Ashutosh Nilkanth's Blog

Windows XP is the most popular, and in many ways more reliable, than any other computer operating system offered by Microsoft. Windows XP is also one of the largest consumer software applications.

But, let’s face it, Microsoft has had a hard time selling Vista, their most recent operating system. The sales have been lower than expected because XP is still the preferred choice by home users in particular. When Microsoft stated that it sold more than 20 million Windows Vista licenses in the first month of availability, more than twice the initial sales of Windows XP, but that doesn’t sound quite right.

Anyways, to make things worse for XP users, Microsoft will officially end the lifecycle of Windows XP in June 2008, to make way for their future operating systems. That means there will be no more XP security updates, no more XP technical support, and no more XP on new computers. At some point you’ll be “forced” to upgrade to Vista, which is slower (on most computers that are 2-3 years old) and incompatible with many hardware devices.

If you love Windows XP, considering that you are not yet an open source junkie and still stuck in the Windows world, and would like Microsoft to hear you say, then join the “Save XP” movement. Close to 200,000 people have already signed the petition to show their support for Windows XP, but the petition needs more substance, from you and your friends.

Coming over to some breaking news, CrunchGear has released screen-shots of Windows 7, Microsoft’s next major OS after Vista. Microsoft’s Steven Sinofsky was interviewed by CNET about Windows 7 sometime back.

Windows 7 is expected to be released by 2010. Go figure!

Update: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Chairman Bill Gates will demonstrate Windows 7, tonight at Dow Jones’ D6 conference. Checkout the D6 Highlights blog for more details as they emerge.

Update-2 (29/05): Ballmer And Gates Demo Windows 7: Multitouch, Pie Menus And a Piano

Around the world, except for the Middle-East, there’s a bubble building up around oil prices (and real-estate costs). Oil prices are rising, like never before. And the world is worried.

Futures speculation has created frenzy, unless you are driving a Prius. Supply fears have sent oil past record $135 a barrel, likely to reach $200 soon.

So, how much would it cost to convert the entire U.S. fleet of passenger cars, which collectively burn 40 percent of the oil that we use, to electric cars?

Zero dollars! Instead of spending $400 billion each year for importing oil, the US could spend it on electric car production locally. Atleast, that’s what Philip Greenspun from Harvard thinks. A bit far-fetched I feel, but a creative outlook none the less.

The past few weeks have been utterly busy, but the road get’s a bit easier when you are passionate about what you are doing. If you don’t enjoy what you are doing (your profession for that matter), you’ll never stimulate your passion to its limit-less state, and eventually you cannot enjoy the money you (can) make.

I was reading Simone Brunozzi’s blog post about his adventure from a virtual gig at Second Life to becoming a Technology Evangelist for AWS. Its an amazing testimonial that simply reinstates the golden rule: choose what you love.

Here’s another interesting article with 101 Tips to Help You Make Money Doing What You Love. Most important tip for me was to ‘Seek Answers Within‘!