The “Break it Down” Blog

Microsoft Will Never Understand Usability – Vista Device Driver Security Example

We took our first look at Microsoft’s inbility to create something genuinely useful and a minature review of Vista when we evaluated Windows Vista Backup at the beginning of the year. The premise of that article being that by evaluating a single program, and all the usability/functionality flaws it had, you got an impression of [...]

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Is Java Becoming Irrelevant?

Update #1: To clear up any confusion, this article is focused on the business value of Java – it’s ability to control and generate revenue – not it’s value as a language or a technology. So the word “irrelevant” is applied to it’s business value, not if it’s a good technology or not. Sun Microsystems announced [...]

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RedHat Pushes Up Sun Schedule, Java Fragmentation Begins

If you didn’t see it, RedHat announced earlier this week that their completely Open Source Java implementation (IcedTea) had finally passed the Java Test Compatability Kit (TCK). While most folks rejoiced, I think there were a fair number of us that sighed and thought: Goddamnit, here’s the beginning of the Java fragmentation. Or if that not, were [...]

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