XP is Vista light

Thanks to DF for the heads up on this wonderful bit of Redmond doublethink:

Dell will take advantage of a licensing option in Vista Business and Vista Ultimate that lets PC makers provide XP under the Vista license, which Microsoft calls a "downgrade" license. (Enterprises with site licenses have these same rights with any version of Vista.) In essence, the user is buying a Vista license that it can apply to XP, and Microsoft can still claim a Vista sale.

In other news, war is peace, and we have always been at war with Eurasia.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Vista, Windows

Software, seen via the history of popular music

On First Installing Adobe’s Photoshop Elements 6 — Thought Palace:

If this is the “lite”, for-dummies, cheap-n-cheerful version of Photoshop, I can’t imagine how huge the real version must be. I mean, if MacPaint was “Rock Around The Clock”, and the first version of Photoshop was, say, “Please Please Me”, then this is Yes’s Tales From Topographic Oceans. If so, that makes Acorn and Pixelmator something like “The Clash” and “Pink Flag”, respectively; not really a threat to the hegemony yet, but if future versions can mature into “London Calling” and “154”, it’ll be time to kick out the jams.

Technorati Tags: broken, Adobe, Software, Usability

Microsoft to Yahoo: You will be mine.

Microsoft Sends Letter to Yahoo! Board of Directors: Microsoft Sends Letter to Yahoo! Board of Directors:

If we have not concluded an agreement within the next three weeks, we will be compelled to take our case directly to your shareholders, including the initiation of a proxy contest to elect an alternative slate of directors for the Yahoo! board.

Technorati Tags: Business, Microsoft, Yahoo!