More Redmond Reorg Action
Late last week Microsoft
promoted
loyal long-timer Bob Muglia to vice president of servers and tools, working
for the soon-to-be-retired Jim Allchin. Muglia replaces Eric Rudder who now
works directly for Bill. Some pundits have tapped Rudder as the next Gates,
as in the next Chief Software Architect, while others think that honor may ultimately
go to Ray Ozzie.
Learn what Muglia is thinking here.
Exchange 5.5 Finally Nearly Dead
It’s been coming for years. We’ve all know Exchange 5.5 was on borrowed
time. And now the day of its demise in at hand: By the end of this year, support
for the old Exchange will cease
to exist. Many see a doomsday scenario for those who don’t upgrade,
but if the software has been working for eight years, why would it stop now?
Are you still on 5.5? If so, what are your plans? Tell me at [email protected].
Works 2006 = Word 2002
I caught wind of this one trolling Microsoft-Watch.com, a site produced by Redmond
columnist and veteran Microsoft journalist and pundit Mary Jo Foley. Foley found
it funny that the newest low-end productivity suite, Works
2006, has parted with its old word processor in favor of Word 2002. When
it comes to Word, I believe older is always better, and in fact, wouldn’t
mind going back to Word 2002 myself -- if only it could read the newer file
formats.
Gates Trivia
Here’s another treat I first found at Microsoft-Watch.com: a short
list of Bill Gates facts. I was kind of hoping it was a quiz, but you can
turn it around and ask your friends.
Kill for an Xbox
Some time ago I wrote about some low-life scumbags in New York who killed a
15-year-old because they wanted his iPod. Now there is an even more
repulsive story out of Daytona Beach. Six people were beaten to death --
all to get back an Xbox. Wonder how many these losers would have killed for
an Xbox 360?
Office 12 Loves PDF, but Not as Much as XPS
There was a lot of fanfare when Microsoft revealed that Office 12 would natively
support Adobe PDF. Some folks thought this was a big deal since Microsoft is
pushing its PDF killer, XPS. Now comes word that Office
12 will also support XPS. Guess which one will get top billing?
There are also a couple of Microsoft blogs with more details:
$6 Billion Worth of Research Pays
The cover
story of the October issue of Redmond by editor Keith Ward focused on how
Microsoft Research, with an annual budget of $6 billion, influences commercial
products. Now Microsoft is thanking
its research group for help building SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005,
particularly in data mining, visualization and indexing.
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SQL Server's Secret Sauce?
SQL Server 2005 is getting rave reviews, in part because Microsoft has integrated
it with everything from Office applications to Visual Studio and the .NET Common
Language Runtime. What's your take? Do you think the tight Microsoft tie-ins
will help you develop rich database applications and produce more compelling
analysis and reports? Or do you fear that amped-up integration could limit your
options -- for example, with third-party products -- going forward?
Scott Bekker wants to hear from you on this issue for an upcoming Redmond article.
Let him know by e-mailing him at [email protected]
or use the online
form.
About the Author
Doug Barney is editor in chief of Redmond magazine and the VP, editorial director of Redmond Media Group.