Way back in January 2007, after years of hype and anticipation, Microsoft unveiled Windows Vista to a decidedly lukewarm reception by the PC community, IT pros, and tech journalists alike. We sat down with Microsoft to hear the company’s side of the Vista story. What lessons have been learned following the worst Windows launch in the company’s history? Is Microsoft doing enough to regain PC users’ faith?

A comparison of the past two weeks of traffic on Tectonic.co.za - a period that covers the launch of Google’s Chrome browser - shows that in the week of September 1 to 8 Chrome jumped from 0 percent of browsers used to an above-average 2.98 percent, largely at the expense of Mozilla Firefox.

McAfee Inc. has announced McAfee Artemis Technology that uses a new Internet-based service hosted by McAfee Avert Labs to provide active protection on the fly when a computer gets hit by malicious computer code. Artemis leverages behavioral technology to examine a piece of malware that isn’t explicitly protected.

Microsoft’s $300 million advertising campaign for Windows Vista, starring comedian Jerry Seinfeld launched with a television commercial without much talk of Windows, or Microsoft. That was oddly appropriate, considering that Seinfeld’s eponymous ’90s hit comedy was described as “a show about nothing.”

With a sharp 9 inch screen, 16GB solid state drive and optional 3G mobile internet functionality waiting in the wings, Dell’s new $599 mini notebook, the Inspiron Mini 9, has maximum appeal – unless you want Linux…

When Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and the codebase at the heart of Firefox were originally conceived, browsing was less complex. Now, however, functions that previously could be performed only on the desktop — email, spreadsheets, database management — are increasingly handled online.

A few weeks ago, I reviewed the Acer Aspire One notebook, the variant which came with an Acer-modified version of Linpus Linux. A few days ago, however, I realised Linux wouldn’t be ideal for me on my netbook. Due to pragmatic reasons, I’m now running Windows XP.

Samsung expects Sony’s Blu-ray technology to be superseded within five years, despite winning the high definition format war in February. “I think it [Blu-ray] has 5 years left, I certainly wouldn’t give it 10″, Andy Griffiths, Samsung UK’s director of consumer electronics, told website Pocket-lint.

They’re back! Just when you thought the “browser wars” were over, with the two camps – Microsoft and Mozilla.org – settling in for a kind of intransigent détente, along comes Google to stir things up all over again. Clearly, Google is unhappy with the current state of browser geopolitics and feels it needs to roll its own.

Users who downloaded the search giant’s Chrome browser yesterday were asked to give Google a “perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive licence to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly, perform, publicly display and distribute” any information they typed into a website.