As reported by NetworkWorld, VMware CEO Paul Maritz suggested at VMworld that VMware has “thought about whether we want to open source ESX,” the company’s leading hypervisor, but provided no substance as to whether or not the company were inclined in that direction.

Instead, the former Microsoft executive paid lip service to open source’s model for encouraging third-party participation in development.

In other words, it fills the needs of an OS. If it looks like an OS, smells like an OS, and walks like an OS, it’s probably safe to start calling it an OS.

commentary

That’s OK, as his attention is not focused on the license and development model for ESX, but rather on what his customers should expect from the next generation of virtualization. Though Maritz was cagey about a forthcoming VMware technology as an “operating system” (OS), it seems clear that this is, in fact, what VMware is building, as ITworld describes. In response to a direct question as to VMware’s plans to build an OS, Maritz equivocated:

That said, Red Hat and others with open-source virtualization strategies aren’t sitting still, and are increasingly cutting into VMware’s once-cozy business. VMware may ultimately have little choice in the matter: it may get dragged into open source, a prospect far less enticing than adopting open source from a position of strength.

Yes and no, it depends what you mean by an operating system. It is an operating system in the following sense. It abstracts away application loads from the underlying infrastructure, like traditional operating systems do, but the application loads it handles are different. This is drawing a line at a different point in the hierarchy.

It has many parallels with an OS, in the sense that it has APIs and services, but it is not a traditional OS. What we expect is that people will increasingly use the services of the virtual data center OS to construct new types of application loads that will fulfill the capabilities that you see in traditional operating systems.

Was the sleep deprivation-induced insanity worth it? Umm, yeah!

In a strange bit of randomness, actress Susan Sarandon visited the participants to present the final move movie–Thelma and Louise–and to provide words of encouragement.

According to Guinness World Record rules, the two could not divert their eyes from the screen, but were allowed 10-minute breaks between movies. Unfortunately for the couch they were sitting on and the doctors and judges who closely monitored them, the two spent those 10 minutes exercising and not bathing.

Everyone’s good at something, right? After 123 hours and 10 minutes of nonstop movie watching, we’ve found the best: Netflix’s Popcorn Bowl event, in which participants watched multiple movies without sleep until they either gave up, broke the Guinness World Record for longest consecutive movie-watching session, or began to bleed from their eyes.

What began with eight participants at the outset was cut down to only two after 57 movies were viewed, including Iron Man, Kill Bill Vol. 2 and The English Patient (that last one is just cruel). Native Sri Lankan Suresh Joachim, 39, and 31-year-old Claudia Wavra of Germany were the survivors winners.

The event was held at Times Square in New York. It began on October 2 at noon EDT and ended on Wednesday at 3:10 p.m. EDT.

(Credit:
Netflix)

The computer maker reported revenues climbed to $4.2 billion in the quarter ending June 30, up from $3.8 billion a year ago. Shipments of PCs climbed 14.6 percent for the quarter.

Lenovo posted earnings of $1.25 a share for the quarter, up from 78 cents the previous year.

Sales in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region, for example, increased by 26 percent, while Asia Pacific shipments grew 11 percent.

Lenovo Group reported a 10.5 percent increase in its fiscal first quarter revenues, despite a weakening global economy.

The Americas, however, continued to be affected by a weak economic environment, the company stated.

Marc Fleury says something that doesn’t ring true for me in his analysis of which license – GPL or BSD – to use for a new startup. Marc gives a great answer, born of hard experience, and one that is definitely worth reading. (Teaser: Use GPL if you want protection of your code and BSD if you want to be free lunch for everyone else to achieve ubiquity.)

I have one quibble, though. Marc suggests that the RHEL/Fedora model is only for established companies:

…[T]he ultimate license scheme for OSS is still RHEL/Fedora: a proprietary distribution of OSS software. It doesn’t matter if the software inside is GPL/BSD or whatever. Realistically speaking however, RHEL/FEDORA is not an option for young projects, this is only viable for established products and may snuff your growth in the early stages.

Much depends on what Marc means by “established products,” because my own experience with the model is directly contrary to Marc’s statement.

Alfresco, my employer, went to a RHEL/Fedora model at roughly one-year old. A year later, we’re up 400% in sales (forecasting another 300% in 2008) and not far from where JBoss was when it was acquired. We’re actually making more money on fewer downloads than JBoss did.

That sounds like a viable business strategy to me, given that in my eyes JBoss was a tremendous success.

Are we a better company? Absolutely not. We’re the beneficiary of all the hard work that JBoss did. My point is simply that it’s a great model. It’s a model that I’d like to see more open-source companies adopt. Marc calls it a proprietary distribution of a free product. OK. “Words, words, words,” as Hamlet might say. I’m not worried about the nomenclature here.

I’m concerned with seeing faster growth in open-source companies, growth that doesn’t come at customers’ expense, and this is a model that works. It works because it drives ubiquity and then leaves room open to monetize a significant chunk of that ubiquity. It’s by no means the only model in open source (Zimbra made more money faster than any other open-source vendor with an open source plus proprietary extensions model), but it’s a viable, robust model.

Listen to what Marc says. But don’t discount the validity of the RHEL/Fedora model for your business, no matter how young.

While rivals such as AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and Sprint Nextel have been talking recently about building new 4G wireless networks, T-Mobile–which will begin offering 3G wireless service this summer–is leveraging cheap, unlicensed Wi-Fi technology to bring true broadband speed over wireless networks to some of its subscribers today.

There’s no question Wi-Fi is far from perfect. Its use of unlicensed bandwidth can mean signal interference. And it’s a short-range radio technology that will never be able to provide ubiquitous coverage. But when Wi-Fi is combined with a new 3G wireless network using phones that T-Mobile claims switch seamlessly between the two networks, it becomes an interesting story.

As the smallest nationwide carrier in the U.S. market, T-Mobile is using $4.2 billion worth of spectrum it bought in the Federal Communications Commission’s 2006 Advanced Wireless Auction to build a 3G wireless network that operates in the nation’s top markets. The service, expected to launch this summer, will be up and running in 80 percent of the top 20 markets by the end of the year, according to Joe Sims, vice president and general manager of broadband products and services for T-Mobile USA.

Even without 3G services, T-Mobile has managed to become a formidable competitor. And even though it doesn’t offer specific e-mail or Internet surfing service over its cellular network, T-Mobile has still managed to become a leader in messaging with its popular Sidekick device that’s used for SMS text messaging.

Now, as T-Mobile prepares to open its 3G network for business, the carrier has also begun offering a companion service using Wi-Fi that will provide even faster upload and download speeds for mobile-phone users. And while Sprint Nextel struggles to roll out WiMax and Verizon Wireless and AT&T talk about LTE (long-term evolution) deployments, T-Mobile will be able to offer its subscribers true mobile broadband service through Wi-Fi hot spots. The combination of its 3G network and Wi-Fi strategy could help the company compete more aggressively as mobile Internet and data become more important sources of revenue for wireless operators.

“WiMax and LTE are a ways off from becoming reality,” Sims said. “There isn’t anything faster than Wi-Fi right now. And with the seamless handoff to a 3G network, we can get much wider coverage.”

Last summer, T-Mobile launched the Hotspot @Home service, which allows people using any of T-Mobile’s dual-mode Wi-Fi/cellular phones to use their home Wi-Fi networks instead of the T-Mobile cellular network to make phone calls or access the Internet from their phones.

The company has expanded the service to also include its more than 9,000 public Wi-Fi hot spots in the U.S., giving its customers even more places where they can use Wi-Fi. I must admit, I have never used the service myself, but T-Mobile’s Sims says the handoff between the Wi-Fi and the cellular is seamless, and subscribers can walk in and out of either network as many times as they like without ever noticing they have hopped onto another network.

Since the Hotspot @Home service launched nationwide last summer, T-Mobile has assembled an impressive list of devices that can be used with the service. Earlier this month at the CTIA trade show in Las Vegas, the company introduced the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 with Wi-Fi. T-Mobile also offers two other Hotspot@Home-enabled BlackBerrys, the popular Curve 8320, and the business-centric BlackBerry 8820.

Using the Wi-Fi network instead of the cellular network benefits T-Mobile, as well as its customers. For T-Mobile, Wi-Fi helps reduce the amount of traffic that is running on T-Mobile’s own wireless network. And consumers get better in-home or in-building coverage. It also greatly improves the upload and download speeds for surfing the mobile Web. And at only $9.99 extra per month for subscribers who spend at least $40 a month on T-Mobile phone service, it’s not an expensive add-on for high-speed data access and better coverage.

The service, which began selling nationwide last year, has been a big success, Sims says. It’s even helped the company entice some customers to switch providers for T-Mobile.

“Over half of the @Home customers are new subscribers to T-Mobile,” he said. “And most of them seem to be coming on for the faster speeds and the increased coverage proposition.”

T-Mobile also recently announced a home phone replacement service called Hotspot @Home Talk Forever that also uses Wi-Fi. The service is currently available in Seattle and Dallas. Essentially, it is a voice over IP service, much like services offered by cable providers and companies such as Vonage. It allows people to use their regular phones to make and receive calls over a broadband connection. The service only costs $9.99 more a month on top of the regular calling plan and Hotspot @Home charge.

“Hotspot @Home is great for one device and great for improving in-home coverage,” Sims said. “But there’s another demographic that wants one permanent line in the home.”

He admitted that the new service is an attempt to take on companies such as AT&T and Verizon, which offer wireless as well as home phone service.

“We are absolutely going after the traditional phone companies with these offerings,” he said. “And we’re doing it in a way that is relevant to our brand.”

But Sims also says that T-Mobile’s ambitions for Wi-Fi go beyond simply using it in the home. The service can also be used in conjunction with thousands of T-Mobile public Wi-Fi hot spots. The company currently has more than 21,000 public hot spots around the globe, with more than 9,000 of them in the U.S. While these hot spots by no means provide ubiquitous coverage, Sims said the company is evaluating how to expand its hot spot footprint to bring more Wi-Fi access to its subscribers.

Currently, most of T-Mobile’s hot spots are in places like airports or cafes where people typically use laptops. But as more dual-mode phones come online, he said the company will evaluate where it might be useful to deploy hot spots for “nomadic” use.

Considering citywide Wi-Fi
He even admitted that the company has considered deploying Wi-Fi citywide. The movement to blanket cities with Wi-Fi was badly damaged last year when EarthLink, the largest Internet provider to offer such a service, decided to stop building these networks. Since then cities have been struggling to figure out ways to bring inexpensive Wi-Fi services to their communities.

T-Mobile could be the perfect candidate to build such a network. Not only does the company already have its own Wi-Fi networks, but the use of dual-mode devices that can switch between cellular and Wi-Fi networks would make the service more useful and appealing to nomadic city workers or even consumer subscribers looking for faster mobile Internet surfing.

“We’ve looked at citywide Wi-Fi,” Sims said. “There’s no real reason why it couldn’t work from a technology standpoint. But there are different business models around using the technology in that way.”

T-Mobile’s service is already being used on some Wi-Fi-blanketed college campuses. The University of Texas at Austin launched a pilot program last month that will run through August and is allowing T-Mobile subscribers to use the university Wi-Fi network as part of their Hotspot @Home service. This means that in addition to using the @Home service in a dorm room, residents and faculty who subscribe to the T-Mobile service will be able to use it anywhere they can find the university Wi-Fi network, such as in the library, in classroom buildings, and in outdoor public hot spots.

The main reason the university is interested in allowing the T-Mobile service to be used with its Wi-Fi network is to provide better in-building coverage. The university currently is working with all the major cell phone carriers to improve cellular coverage on campus, but even with these efforts faculty and students complain of poor service inside many buildings.

Instead of investing in expensive femtocell technology, which uses a router-like device to boost cellular radio signals indoors, William Green, director of networking for the University of Texas at Austin, sees Wi-Fi as an inexpensive way to provide better coverage. At the same time, people in the university community with dual-mode phones can also benefit from the higher-speed network access using Wi-Fi.

That said, Green is skeptical that T-Mobile’s Wi-Fi service could be as effective in a citywide deployment.

“Wi-Fi networks are very hard to manage in dense environments,” he said. “And it’s very hard for a city to deploy a network such as ours. We already own the fiber and all the rights of way.”

Skepticism over Wi-Fi strategy
Indeed, other experts are also skeptical that T-Mobile’s Wi-Fi strategy will find much traction beyond some niche applications. Roger Entner, vice president of communications for IAG Research, said T-Mobile has had little choice but to use Wi-Fi since it is so late to the 3G cellular game.

“They are trying to turn a virtue out of necessity,” he said. “They’re forcing a technology to be used in a way that it was not designed to be used. Can they get to it to work? Yes, but it doesn’t work very elegantly.”

At this point in the game, only time will tell. Sprint Nextel was supposed to have launched its Xohm WiMax service this month. But it now says it will launch the service later this year. And even though Nokia has announced one device to be used on a WiMax network, it will take awhile before more WiMax-enabled devices become available.

Then there’s the other 4G technology, LTE. Verizon Wireless and AT&T have each said they plan to use wireless spectrum newly won in the 700MHz auction to build these networks, but it will be years before either provider offers a service on these proposed networks.

In the meantime, T-Mobile will be expanding its Wi-Fi hot spots and cell phone manufacturers will be embedding inexpensive Wi-Fi chips into more devices. So at least for the near future, T-Mobile, the laggard in the wireless speed war, could be the only provider to offer true wireless broadband speeds to its subscribers.

Coverage may not be everywhere, but it might just be enough to entice some subscribers to give it a second look.

Maybe you get a chuckle every now and then from a video on YouTube, upload photos to Flickr for friends and family to see, ask and answer questions on Yahoo Answers, do a little networking and reconnecting with old classmates and work colleagues on LinkedIn, keep track of popular news on Reddit, jot notes on your mates’ walls in Facebook, or have carved out your own little corner of the web with a MySpace page. If you have a username and login at even half of those sites, then you know all to well the impact of social media. And for many, that list is but a mere sampling of their social circle.

But what happens when social media collides with daily life? Good, bad, or otherwise, most of us live extremely busy lives. We’ve found that all of the great tools that have been developed to simplify our lives and allow us more time, often just allow us to do more with the time we have. Is that a bad thing? After all, it is our life and if we are doing the things we want to do and that are important to us, wasn’t that the ultimate goal to begin with? If you are expecting answers to those questions, sorry, they aren’t coming.

The problem, or at least the challenge, with social media for individuals is simply one of mass. There is only so much time during the day and night that any one of us can put toward the social media venues. At some point, most of us will probably gravitate to a few key sites. Will this gravitation be a slow fade, or cold turkey? Will it be individually, or a revolt of mass proportions? Only time will tell of course.

But hold that thought. The story for businesses is a little different. Social media provides a powerful channel to reach out and interact with the community. While things in business rarely come without a cost, social media can be an extremely cost effective extension of nearly everything a company does. Even as social venues shift in popularity or come and go, businesses can introduce themselves and interact with those who share the same interests. As marketing channels go, the ability to connect with highly targeted, highly interested individuals at a personal level, is pretty hard to beat.

So while the future and popularity of individual social media venues may as yet be undetermined, and individual users’ levels of interaction may vary, social media is here to stay. There’s so much more that could be said, but I have to go check my Facebook page.

You’ll notice that none of the quotes from the previous column were taken out of context because, well, first and foremost, I didn’t need to–this organization speaks for itself. You’ll also notice that the RIAA really is all of those things most people believe they are. Of course, don’t necessarily tell them that, because they won’t believe it.

Regardless, this interview depicts the RIAA exactly how they want to be perceived–a group that relies on (and enjoys) lawsuits. It’s an organization that has little idea of what we truly want as consumers and, for some reason, has a severe distaste for college students.

In response to my column, one RIAA representative told me that it’s easy “to sit on the sidelines and take potshots. It’s less easy when you actually have a dog in the fight.”

Is it really? Personally, I think it’s a sad day when an organization needs to call upon its high-powered lawyers just because it has “a dog in the fight.” Along with that, what is that dog in the fight? The artists or the record labels? My guess is the latter.

But without further ado, here is the unabridged transcript of my interview with the RIAA.

Don: Please tell me who you are and what you do.

RIAA: Cara Duckworth, spokeswoman for the RIAA.

Don: What can you tell me about the college deterrence program?

RIAA: Began last February. It was becoming clearer that despite cool new legal services and the ongoing educational efforts, too many students–some of music’s biggest fans–were getting their music illegally and learning the wrong lessons about stealing and the law. There had to be a deterrence factor involved so that individuals knew that along with personal consequences (i.e., viruses, spyware infiltrating hard drive) there would also be legal consequences to engaging in illegal downloading behavior. Bringing lawsuits was by no means our first choice, but a necessary step we had to take.

Don: Why college students?

RIAA: First, it should be clarified that our college campaign is in addition to the lawsuits we file against individuals using commercial ISPs to illegally download and distribute music. Second, college students have reached a stage in life when their music habits are crystallized, and their appreciation for intellectual property has not yet reached its full development. These two points coupled together present challenges to those who would like to be compensated for their creative works. Understanding the value of intellectual property is important to the future job market for many of these students–industries that rely on copyright protection employ more than 11 million workers nationwide and continue to grow.

Don: What group of people do you see pirating the most music?

RIAA: While college students used to be some of music’s greatest fans, unfortunately that is no longer the case. I would point you to the evidence of the extensiveness of music theft amongst college campuses from Student Monitor and other market research firms to show why we are focusing some of our efforts on universities.

Don: How do you respond to people who say your organization is a group of bullies?

RIAA: I have to step back for a moment. These are certainly heavy issues and none which we take lightly. When an individual is caught illegally downloading music, it sometimes happens that the person creates a stir. The reality of it is that nobody wants to get caught and most people complain when they are. The music industry has lost more than $3 billion in sales over the last few years. Bringing lawsuits is certainly no one’s ideal answer–we’re well aware of that. But if we had sat on our hands and chosen to do nothing about the piracy problem as the music industry was hemorrhaging jobs and lost sales, imagine what the extent of theft would be today and how the legal marketplace would be struggling to gain traction. The digital music marketplace is demonstrably better because of our efforts.

Don: How have you addressed those huge pirating cartels overseas? Are you going for a soft target?

RIAA: Our preference–first and foremost–is to take action against the services themselves that facilitate the illegal downloading and distribution of copyrighted works. We are actively assisting efforts by policy makers in Washington to encourage countries whose copyright laws have not kept up with the times or who do not appropriately enforce intellectual property violations. Additionally, we are affiliated with IFPI, which represents the interest of the global music community and assists in the enforcement of copyright infringement cases outside of the U.S.

Don: Do you think your policy of lawsuits and settlements work?

RIAA: Absolutely. Since we began this initiative, we’ve seen a P2P problem that once was growing at dizzying speeds essentially flatten out. People are now more aware of what is legal and illegal when it comes to downloading music. But more importantly, bringing lawsuits is only one piece of the pie–we are actively investing resources in the education of students of all ages on the value of music and importance of copyrights and, perhaps most importantly, music companies are continuously partnering with exciting new services that offer fans an array of innovative opportunities to access their favorite music.

Don: Why do you think you’re such a disliked organization?

RIAA: I don’t agree with the loaded premise of the question. In some online quarters, there may be lots of heat about the tough stands we sometimes must take. But amongst the general public, the favorability ratings of the record industry remain as positive as ever and surpass other forms of entertainment like movie or TV studios. I believe my answer to question No. 5 can apply here as well. But let it be said–the RIAA is much more than lawsuits. For example, we also are responsible for the Gold & Platinum program awarding artists who have achieved successful album sales and are active proponents of free speech in music. But no one likes lawsuits, and no one likes to get caught. It’s not an ideal situation for any party involved. But with all the new, innovative legal alternatives in the marketplace (and more emerging on almost a daily basis), the music community is proactively offering fans ways to avoid lawsuits and get their favorite music at affordable prices.

Don: How do you respond to the people who say you’re going after grandmothers and young children when you should be going after real criminals in gunships?

RIAA: I’d give them the facts and encourage them not to believe everything they read that aggressively villainizes the organization. We have a physical antipiracy unit that assists law enforcement agents in shutting down piracy operations both big and small. Oftentimes street peddlers selling bootlegged copies of music are also involved in large-scale drug and weapons trafficking, and we find clear evidence of that on raids. As for individuals themselves, we have no way of screening defendants based on demographics, socioeconomic status, or perceived sympathy. Upon initial discovery of a violation, we have an IP address, a sampling of the files that were shared, and a timestamp of the activity. We consistently follow the prescribed legal process to obtain identifying information and always try to be fair and reasonable in resolving each of our cases.

Don: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

RIAA: Regarding our college initiative, a university’s role in reducing the level of piracy on its campus cannot be overemphasized. We have consistently said that the more proactive a school is in the education of its students regarding its IT and enforcement policies, the offering of great legal alternatives so that students can have access to their favorite music (at deeply discounted prices or even for free), and most importantly, implementing effective technology that helps protect the integrity of its network, will lead to fewer instances of violations and fewer instances of hearing from us–a win for everybody!

So there you have it. The full interview with the RIAA.

Have a field day.

As a part of its Rome release, Microsoft’s Live Search team has launched a new Live Search News, a direct competitor to Google News.

At this time, Live Search News looks like a simplified version of Google News. The layout and design are aesthetically pleasing and will be familiar to Techmeme readers.

The orange breaking-news bar on the top is a decent feature of the site and only appears when big news is happening. The breaking-news information, unfortunately, appears only to be provided by MSNBC and not automatically generated by trends. Even considering this, it is still a good way to call attention to important stories.

Microsoft’s Google News competitor, Live Search News

(Credit:
Microsoft)

One feature that I really like is the local-news sidebar on the right. It appears that the site automatically detects your IP address and feeds you news from the state that you’re in without you needing to register an account. This local focus is a nice touch.

Live Search News also lets you refine news results based on categories that are relevant to the story you’re viewing. To access this functionality, just click “More on this story” for any article and you’ll see relevant stories, along with these filters.

One feature that sets Live Search News apart from Google News is its “Top News Videos” section. Not only are the videos provided relevant, but Microsoft has implemented the same preview technology that Live Search uses in its video search. If you roll over any of the video images, a preview of the clip will automatically start to play. I can’t say enough about the cool factor of this feature, in both news and in its regular video search.

While Microsoft is not providing a specific number of sources that are included in Live Search News, it appears, at this point, to be significantly less than Google News’ 4,500. Google News definitely has more customization and alert options than Live Search News. Despite those differences in features, I prefer the design of Live Search News over that of Google News, and simplicity does a lot for readability. In addition, I love the video preview integration, along with the breaking news.

There has been no announcement, at this point, from the Live Search blog, so detailed information on this new service is limited.

Google News already has a fairly loyal user base and it benefits from the popularity of the search engine, so Live Search News may struggle to find an audience until the search engine grows in popularity. However, I think that Live Search News is a strong offering and is definitely worth a look.

Well, no, not love.

Compassion?

Concern?

Eh.

How about obligation?

No. That’s not it, either.

Annoyance?

Hmm.

Wait, maybe it is anger.

Well, whatever the case, because he gives him such a hard time when he gets something wrong, he feels compelled to give him some credit when he gets something right about Apple.

Plus, it’s easy because, as far as the horny one knows, this is the first time it’s happened.

But Kingsley-Hughes does have a pretty good recap of Apple’s quarterly results. He rightly notes that it’s the outlook for next quarter that seems to be the only real bad news and says:

Looking at these numbers it’s hard to see why analysts are disappointed. In the weird fairytale land that most analysts seem to inhabit the idea of rolling growth is one that now expected [sic] of a company such as Apple. But in the real world it’s hard for Apple, or any other company for that matter, to come out with hit products such as the
iPhone all the time.

Indeed.

Now, the Macalope has some close ties to the financial industry, but (or maybe “therefore”) he’s often critical of it. All too often the market seems to operate on the “frightened deer” school of analytical thought.

The issue here, though, is not so much the current “panic” as it was the “irrational exuberance” of last year. It’s quite likely that a lot of nitwits did buy Apple expecting it would produce iPhones and tablets and sub-$100 notebooks and free candy and magical ponies for ever and ever and ever. Apple was the closest thing they had to the supposed “no-brainer” dot-com days.

“They pick up your groceries and deliver them to you! It can’t lose!”

Well, maybe these clowns are out now. So it might be a good time to buy.

Or not. Personally, other than a number of Apple shares you can literally count on one hand, the Macalope doesn’t play the ponies.

Most of his money is in gold and jewels. And it’s being guarded by a dragon.

Which is a pretty good system until you try to cash out.

[Disclosure: the Macalope holds an insignificant number of Apple shares. In case you missed that part.]

First, the quality of the printouts are simply unacceptable. The printer has trouble separating subtle gradations in color and tends to blur together close sections on the color gamut. Also, forget about printing even the lowest-quality photos with the printer–in our experience, even small portraits on a presentation slide look smeared in some spots. We do like the small footprint, the easy wireless setup, and the separate color toner cartridges, but the output quality and sluggish print speeds take the overall score down to just an OK 2.5 stars.

Read the full review of the Samsung CLP-315W printer.