Excel 2007 shares the same arguably improved user interface as Word 2007 and the other major Office components. Long-time customers may not see much improvement, though, and will likely be annoyed by having to learn new routines. They'll also be disappointed by the loss of customizability. The new version offers some useful new improvements, though some of the best are only available when you integrate Excel with other Microsoft products. Before you migrate, consider carefully whether the improvements available to you will actually help your company. There was a time when selling Linux (or even just writing about it) was an evangelical endeavor. Users needed to be sold on Linux's benefits and, more importantly, assured that it actually worked. LinuxWorld after LinuxWorld, vendors upped the ante with new technologies and genuinely new initiatives. Not so at LinuxWorld San Francisco 2007.

Nevertheless, the risks to the outlook are now more on the down side, given uncertainties about the global financial system, the U.S. outlook, and investors' risk appetite, including for emerging markets. Twelve-month inflation is now projected to rise through the end of this year, reflecting exogenous shocks, including a jump in global food prices, unusually cold weather conditions in Chile, and disruptions in energy supply. Given the strong growth momentum, with excess capacity in the economy gradually vanishing and unemployment at historically low levels, the Banco Centrale has appropriately raised interest rates in recent months. This should insure that inflation expectations remain well-anchored around the 3 percent target and that food and energy price shocks do not spill over into other sectors.

Looking ahead, with risks to the outlook more on the downside, the future monetary policy path will need to depend on economic and financial development in the coming months. The strong improvement in the government's financial position in recent years has allowed a moderate reduction in the target for the structural surplus rule. We support this reduction and commend the government for keeping overall spending increases consistent with macroeconomic stability, as well as for the efforts to maintain the high quality of public spending in Chile. Keeping a small positive surplus target is appropriate, as it will allow the build up of some reserves to address future liabilities such as in the context of the planned reform of the pension system. Let me perhaps elaborate on the impact of the recent global financial turbulence. This impact has been relatively mild in Chile, both compared with most other countries in the region and also with Chile's own past experience.

In our view, this is really a strong testimony to the very robust macroeconomic framework that Chile has built over the past two decades, with strong cushions against adverse shocks--a sound fiscal position, low public debt, and independent central bank, high international reserves, and a flexible exchange rate. The past few weeks have also served to underscore how resilient Chile's financial markets have become in the face of global turbulence. Threats have widened relatively little. The exchange rate has been fairly stable, and in line with fundamentals. And the interbank market has continued to function in a normal way. This resilience reflects a healthy banking system and strong corporate balance sheets, again the result of Chile's excellent economic policy framework.

Therefore, assuming no further major unexpected shocks or a global downturn, we believe that growth and employment in Chile will remain relatively strong, benefiting also from Chile's diversified export structure and continued brisk commodity demand. This is the year that Linux is so mature, so stable, so tried and true, that it's actually, dare I say it? Boring. Hey don't give me that snarky look and don't flame me. I'm not the one who first said it. None other than Linux kernel maintainer Andrew Morton expressed a similar sentiment on the very first day of LinuxWorld. "The kernel is a very dull project and that's the way we want it to be," Morton said. Linux itself is now so mature and stable that it is running mission-critical datacenters and applications around the globe. Linux is at the core of the Internet itself, it's the plumbing of the modern information economy.

No major new announcements or revelations came out of this event. Vendors like IBM and Novell announced partnerships and virtualization (as it has been for nearly two years) remained a buzzword. Kevin Kettler, Dell's CTO, did a whole presentation with the only real purpose being to show that, "Oh yes, virtualization on Linux is a stable reality."