Bog Roll ::

Yet another year draws to a close. 2011 has been interesting in some aspects, our London-Paris bike ride was fun this spring, and our donkey trekking in summer was fantastic fun.

I got a new camera just before our summer holiday and have been doing my best to take lots of pictures, forcing myself to post a regular photo blog. I've not quite managed a photo per day, but I've managed to get a fairly regular steam of pictures loaded up.

As I said at the end of 2010 Gordon managed to flood the economy with cheap money which brought the economy skipping out artificially early of recession, only to start sliding back in as I suggested. We are not quite in the full blown state of recession, but it's clear to all that the UK isn't in a good place and until the debt has been wiped out we aren't going anywhere fast.

On the IT front, 2012 will be very much as 2011:

• Microsoft will continue it's slow slide into oblivion. They are still a highly profitable company with a strangle hold on the desktop, but the desktop is a dying space - the growth is everywhere else. Their share price is in the doldrums and even some shareholders are now talking about replacing Mr Ballmer.
• Apple continue to roll on. Even though Mr Jobs has passed away I expect the company to continue it's roll for a little while longer. Unless someone emerges with vision and drive I expect it will start to flounder, but probably not next year.
• Google are in an interesting place. They are still printing money but not everything is going smoothly, Plus hasn't flattened Facebook and while Android has done very well, ChromeOS hasn't set the world on fire. I expect them to re-group and press on.
• Linux continues to grow and still no one notices. Almost all the world's super computers now run Linux and the vast majority of small devices from mobile phones, to eBook readers and satnavs are based on it. Desktop usage continues to grow a pace but from such a small base it's only showing strength in the new growing economies like China and India and places in the West with balls.
• I didn't see Nokia's suicide coming, but I think it's fair to say that they are now dead as the Microsoft phone platform they are hitched to.

Bye bye 2011, Happy New 2012!

posted 13:51 :: /stuff :: permalink :: ^

After a very long delay I have upgraded this server from Debian Lenny to Squeeze. It has taken about an hour and has gone pretty well, just a few hand edits required. The key services of email and web are still working properly and I've not locked myself out or anything silly yet!

On a server you don't get lots of new toys to play with in the way you do on a desktop system, and it's more important that it works than it's shiny, so the only reason I've done the upgrade now is so that it's before Lenny comes to the end of security upgrades - which is important.

posted 21:15 :: /unix/debian :: permalink :: ^