Gartner forecasts PC shipments to grow this year thanks to netbooks, not Windows 7

The recent widespread adoption of netbooks (such as the LG X120) and other mobile PCs has driven global PC sales enough for Gartner Inc. to change their minds about their current outlook on the global PC market. Earlier this year, Gartner predicted an 11.9% decrease in total PC shipments for 2009, but now have changed their forecasts to say that PC sales will likely reach 162 million units this year for an increase of 15.4% over sales in 2008.

Microsoft confirms first zero-day Windows 7 exploit

Not a month after Windows 7's official launch comes news of the very first zero-day exploit, and it has been confirmed by Microsoft itself. The vulnerability, first reported by Canadian researcher Laurent Gaffie last Wednesday, exists in not just Windows 7 but also Server 2008 R2 systems. This said vulnerability could "cause a system to stop functioning or become unreliable," according to a Microsoft-issued advisory. Microsoft says that it may patch the problem, though so far it is generally downplaying the issue, suggesting that users instead work on it themselves by blocking TCP ports 139 and 445 at the firewall.

Source: [Computerworld]

Windows 7 outsells Vista by 234% during first week, PC sales not as great

In an earlier post, I told you that Windows 7 is more deserving of not just your time but also money at this point, and I'm not the only one who thinks so. During its first week of sales, Windows 7 outsold Windows Vista by as much as 234%, and that is a huge difference any way you look at it. One could infer that all those who bought Windows 7 believed that it was really a better choice for an OS, or that they just wanted to replace Vista on their computers. Either way, this is good news for Microsoft.

Not-so-good news falls on PC makers, however, as users who already own Vista-capable PCs neet not upgrade their computers anymore, so while PC sales went up by a bit, it's nowhere near as high as Windows 7 sales. One reason being cited by those in the know is that Windows 7 hasn't been successful in pushing the sales of tablets and other touch-based computers, despite its having full support for touch input and a comprehensive suite of touch-enabled programs. And the vendors themselves are the first to admit that this isn't going to change any time soon.

As for us, the users, let's just enjoy Windows 7 in the meantime regardless of whether we have it installed on a laptop, netbook or desktop computer.

Sources: [HotHardware, DigiTimes]

Microsoft Windows 7 now officially available in the Philippines

As of yesterday, November 7th, if you aren't running Windows 7 on all of your home or office computers, then you are not my friend. That's because I believe it's an absolute no-brainer to upgrade any (and I mean any) operating system you have on your computers to Windows 7 as soon as possible. It just works. And it's a whole lot better than its predecessor (Vista) or its aging ancestor (Windows XP) so there should be no question at all about installing it on your PC.