Next Gen Developer

Here's a question for you?  Are Microsoft losing market share to the world of open source? 

Recently there has been a lot of work being done with the Linux operating systems to port it over to Mobile devices.  MontaVista creators of Mobilinux and the open source linux os used by Nokia provided by Maemo.org are getting a serious hold on this market area now. 

An article from The Feature really does manage to sum this up well.  It's funny, they have done the analysis of the market that I was part way through doing.  A colleague of mine was jumping up and down saying look, look Nokia are providing a full Linux OS on a PDA!!!! Then I had a conversation with someone else about it all and they were saying about a number of companies moving away from the MS mobile OS because of the security risks.  So it all made me wonder quite a bit about this. 

My general train of though on this one is that Microsoft don't seem to have managed to penetrate the market well enough to become established as the main stream, with the mobile phone providers dictating the OS that they require.  Unfortunately the MS OS doesn't seem to fit the requirements as well as Linux and a number of operating systems. 

I was quite excited when I heard that you could use the complete Mono libraries and use C# to develop for the Nokia PDA... it certainly does show the potential of using the small footprint Linux system instead of a Microsoft one. 

Microsoft have also not done themselves any favours by not bearing in mind the size of the ROM in older mobile phones so that all phones can be upgraded to the new OS.  They have lost a huge potential market here and it is such a shame.  I just hope that they realise what they are missing out on otherwise they could find themselves cut out of the market. 

Would that be a bad thing?

I think  I must be a little insane... I did the London to Brighton bike ride on Sunday in the blazing sunshine!  It was beautiful weather but I was soooo glad to have plenty of water and fuluids.  It was hard work but so enjoyable.  I am even considering doing it again some time.  (Hopefully when it is less crowded!) It's definately good for catching the sun... I have some funny lines where my shorts and T-shirt were.... but at least I didn't end up sunburnt, unlike some people I know who were there!

I managed to complete the entire trip, including a half hour stop off to fix toe clips on my bike and get more water, in 5 hours.  Not too bad considering I had virtually no training and a couple of days of practice on my bike.  I didn't manage to cycle all the way up the killer beacon, but that can be done another time when I have had a chance to train for it.  They do say practice makes perfect!

I just wanted to say thank you to EVERYONE who sponsored me it was greatly appreciated and it was constantly in my mind that I had to finish the ride as a result!  Also I managed to avoid a couple of big accidents.  I just hope those poor people were alright in the end. (Note to self: ALWAYS wear your CYCLE HELMET!!!)

Statistics:

Total Milage: 54 Miles

Top Speed: 38.5 mph (I got scared to go any faster in case I never finished!)

Average Speed: 11.5 mph (Lots of people - my usual average is about 13 - 15 mph)

Once again thank you to everyone for their support and help, especially the guy who helped me put the toe clip back on my bike... Without that I would have been totally at a loss. 

Sarah

ps.... back to reality and technology... Photo's to follow