I’ve written before about how Dell should at a minimum standardize on one release of Ubuntu for use across all of their Ubuntu computers, preferably with the latest release of Ubuntu.

In order to clarify some confusion, Dell explained why they are choosing not to upgrade to a newer version of Ubuntu. Basically, they don’t think that the average consumer cares what version of Ubuntu they get and using the LTS will keep costs down and increase stability. If a few features are needed, they can be backported.

This position makes perfect sense, except that it doesn’t seem consistent with the rest of what Dell is doing, since they are currently selling exactly one notebook with Ubuntu 9.10, which is neither the LTS or the newest release.

I agree with what Dell says most of the time, but sometimes what they do isn’t consistent.

Psystar emerged a year ago as a small company trying to sell “open” Macs: computers without an Apple sticker than still run OS X. In the beginning, all the odds seemed to be against them. They were a small company and Apple is a big company. They were clearly in violation of the EULA that accompanies OS X and their hacks were in question. It didn’t look good for them when they first arrived on the scene.

All of this is still true today, except that the tide has changed. Now, rather than suggesting that Psystar better get out of this fast or else they would be killed by Apple in court, most people are speculating on how big of a threat Psystar really is to Apple. Not everything has gone according to plan for Psystar, who got their original countersuit thrown out, but on the whole they’re not doing bad.

Early on Apple claimed that Psystar was being financially backed by major computer manufacturers, hoping to test the waters without risk. This rumor was given some credibility as Psystar completely ignored efforts to settle out of court, which most other small companies would likely have done, and hired high-profile lawyers for the case.

It is certainly not clear that any money actually changed hands between Psystar and secret supporters, but, even if they are doing it unintentionally, Psystar is clearly being the test dummy for the rest of the computer manufacturer world. You can bet that Dell and HP are watching closely as Psystar continues to survive and improve their standing relative to Apple.

Psystar itself may never cause any harm to Apple, since they are so small, but their continued existence has got to be tempting the big names. Once the big names in the computer making industry arrive, the game changes. Apple is not going to die if Psystar still stands at the end, but they will certainly have to adjust to a more Microsoft-like strategy.

Let’s play identify an advertiser:

“I’m just not cool enough to be a Mac person.”

Who is paying for that ad? Microsoft.Yes, Microsoft.

I’ll give Microsoft some credit for trying, but they just can’t seem to get an ad right. In fact, their last few ads have looked more like parodies than real ads. This one is no exception.

The ad above is intended to make fun of Apple’s premium (to put it nicely) prices, pointing out the better value you can get with a PC. That’s all fine and sounds like a  good idea in the current economy, but I think they could have done a better job than telling all their viewers they’re not cool enough for Macs.

Regardless of what you think about Microsoft and Apple, the subject of this ad makeas a lot of sense; however,  unfortunately, the implementation was not quite so smooth. Next time, don’t tell everyone they’re not cool enough.

(Photo licensed under Creative Commons Atribution Share-Alike 2.0 Generic, based on image by Daniel Morris)

UsbSanwiches, a leading supplier of high-quality USB-powered sandwiches and toast, has announced version 2.0 of their Automated Sandwich Creator Solution (or ASCS for short). The first version, released shortly after this famous comic, made it easy for Linux users to feed themselves without leaving their familiar terminal environment, simply by typing sudo make me a sandwich. (For obvious reasons, sandwich creator requires root privileges; you wouldn’t want just any process cranking out sandwiches.)

Version 2.0 of this incredible time-saver offers two browning options (-b for brown and -B for burnt) and a continual sandwich creation mode for speed-eating competitions and extreme hunger. The ASCS can be purchased for $99 from here.

This fake product inspired by the incredibly awesome Sudo Robot.