Ankitesh Unleashes.....

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Google Inc's Chrome Web browser has grabbed more than 20 percent of global market share, while Microsoft Corp's long-time leader Internet Explorer has slipped below 50 percent, according to Internet statistics firm StatCounter.

A sevenfold increase in usage in the last two years is a boost for Google, which is trying to convert its dominance in Web search into operating systems and mobile software, bringing it into direct competition with Microsoft.

Google's Chrome browser, launched in December 2008, took 20.7 percent of the global market in June, according to StatCounter, up from 2.8 percent in the same month in 2009.

In the same time, it said the various versions of Internet Explorer fell to 44 percent from a 59 percent share two years ago, while Mozilla's Firefox dipped slightly to 28 percent from 30 percent.

Google's gains come as the company makes a concerted push into browser-centric, or "cloud" computing. In May, Google launched its long-awaited Chromebook, a laptop that works almost entirely on software accessed via the Internet, rather than installed on the machine. This is a direct challenge to software leaders Microsoft and Apple.

Microsoft, which controlled as much as 95 percent of the market in the early 2000s after crushing browser pioneer Netscape, has seen its market share ebb after disputes with antitrust regulators in the United States and Europe, which accused Microsoft of abusing its monopoly in operating systems to dominate the browser market.

The resolutions of those disputes effectively prohibited the world's biggest software company from making Internet Explorer the default browser in its dominant Windows operating system. Microsoft, which is developing the IE10 version of its browser, settled the issue with European Union regulators in December 2009, pledging to give consumers better access to rival browsers.

StatCounter, based in Dublin, Ireland, says its statistics are based on data collected from a sample of more than 15 billion page views per month from more than 3 million websites.

Net Applications, a more widely used browser statistics source, estimates that Google has not increased its share quite as much.

According to its market share data for June, Microsoft's Internet Explorer leads with 53.7 percent, Firefox has 21.7 percent and Chrome 13.1 percent. Apple Inc's Safari has 7.5 percent and Norway's Opera Software 1.7 percent.

Canonical's Ubuntu 11.04--also known as "Natty Narwhal" was officially released on April 28. Some of the highlights of the new release include the Unity desktop interface, LibreOffice for productivity software, and the Compiz window manager.

Natty Narwhal--named for the whale that lives year-round in the Arctic--represents a big departure for Ubuntu in its switch away from the GNOME desktop shell as a default. The latest version comes with new capabilities, enabling the user to try the open source OS in the cloud, without having to download or install it.

The Gnome desktop has been replaced by the Unity interface that made its first appearance in the 10.10 Netbook Edition. You can still install Gnome, or download the Xfce-based Xubuntu distribution, but Unity is now the default.

It’s a controversial change, but we reckon it’s an improvement. The Launcher at the side of the screen is far more inviting than Gnome’s niggly menus, and it makes better use of a widescreen display. The way the icons work – click to launch, right-click for options – will come naturally to anyone familiar with Windows 7 or OS X.

The Ubuntu button at the top-left of the screen opens a searchable index of files and applications, which will again be familiar to anyone who’s used Spotlight on the Mac or the Windows search box.

Unity itself has been jazzed up since its netbook-only days. Launcher icons are more colourful and detailed than before, although the background remains a miserable grey even if you select a brightly coloured desktop theme.

And the Launcher now hides when you set an application to full-screen mode, which can be done by dragging it to the top of the display, just like in Windows 7. This works on netbooks as well as full-sized PCs, and netbook users can save files to the desktop too – an option frustratingly disabled in 10.10.

The main menu bar has been updated, so application menus can now appear here, Mac-style. It’s a small change, but it saves screen space and adds a welcome sense of coherence.

The last notable interface change is support for multitouch interfaces. Unity’s button-driven design is already better suited than Gnome to finger-driven devices; and a feature jovially named Love Handles adds touch-friendly controls for moving and resizing windows. We couldn’t get this to work, but hopefully an update will remedy that.

For us, the most significant update to Unity isn’t a question of features, but of performance. Even on an ageing netbook, Unity felt more responsive than the 10.10 Netbook Edition.

We saw particular improvement when searching for files and programs using the Ubuntu button. Before, the search window took a second or more to appear; now it pops up almost instantly, and results often appear before you’ve finished typing.

In terms of applications, the most interesting update here is the Ubuntu One Control Panel. Although Canonical’s cloud storage system isn’t new, this graphical interface at last makes its services – including synchronising files, contacts and bookmarks – easy to use.

In future, Ubuntu’s OneConf tool could be integrated too, allowing your entire application setup to be mirrored across PCs, but this isn’t here yet.

Beyond that, Canonical has merely tweaked the bundled software. OpenOffice.org has been ditched in favour of LibreOffice – but since the latter suite is a recent spin-off of the former, the differences are minor. The default music player has changed too, from Rhythmbox to Banshee, which again offers similar features but in a cleaner interface.

Of course, you can install whichever players, browsers and so forth you prefer from the Software Centre application. Here, though, you run into Ubuntu’s one enduring weakness: its software library remains a bewildering hotchpotch, with minimal consistency and quality control.

Factor in the lack of industry-standard tools such as Outlook, Excel, Photoshop or Final Cut, and it’s clear that, for many purposes, sticking to Windows or OS X will give you an easier ride.

For those who are happy in Linux world, however, Ubuntu 11.04 is the most exciting release in ages. Unity is a breath of fresh air, and its improved performance is a godsend for netbooks.

Users of older releases will want to upgrade right away. And for Linux virgins, the new interface makes it more tempting than ever to take Ubuntu for a test drive.

I came across this beautifully complied 15 different quotes of Warren Buffet on investment from different time, place and sources by Business Insider. I found them very simple but very effective.

“Rule No. 1: never lose money; rule No. 2: don’t forget rule No. 1″

“I am a better investor because I am a businessman, and a better businessman because I am no investor.”

“You can sell it to Berkshire, and we’ll put it in the Metropolitan Museum; it’ll have a wing all by itself; it’ll be there forever. Or you can sell it to some porn shop operator, and he’ll take the painting and he’ll make the boobs a little bigger and he’ll stick it up in the window, and some other guy will come along in a raincoat, and he’ll buy it.” - On what makes people sell to him

“It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.”

“You don’t need to be a rocket scientist. Investing is not a game where the guy with the 160 IQ beats the guy with 130 IQ.”

“Long ago, Sir Isaac Newton gave us three laws of motion, which were the work of genius. But Sir Isaac’s talents didn’t extend to investing: He lost a bundle in the South Sea Bubble, explaining later, “I can calculate the movement of the stars, but not the madness of men.” If he had not been traumatized by this loss, Sir Isaac might well have gone on to discover the Fourth Law of Motion: For investors as a whole, returns decrease as motion increases.”

“Time is the friend of the wonderful business, the enemy of the mediocre.”

“After all, you only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out.”

“Investors should remember that excitement and expenses are their enemies. And if they insist on trying to time their participation in equities, they should try to be fearful when others are greedy and greedy only when others are fearful.”

“When we own portions of outstanding businesses with outstanding managements, our favorite holding period is forever.”

“The stock market is a no-called-strike game. You don’t have to swing at everything–you can wait for your pitch. The problem when you’re a money manager is that your fans keep yelling, ‘Swing, you bum!’”

“Long ago, Ben Graham taught me that ‘Price is what you pay; value is what you get.’ Whether we’re talking about socks or stocks, I like buying quality merchandise when it is marked down.”

” Our approach is very much profiting from lack of change rather than from change. With Wrigley chewing gum, it’s the lack of change that appeals to me. I don’t think it is going to be hurt by the Internet. That’s the kind of business I like.”

“The best thing that happens to us is when a great company gets into temporary trouble…We want to buy them when they’re on the operating table.”

” I have pledged – to you, the rating agencies and myself – to always run Berkshire with more than ample cash. We never want to count on the kindness of strangers in order to meet tomorrow’s obligations. When forced to choose, I will not trade even a night’s sleep for the chance of extra profits.”