Broadband Market Consolidation

A change of subject for this post, as recent news articles may directly affect our customers, as many of them are using broadband providers we originally recommended.

Firstly, Brightview PLC have announced that, subject to shareholder approval, they have been purchased by British Telecom for just short of £16m. This affects the three current and many legacy brands run by Brightview, including Waitrose.com, freenetname, Global Internet, madasafish, care4free, ic24 and dialstart. The full story is available on:

• The Telegraph
• The Register

Next, PIPEX Broadband Ltd, part of PIPEX Communications PLC, have been sold to Tiscali UK Ltd for £210m. This affects the recent acquisitions of PIPEX as well, which includes (but is not necessarily limited to) Freedom2Surf, Homecall, Bulldog, Nildram & Toucan. The full story is available on:

• The Telegraph
• The Register

Unfortunately, this accounts for every broadband provider that we have ever recommended in recent years and we find ourselves in the same boat, potentially looking for a new provider.

Why? Well, BT's infrastructure is solid enough, almost every broadband product being sold be a wholesale purchase from BT or using their backbone network somewhere. However, their support is off-shored, if not out-sourced, and it is the experience of some of our customers that use BT already, that the support is less than comprehensively trained.

As an example, a DreamGenius customer, paying 090 premium-rate call charges to trouble-shoot the failure of her BT Yahoo! software, installed from their CD-ROM, was instructed to "uninstall Internet Explorer and Outlook Express, because there is a known conflict". Well, we'd defy the majority of Windows users to effectively uninstall either application and still have a working computer! Sure, you can disable them, even make them disappear, but not uninstall.

Similarly, Tiscali has always been viewed as a provider on the fringes of the mainstream internet service provision market but never really figured in the minds of the average broadband buyer. As such, they are somewhat of an unknown quantity but, being a major European company, and having shelled out a lot of money for PIPEX, are now perhaps looking to be taken seriously.

Sadly, we have no experience and therefore have no substantiated opinion to offer. The market is consolidating and there isn't much more of it to do. Now, when you pays your money and you takes your choice, it's from a much slimmer menu.

The Open Source Alternative

It's been a while since we last posted and, to continue but develop the current theme, we thought we'd move away from Linux a little and address the fundamental ethos behind this alternative operating system.

Open source software is exactly what it implies; the source code that makes it work is freely available to download, review, tweak or adapt, and pass on, subject to the terms of the licence agreement. Most such software is written and distributed under the GNU Public Licence (GPL) which is a universally accepted licence agreement for the development, amendment and distribution of open source software.

Linux is open source but not all open source is Linux, or even even Linux-compatible. It need not even be an operating system. The chances are that you're already aware of, and perhaps even using, open source software already - there are open source equivalents of Microsoft's favourites which are designed to run on Windows and address some of the perceived failings of Redmond's software development.

Arguably the most widely known suite of open source software, although many people don't perhaps actually know that it is open source, is the Mozilla internet suite; commonly referred to as Firefox (web browser) and Thunderbird (email client). Following wide-spread condemnation of the inherent security flaws in Internet Explorer and Outlook Express, or more importantly, the lack of speed exercised by Redmond in addressing substantiated vulnerabilities, Firefox and it's sister product Thunderbird quickly seized a sizeable chunk of the market share, outstripping longer established alternatives.

Firefox and Thunderbird are no less prone to bugs and/or vulnerabilities but, and herein lies perhaps the most convincing argument for using open source software, they are fixed rapidly by the developers, often before the bug/vulnerability is even widely publicised - they don't wait until the monthly patch download. It's that, and the dynamic development of extensions, themes and plug-ins by third party developers that appears to have made Mozilla so popular.

Another very convincing argument for open source software is its very nature; the code is freely available and therefore it's very difficult to hide malicious code snippets in it. Something that appears to be far more prevalent in the open source than in the proprietary world is the validation of downloads using an MD5Sum. This is a simple validity check, but not infallible. If a download fails the MD5Sum check, it's usually either corrupt or tampered with and shouldn't be loaded either way.

A lesser known but equally useful open source software suite is Open Office, the free version of Sun's Star Office, cited as the main rival to Microsoft Office. Being perfectly honest, and a Power User of Microsoft's offering, it has to be said that Open Office is not ready to take on it's rival in a toe-to-toe battle royal; it lacks quite a lot of the more advanced functionality and polish.

That said, Open Office wins over its Microsoft rival on three fronts, at least for the average user:

1. It's free; free to download, free to install on as many machines as you want, free to use
2. It will open the files of it's rival. even though they are proprietary and closed source. It will even produce files of the same format, readable by it's rival
3. It will also produce web pages and PDF (Portable Document Format) files natively, that is without having to buy additional software to do so or clear out pages of redundant code

So, you may not be ready for a whole new operating system but you like the ideas, morals and ethos behind the open source movement. You can download, install and use two suites of programs which cover off the bulk of the average users' needs, without spending an additional penny.

This post has been sparked by a couple of interesting articles posted on the BBC Technology News site, so it would be churlish not to link back to them in order that you can read an alternate viewpoint.

• BBC News Programs Click Getting the most from open source
• BBC News Technology Questions for Microsoft on open formats

More on other open source alternatives next time.

The Linux vs Windows Argument

We said we wouldn't evangelise about Linux and that's still true. However, people ask why they should move from Windows to Linux and it's actually very easy to evangelise when answering the question. The truth is that people are comfortable using what they know and understand, a perfectly understandable and justifiable position.

We have found two excellent essays which answer the question without, in our opinion, coming even close to evangelising. They're simply factual and knowledgeable without being excessive. They even point out positives of using Microsoft products. So, rather than risk being branded born-again Linux users, we'll let you read these two independant articles instead:

1. Why Linux Is Better
2. Linux is NOT Windows

Enjoy, become informed, and make up your own mind.

Trialling Linux as an alternative

For a few months now, we've been testing Ubuntu Linux as an alternative to Windows, and the initial results are very encouraging. Sure, it's not been without challenge or glitch, but what venture with a steep learning curve isn't.

To set the stage, Ubuntu is a distribution of the GNU Linux operating system. Strictly speaking, Linux is only a kernal, a core operating system, and what makes it one distribution or another is what additional software the backers of that distribution have included.

Ubuntu Linux was chosen after briefing trialling a number of other distributions because:

1. It has commerical backing, vendor (although it's actually free) support and an incredibly vibrant and supportive community forum
2. It is arguably the fastest growing and best known distribution currently, despite only having been around for since 2004
3. It has a regular upgrade and release cycle, which includes a Long Term Support version for those that don't want to be on the bleeding edge but stick with the tried and tested
4. It is possible to run Ubuntu from the CD/DVD, to try it out on your hardware and to see if you like it, before replacing Windows

This blog will never be a tutorial on installing or running Linux of any kind; there are plenty of other sites out there that do this far better. In the case of Ubuntu, there is the forum as well as the Psychocat Ubuntu pages, by one of the forum moderators, both of which has been used by us extensively in exploring Ubuntu and getting it set up the way we want it to be.

The reasons for trialling Linux have been covered in earlier posts and future developments will be the subject of subsequent posts. There will also be a few spin-off subjects, not least of which will be the whole tin of worms that is open source equivalents.

At this stage, suffice to say that DreamGenius regards Ubuntu Linux as a successful trial to date, to the point that it is installed on the main internet access machine. Why? Simply because Linux is less vulnerable to the internet nasties which are prevalent these days, for three simple reasons:

1. Linux is open source, which means that you can open and read the code that is running on your machine. It's therefore difficult to hide nasties in the code
2. There are fewer nasties out there which target Linux or any of the programs that run on it, possibly because of 1 above and also because there is no corporate entity to target
   
3. You don't automatically have full administration rights to your machine in user mode, so malicious code can't run easily or do very much damage if it does

As previously stated, it isn't Windows, so don't go citing this recommendation, installing Ubuntu and then expecting it to do everything that your Windows machine does, because it won't. It will however be an educational experience, and that's always a good thing.

DreamGenius is not a Linux or Ubuntu evangelist by any stretch, nor are we turning our back on Windows. We set out to trial Ubuntu Linux as an alternative home user operating system and first impressions show this to be a resounding success. More news as it breaks.

Upgrading Internet Explorer to Version 7

As is often the case, Microsoft release a new version of software under the guise of an update, and then find themselves in the embarrassing position of having to grant users the ability to roll-back that upgrade because it wasn't perhaps as polished as it should have been on release.

The latest version of Internet Explorer, IE7, is one such upgrade. Is it truly an upgrade? Well, visually, it is quite different from IE6, in that you can now have some of the privacy, security and configuration features that users of Firefox and even Avant have taken for granted for ages.

Tabbed browsing, where you can have different web sites open in one window, isn't a new concept, even to Internet Explorer; Avant has had it from the beginning and, ironically, Avant uses the Internet Explorer engine. In this regard, IE7 is just bringing Internet Explorer back up to the same level as all its competitors.

Security and privacy in Internet Explorer have always been concerns, which is why Firefox so rapidly became the next most popular browser on the market. Is this because Internet Explorer is bad? No, it's probably no more vunerable to attack and exploitation than any other browser but it takes Microsoft longer to acknowledge said vulnerabilities, then patch them.

Firefox made security and privacy much more visible to the end-user, allowing you to see what was going on and configure it to stop some or all of it. Sure, it might hamper your browsing experience when compared to Internet Explorer but, once you knew what you were giving up and why, it became an informed decision, not an imposition as with Internet Explorer, which made sweeping assumptions on your behalf.

This short-sighted approach has also been addressed in IE7 which, as previously cited, only brings it into the same league as its rivals and competitors. That said, in typical Microsoft fashion, it does it seamlessly. There is nothing on the market that integrates with Microsoft's operating systems quite like Microsoft's own products.

You can't uninstall Internet Explorer as it's too deeply embedded in the core operating system; you can only elect not to use it, openly. Using something else will use up additional disc space and memory but will likely be more secure in the short term, until Microsoft completes its next round of catch-up.

So, should I upgrade to IE7? At the time of writing, if you exclusively use Internet Explorer and no other browser, yes - definitely and quickly, without a shadow of doubt or hesitation. If you're one of those people who's already migrated or dabbles with a competing browser, then the choice is entirely yours, because you're sufficiently enlightened already to make up your own mind.

Alternatives to Windows

In a previous post, we opined on Vista or, more correctly, Microsoft's tactics for its wide-spread adoption by the computer-buying public. The parting question was: Is there an alternative? Of course there's an alternative; there are always alternatives. Microsoft do not have a monopoly on the desktop operating system, though they do have a vast majority and a captive audience.

The first alternative is Macintosh by Apple. We've had occasion to use these prior to entering the support arena and they are both easy to use and pretty robust. They're pretty too, for the most part, but aesthetics shouldn't be top of your list when buying a computer. Another plus point is that there are even Microsoft applications available for Macs, including the full Microsoft Office suite.

However, and it's a big one, Macintosh is not Windows. You can't just take your brand-spanking new Mac and install all your old software on it. Until recently, Mac OSX (the Macintosh operating system) would only run on Power PC hardware; Windows runs on Intel hardware. Incompatibility at that level is going to take time to overcome and, for as long as Intel hardware running Windows has the lion's share of the market, there's not really any incentive for it to change.

The second alternative is Linux and, just like Mac, this isn't Windows. Nor is it proprietary. The Linux operating system is not owned by any one corporate entity, indeed some would argue that it isn't owned at all. Sure, there are corporate bodies backing their own version but they're going to find it very hard to be a viable competitor for Apple, much less Microsoft. Advertising and growth of popularity is usually by word of mouth.

Before Linux users across the land spam our mailboxes with death threats and retribution, I'm not against Linux - quite the opposite. However, to overthrow the Microsoft throne is going to take more than a collection of disparate factions ... but we digress. Linux will run on both Intel and Power PC hardware. Unlike its proprietary cousins, the cost is minimal, in some cases free. The reason is its own non-proprietary nature; it's open source, which means that the code is available for your perusal, should you wish to. Try asking Microsoft or Apple for the same privilege!

Support for Linux is usually obtained from fora, often hosted by the provider of the distribution (distro). Not all distros are created equal, many distros are specialised in what they deliver, not all fora are as useful as their cousins/rivals. And rivals they are, for you can only run one operating system at a time. Sure, you can have one than one operating system installed but you can only run them one at a time.

If you're considering Linux on grounds of cost, think again - especially about what you use your computer for. If it's only for internet access, including emails, organising your digital photographs, sorting out your household accounts and writing the occasional letter, the migration will be simply a case of learning something a little different. However, if you're a Windows or Mac power-user, it'll be a whole lot different.

DreamGenius has been, for the last several months, using Linux on its main internet access computers, and with good results but that'll be the subject of future posts. We are not yet however in a position to support either Mac or Linux, it spite of the opinions offered above. These opinions are based on experience but that experience is insufficient to offer support in return for payment. Should you choose to explore either operating system, please do so with caution and not on the machine that contains data that you wish to keep.

Microsoft Vista - Support & Opinion

We have been asked our opinion on Microsoft Vista more than once now and that's a leading question, which we'll attempt to answer here and now. Why attempt? Well ... oh, just read on, please.

Firstly and most importantly, we haven't tested Vista - We don't yet own a copy. Why not? For that, read the second point as it applies equally to this company as any other. That said, it is an inevitability that we will have to but not before our customers have either saddled themselves with it or been forced into buying it. At that point, we'll be able to post our opinions and advice on its set-up, ease of use, functionality, security et al.

What follows is simply an opinion; it's based on personal experience, sound reasoning and market intelligence but it's still only an opinion. Vista is Microsoft's first new desktop operating system in five years, since XP - fact. Microsoft have a habit of beta-testing their products on their paying users - widely held opinion. Vista is significantly more resource-hungry than XP or any of it's predecessors - substantiated opinion. Microsoft are retiring Vista's predecessors by declaring them end-of-life and withdrawing support - fact.

Your point you ask? In our opinion, this adds up to Microsoft forcefully creating a market, not only for its operating system but also for the companies that have signed up to sell it and hardware capable of running it. So, to upgrade your computer to Vista, unless you're comfortably running XP with Service Pack 2 applied, and therefore still supported and not required to upgrade in the first place, you'll simply have to replace the computer too. That's a minimum outlay of about £350, on top of the cost of the operating system.

So what's your advice? Is there an alternative? We can't tell you not to buy Vista but you have to be aware that there will almost certainly be teething problems if you do. There are alternatives but they're the subject of another post ...

This blog is now in it's second edition

We created this blog some time back and didn't do anything with it. We also had a newsletter, which reached the dizzy heights of one edition, and then ran out of steam. It wasn't for lack of material, just lack of time to do a good job.

So we thought we'd try this for a while - a place where random snippets of news, advice, opinions, etc could be posted and you, the reading public, visit at your leisure. Obviously, we'd like you to visit often but that's down to us to change the content on a regular basis.

Your opinions are definitely sought. An email to blog@dreamgenius.com will suffice and almost certainly illicit a reply.