November 2007 - Posts
That's right. In my enthusiasm I even installed the whole MSDN. Don't you just love new bits.
Perhaps this will even halt my ivory tower architectures and help me to get my hands dirty again writing code.
According to Andreas Bitterer, VP Research at Gartner we are at the verge of the great battle between mega vendors and their ecosystems.
SAP vs. IBM vs. Microsoft vs. Oracle. I can only see the need for greater synergy between vendors.
Are the vendors prepared to do that?
The weekend is great for easy reading so here goes.
I am writing this while removing the crapware from my new Lenovo Thinkpad X61 Tablet. This Thursday I placed my order at Bluelink (a Dutch Lenovo (IBM) specialist) and received it the next day. Final spec. Intel Core 2 Duo 1.6GHz, 2.5GB, 12.1” Multiview/MultiTouch XGA (1024x768) TFT, Intel GMA X3100 graphics, Intel 965 Express Chipset, 120GB (5400 rpm), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 4-cell battery, etc. Since I travel more frequently I need a compact and low weight notebook. My company supplies me with an excellent 15” Thinkpad but I never bother carrying it around. Besides 15” notebooks and European airlines don’t mix well.
It took me quite some time to make up my mind what new hardware to select. As an early adopter I have developed this love-hate affair with Vista. The numerous crashes of Internet Explorer 7 and Office 2007 kill my productivity. The biggest disappointment is the 15-20% performance decrease with my NVidia 7800 GTX which has completely stopped me from playing PC games. I seriously considered a MacBook (pro), and if Steve would have released a stable version of Leopard, and announced a release date for his ultra thin or tablet MacBook I would have taken the plunge. It would have been priceless to see the faces of my audience while presenting a Microsoft oriented talk on an Apple. It was time to move on so I decided in favor of the X61.
...on to more important stuff .NET 3.5
A while ago I wrote that I was in the market for a MacBook. Now don’t get me wrong, I still am. It is just that I decided to wait for the 12” or 13” LED-backlit MacBook Pro and the rumored ultra thin model. When is that thing hitting the store, anyway.
Then I met Chad Hower at the SDC in September, and Chad convinced me that I should consider getting a tablet PC instead. Since I’m doing less development work lately and find myself traveling a lot more than I thought I would, a tablet all of a sudden makes sense.
After some research I narrowed down my options to two models. The first model is the Lenovo ThinkPad X61. I used my company ThinkPad p40 quit a lot until the screen blacked out on me. For some reason I can’t be bothered to get it fixed, which says a lot about how I feel about this product. The second model is the Dell Latitude XT. This is Dell’s first attempt to enter the market with a tablet PC with an expected release in December. More likely it will be released early 2008 due to the slip of Vista SP1. This reminds me of the Lunachicks with luxury problem.
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