Microsoft Equipt vs open source and free software

The computer users of the world have been getting more interested in
open source and free software for some time now and Microsoft’s new
Equipt subscription service is aimed at defending the Office franchise.

As we reported the other day, the pricing model for Equipt will be
$69.99 per year and you get a lot of software for the money that can be
accessed by up to three computers.

Circuit City have got the exclusive rights to Equipt beginning
mid-July and it’s hoped by Microsoft that the convenience of Equipt
will stop some Office users moving towards the open source or free
software route.

There is a lot of competition for Microsoft and that’s why this new
service was needed to keep them in the game, as IBM is offering Lotus
Symphony free and also other brands have similar free Office software
packages.

The sales results for Office products have shown a downward pattern
and the last quarter saw Office products among consumers drop 39%.

Will you use the new Equipt subscription service or do you have another favorite?

From : http://www.product-reviews.net/

New AMD 780G chipset oriented motherboard

This is the ASRock A780FullDisplayPort Motherboard and while it
performs as well as the ASUS 780G motherboard, its lack of HDMI and bad
placement of onboard connectors make it a little hard to recommend over
the other 780G Micro-ATX boards.

With AMD’s 780G chipset getting a lot of good press Tweak Town
thought they would give the ASRock A780FullDisplayPort Motherboard a
hands-on review and the results have been covered over 13 pages.

In their final thoughts they said, “ASRock’s latest series of boards
have been reasonably impressive, however we still have a few issues
with the layout of this particular board. First, the locations of the
power connectors need a bit of work. Even for a cheap board, it’s still
not acceptable.

ASRock has managed to bring some good prices to the market with
their latest series of boards; while we didn’t get the full retail
package with this board, we aren’t expecting a huge amount of
additional features in the box. What was disappointing was not having
the DisplayPort card included, which eliminated this from testing.

Overall, the board has good potential for a HTPC as long as you’re not after 5.1 audio or HDMI”

Read the 13 page review.

New Asus Eee PC 904 – an Acer Aspire One killer instead?

Just a day or so after Acer’s Aspire One goes on sale in Australia
comes news that the Asus Eee PC 904 will shortly go on sale in the UK,
muddying the waters over which is the best value ‘netbook’ to buy.

Wow, yet another new Asus Eee PC?



We know all about the Acer Aspire
– an 8.9-inch model with 1024x600 screen, Intel Atom 1.6Ghz chip, 512MB
memory and 8GB storage for Linux and 1.5GB memory and 120GB storage XP
of memory, a keyboard that is 85% the size of a regular keyboard, USB
ports, Wi-Fi, a webcam and more.



We also know it is going on sale at AUD $599 with a $99 cash back for
the Linux model, thus being $500, or $699 with a $99 cash back for the
XP model, thus being only $600, putting pressure on the already released
Intel Atom-powered Asus Eee PC 901 which sells at AUD $649 and has the
same size keyboard as the Eee PC 701, which Acer says its Aspire One
keyboard is larger than.



But we also knew that the Asus Eee PC 1000 was going on sale in the UK very shortly,
with a keyboard 92% the size of a regular keyboard and a 10-inch
screen, while coming with an Intel Atom 1.6Ghz chip too, with both SSD
and hard disk options.



The Eee PC 1000’s keyboard size claims to be the same as the HP
MiniNote 2133, also 92% the size of a regular keyboard, and as we’re
testing one of these HP models we can definitely say that the keyboard
is much nicer to type on than the smaller keyboards on the Asus Eee PC
701/900/901 series machines.



So, to add to all these new models comes the curious Asus Eee PC 904. According to What Laptop
Magazine in the UK, it sits in the same chassis as the Asus Eee PC 1000
series, meaning that same beautiful 92% size keyboard, but has a few
key differences.



Naturally, however, the larger keyboard is an important distinction and
should prove a very welcome and tempting difference indeed.



But what else? Please read on to page 2.