New statistics shed light on the vast importance Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! place on their web-based email services.

Though email is effectively a prehistoric web service, dating back to the launch of the Internet, it maintains its dominance as the most effective communications method we have still today.

Email isn’t dead, nor is it ‘on its way out’.

Regardless of the ‘Facebook effect’ and other growing social networks and instant messaging services have on the younger Generation Y, there is no viable replacement in sight.

The figures show that just over 23% of Google visitors visit Gmail, with nearly 40% of Windows Live users going straight to Hotmail, and just under 20% of Yahoo! visitors going to Yahoo! Mail.

Though Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! each has fewer users on their email services than Facebook has, email provides not just a communications platform, but an identity for other social web services. Facebook heavily relies on email to function and perform.

This may not surprise many, as email is the cornerstone of the services provided by these companies, with often only search coming first.

Email is still evolving and is a fluid and dynamic platform. And while spam may be annoying, web services have spent years blotting out the issue, with spam levels dropping significantly in the previous two quarters.

Instant messaging and social networking only offers a strain of what email can provide. Though it may be the primary choice for younger people to engage in with their social lives, in business and the workplace email will still reign as the dominant choice for industry.

Although the Generation Y may find email to be ‘unfashionable’ and ‘outdated’ compared to Facebook and instant messaging applications on their smartphones, the very vast majority of smartphone users will have an email account attached to their phone regardless.

While Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! have no interest in losing their hundreds of millions of users overnight, their email service will continue — and continue to grow, as more take advantage of the now standard features beyond the realms of simply sending and receiving messages.

Related content:

• Generation Y: ‘Email is unfashionable and outdated’
• Your email address says more about you than you think
• (Gallery) Facebook Messaging 2.0: Combining chat, messages, SMS and email
• Facebook cannot guarantee privacy: Why is the ’social inbox’ so different?
• Companies shouldn’t ban Facebook at work: Can it be used properly?

Fedora Linux not for everyone. If you’re an experienced Linux user who wants an easy-to-use desktop Linux, I recommend Mint 11. If you’re new to Linux and just want something that’s easy to pick up and use, I think you should give Ubuntu 11.04 a try. But, if you’re a Linux expert, and want to explore the outer limits of what’s possible with Linux, then Red Hat’s new Fedora 15 Linux is the distribution for you.

Why? Well, here are my five favorite reasons to use Fedora 15. I’m going to start though with one reason I don’t care for this release of Fedora. Let’s call this one: Feature 0.

0) The GNOME 3 desktop environment

GNOME 3 claims to be the “the next generation of GNOME with a brand new user interface. It provides a completely new and modern desktop that has been designed for today’s users and technologies.” It’s not.

First, did we really need a “completely new desktop?” I don’t think so. I quite liked GNOME the 2.x series. It worked well for me and I didn’t need to learn anything new to use it. I get the point of Ubuntu’s Unity, which is a radically different shell that rides on top of GNOME. Unity is meant for Windows and Mac users who’ve never used Linux It’s also clearly designed to eventually become a tablet interface. When I look at GNOME though what I see is change just for the sake of change not change for greater end-user usability.

The idea of GNOME 3 was to get rid of clutter OK, I can see that, but in doing it GNOME’s designers had made GNOME less usable For example, in shifting from one project to another in your workspace you need to use the dashboard as a window management interface For me, this is like having to stop my car to shift gears That by itself is so annoying that I quickly stopped using GNOME 3.0.

I also found miss each windows’ minimize and maximize buttons. You can still minimize and maximize application windows, but what used to be an automatic action now wastes time. Finally, GNOME makes it very hard indeed to tweak your desktop. There’s no easy way to even set up a screen saver! I mean seriously, I have to do something like:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme 'Clearlooks‘

from a shell just to change my desktop theme?

 

 

It also doesn’t help any that GNOME 3 won’t run on basic graphics hardware. You need just the right mix of graphics and graphic drivers to get it to work. On my systems, I was only able to get one to work by using the Radeon driver for an older ATI graphics card.

In short, GNOME 3.0 is new but for users it’s a step backward. Fedora 15 is the first major distribution to include GNOME 3 by default. That was a mistake. Like Fedora 4 in its first not ready for prime time versions, GNOME 3 is not what most users want from a desktop. As for me, I’m sticking with GNOME 2.32, with occasional visits to KDE 4.6.

Now that I’ve got that out of my system, here’s what I like about Fedora 15.

5 Good Things about Fedora 15

1) Better power management

Desktop Linux has never done a great job of laptop battery management. Fortunately, Linux doesn’t drink up that much power so it usually ends up with decent battery life anyway. But, Fedora 15 redesigned power management utilities give it better battery life than other Linuxes.

I checked this by running Intec Battery Mark 1.1 on Windows XP in a VirtualBox virtual machine on my Lenovo ThinkPad R61 with its 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor T7500 and 2GBs of RAM. With Mint 11, my six-cell battery lasted an hour and fifty-seven minutes. That’s pretty darn good for a three-year old battery.

With Fedora 15, though, it made it to 2 hours and ten minutes, which is pretty darn close to what it used to do when it was brand new. Anything that gives me 10% better battery life is a major win in my book.

2) Better End-User Software

Like most up-to-the-minute Linux distributions, Fedora uses LibreOffice in place of OpenOffice, as its office suite. LibreOffice, while an OpenOffice fork is better thought of as an improved version of OpenOffice. It looks the same, works the same, but it’s also faster, has many minor bug fixes and has far better Microsoft Office file format compatibility. Last, but not least, since Oracle will no longer be putting any resources into OpenOffice, LibreOffice is the most significant open-source office suite yet that’s still being actively developed.

In addition, Fedora includes Firefox 4, which is certainly better than the older Firefox 3.x series. On the other hand, I would have been happier if it had used Chrome 11. But, no worries, this is Linux. Installing Chrome and making it my default browser took me less time to do than it did to write this paragraph.

3) Dynamic Firewall

OK, this is a beta feature so you have to manually install it and only network administrators are likely to find it that exciting, but I–who sometimes still wears his network administrator hat–think that it has great potential.

Like its name suggest dynamic firewall enables you to change firewall settings without needing to restart the firewall. So, for example, you can set the firewall to change its rules, as needed for virtual machines or Virtual Private Networks (VPN).

You can also use it to open up the firewall for a specific network request, such as discovering a local printer or a Windows server, and then closing down the port once you’re done with that procedure. This has got real possibilities and I like it already. If all goes well, it will become the default firewall in Fedora 16 and eventually in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

4) Virtual Desktop Support

Slowly, but surely, Simple Protocol for Independent Computing Environments (SPICE)virtual desktops are coming to Red Hat. In Fedora 15, SPICE has been integrated into the virtualization manager, virt-manager.

Since Red Hat future desktops plans center on virtual desktops, presumably running on Kernel Virtual Machine (KVM), I find this very interesting. I also found that you can finally set up speedy SPICE virtual desktops without tweaking configuration files by hand.

5) RPM 4.9.0 Package Manager

RPM 4.9.0, Fedora and RHEL’s software manager has been given a real tune-up. It’s now easier than ever to install software on Fedora .For more on that see the RPM 4.9.0 release notes. The bottom line is that RPM does a much better job of handling any RPM package that you try to install on your system.

There are many other neat features as well such as security improvements in handling common Security Enhanced Linux (SELinux) problems with an easy to use GUI and improved encrypted home directory support. And then there’s the BoxGringer image and virtual machine (VM) creator, and, at long, long last, a built-in consistent and sane network device naming system.

Now if they would only do something with GNOME 3! Or, better still, the GNOME 3 designers brought back some of its more end-user friendly bits and bites I’d be perfectly happy with Fedora.

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Apple said Tuesday that it will deliver a Mac OS X update “in coming days” that will put its Mac Defender malware headaches to rest.

As noted repeatedly by Ed Bott, Apple has had its head in the sand about its Mac Defender malware issue. In a May 24, knowledge base article Apple said:

A recent phishing scam has targeted Mac users by redirecting them from legitimate websites to fake websites which tell them that their computer is infected with a virus. The user is then offered Mac Defender “anti-virus” software to solve the issue.

This “anti-virus” software is malware (i.e. malicious software). Its ultimate goal is to get the user’s credit card information which may be used for fraudulent purposes.

The most common names for this malware are MacDefender, MacProtector and MacSecurity.

In the coming days, Apple will deliver a Mac OS X software update that will automatically find and remove Mac Defender malware and its known variants. The update will also help protect users by providing an explicit warning if they download this malware.

For now there’s a step by step workaround to manually remove the malware.

What took so long? Apple has historically hung its hat on being a malware free environment. The issue with that positioning is that Apple is a bigger part of the computing landscape. The more market share you have the larger a target you are for hackers.

Here’s the Apple saga:

• Apple continues to tell support reps: do not help with Mac malware
• You have malware on your Mac and you call Apple support … what happens next?
• Apple to support reps: “Do not attempt to remove malware”
• Crying wolf? Apple support forums confirm malware explosion
• An AppleCare support rep talks: Mac malware is “getting worse”
• What a Mac malware attack looks like
• Why malware for Macs is on its way
• Coming soon to a Mac near you: serious malware

Summer isn’t even here yet, but chipmakers AMD and Intel are already gearing up for back-to-school.

After some manufacturing delays, AMD is set to release its Llano processor for mainstream laptops and desktops. I expect them to make it official at the Computex tradeshow in Taiwan next week, but some technology sites in Asia are already reporting details of these new processors. It is probably no coincidence that Intel has just updated its processor list to include Sandy Bridge chips at lower prices, which will compete directly with Llano.

Rather than CPU, AMD uses the term APU, or Accelerated Processor Unit, to describe chips like Llano that include both CPU cores and a graphics processor. It took longer than expected for AMD’s manufacturing partner, GlobalFoundries, to work out the kinks with its 32nm process using new materials (a high-k dielectric and metal gates), so in the interim AMD released low-power C-Series (Ontario) and E-Series (Zacate) APUs manufactured by a different foundry, TSMC, using a more conventional 40nm technology. But the Llano APUs, most of which will be branded as the A-Series, are critical because they are designed for mainstream laptops and desktops, an area where AMD has been relatively strong.

Llano will be available in dual- and quad-core versions, according to a report from DigiTimes. The dual-core desktop processors, the E2-3250 ($70) and A4-3350P ($80), will compete with Pentium-branded processors. The quad-core A6 ($110-130) will compete with the Core i3 dual-core desktop processors and the eight-core A8 ($150-170) will compete with Intel’s mid-range Core i5-2300, which has four cores and four threads. For desktops, AMD will have a different processor, code-named Zambezi, which is a traditional CPU with separate graphics to compete with the higher Core i5-2500 (four cores, four threads)and Core i7-2600 (four cores, eight threads). The first Zambezi chips will reportedly include the quad-core FX-4110 ($220), six-core FX-6110 ($250) and eight-core FX-8130 and 8130P ($290-$320). These will also be manufactured on GlobalFoundries’ 32nm process and will be available later this year.

This is consistent with everything we’ve heard about Llano: core-for-core, the CPU likely won’t match the performance of Intel’s Sandy Bridge. To compensate for this, AMD will offer more physical cores for about the same price. Llano’s on-die Radeon graphics should also offer better 3D graphics performance than Intel’s HD 2000/HD 3000 integrated graphics. At the high-end, AMD doesn’t have graphics advantage since both AMD’s FX Zambezi processor and Intel’s Core i7 will generally be used in high-performance desktops with discrete graphics from AMD or Nvidia. Though these are all desktop processors, the match-ups should be similar on the mobile side except that Intel only offers the HD 3000 graphics n laptops and AMD will not mobile version of Zambezi.

Over the weekend, Intel updated its processor price list to include seven new Sandy Bridge desktop chips most of which compete directly with Llano. In the mid-range, this includes the 3.10GHz dual-core Core i3-2105 ($134) and the 2.90GHz quad-core Core i5-2310 ($177), plus a low-power Core i5. Intel also introduced four Pentium dual-cores ranging from 2.20GHz to 2.90GHz at prices from $64 to $86. These are Intel’s first Pentium-branded chips using the new microarchitecture, but they do not include several features of Sandy Bridge including hyper-threading, Turbo Boost 2.0, and hardware-accelerated HD video encoding and decoding.

[Here's a link to Intel's processor price list PDF, which lists the new chips.]

All of this is setting the stage for a big battle this summer over back-to-school systems. Expect to see a wave of mainstream desktops and laptops using these new processors starting in June.

More coverage of AMD’s Fusion APUs:

• A closer look at laptops with AMD’s Fusion processors
• AMD says Llano processor is now shipping
• CES 2011: AMD’s Fusion APUs arrive in new laptops
• AMD ships first Fusion chips, announces new APUs for laptops, desktops and tablets

During remarks at a developers conference in Japan on May 23, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer referred to the next version of Windows as “Windows 8.” He also said the next generation of Windows systems will be out next year.

To those not following Microsoft’s Windows saga closely, this may seem like a “so what” moment. But Microsoft execs have been studiously avoiding any references to the timing or naming of the next version of Windows to try to keep the specifics of the product as quiet as possible. Microsoft’s top brass has been avoiding calling the next version of Windows “Windows 8″ publicly, preferring instead to call it “Windows Next.” (Internally, a number of  Microsoft job postings and leaked slides have referenced “Windows 8,” however.”

Here’s what Ballmer said today in Tokyo about Windows 8, according to Microsoft’s own transcript:

“We’re obviously hard at work on the next version of Windows. Windows 7 PCs will sell over 350 million units this year. We’ve done a lot in Windows 7 to improve customer satisfaction. We have a brand new user interface. We’ve added touch, and ink, and speech. And yet, as we look forward to the next generation of Windows systems, which will come out next year, there’s a whole lot more coming. As we progress through the year, you ought to expect to hear a lot about Windows 8. Windows 8 slates, tablets, PCs, a variety of different form factors.”

Parsing Ballmer’s words further, it’s interesting he called out Windows 8 slates and tablets as two separate form factors. Last year, Microsoft was pushing Windows Embedded Compact as its slate operating system, designed for devices that were more about consumption than creation….

It’s also interesting that Ballmer did not say specifically that “the next generation of Windows systems” due out next year were Windows 8 systems. (There’s been some speculation that Microsoft might deliver ARM-based tablets separately from Windows 8 laptops, PCs and notebooks — with some company watchers predicting that Win8 tablets would ship before the other SKUs, and others predicting they’d ship afterwards. I’ve heard from my contacts that Microsoft is planning to deliver all Windows 8 SKUs simultaneously, however.)

The head of Windows, President Steven Sinofsky, is slated to speak next week at the AllThingsD conference, where many are expecting him to show off an internal build of Windows 8 (whether or not he actually refers to it using the Windows 8 codename).

Microsoft is expected to provide testers with a first tech preview or beta of Windows 8 in mid-September during the company’s developer conference in Anaheim, Calif. The rumored release-to-manufacturing date of Windows 8 is mid-2012, with holiday 2012 retail availability targeted.

Update: OK, believe it or not, the “official” response is Ballmer’s statement isn’t what it seems to be… Sent from a Microsoft spokesman earlier tonight:

““It appears there was a misstatement. We are eagerly awaiting the next generation of Windows 7 hardware that will be available in the coming fiscal year.  To date, we have yet to formally announce any timing or naming for the next version of Windows.”

And, as usual, there are many ways to interpret these remarks. Is the next-generation Windows release nothing but Windows 7 with new paint? Windows 8 not the final name for the next version of Windows? (The final name possibly being something other than Windows 8 is something that I’ve heard from my tipsters…) You be the judge….