The year that's coming to an end today has been pretty interesting, since we finally got our hands on Vista and Leopard, Dell started shipping computers with Ubuntu preinstalled, Firefox 3 Betas started to popup and promise a lot for the future, and a lot more. Anyway, I won't look back now, but forward, so here you have my top 5 expected software-related events for 2008...


On the last position of my "top", I place a Linux distro. I won't give a name, because I don't have one. I must confess I am not extremely happy with Ubuntu, Fedora, openSuse or other existing distribution, and the main reason is the poor drivers support that leads you into editing configuration files to setup your video card properly, and not only that. Being given Vista's failure to work as expected, there's enough place for Linux or Mac OS to expand. What's going to really happen, that's what we should live and see...



Fourth place in my top is taken by Vista's first service pack. This may bury Vista even deeper, or make a lot of people decide to finally switch from XP to Vista. The problem is pretty complex, but I think Microsoft will pull it off somehow, as they always do(I am not one of their fans, I am just trying to think straight).I know Opera is not a dominant browser on the market, but has a lot to offer, and version 9.5 may help them acquire more users. If that won't happen, at least they should be able to face the strong opponents that are going to be Firefox 3 and Internet Explorer 8...

The second position in my top is awarded to Windows XP's third service pack. I think any comments are useless here, but I will only say this - Windows XP will be a good operating system for a long time, and will probably have the longest life of all Windows versions so far, no matter what happens with Vista.

The golden cup of my 2008 software awards goes to Firefox 3 and Internet Explorer 8. While Firefox 3 got some Beta versions out already, IE 8 is between the hammer and the anvil currently, with first Beta expected in the first half of the next year. Being given the boost seen by Firefox usage this year, Internet Explorer 8 has a really tough mission, and I hardly wait to see what's going to happen!

These being said, here's my quick top:

5. A new Linux distro that really works for the home-user disappointed by Vista
4. Windows Vista SP1
3. Opera 9.5
2. Windows XP SP3
1. Firefox 3 & Internet Explorer 8

A Happy New Year to all of you, and may all our software (and not only) wishes come true in the year to come!

Every time a website resizes my browser, it's really annoying, and the reason I am usually a calm person is that I do my best to avoid stress. In this case, I need to change a setting in Firefox so that no website will be able to resize the browser ever again, and since I am sure other people have this problem, I decided to write a short article about how to do it...




- In Firefox, go to the Tools menu and choose Options.


- As soon as the Options window comes up, open the Content tab and press the Advanced button next to the Enable JavaScript line.


- Uncheck Move or resize existing windows, and then press OK to apply this change.


This should be everything. Oh... just one more thing! If you're a Mac user, then you should go to the Firefox menu and pick Preferences, instead of Tools>Options, for Windows and Linux users. Good luck!

If you want to use an all-in-one system utility to fix your computer's various errors that may appear and keep it in top shape, there is no free solution that I am aware of. Of course that you can get a dozen free applications to help you, but since commercial alternatives like System Mechanic are available, I think best thing to do is to give them a try, at least. Today, System Mechanic just got updated, and that's why I pushed forward this subject...


iolo Technologies' flagship product, System Mechanic, comes in two flavours - the Standard edition, and the Professional one. Today, they got both updated, bringing the current version number up to 7.5.4.3.



The standard edition of System Mechanic offers optimization and repair capabilities, combined with spyware removal and internal security features that prevent your system from suffering unauthorized changes, but you will need an additional antivirus and a firewall to have full protection.

While the light edition costs $49.95, System Mechanic Professional can be purchased for $69.95, and offers complete assistance to any computer user, starting with optimization and repair capabilities, spyware removal and virus protecion, up to data recovery capabilities.

These being said, I invite you to visit the downloads page on iolo's website and grab System Mechanic for a try. As final thoughts, I must add that I never had problems while using this suite, but since I read some negative reports about it here and there, it would be nice if you could drop us a comment below, once you decided if this program is worth your money or not...