Read more at preview.windows.com.

A New UI Design
Create a consistent experience across mobile and the web with material design, the new Google-wide standard.
Learn about material

A New Runtime
Test your apps and get them ready for ART (Android Runtime), the default runtime in the next release.
Learn about ART

Enhanced Notifications
Get control over where notifications appear, how they look, and how they sync to non-handheld devices.
Learn about notifications

Increased Efficiency
Project Volta is our effort to make the platform energy efficient and to give you more control over resource usage.
Learn about Project Volta

The main goal is to maintain a little bit more control over the communication around Windows 7 (some might say that this is a significant understatement) and also have an open and honest, and two-way, discussion about how they balance all of these interests and deliver software on the scale of Windows. The blog team promise and will deliver such a dialog with this blog.

So if you are interested in partisipating in the development of the “Vista upgrade” this blog is definitely a good place to start. Stop complaining and let them know what you would like to see instead. Great ideas and constructive critisism could benefit the whole Windows community (which is like 90% of us).

I’d like to suggest less focus on GUI and more focus on functionality and speed. Wouldn’t it be great if you could fire up Windows in 10-15 seconds and start working immediately?

Whether you are a hobby Satanist or just like dark colours (I hope the latter) then the “Ubuntu Satanic Edition – Linux for the Damned” would be the one for you. A collection of screenshots are available or you can go straight to the downloads.

For the rest (of us) there’s always the Ubuntu Christian Edition.

Today, more than 1 billion personal computers around the world run Windows. Over the years, Windows has been the catalyst for innovations that have transformed the way people communicate, access information, create and share content, and much more, at work and at home. Windows is the platform that most people use to get the greatest value and benefit from their personal computers. Windows is also the platform that brings together the broadest array of choices across PCs, devices and applications. To all of our Windows customers, thank you! To the hundreds of thousands of partners that develop millions of solutions for Windows, thank you.

Read the rest of the letter at microsoft.com.

Acer recently announced that they’ll be pushing Linux aggressively on its laptops and netbooks.

The company is already heavily promoting Linux for its low cost ultra-portable netbook range out later this year, but senior staff have said that Acer will also push Linux on its laptops.

Acer has already started selling Linux in its Media PC business but this should now spread, according to Gianpiero Morbello, vice president of marketing and brand at Acer.

“We have shifted towards Linux because of Microsoft,” he said. “Microsoft has a lot of power and it is going to be difficult, but we will be working hard to develop the Linux market.”

Acer sees two killer apps with Linux on computers: operation and cost. Its flavour of Linux will boot in 15 seconds compared to minutes for Windows, and the open source operating system can extend battery life from five to seven hours.

At the same time, the company expects that the price differential of Linux will make the offering attractive for consumers at the low-cost end of the market.

“Microsoft’s operating system typically costs around £50 per unit,” said David Drummond, UK managing director at Acer. “On a £1,000 PC that is peanuts, but on a £199 computer it is a major issue.”

Acer is currently the second-largest notebook producer in the world, behind HP.