"Whereas Vista has been a PR disaster, it is unlikely that its cousin
Server 2008 will meet the same fate. There are solid improvements over
the predecessor Server 2003, including IIS 7.0, granular installation,
improved terminal services, the Server Core, command-line control, and
changes to Active Directory. Hyper-V is nicely done, and although it is
nothing special in relation to competing products from VMWare and
others, its integration and neat tools will win users when it comes out
of beta."

Complete Story at Reg Developer

Alfresco Software released a press release on the results of a survey by them intended to help determine "how companies evaluate and deploy open source and proprietary software stacks in the enterprise". There is some very interesting numbers summarized in the press release that should be of interest to not only using those Alfresco products, but to almost anyone using enterprise software. Some of the more interesting numbers and statistics pulled from the study:

• 
  Operating system: “Users evaluate on a Windows
  laptop and deploy on Linux” – 41% of evaluations were on Windows,
  dropping to 26% for deployments, whereas 51% of deployments were on
  Linux.
• 
  Linux: “Ubuntu and Red Hat pull away, SUSE remains flat by comparison in the US” – Ubuntu 24%, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 21%.
• 
  Windows: “Users stick with XP and 2003, Vista lags at 2%” – XP 63%, Windows 2003 28%.
• Databases: “Sun still shines on MySQL” – MySQL 60%, Oracle 14%, MS SQL Server 13%.

I especially find it interesting that while open source MySQL is the dominate database used on the enterprise, two propriety database systems (Oracle and MS SQL) follow. I wonder where PostGresSQL falls on the list? But wait, there are two points I want to make about this study.

I am going to spend this next week away from the computer. Between my "day job", this site, and working on some sites for others...I have been looking at the computer screen way too much. Meanwhile, the wife and kid have been looking at the back of my head for too long. It is time to enjoy the backyard and play some ball with the "boy".

I also think I'm going to also take a break from the online ads on the far right right side of the pages you view. With Drupal, all I need to do is toggle off the blocks that contain the advertisement and then "save blocks". It's as simple as 1, 2, 3. Someone will have to tell me if they like the layout better without the ads or if it really doesn't matter. What's your perception when you see a reasonable amount of advertisements at a site compared to a site with no ads?

I do have some ideas in my head that I've been wanting to put down in writing. After a week from my technology hiatus I may consider the following topics to write about:

• Does your choice of CMS impact how far up you rank with the various search engines? It sure does and I've seen dramatic differences between my Drupal, SMF, and Wordpress sites. Some of the search engines appear to be looking at more than just content and links.
• IT Stacks. Believe it or not, PHP can run better on Windows than it does on Linux.
• Some of my newbie experiences with osCommerce.