Windows 7 installed on multiple computers is an easy task, especially where compatibility and support issues. According to MS Windows 7, the machine can not play as well as the AMD / ATI's Radeon graphics processing unit (GPU) feature displays (PDP for) with built-in technology. Home Page Windows 7 distributed to a user's computer that they could not complete the installation to install the guest.

"Windows 7, the computer will be installed on a black screen during the installation process. Nevertheless, the installation will continue to work. If you are unable to complete the installation in this case. If you have only a black screen when dealing with the main multi-display the problem, "MS said.

MS was particularly uieseo AMD / ATI Radeon GPU under the influence of the above questions, including: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 (PCI \ VEN_1002 & DEV_9480); ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4670 (PCI \ VEN_1002 & DEV_9488); ATI Mobility The Radeon HD 4870 (PCI \ VEN_1002 & DEV_945A); ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4850 (PCI \ VEN_1002 & DEV_944A) and ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 (PCI \ VEN_1002 & DEV_9552). At the same time, Microsoft, Apple IMAC 27 "is included on the infected system is stressed.

Windows 7 DVD is over after the "AMD supports the PRP. As a result, Windows 7 for AMD's Radeon graphics driver does not support the ERP DVD in retail," MS said. "AMD's updated driver improvement has released EDP problem. Install this update to complete successfully the installation process must be included."

Microsoft has a simple solution that the customer is to provide a secondary monitor. In this context, all users on your computer before you install Windows 7 to be connected to the monitor. In this case, they finished the installation process will be able to view and later data processing by using Windows Update to fix the problem, install the updated driver.

In addition, the solution autounattend.xml response file and the latest graphics drivers and includes a USB flash disk is designed for advanced users. USB flash drive to copy the compressed graphics drivers for USB. To do so, the following steps: a Web site to download drivers for graphics adapters, AMD. Executable (. EXE file) to extract the driver. The program asks for an installation location such as C: \ ATI in the \ Support \. After the extraction is complete, you can find the installation folder noted in the previous step. Flash drives, USB to copy the installation folder, "he said in a statement MS.

Users can also create an answer file autounattend.xml need to open the file in Notepad at the bottom of the screen to copy the selected text in blue. autounattend.xml using the file must be stored in UTF - 8 form, and must be copied to a USB root directory.

"After you install the Windows 7 DVD, which eDP.Immediately DVD and then boot your computer by connecting a USB flash drive, an AMD Radeon GPU to run the computer. Follow the instructions to complete the installation process. When the first USB flash drive attempt to restart the system, "MS said.

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Microsoft’s Simon Aldous has been talking through his hat, the Windows maker claims, when the company's partner group manager stated that Microsoft tried to “create a Mac look and feel in terms of graphics” for Windows 7. As reports circulating on the Internet say, Aldous appeared to admit that Microsoft had looked at Mac OS X for inspiration. Microsoft vehemently denies this.

Via Neowin, the full quote from the respective interview has been reproduced below.One of the things that people say an awful lot about the Apple Mac is that the OS is fantastic, that it's very graphical and easy to use. What we've tried to do with Windows 7 – whether it's traditional format or in a touch format – is create a Mac look and feel in terms of graphics. We've significantly improved the graphical user interface, but it's built on that very stable core Vista technology, which is far more stable than the current Mac platform, for instance.

As the same report reveals, the people in Redmond immediately issued a counter-statement revealing that Aldous' comments were not only “inaccurate,” but downright “uninformed.” In a post on the Windows Team blog, Microsoft blogger Brandon LeBlanc stated the following:

An inaccurate quote has been floating around the Internet today about the design origins of Windows 7 and whether its look and feel was “borrowed” from Mac OS X. Unfortunately this came from a Microsoft employee who was not involved in any aspect of designing Windows 7. I hate to say this about one of our own, but his comments were inaccurate and uninformed.

While Microsoft cannot possibly admit Windows 7 mimics Mac OS X, the Redmond giant can’t hide the obvious – a great deal of people (and vocal ones, may we add) have given their verdict: Windows 7 does look like Mac OS X from quite a few perspectives. However, as this editor has stressed over and over again, there is a thin line between copying a product and using universally intuitive solutions for graphics, functionality, etc. There’s a limit to how much things can be changed just to be different from each other, yet still work for the customer. Do share your own opinion in the comments.

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Microsoft is offering users a chance to win a free copy of Windows 7 Ultimate as well as a Windows 7 T-shirt. Stephen L Rose, Sr community manager, Windows IT Pro Client, revealed that all that users needed to do was to fill out a short survey. The Redmond company has already put
up the IT Pro Internet Habits – IT Pro Internet Browsing Survey, which can be accessed through this link. As the label of the survey indicates, the software giant aims to receive feedback on the browsing habits of respondents.

After answering the seven simple questions, users will be granted a chance to win a free Ultimate SKU of Windows 7 and a T-shirt to go along with it. Microsoft has not indicated any sort of participation limitations at this point in time. Moreover, users who want to take the survey will need to fill in their email address and their country of residence, suggesting that the initiative is valid worldwide.

Essentially the survey is designed to provide Microsoft with an insight on the number of computers participants use, their preferred browser, as well on how they manage anonymous Internet browsing, and the deletion of cache and history data.

Microsoft is gearing up to make Windows 7 available to the public on October 22, 2009. The Redmond company confirmed the general availability deadline officially, and indicated that Windows 7, just as Windows Vista, would be launched globally. Ahead of GA, the software giant is preparing to wrap up the next iteration of the Windows client come next month. Windows 7 will be released to manufacturing in the second half of July 2009. However, Microsoft has already started planning details of the Windows 7 launch with its partners, both from the retail and the OEM channels.

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Placing Windows on a USB and booting it is not as easy as it may seem, mainly because Windows was not built for live sessions. For some GUI addicted users the result may not be at all what they expected, plus the functionality is cut off drastically. Virtualizing the operating system and running it from a removable storage device has its advantages but it will not pull you out of a jam in case the host operating system is damaged.

If you plan on rescuing data off a Windows-running machine or if you simply feel the need of an alternate operating system then Linux seems to be the solution. There are plenty of distros to choose from, with Ubuntu reigning over them through its ease of use and flexibility to run both installed on your machine as well as from a live CD.

Another Linux distro that can be handled with ease is Fedora. And in this case there is a little tool called Live USB Creator that will place the OS on the USB in about 6 minutes if the distro's image has been previously downloaded. Also, you get to choose which Fedora should be placed on the stick and the options vary from the 9th edition to the 11th, which is in alpha stage, for both 32-bit and 64-bit computers.

The entire process requires just a few clicks in a very easy interface and no wizard is required as all the options are right under your nose. It automatically detects the target devices and all you have to do is select one. In case you already have the image on your computer there is an option allowing you to use an existing Live CD.
The Live CD image is a generic name in the application as the file can be any ISO on your computer. Fedora Live USB Creator can be used for extracting absolutely any image to a thumbdrive with no problems. We tested the app with all sorts of images (Ubuntu Live CD was one of them) and they all worked like a charm.

No alert is present upon completing the image extraction to the removable drive, but the result is amazing as you will benefit from a fully functional operating system that comes integrated with generic drivers. The tool proves pretty useful when you try to rescue data off a system beyond recovery or if you just want to switch to an alternate, open-source operating system.

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Windows XP seems to have been among us for ages and, for those who have taken up computers only a few years ago, it may be perceived as the way to follow if you want to properly use a computer. Sure, this happens if you grow your computer skills in a Windows environment as there are other solutions on the market to choose from: Mac provides that clean and simple to handle environment, Linux makes available a myriad of distributions. I will stop to these two alternatives as they are the most spread OSs and benefit from the largest market share, for now.

But regardless of these two operating systems, Windows XP has risen above them and became the most popular OS of all times. But times are just beginning and it seems that there are parties wanting to combine all of XP's functionality, ease of use and adaptability to hardware, into one free of charge package. Makers and creators of ReactOS have taken upon themselves the task of building a Microsoft Windows XP compatible operating system. That is not to be confused with duplicating XP, as the ReactOS team try to develop a similar architecture that will permit the end user the utilization of ReactOS with the same ease as Windows XP.


This means the main goal is to make ReactOS so similar to Windows XP that complete binary compatibility is achieved with both applications and device drivers designed for windows NT and XP systems. The result would be an XP equivalent that is open source (anyone can modify it) so everybody can use it for free, no strings attached.

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An AppleInsider report claims that people close with Apple have gained knowledge of a seventh maintenance update to Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. According to those people, a test build of the software has been handed to developers who were asked to focus on core areas of Leopard.

“Apple this week is believed to have tapped its vast developer community to begin testing Mac OS X 10.5.7, a sizable maintenance and security update to the company's Leopard operating system with a particular focus on syncing improvements,” the report reveals. “The software reportedly boasts nearly six dozen code corrections and weighs a hefty 440 megabytes in barebones form.”

According to the source, the update is mostly aimed at fixing bugs spanning a wide range of system components and services. Among those components, AppleInsider mentions graphics drivers, Time Machine, printing services, screen sharing services, MobileMe syncing, AirPort services, text services, and iCal. Leopard's standard, forward-facing apps, such as Mail, AddressBook, and system preferences, are also in need of attention, the source claims. Developers were also asked to focus their efforts on a problem with Safari not accepting certain types of cookies.


Apple launched Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard in late October 2007. Since then,Apple has updated the software six times, including enhancements, bug and security fixes, as well as occasional UI changes. The company's every move is watched closely by those familiar with the next iteration of Leopard, Mac OS X 10.6 aka Snow Leopard. Apple is expected to release the new OS version sometime during this summer. We can trust the company to release the 10.5.7 maintenance update before WWDC '09.

The last update to Leopard was Mac OS X 10.5.6, arriving on December 15, containing Mac OS X security improvements, as well as fresh additions, such as a new Trackpad System Preference pane for portable Macs.

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The fourth alpha version of the upcoming Ubuntu 9.04 (codename Jaunty Jackalope) was uploaded a few minutes ago on the official mirrors. As usual, we've downloaded a copy of it in order to keep you up to date with the latest changes in the Ubuntu 9.04 development.

What's new in Ubuntu 9.04 Alpha 4? Well, the big news is that Nvidia and AMD have finally released some new and improved video drivers for Linux systems, in order to keep up with the latest technologies. Therefore, starting with this alpha, the Nvidia proprietary video driver has been added and it supports the latest X.Org server, version 1.6 (see screenshots three and four on the first row). ATI users will have to wait a little bit longer, as the fglrx proprietary video driver is not yet supported (it will be fixed until the Beta release arrives).

And now for the "hot stuff"... Starting with this fourth alpha release of Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope), the fonts will be automatically optimized based on your monitor's "skills." We've tested the release on two LCD monitors, a 19-inch DELL from 2006 and a 17-inch BenQ LCD from 2005. On the former, the fonts were automatically adjusted at 86 dots per inch, while on the latter, they were at 96 dpi, the default value. However, this can be further customized by the user from System -> Preferences -> Appearance -> Fonts -> Details. See the second screenshot on the third row and the second screenshot on the fourth row for details.

We've noticed another interesting thing in Ubuntu 9.04 Alpha 4... that the development team is trying to change the Ubiquity installer, in a good way! Therefore, the installer will now be displayed in full screen if the user chooses the "Install Ubuntu" option when the Live CD is inserted, and it will automatically detect the keyboard layout.

The wallpaper and the theme are still unchanged; the GNOME desktop environment has been updated to version 2.25.5, as well as most of its components. Among the applications that have been updated in this fourth alpha of Ubuntu 9.04, we can notice the final and stable OpenOffice.org 3.0.1, Brasero 0.9.1, the newly released Firefox 3.0.6 (see the last screenshot on the third row) and the kernel packages 2.6.28-6.17, based on Linux kernel 2.6.28.2.

Bugs? Hell yes... there are a lot of them in this release. For example there's two (yes, two) volume control applets. One of them can be removed, but the other one is built-in. I guess the developers didn't decide which one to keep. For more details, take a look at the first two screenshots on the second row. Moreover, icons can not be set to desktop shortcuts, and a few applications crash often and unexpectedly.

What's new in Kubuntu 9.04 Alpha 4? Well, as the developers said (again) in the release announcement... everything! The fourth alpha version of Kubuntu 9.04 brings the newly released KDE 4.2 desktop environment (see below for screenshots), the latest versions of Amarok 2, Quassel, KMail, Akonadi and Kdebluetooth. Last but not least, there is a brand new KDE4 Network Manager Plasmoid, which replaced the old knetworkmanager panel applet. Once again, a Live CD is available for everyone who wants to see for themselves what's new in Ubuntu 9.04 Alpha 4 and Kubuntu 9.04 Alpha 4 (see below for download links), without installing anything on the hard drive.

Free Download Ubuntu 9.04 Alpha 4

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The Windows Error Reporting (WER) infrastructure is one of the components of Windows that has evolved with the introduction of Windows 7. Designed as a set of event-based feedback technologies, WER can record and subsequently relay to Microsoft information about various software and hardware problems detected by Windows. The software giant will receive data on crash, hang, and kernel fault errors by default, provided that the end users accept to share the info with the company, but at the same time, WER goes much further via the application programming interface (API) delivered by Microsoft.

The Redmond company enumerated the "new WER features for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. [WER] adds the ability to raise an exception that bypasses all exception handlers thus terminating the application immediately and invoking Windows Error Reporting (the RaiseFailFastException function). Adds the ability to register an exception handler that WER calls when a crash occurs to collect the event name, reporting parameters, and debug launching options (the WerRegisterRuntimeExceptionModule function)."

According to Riyaz Pishori, program manager, Windows 7 applications and gadgets team, WER in Windows 7 is capable of capturing application failures, data which can highlight error trends and ultimately help developers pinpoint the root of the problems. Microsoft revealed the "functions that were added to [WER in Windows 7]: OutOfProcessExceptionEventCallback; OutOfProcessExceptionEventSignatureCallback; OutOfProcessExceptionEventDebuggerLaunchCallback; RaiseFailFastException; WerRegisterRuntimeExceptionModule; WerUnregisterRuntimeExceptionModule and the structures that were added: WER_RUNTIME_EXCEPTION_INFORMATION."

WER is already hard at work in Windows 7, with the public Beta of the operating system having been available for download since January 10, 2009. But the feedback infrastructure will continue to offer information to Microsoft well after the RTM stage of the platform.

"Related to failure recovery, Applications can also register with WER for restart on application of a Windows patch that terminates the application and on application of an update that reboots the computer, as well as failure caused due to an application crash or hang or not responding state. Applications can optionally register for recovery of lost data, can develop their own mechanism for recovery," Pishori stated.

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At the end of the past year, with Windows 7 Beta 1 wrapped up since mid-December, and Build 6.1.7000.0.081212-1400 leaked to BitTorrent websites, the obvious question was where was Microsoft going next with Windows 7? The answer, at least feature-wise, is not that far from the Beta. However, a representative of the Redmond company did confirm that there were secret features hidden inside Windows 7, even as the next iteration of the Windows client was in Beta stage, features that would be brought to the surface at an unspecified time in the future.

Following the public availability of Windows 7 Beta 1 Build 7000 downloads on January 10, 2009, I contacted Microsoft and asked them to confirm that the release was feature-complete, just as Steven Sinofsky, senior vice president, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, announced at the end of October and the start of November in 2008.


A representative of the software giant mentioned that no additional features would be added to Windows 7 past the Beta stage, but that users were bound to have a few surprises coming their way. “Windows 7 Beta is feature complete, however, we are keeping a few features back and will disclose them at a later date,” a Microsoft spokesperson revealed exclusively.

“The core development of Windows 7 is broken up into four dev milestones, M1, M2, M3, and beta. The pre-beta build is just our M3 build, it's the one that meets our exit criteria on feature completeness, performance,” Sinofsky stated at the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles, on October 28. “It's not feature complete yet. In fact, much of the user interface work, which of course is at the top of the stack and the last part to come in, will be complete when we get to beta.


“The next step is the beta. The beta is going to be feature complete. It's going to be pretty good. It's not going to be final. It's going to be a beta. So, we're still not ready for performance benchmarking. We're still not ready to try out how every single edge case works, but it is the complete product as we envision it,” Sinofsky added at PDC 2008. (emphasis added)


Then, on November 5, 2008, the same Sinofsky, but this time at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC 2008), explained that “The [Windows 7] beta is going to be on that's going to go out very broadly, and we're going to get that done early in the next year, and that really will be feature complete.” (emphasis added)

It appears that with the next development milestones of Windows 7, Microsoft is adopting a strategy similar to what it did with the M3 pre-beta release, namely locking some features of the operating system from its users. In this regard, Windows 7 pre-Beta M3 did not allow user access by default to Aero Peek, Aero Snaps, the new Taskbar (the Superbar), JumpLists, Aero Shake, etc. The company, of course, did not offer any indication as to what additional features it had hidden in Windows 7, on top of those enumerated here that have been offered in the Beta build, or when it planned to bring them to the surface.

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The Ubuntu 9.04 (codename Jaunty Jackalope) development will start in 4 days, on November 6th, and will conclude next year on April 23rd, with the final release. Make sure you check with our website, starting with November 20th when the first alpha will be released, as we will do a full coverage of the Ubuntu 9.04 development process. Without any further introduction, let's have a look at the release schedule:

November 20th, 2008 - Alpha 1 release
December 18th, 2008 - Alpha 2 release
January 15th, 2009 - Alpha 3 release
February 5th, 2009 - Alpha 4 release
February 26th, 2009 - Alpha 5 release
March 12th, 2009 - Alpha 6 release
March 26th, 2009 - Beta release
April 16th, 2009 - Release Candidate
April 23rd, 2009 - Final release of Ubuntu 9.04

For the Jaunty Jackalope, the development team will focus their efforts to fulfill certain tasks that are intended to make Ubuntu 9.04 the reflection of the most efficient understanding of the open source ensemble. The first one is the boot time decrease, mostly when the OS is tailored to a specific device, but also in the standard case. Another declared goal is the intention to blur desktop tools and web services, so that the former better integrate the web. And last, but certainly not least, all of Ubuntu will migrate to Bazaar, giving developers the unprecedented possibility to publish their changes and branch any Ubuntu package with a simple bzr command.

Ubuntu 9.04 or, should I say, "The Jackalope," will be the tenth release of the Ubuntu operating system. But, until then, we have another version that should attract our attention and invade our computers, Ubuntu 8.10 (dubbed Intrepid Ibex),

About Ubuntu:

Ubuntu is a Linux distribution for your desktop or server, with a fast and easy install, regular releases, a tight selection of excellent packages installed by default, every other package you can imagine available from the network, and professional technical support from Canonical Ltd. and hundreds of other companies around the world.

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Windows Vista was easily qualified as a resource hog in comparison to its precursor, Windows XP, but judging from the five-year gap separating the two clients, the label doesn't exactly fit. Some users, especially business customers, fear that after coughing up a consistent amount of money and upgrading their computers, or hardware infrastructure in the case of businesses, in order to accommodate Windows Vista, they will have to do it all over again, just a couple of years later, and in the context of a global financial crisis. This will not be the case.

In terms of system requirements, Windows 7 Beta reveals that Vista and its successor are on par. This means that users will not have to pay for a hardware upgrade just to accommodate Windows 7, if they are currently running Windows Vista on their machines. Those who have bought new machines tailored to Vista, beyond the Home Basic SKU, namely Home Premium, Business, or Ultimate editions, will also be able to run Windows 7 without any problems.

According to Microsoft, Windows 7 Beta's “Minimum recommended specs call for: 1 GHz 32-bit or 64-bit processor; 1 GB of system memory (RAM); 16 GB of available disk space; support for DirectX 9 graphics with 128 MB memory (to enable the Aero theme); DVD-R/W Drive; Internet access (to download the Beta and get updates).”

The Redmond company warned that the specifications could be modified during the development process of Windows 7. “These are the Microsoft minimum hardware recommendations for systems that will be running the Windows 7 Beta. These recommendations are specific to the beta release and are subject to change,” the software giant stated.

By comparison, the minimum system requirements for Windows Vista Home Premium / Business / Ultimate are: “1 GHz 32-bit or 64-bit processor; 1 GB of system memory; 16 GB of available disk space; support for DirectX 9 graphics with 128MB memory (in order to enable Aero theme); drive: DVD-R/W drive; Internet connection (to download the Beta and get updates),” Microsoft indicated. Windows Vista Home Basic can go as low as “800 MHz processor and 512 MB of RAM on a 20 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space,” the company claimed, but considering this system the OS would virtually be unusable.

I have been running Windows 7 Beta and pre-Beta on a laptop with under 2GHz processor and with just 1 GB of RAM, and in virtual machines with even less. Moreover, I have also been running Windows 7 Beta and the Milestone releases on a 3GHz Intel Core Duo with 4 GB of DDR3. I found that Windows 7, even if still under development, delivered, on the same machine, a performance superior to Vista's. However, in order to get the best out of Windows 7, users should have computers with at least 2 GHz processors and no less than 2 GB of RAM.

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Mac-driven mouths are becoming vocal on the absence of Snow Leopard at Apple's last Macworld keynote address. While some believe Apple committed a huge mistake by not even hinting at a release date, others are pretty sure the Windows 7 release closing in could have only harmed Apple's new “cat” on the block.

Joe Wilcox, of Apple Watch, writes that “Apple has made a strategic error by not getting in front of Microsoft, which is ramping up anti-Mac marketing and building some excitement about Windows 7.” He goes on to explain that “Apple and Microsoft are vying for the same customers: Windows XP PC users who haven't moved to Vista. Fewer of the customers will choose to buy Macs during the economic downturn,” he continues. “Meanwhile, Microsoft may have in Windows 7 an attractive alternative to Vista computers and to Macs."

OK, that's one opinion. So says an analysis over at Osnews. The source claims it makes perfect sense for Apple not to show off Snow Leopard at this moment. The argument: “First of all, Windows 7 is about to explode all over the media. There's no way that Apple will be able to conquer the media headlines with Snow Leopard with Microsoft officially launching the first Windows 7 beta this week. In addition, it's CES time right now, and Microsoft is sure to show off Windows 7 in Vegas. Apple might be the darling of the media, but there's only so much that will help in the coming waterfall of Windows 7 media attention,” the post reads.

The author trusts Apple to launch Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard when the Windows 7 hype diminishes, “or when Microsoft messes something up.” According to the analysis, “It makes no sense to taut Snow Leopard right now.”
How would you put it? Did Apple do itself a whole lot of good by holding off on Snow Leopard? How about the possibility of not finishing the software in time for the Macworld keynote?

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Yuichiro Nakada proudly announced two days ago a new release of its Linux distribution, Berry Linux 0.94, which is now powered by the Linux kernel 2.6.27.10 and based on the famous Fedora 10. Berry Linux is a Fedora-based Live CD that features a customized KDE 4 desktop environment. The new release updates a few important packages, such as Firefox, Adobe Flash, Wine or even Samba, but the most important thing in this release is the K Desktop Environment, which is now in sync with the version from Fedora 10. Let's a have a look at the main changes since version 0.93 of the Berry Linux Live CD:

KDE 4.1.3
· X.Org 7.4
· Adobe Flash Player 10.0.12.36
· Mozilla Firefox 3.0.5 (also available in Japanese)
· Inkscape 0.46
· Samba 3.2.5
· Wine 1.1.9
· Digikam 0.10.0

Under the hood:

· Kernel 2.6.27.10 (with SMP, bootsplash and ndev/udev)
· Glibc 2.9
· GCC 4.3.2

Why should I use Berry Linux? Because:

· Berry Linux can boot from USB sticks;
· Berry Linux uses WHIZ, a very sharp Kana-Kanji conversion system;
· Automatically recognizes USB storage and shows icons;
· Berry Linux uses free Japanese True Type Fonts;
· Berry Linux uses bootsplash when booting;
· Berry Linux uses DHCP to connect the Internet (PPPoE is also available);
· Berry Linux can save personal setting in Live mode;
· Berry Linux is Red Hat/Fedora compatible.

Berry Linux is a Live CD Linux distribution, based on Fedora Linux, with automatic hardware detection and support for many graphics cards, sound cards, SCSI and USB devices, and various other peripherals. It includes Firefox, OpenOffice.org, Wine and many other Microsoft Windows compatible pieces of software. Because it's a Live CD it can be used as an Educational CD, a rescue system CD or just as a Demo CD to showcase the powers of Linux to your friends, colleagues and family. Download Berry Linux 0.94 now.

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Touted as one of the best-selling Mac games of all time, Black & White is a real-time strategy title where players become a young god. The sequel to the highly-acclaimed game has now been confirmed for a January 6 release, coinciding with the opening of exhibits at Macworld 2009 in San Francisco, where attendees can have a hands-on experience with the game.

Black & White 2 has players resuming the role of a young god in search of followers and returning to the once innocent world of Eden. With times moving on, weapons have been invented while humans have harnessed the forces of nature. “Eden is in turmoil and the young God has been called back to save his people,” the game's plot goes.

Feral has also confirmed an expansion pack for Black & White 2. The Battle of the Gods add-on is included with the standalone Black & White 2 game, “offering players a host of new challenges including the threat of a rival God,” according to the publisher.

Created by Lionhead Studios and designers Peter Molyneux and Ron Millar, “Black & White has achieved a phenomenal and long-lasting popularity on the Mac,” Feral Interactive’s David Stephen says. “We are confident that Black & White 2 will continue that success.” Stephen concludes.

As far as pricing and availability goes, Black & White 2 for Mac will cost US $49.95 to buy in the US, and £29.95 in the UK. €39.95 is the price point for the rest of Europe. Those interested in acquiring the game can already pre-order their own copy. Head over to Feral's online store to pre-order now.


Black & White 2 for Mac has the following system requirements (minimum): 1.8GHz Intel Mac only, 512MB RAM, 128MB graphics card, DVD drive, 5.1 GB of hard disk space, and Mac OS X v10.4.8 or later. Intel GMA processors are not supported. Apple’s latest GeForce 9400 M-enabled Macbooks are a go!

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With each successive release of the Windows operating system it has gotten bigger and bigger. While it doesn’t help that it has to keep supporting so much legacy stuff from previous versions it has also suffered from more and more being added to the core OS.
This has lead to anti-trust battles with both the DOJ and the EU to the point that Microsoft had to release a special version in Europe without the Windows Media Player as in integral part of the OS. It doesn’t matter that the sales numbers of that EU specific version were nothing short of laughable, they still had to make it available.
It would seem though with Microsoft’s push into the Software as a Service (SaaS) world they are rethinking just what really needs to be included as a base part of their next version of Windows. As both LiveSide and The Inquisitr are reporting that Mail, Photo Gallery and Movie Maker are not going to be a part of the base install. As Duncan Riley from the Inquisitr says
It’s a courageous move by Microsoft, empowering users to make an installation decision that may see them gravitate to the competition instead of Microsoft software. And yet, it’s says alot about how Microsoft sees itself and its role today. Finally we’re moving past the old school monopolist who seeks to lock in users to as many products as possible, to a platform provider, who respects that their user base should be able to choose between Microsoft desktop or online products, and other products.

Personally I think this slimming down of Windows is a smart move on Microsoft’s part; but I don’t think they are going far enough. I can think of any number of other built-in applications or applets that could be removed in much the same way. Right off the top of my head there is Wordpad, the wannabe word processor, there is Fax and Scan and one could go as far as to suggest Windows Media Play. None of those really need to be a part of a base install.
However, I would go even one large step forward and suggest that even the Windows Desktop is something that doesn’t need to be shipped as part of the install, at least not the desktop that we are used to today. I could see it shipping with a bare bones corporate type desktop. Leave the desktop for the consumers as something that they could download separately much like you can do with Linux.
There are plenty of developers out there who could design a much better desktop than Microsoft. Stardock comes to mind right away, but they aren’t alone in being able to produce a high quality desktop that we would be able to pick and choose from on our own.
Microsoft is slowly entering the real world of consumer choices - whether they want to or not - and what they ship as part of their base install of the next Windows operating system will show how much they are really listening to the marketplace. They are making some interesting first moves and it will be interesting to see how much further they are willing to go.

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