We use IBM’s Lotus Sametime as our IM client at work. And i like to be signed in all the time even on my Arch machine at home. Pidgin does support sametime protocol, but through an external library called meanwhile. Although most popular distributions have meanwhile in their main repos, Arch does not. It has the meanwhile library in AUR. And due to this, the pidgin in Arch has meanwhile support disabled....
Taken from The Linux and OpenSource blog: If you’re buying a new computer in the near future, it may be a good idea to avoid systems with Phoenix bios on them. There’s recent proof that their 2003 contract with Microsoft has born fruit in their latest bios versions which now prevent you from installing any OS other than Vista. Not only is this a really, really bad move by Phoenix, but it’s also another strike against Microsoft as it seems to be trying to become uber monopolistic in the PC market again simply by locking out anyone and everyone they can....
Windows Vista will be the last big Windows operating system. Further more, Microsoft is losing its grip on the desktop to business solutions built on SaaS, open source and virtualization. These are the conclusions put forward by analysts from Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs’ perspective on Windows Vista is not singular. In fact, the view that Vista is the last client operating system from Microsoft has been perpetuating itself even before the product hit the shelves....
Microsoft has managed to put itself in an uncomfortable position after serving malicious code to Windows Live Messenger users via ads embedded in the instant messaging client. According to the Redmond Company, actions were taken swiftly in order to remove an advertisement banner featured for several days in the IM program that pointed to a “security†solution delivering anything but security. “We have learned that Microsoft was notified of malware that was being served through ads placed in Windows Live Messenger banners....
Windows Vista is on the shelves! Available for the general public, not only for enterprises, everyone can upgrade the current Windows XP or buy the brand new OS from Microsoft. Due to different reasons like high hardware requirements, software incompatibility or the price, some people cannot afford to do the migration, at least not in the near future. Of course there are also the conservative users who attached themselves too much to the XP that now they hesitate to make the move believing in its endurance....