Altadel Computing strives to keep abreast of new developments in technology, with an eye to what's robust rather than bleeding edge.
Knowledge of current technology with an eye to the future allows us to advise you for today's business with an eye to your future.
Apple News: OS X 10.7.2 (Lion) is out, and shipping on the new MacBook Air and Mac mini. I've found it to be stable. The server version of Lion is simplified from the Snow Leopard Server release, and I don't have enough experience with it yet to comment. The new MacBook Air is a very nice laptop, with Sandy Bridge core i5 and i7 processors. The Mac mini has been similarly boosted in processor performance.
FreeBSD News: FreeBSD 8.2 was released in February 2011. FreeBSD 7.4 is still available as a legacy release, for those not wanting to move to version 8.2 just yet.
OpenBSD News: OpenBSD 5.0 is the stable release (since November 2011).
Windows News: MS Windows 7 seems to be the version we wanted when Vista was released. Most applications run properly by now in Win7. XP users should upgrade for the security aspects alone.
Networking News: Small business should look for Gigabit Ethernet switches for all wired networks, as the pricing for Gigabit Ethernet is now low. Larger enterprises can interconnect between Gigabit Ethernet switches with 10-GigE optical cabling for distances of 15-300m, with distances up to 30 km possible. <15m can be handled on copper cabling.
Edmonton Tech News:
The UofA and the City of Edmonton held the second annual joint tech conference for their IT staff: Technocon 2011. Best practices and supporting emerging technologies were discussed. A subsequent conference is being planned for 2012.