Microsoft Going Down? Don't Tell the 10,000 New Workers -- Redmondmag.com

Microsoft Going Down? Don't Tell the 10,000 New Workers

By Doug Barney
08/31/2006

Sure the stock is in the #!*&%er, major products are late, Google is cleaning its clock, and Gates is leaving the company bit by bit. But Redmond is still clearly on the move. How else could it afford to hire 10,000 new employees, nearly half of which are charged with building new technologies? On the flip side, thousands are in sales and marketing, so expect some fresh-faced, cheese-eating recent college grads to knock on your door and try to sell software you may or may not need.

Schmidt Is Just Busting Chops
Google CEO and overall smart guy Eric Schmidt has joined Steve Jobs, Apple CEO and overall smart guy on the Apple board. I haven't seen much going on between these two, as Google is far more hooked into Web services and open source. This leads me to think that these two tech superstars are just messing with Gates, getting to him to wonder what's up. If Schmidt and Jobs truly joined forces, then Gates would have a reason to be worried -- and maybe retire even earlier!

Are You on XP SP1? You Are So Last Year
If you aren't on XP SP1, you ain't squat, at least as far as Microsoft support is concerned. It's cutoff baby! The good news: SP1 is just a download away!

What Do Directory Pros Do All Day?
Directory vendor NetPro (there are a lot of great companies in this space, like Desktop Standard, Scriptlogic and Full Armor) just did a survey [PDF] to find out what its customers do all day. Not surprisingly, they spend nearly all their time (outside of restroom breaks) working with directories. Administration is the No. 1 chore, followed by troubleshooting, supporting users and dealing with security. A relatively new task taking up IT's time is dealing with compliance. That can take up more than 15 percent of a directory guru's time.

Who's you favorite AD vendor? Let us all know at [email protected].

Cable vs. DSL: Which Do You Hate the Least?
I just ditched DSL for the high-priced glory that is cable Internet. I'm cheap so I had DSL installed in three different houses at which I'm known to spend time, and in each I had a monthly ritual of calling tech support and spending up to three hours getting it back online. In one case, old, salt-corroded phone lines were to blame, but heck, it only took Verizon 18 months to figure it out.

What do you use, and what is your worst horror story? Tell us at [email protected].

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Thanks for the Letters
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About the Author

Doug Barney is editor in chief of Redmond magazine and the VP, editorial director of Redmond Media Group.

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