operating system

Today's robots represent islands unto themselves that don't share either software or hardware with each other. But researchers have begun developing a common operating system that could revolutionize robotics and permit easier collaboration with less reinvention of the proverbial wheel. The change could rival that which rippled through the PC industry when Microsoft's Disk Operating System (DOS), and later Windows, burst onto the scene and became standard.

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Microsoft wants to stop selling Windows XP on June 30, but not all of its customers are happy about that, or excited about the prospect of switching to Vista.

Infoworld has started an online petition designed to rally support behind the old operating system—the site has even been soliciting support videos. Even if you don't share the passion of the XP support community, Infoworld's list of reasons for saving the operating system, culled from a variety of sources, makes for interesting reading. Fewer business are planning to switch to Vista, some analysts say it's never going to be the right choice for most enterprise IT outfits, and several reports indicate that it's just not performing as well as it should. PCWorld.com even shows you how to switch back from the new to the old.—Gregory Mone

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All four of the current smartphone operating systems support the core promise of the device: quick access to calendar, contacts, e-mail and the Web, as well as the ability to handle third-party apps. That said, each appeals to a slightly different user.The Corporate Exec Windows Mobile for PocketPCs This workhorse of an OS invariably arrives on a large PDA-centric device that´s perfect for editing documents and browsing the Web. With Virtual Private Network software, it´s the most likely to let you fetch your work e-mail.

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Tony Rose

Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada

All computers lock up or crash, and no operating system is immune (as a matter of fact, we crashed once as we wrote this answer), but singling out specific reasons oversimplifies the issue, explains Daniel Jackson, a computer science professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The underlying cause, Jackson says, is that hardware and software developers are trying to bring products to market in "Internet time"-that is, hyperfast. The result: Quality and reliability suffer.

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