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Bill Gates will be the keynote speaker at the Microsoft Government Leaders Forum (GLF) Arabia 2008, to be held 27–28 Jan 2008 at the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi, marking the first time the Microsoft chairman has visited the UAE. The forum, held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, will also feature Her Excellency Sheikha Lubna bint Khalid Al Qassimi, UAE Minister of Economy.

This event will take place for the second time in the UAE, which is a key part of Microsoft’s ongoing effort to promote technology to help foster social and economic well-being in the region. The theme for this year’s GLF will be “Accelerating Arab Competitiveness”. Over 200 government and business leaders from across the Arab world will discuss three key themes of the Forum: enhancing government competitiveness through capacity development, innovation and government modernisation.

Charbel Fakhoury, general manager, Microsoft Gulf said, “The presence of Bill Gates at GLF Arabia 2008 underlines the company’s long-term commitment to creating meaningful partnerships with the government sector in the Middle East. Microsoft is using its considerable resources and know-how to promote competitiveness, foster talent and transform the technological landscape in the Arab world.”
The programme for this year’s Forum, which was officially announced at a media roundtable at Microsoft offices in Dubai, will feature a combination of keynote presentations, practical case studies, interactive panel discussions and informal meetings to explore ways to fuel government modernisation, boost productivity and ensure citizen participation in the digital revolution. Participants are encouraged to share experiences and best practices related to economic development and governance.

The Forum will also examine ways to enhance investment to improve digital education and build a stronger knowledge economy and Gates is expected to speak on many of these topics. During the course of his Abu Dhabi visit, the Microsoft chairman will travel to Dubai for a series of high-level discussions — details of Gates’ schedule will be announced in due course.

“We are very pleased and proud to be able to welcome Bill Gates to our country for the first time, and to bring to the region this unique discussion platform, which will allow government and business leaders to discuss specific measures to boost regional economic competitiveness,” Fakhoury said. “GLF Arabia 2008 is a prime example of how the private and public sectors can work together for the greater good.”

GLF Arabia 2008 is a part of a global series of events organised by Microsoft to support improvements in economic development, job opportunities and education. Through its government partnerships, the company aims to broaden digital inclusion, bringing the benefits of technology to 250 million people by 2010, with the ultimate goal of raising living standards around the world.

Interesting...bearing in mind that Microsoft are moving their ME head office to Saudi Arabia...

It will give me a chance to tackle Herr Gates about that annoying little, bug ridden OS of his called 'Vista'.



Knight

Dubai Knight wrote:Interesting...bearing in mind that Microsoft are moving their ME head office to Saudi Arabia...

It will give me a chance to tackle Herr Gates about that annoying little, bug ridden OS of his called 'Vista'.



Knight

Vista works fine on my computer, never had a problem yet,

Bought a laptop with Vista pre installed and it has more bugs than a Moscow state brothel. Surprised me bearing in mind its a 7th. generation (stolen from Mac) OS with some of the most expensive geek minds looking at it for years and years.

Try manually configuring the internet settings...

Also try and manually set the resolution on a plug and play monitor...

Hmmm...I want my XP back!



Knight

Dubai Knight wrote:Bought a laptop with Vista pre installed and it has more bugs than a Moscow state brothel. Surprised me bearing in mind its a 7th. generation (stolen from Mac) OS with some of the most expensive geek minds looking at it for years and years.

Try manually configuring the internet settings...

Also try and manually set the resolution on a plug and play monitor...

Hmmm...I want my XP back!



Knight

I bought one with Vista pre-installed and it has hummed like a well tuned car since it I first powered it on. Your mileage may vary, but it's nowhere near as bad as poeple make it out.

As for manually configuring the internet settings or changing the resolution (why you'd want to on a notebook I don't know why) I can do both pretty easily. Perhaps you got a crap notebook.

^ian^ wrote:

Dubai Knight wrote:Interesting...bearing in mind that Microsoft are moving their ME head office to Saudi Arabia...

It will give me a chance to tackle Herr Gates about that annoying little, bug ridden OS of his called 'Vista'.



Knight

Vista works fine on my computer, never had a problem yet,

Vista is a massive resource hog. Of course it runs. But games run slower on my new laptop than it does on my 5-year-old winXP PC. Utterly pointless, considering XP can do everything Vista can do (except for that stupid 3D-windows effect).

gtmash wrote:

^ian^ wrote:

Dubai Knight wrote:Interesting...bearing in mind that Microsoft are moving their ME head office to Saudi Arabia...

It will give me a chance to tackle Herr Gates about that annoying little, bug ridden OS of his called 'Vista'.



Knight

Vista works fine on my computer, never had a problem yet,

Vista is a massive resource hog. Of course it runs. But games run slower on my new laptop than it does on my 5-year-old winXP PC. Utterly pointless, considering XP can do everything Vista can do (except for that stupid 3D-windows effect).

Yes but Windows XP is a massive resource hog compared to Windows 2000 and there is still very little you can do in XP that you can't do in 2000. Tbe point is, operating systems get bigger and more bloated as they go.

Vista comes with a lot of eye candy that needs the extra horsepower. It can be turned off.

I'm not blindly defending it... it needs some work especially in terms of resources management which I read is coming in SP1, but it's nowhere near as bad as people make it out.

Dubai Knight wrote:Hmmm...I want my XP back!

Knight

I got Vista Ultimate in one of my laptops. I can't save downloaded files to C (root/other directories) other than user's directory. It's said "You must be administrator... or contact administrator" something like that. Well, I AM IN ADMINISTRATORS GROUP, FOR GOD SAKE!!!

XP RULEZ!!!

I'm gonna find/buy XP OEM CD (original) to replace the Vista, is it possible & legal (no nags when authenticating) to use the same serial key (on the bottom of the laptop)? Some says to use key-finder utility or something. Or should I contact Microsoft ME? Has anyone tried that?

I just came across this topic. I am presently using Vista premium in my personal laptop and have not had any issues at all. However, I did tweak my laptop a bit to keep it running fine. To begin with, I shutdown aero interface as that is a major resource hog. Vista looks cool even without the aero interface

Secondly, I used this website http://www.speedyvista.com/ to shutdown a whole lot of services that are not necessary for routine usage. A word of caution though, you need to make sure you shutdown only those services which you are sure about!

xty wrote:I'm gonna find/buy XP OEM CD (original) to replace the Vista, is it possible & legal (no nags when authenticating) to use the same serial key (on the bottom of the laptop)? Some says to use key-finder utility or something. Or should I contact Microsoft ME? Has anyone tried that?

Recently, we downgraded a whole bunch of Dell laptops from Vista to XP for business reasons. Since we're based out of US, we contacted Dell support, who in-turn contacted MS and shipped out XP SP2 CDs. We used the same license key (on the bottom of the laptops) for XP so I would guess that the same license key should work with XP and I dont think it is illegal. I'd recommend that you confirm with Microsoft ME before downgrading.

well in fact Vista => XP is the upgrade...... not a downgrade

M! wrote:well in fact Vista => XP is the upgrade...... not a downgrade

i thought so too and thats y i "upgraded" my business laptop to XP. However i decided to take the risk and go with Vista for my personal laptop. Vista has a nifty process that learns your usage of computer and changes memory / processes to optimize performance to suit your usage. At first, i was very skeptical about it, but then, it seems to be working!! Combine that with shutting down unnecessary services / processes and Vista seems to be humming along just fine!