop, Hyperspace, Presto and other “instant on” Linux desktops that are supposed to give you access to everything you possibly need without having to wait for Windows to start.

As I was planning to reformat my laptop soon I thought I’d try them out and see if the dream was actually real for either me or my family. Sure, I work for Microsoft but before joining here I used OSX and various Linux client configurations so I’m open minded. I have also been using Win7 for quite a while so I set that as the bar.

Splashtop

First up was Splashtop. Sadly there’s no end user configuration for that. You have to have hardware with it installed on. If anyone wants to lend me a netbook with this on to have a play with I’d love to see how it stacks up, but I suspect it’ll face the same problems I encountered with the other two.

Hyperspace

Hyperspace was the first one I could actually install and play with. Installation is pretty simple for the end user considering that it re-partitions your hard drive and makes itself the default OS. I’d really have liked it to give me the choice what I wanted as default and you should be aware that re-partitioning on the fly can be pretty dangerous (and the uninstaller did not remove the redundant partition automatically which was a real pain)

The desktop in Hyperspace is heavily locked down. There is a fixed toolbar that includes some apps I would never use and links to sites I’d never visit. If the product was free and made money based off the click-thoughts I could accept it but as this actually expects me to part with money I don’t think that’s okay.

Installing other apps seemed to be pretty limited so if you want a different Instant Messenger client or browser you’re probably out of luck. There doesn’t seem to be a native mail client so if you’re not online and able to do everything in the cloud you’ve got a fast booting paperweight.

Oh, and USB mice are not supported so you’d better like your trackpad!

Ease of installation was great, but on the whole the downsides were too much given that startup wasn’t that much less than the fully functional Win7 build on the same machine.

The limitations are such that I didn’t even want to put this in front of the family as an option. While I’m sure Rhiannon would have been able to play games there’s no integrated iPod experience.

Presto

Xandros Presto was a lot more pleasant an experience overall. The installation was, like Hyperspace, pretty straight-forward though it has the advantage of not creating its own partition, it installs into the existing Windows NTFS file system. It doesn’t make itself the default OS so you have a few seconds after a reboot to choose it otherwise your normal Windows desktop starts up.

Uninstall was equally clean (though I have since re-installed it!)

Similar to Hyperspace again this isn’t free, though there is a trial period so you can kick the tires. Xandros have been in business for quite some time with a user friendly Linux distribution with an integrated applications catalog that makes it easy to find, try and buy applications. They’ve followed the same model here but it’s more flexible than the other options.

There is a default toolbar docked with some apps already loaded but their forums show you how to get to the underlying OS to change, reconfigure and generally do what you need to do – always assuming there isn’t a GUI app that you can download from the catalog to solve the problem.

The biggest issue I have with Presto is that the app catalog offers older versions of some of the apps I wanted to use. Evolution Mail and the Exchange Connector for instance were not current enough to connect to our Exchange server (though the IMAP/Gmail connector worked fine) and there’s no link to Chrome as an alternative browser. I was however able to install the Moonlight Linux port of Silverlight without any problems and the pre-installed Flash version was okay for casual games.

Because Presto runs from the same disk partition as Windows I was able to access files from the main operating system which was a bonus.

… but is it worth 30 seconds?

Both Presto and Hyperspace start up about 30 seconds quicker but seem to have significant functionality issues that mean unless what you want to do is web based, and you have a connection, there’s not much advantage.

The Linux desktops are getting better but still lag behind OSX and Windows in usability (especially the later Win7 builds) and while Presto does let the user under the covers to tweak you’re really heading down the rabbit hole into another world if you’re just looking for a simple solution.

Because they’re stripped back they are fast – performance was great, but as most real operations are going to be web bound that’s not really a huge selling point.

I didn’t notice significantly better battery life with either of the solutions. Maybe if they were installed on a Flash drive and the hard drive spun down totally we’d see some benefit. Hardware issues like the lack of a USB mouse, wired ethernet not working properly and lack of support for the full screen resolution on my laptop makes me think that they’re not quite there yet…

With Win7 having much better support for low end hardware I think the choice for an operating system for low end machines (or quick startup) is going to become much more hotly contested in the future than it is today where the competition is Vista.

In an interesting twist on the commonly held view that OSX is much more secure ZDNet has actually done some testing and dispelled a lot of the rumors and replaced them with some cold hard facts.

X Extremely critical
H Highly critical
M Moderately critical
L Less critical

I guess it goes to show that a lot of the superiority OSX was able to claim in the past came from it's very low marketshare making it a less popular target for exploits, but as that share and awareness has grown it's become a juicier target. Like Flash (which has also been exposed recently as a cause for concern) I hope Apple step up to the plate and make a difference early in 2008.

It's interesting to see how the testing also confirms that Microsoft have done a good job in improving the security of Vista over WinXP - hopefully Service Pack 1 will continue this trend in the right direction.

It's the sort of article that ThinkSecret would have had as front-page news... if Apple had not litigated them to the wall.

A few years ago I bought a Powerbook for one reason – to do compatibility testing of websites I was developing on the Mac.

Okay, so I was seduced by the dark side and still enjoy the occasional foray into their sleek and shiny hardware and (thanks to the likes of Parallels and Fusion) software … all without having to leave Vista for very long.

Now though Safari is available for Vista and at first glance it's good. On the first few sites I've visited rendering is mostly fine with performance maybe not quite as good as they claim but pretty swift.

I had one un-reproducible crash (but that's happened to me in IE and Firefox as well) and one XML DOM related error (that I clicked the "bug" button and reported. I love the "bug" button and wish MS would put it in all their products)

I wonder if they view iTunes and Safari as “teasers” for OSX… in which case I hope the Safari port has a lot more going in its favor than iTunes for Windows (that app does a good job of convincing me that Apple don’t know how to develop a good user experience!) and if it's going to help or hinder adoption of their new platform.

Alternatively Safari on Vista might just be a way to make sure PC developers can compatibility test their apps for the iPhone without having to buy a Mac...

I've been playing around with a shiny MacbookPro recently which I've got set up with BootCamp (and sometimes trying our Parallels and Fusion to get Vista and OSX playing nice together).

Sadly I've noticed some little things that, like my earlier complaints about iTunes, lead me to wonder if Apple are not living up to their legendry usability reputation with their Vista support, or if it's a deliberate tactic?

Using the MacbookPro under BootCamp with it's built in keyboard:

• Why do I have to hit Fn+Delete to delete something? It causes me pain in Internet Explorer, in Outlook, in several other apps. Hitting Delete on its own sends a backspace which has all sorts of unexpected and unintended results... and as I keep forgetting to hit the Fn key I end up cursing. I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to make the keymapping user controllable?
• Why doesn't the keyboard backlighting work? I love it in OSX. It makes typing late at night so much easier. But in BootCamp I don't get the option any more. I'm sure it's not going to be rocket science to write (after all, there are Microsoft and 3rd party keyboards on the market for Vista that already have this capability) Update: Looks like BootCamp 1.3 will support this for MacbookPros. Shiny ;)
• I like the fact that the Front Row remote works with iTunes under BootCamp, but like remappable keyboard buttons I'd love to be able to use it with the media player of my choice (for instance SongBird). I'd also like it to be able to control the media player without forcing me to hit the "menu" button to bring it to the foreground - no more running it minimised and being able to control it. The Keyspan remote has this facility which makes it so much more useful.

These are not big issues, but little frustrations that, like the issues with Parallels and Fusion, stop this solution being "prime time".

Which leads me on to another frustration with iTunes... On our home machine we have a combined library of music, but three users who can log on. Of course you can only have iTunes running on one profile at a time (so if someone forgets to close iTunes the others are locked out until they find out who it was that had it open) and even if you point the Library to the same directory it doesn't share the library and playlist meta-data. And to sync the three iPods we have in the house (a 3G, a Nano and a Shuffle) you have to log into the correct users account as well.

On the iTunes frustration subject... why does it play so badly with media keys on keyboards. My MS natural keyboard can happily control Windows Media Player, and my old Vaio T27GP media keys would control WMP or Songbird out of the box, but needed a third party add-on for iTunes.

Windows Media, SlimDevices and Songbird handle these situations so much more elegantly that once again you have to wonder why Apple just don't seem to get it....

Actually, on the subject of media keys... I'm surprised the MacbookPro doesn't include them on that huge expanse of keyboard surface.

Still on iTunes... if all I want is QuickTime (rare, but there are some media sites that like it) why do I have to installed iTunes just to get it? 

A while ago I tried using Parallels on the MacbookPro. I thought it was pretty cool, especially the coherence mode but it fell down because it wouldn't let me use the Vista Bootcamp installation. I thought that was pretty lame.

Looking around I discovered VMWare (which powers the Moka5 engine) now have a similar product in beta called Fusion.

Fusion has a couple of pretty major advantages over Parallels in that it works with the BootCamp partition and it can take advantage of both cores of the host machine - so performance it pretty good compared to parallels (in fact, it's comparable to running native under BootCamp)

Sadly there are a few issues with the current beta compared to Parallels which make it less fun. For a start there's no coherence mode (which I think is pretty awesome for seamless integration. Update: Unity is coming) and, annoyingly, the window doesn't resize automagically when you stretch the container (my bad. fiddle with the settings and it works just fine).

Both Parallels and Fusion do a great job of allowing an OSX user to access the goodness of Vista, thought at the moment Fusion is inching ahead for me - it means I can develop a Silverlight application under Vista, reboot to OSX and test it in Safari.

It's going to be interesting to see where both VMWare and parallels go with their products in the coming months - they're pretty much in direct competition so it's going to be a feature war... which is always good for users ;)

While I think the Parallels interface is really good at the moment, VMware have been around and playing in this field (and I know folks who work there - hi Reid!) so time will tell...

I've been using a couple of MacbookPros recently, one with Vista installed under Boot Camp and one with it installed under Parallels so I could access it from OSX.

To try and get the best of both worlds I tried to install Parallels on the Boot Camp machine to get it to work with the Boot Camp partition....

No luck getting it worked (the option was un-selectable) to I emailed Parallels support to see if it was an option.

I'd hoped for a work-around, or at least a "coming soon" update.

What I got was less helpful:

Hello,
Thank you for contacting Parallels support.
Sorry, but we won't provide Vista support with Boot Camp.
Best regards, Sxxxx Rxxxxx.

Pretty sad really. It means I've either got to use an extra Vista licence and run two versions on the machine (with all the associated trouble of remembering what's installed where) or go for one of the two compromises - either have to reboot every time I want to use OSX (and not be able to run and test an IIS hosted Silverlight application in Safari) or only run from Parallels and put up with the performance hit (what's the point of having two cores and only being able to use one of them most of the time)

Now I don't know if the problem with getting this to work lies with Parallels, Apple or Microsoft but it strikes me as being in the interest of at least the first two (and probably Microsoft as well) to get it working.... currently there's no compelling reason to buy a Macbook Pro for me when Toshiba, Lenovo, Dell etc all have better value hardware. That in turn means I don't buy a Parallels licence or get good exposure to OSX

So it looks like, for the time being at least, it's back to using my Vaio for Vista and my rather old (RevA 877Mhz 12") Powerbook for OSX testing.

One thing that bugs me using mobile WiFi hotspots is having to go to the providers initial webpage and enter my details before I can use the service.

On the laptop it's a pain (especially if you close it down while you have a cup of coffee and have to log back in again) but when I'm using my K-Jam it's really annoying as you have to fiddle about with the browser, tap in a username and password and hope that their javascript works right on the phone browser ... just to check email.

It's even funnier in Tullys where all you have to do is agree to the terms and conditions, but have to do it before you can proceed (but it's worth it for the Yerba Mate!)

But my frustration is now ended thanks to Devicescape.

All you have to do is set up your profile on their site and download their app to your PC or device (works for me fine on both Vista and my K-Jam) and then when you encounter a defined hotspot as if by magic it does all the login nonsense for you and you're up and running without having to think about it.

I've only been using it for a couple of weeks, but I was in the UK last week and used a hotspot that I'd not defined (annoyingly it was the UK branded T-mobile who don't seem to roam well with their US compatriots) and I found it quite frustrating to reconnect my phone there.

Places that charge by the hour and give you a code you have to enter to enable access (and keep a "ping" window open to confirm connection) are still a nuisance but as the roaming across hotspots improves I'm hoping one day to be able to go anywhere in the world and not have to think about connecting but just enjoy ubiquitous connectivity with services like Devicescape performing magic in the background.

As a sometimes OSX user I have to admit there are some little things in that OS that I like and miss when I'm using a PC. Expose used to be one (though the new Vista task switcher is cool, and you get some good functionality if you install IntelliMouse drivers), and the Dock was another.

One great add-on for Vista that I've discovered recently is RocketDock - a very capable facsimile of the OSX dock with some specific Vista goodness (my two favorites are being able to see previews of running applications, and set dock icons to open the active application rather than a new one)

There are a number of docklets available to add extra functionality for the dock but the ones I've had a quick play with so far fall foul of the Vista security model so I might have to wait a while until I can move the start bar into the dock.

Ah, I still remember being able to do these things in OS/2 Warp!

Another good Vista task switcher worth having a look as is called Switcher which performs a number of layout and short-cut functions very well, and isn't written from the perspective of trying to emulate the OSX implementations.

The third little challenge in my self-set WPF/E niche was to see if it was possible to deliver an all-singing all-dancing WPF/E experience from an ad server to a page that had no WPF/E code in it at all.

Well, this turned out to be a little harder than the earlier video re-sizer and overlay samples but again like both it turns out that WPF/E is really fun to work with - doesn't matter if you're hacking code in Notepad or working in a full Visual Studio environment (and don't forget the free Visual Studio Express) it's quick and easy.

Remember, this is only the first technology preview of WPF/E with a lot more goodness to come! More functionality, performance, stability will only make these things easier.

If you want to see this (and the other samples) full screen you can open them in their own window.

When I first heard the specs on the Apple iPhone I must admit I felt the drool starting. There is so much about this thing to like.

Apart from the fact it uses a weird mash-up of Google and Yahoo to provide the web search and services backend (when we have a much better solution with Windows Live Search, Messenger etc for Mobile - and Steve, we've had this going for a while now... it's not revolutionary) this is a pretty amazing device in many respects.

Apple are, if nothing else, masters of design. This looks pleasing, easy to use and capable. And despite Robbie Bach's misgivings on their ability to execute they appear to have come close to exceeding everyone's expectations.

The fact that this is an OSX device with support for a bunch of cellphone standards as well as WiFi and Bluetooth, sports a large touch screen that can cope with multiple points of contact, knows where it is in the world as well as it's orientation and how close to your face it is makes for a pretty capable platform.

On top of that add a standards compliant, fully featured browser (Safari) and a decent HTML mail client - without forgetting that it's also a phone and music player with all the polish of an Apple designed UI it's going to be popular.

Or is it?

Kevin Wilson has a good point:

My take on the iPhone? It's an awesome product. But I don't think its going to make a dent in Research In Motion's (RIMM) business. I don't see myself going away from a device with a keyboard. I think iPhone is going to be a big hit in the consumer smartphone market (with the caveat that the price point is an issue). But for mobile mail, there isn't a better device than the blackberry and I've tried them all.
I also think the exclusive deal with Cingular is nuts. Why force people who want an iPhone to switch carriers? Apple is an obnoxious company. They make wonderful products that blow me away. But I really dislike their approach to business.

And he's not alone though the nay-saying is, I think, waiting until more people have had this in their hands - though if they can't resolve their trademark dispute with Cisco (and Citrix) it might be under a different name. 

My take on it is that it's not perfect. It lacks 3G support (important outside of the US) and the forward facing camera that are required to do that properly. It's also very shiny - are we going to see the same saga of scratches and fingerprint residue that's plagued many of the iPod versions?

Battery life seems a little low for a device that's going to be always on, and always with you... and I wonder if they've learnt anything from the non-replaceable battery issues of the iPod. Update: Seems not, and 9 more things they've not learnt.

My first thought was "I want one" but overnight reflection says "wait for 2.0". At the moment I'm getting along fine with my K-Jam and Windows Mobile does everything I need... though not everything I want.

It'll be interesting to see how Microsoft (and the Window Mobile hardware OEMs) and the "traditional" cellphone companies (along with Symbian etc) respond to this.

I was bemoaning only recently that I don't want to carry both a Zune and a cellphone on my hip and look like Batman.. for many I think the iPhone will balance the need and the nerd sufficiently to raise the bar for consumers in this space.