Post-Holiday Patch Tuesday

Fortunately, they're all only "important," which is far less serious than "critical."

SQL Server is getting protection against elevation-of-privilege attacks, and Microsoft continues to plug remote code execution flaws.

Posted by Doug Barney on 07/08/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments

Mailbag: Hyper-V a Non-Debate

Here's what has been annoying me about this Hyper-V versus VMware "debate": There's nothing to debate! People are approaching this as though Microsoft should be eviscerated for coming out with a 1.0 product -- how dare they! You mean Hyper-V version 1.0 doesn't match up feature-for-feature with ESX, a product that VMware has been working on for years? Well, that's no surprise, and I'm a bit astounded that people are acting so vehemently about this.

I for one am excited about Hyper-V. It's apparently targeted precisely at a shop my size. We have about 12 servers and around four or five of them are ready to be replaced so, for me, Hyper-V looks a lot more attractive than spending thousands on ESX features I don't need. We may someday need a more robust product, fine, but for the time being, I think Hyper-V is going to be just what the doctor ordered. So I wish people would get off their soapboxes and use whichever product suits them and leave everyone else alone to do the same thing.
-Greg

There is no choice in the browser wars! There are too many sites and devices on the Internet that do not play well with any browser but Internet Explorer. Our corporate HR Web site will not even let a user log in with a browser other that Internet Explorer.

Firefox is my default browser at home. It's fast, clean and functional. I use it for everything except the corporate stuff (and my Web cam). I have never been hijacked or seen a drive-by download using it. But I have been asked to clean more than my share of computers when the users (running IE), despite having AV and anti-spyware software installed, get stuck with a useless machine due to Internet pop-ups and browser hijacking.
-Tom

I love cloud computing for my own business and I am sure that others who try will, too. But there is a downside: Customisation is real tricky. So yes, I agree, the clouds are approaching fast, but once in the cloud, your business better fit the model or you are not going to be able to fine-tune your business model at all, wasting any savings that you might make.
-Garry

Perhaps I simply have a firm grasp of the obvious reason Billy Boy allegedly "retired": He is taking over the programming aspect of Microsoft once again, where he started, to be sure the next OS is not the embarrassment that Vista is, and will continue to be. Vista is to Windows 7 what Windows ME was to Windows XP -- simply a test product at the consumer's expense. After all, the stock price of Microsoft has dropped and he is no longer the wealthiest man on this planet. Ouch!
-R.M.

Finally, reader Chris took offense at the "Nick Hogan-induced coma" line in a recent Redmond Report, and most of you agreed with him -- but that doesn't mean the Hogans got off scot-free:

I have to agree with Chris. Your choice of that reference was in poor taste. No other analogy came to mind?
-Mercury

Regarding your Hogan controversy, I agree that it is offensive to refer to the victim's condition as some fun, pop-culture reference. I understand and share your disdain for the Hogans but think you displayed it in the wrong fashion.
-Peter

The whole Hogan tirade was in the wrong venue. Get a new frame of reference. Subscribe to Google Good News.
-Gordon

Clever, but yes, it was in poor taste, because while Nick Hogan and Hulk Hogan are indeed the dirtbags you proclaim them to be, the young man in the coma is not. Cut him a little slack for not hearing of Bill Gates' retirement due to his current circumstances.
-Phil

Surely your reader was referring to the victim when he cried foul, and not in support of a douchebag like Nick Hogan. Anyone that has watched Hulk Hogan over the decades knows that he's always been a douche. His latest antics are nothing new. I can't believe anyone would be upset because you pointed out the foul behavior of one of these sociopaths.
-Gerry

As for Hulk Hogan wearing his do-rag to court, I can only say that every true Texan knows a gentleman never wears his hat indoors. Even legendary Texan and Houston Oilers coach Bum Phillips never wore his Stetson inside the Astrodome because it was indoors. Then again, who would ever expect a professional wrestler to be a gentleman?
-Dave

I agree with you. The Hogan family does not deserve admiration, respect or attention in any way, shape or form. Anyone who jumps to their defense has been watching too many reality shows!
-Eric

Yep, Nick...and his dirtbag dad. Typical liberals -- they don't give a sh*t about anyone but themselves and believe they can do no wrong even when they do.
-Lloyd

What do you think? Share your thoughts by commenting below or send an e-mail to [email protected].

Posted by Doug Barney on 07/08/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments

Microsoft-Bill=?

Over the years, I've been asked many times what Microsoft would be like without Gates. My theory was that Microsoft wasn't so much focused on a single product as it was on building an integrated system, like a quilt. Each piece didn't have to be better or as good as the competition's; it just had to fit better.

I also believed that Microsoft was a bit like the Pentagon: It had plans for nearly every contingency. My conclusion? Gates could leave and Microsoft would be fine for the next five years. It just has to keep making more quilt pieces.

To some degree, that's still true. Desktop OSes and Office suites are still rich clients, and servers by and large are big hunks of IT-managed software. But the world is changing, and services are taking hold. Microsoft has to be agile and make faster and, sometimes, radical decisions.

So Microsoft will be different without Gates full-time. Steve Ballmer will be more free to be Steve (that'll be fun to watch!), and it'll be put-up-or-shut-up time for Ray Ozzie. Speaking of whom, if you want the real inside dope on Ozzie's challenge, read Redmond Editor Ed Scannell's recent cover story, "Cloud Man," here.

Do you care about cloud computing? Share your insight by writing [email protected].

Posted by Doug Barney on 07/02/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments

Patch That Browser

But was that the right choice? Well, according to a new report, it was dead-on. IE is more vulnerable.

One problem is that despite the well-publicized Patch Tuesdays and automated tools like Windows Update, IE users patch their browsers less than other users. The report also argues that it takes Microsoft too long to find a flaw and write a patch.

What makes the results just a wee bit suspect? The research was done by IBM and Google. Hmm.

What's your favorite browser and why? Tell us all by writing [email protected].

Posted by Doug Barney on 07/02/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments

Defending Nick Hogan

Redmond Report reader Chris took offense and had this to say:

"Bad taste, Mr. Barney. I could see that coming from a young staff writer, but not from an editor in chief."

I wrote Chris back to point out that Nick Hogan isn't worth our admiration. Here's that message:

"Chris,

Take a look at these two links: 1 and 2. Nick Hogan essentially killed his friend, then he and his dad bad-mouthed the victim and plotted to make money from the accident.

Hulk Hogan showed disrespect to the court by not removing his do-rag even when testifying. Nick Hogan is a dirt bag."

Agree? Disagree? Sound off by writing me at [email protected].

Posted by Doug Barney on 07/02/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments

Mailbag: Hyper-V More Than Hype?

Sounds like he has a axe to grind. Hyper-V demonstrates a much more mature software product than the pre 1.0 that the reviewer exclaims. I have found Hyper-V to be an extremely stable and flexible product with a full Windows 2008 install or with a Server Core, the latter being much more locked down and hacker-safe.

In the next year or two, this product will have "world-class" written all over it.
-Howard

The issue at hand is that everyone (including Microsoft) is comparing this product to VMware ESX. Just because they strip the Start menu out of the OS to make Server Core, doesn't mean this is a bare-bones hypervisor. It's merely an evolution of Virtual Server allowing deeper penetration into VMware-entrenched territory. Now with the use of clustering, you can perform cold migrations and have the ability to use a ridiculous amount of processors in a VM.

There are other more glaring problems than killing a host through the parent partition -- like not being able to over-commit the level of RAM or iSCSI-only support. Hyper-V is a good ESX 1.0 competitor but no one will take it seriously until you get those two limitations straightened out, along with Live Migration.
-Lee

I have been using Hyper-V for about two months with few problems except for the following:

• NO support for wireless adapters. Yes, you may argue that there is no place for wireless in a server environment, but what about us developers who emulate the complete client system on our laptops? I have been told that the reason is that Microsoft can not clone the MAC address of the wireless -- but it worked with Virtual PC!
• Still no USB support.

As to running out of resources on the root/parent machine, that has never been a problem. I have configured it as core and not used the core machine for anything (other than Hyper-V). Bottom line, I think it is a good product and will become even better when Exchange 2007 is certified to run on Hyper-V.
-Tim

VMware Enterprise has many very cool features that Hyper-V lacks, but the reality is that Hyper-V is version 1 and really cheap to buy and use! For a test environment, it works great and is easy to use and set up. Heck, VMware now gives some of its products away for free in reaction to/anticipation of Microsoft's entry to the virtualization market.

The writing is on the wall for VMware. By the time Hyper-V is in rev 3 or 4, it will be able to support enterprise virtualization very well. Why pay 5K a processor for VMware Enterprise when you can get it much cheaper in Windows? Why hire a VMware OS expert when anyone that can admin Windows can admin Hyper-V?
-Chris

I'm planning to try Hyper-V as a small computer science experiment so that I can run Vista and XP in parallel. Toward this end, I built a new machine. I've installed Vista Ultimate on this machine while waiting for the Hyper-V RTM and discovered that it does a good job of supporting the hardware the Vista analyzer said wouldn't be supported (Epson Perfection 1650 scanner and ATI HDTV Wonder). But even so, I want to continue with my experiment to see what happens and possibly write up my experience for the benefit of others. This is going to be a budget project; I got Vista Ultimate and a one-year Windows 2008 trial from Microsoft for free. Now my wait for Hyper-V is over and I'm ready to start.

But where to start? This is the purpose of this e-mail. Do I have to build a new system from scratch, starting with Win08, reinstall Vista, etc.? Or can I "import" an existing installation of Vista and install a new version of XP? And what do I do with the downloadable images Microsoft provides? Should I use a core Win08 60-day trial and just extend it three more times as Microsoft suggests? Then can I update that install with my one-year trial product key? Can I extend my one-year trial three times? Does virtualization share peripheral hardware (i.e., NICs) or do I really need to have two machines worth of hardware on one motherboard? It doesn't seem likely that two OSes can share the same MAC/IP address, I must admit, but that would be quite a problem if I wanted to run 12 OSes as "astute reader Mark" desires to do.

Keep the info coming. I'm indeed about as giddy as Mark suggests but I'm not going to let his comments spoil my buzz. I can see from his comments why an actual server administrator might be a bit less than over-enthused by Hyper-V 1.0. If I can get just XP Pro and Vista Ultimate to coexist, I'll be one happy camper.
-Eric

And after Doug's announcement that he's once again manning the Redmond Report column full-time, Gordon wanted to get just one thing straight:

Not THIS purple dinosaur?!
-Gordon

Join the fray! Leave a comment below or send an e-mail to [email protected].

Posted by Doug Barney on 07/02/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments

XP Anti-Virus Complaint Cured

The result? Wireless connections that no longer connect and random restarts. (I thought this was just a feature built into all desktop versions of Windows.)

Microsoft has a fix now, and you can get all the details right here.

Posted by Doug Barney on 07/01/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments

Bye-Bye, Bill

I've been fortunate enough to cover Microsoft for the last 20-plus years, and have never been disappointed with the company's drive, personality, toughness or brainpower. This culture came directly from chairman Bill.

Some employees even took to looking like Bill, acting like Bill and talking like Bill. Bill even invented his own vocabulary: "Golden" was good, "random" meant your thinking was scattered or stupid, and "bandwidth" was your ability to concentrate and deal with something.

In the early days, a reporter could talk to Bill quite easily. A new version of Word? Bill was the guy to interview. On the other hand, one time while NeXT Computer was making an announcement, I told the company I wouldn't do the story unless I could talk to Steve Jobs. Even after I explained that Gates regularly did these interviews, it was still no dice. (No story, either, Steve-O!)

Tomorrow I'll talk about Microsoft without Gates. Have you ever met Bill? Send your story to [email protected].

Posted by Doug Barney on 07/01/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments

Microsoft More Open

The other reason is the reality that open source exists and IT likes it.

Regardless of the reason, Microsoft is taking openness seriously. It struck a deal with Sun, whose former CEO, Scott McNealy, has more bad words for Redmond than an HBO late-night series. While the Sun deal has been a bit of a dud, the one that has bore real fruit is the Novell arrangement, where the companies offer mutual tech support and now have significant interoperability.

Microsoft is extending this activity to the rest of the open source world through its Interoperability Principles. The latest news is that Microsoft has formally released documentation for key protocols used in the latest versions of Exchange, SharePoint and Office. If you're a real glutton for this kind of stuff, there are now 50,000 pages worth of protocol specs. Now there's some fun summer reading.

Do you use Novell and Microsoft? Is the relationship as fruitful as I make it out to be? Set me straight at [email protected].

Posted by Doug Barney on 07/01/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments

My Take on Hyper-V

Yup, Hyper-V is in manufacturing, two months earlier than we expected. (Truth be told, we usually expect these products to slip several times, so August to us would've been early.)

This is an industry-changing event. Microsoft is unequalled in building third-party communities, and I expect VMware vendors to add Hyper-V -- and for more traditional Windows third parties to jump in, as well.

There are plenty of gaps to fill, as Hyper-V is a first-generation product and doesn't sport the maturity of a VMware. Among the missing features is NIC bonding -- which helps ensure the network connections stay up even if one NIC fails -- and live migration.

Here's what astute reader Mark had to say:

"Hyper-V is still in beta, has no live migration, has no farm concept with automatic load balancing and HA, no over-committing of resources (this one is huge as I ran out of memory on an 8G system with just six VMs; I usually get 12 on this same hardware using the same VM configurations), requires an installation of at least Server 2008 Core Edition (OK, not bad, but there's still a lot running in the root domain), has restricted x86/x64 OSes, and is dependent on specific CPUs (which places you at the mercy of the chip manufacturers).

Then there's the inability to throttle or isolate the root domain from VMs. I'm able to kill all running VMs by eating up memory in the root domain and chewing up the CPUs; other than live migration, I consider this to be the No. 1 problem. You shouldn't be able to bring down your VMs by runaway processes in the root or console OS.

And, to top it off, it's basically a Xen knock-off (in fact, it's so similar (with similar problems), that I wonder how much open source code crept into this closed source product.

It amazes me, the giddiness with which people are approaching this pre-1.0 product and clearly inferior technology. The Microsoft Machine with its adherents are at work here, but this certainly is not amazing technology at all. Maybe one day, a few years from now."

Have you tried Hyper-V? Do you agree with Mark? Any deployment plans? Let us know by writing [email protected].

Posted by Doug Barney on 06/30/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments

Is This Your Next PC?

The latest round of designs, which will likely never be produced, include the Napkin PC, a Backpacker's Diary and a computer built for pre-schoolers.

The Napkin PC sits on a table like a napkin, and can be written on like a napkin. The PC, however, can't take care of your coffee stains. The irony, of course, is that many seminal PCs, like the original Compaq Portable, were designed on napkins. I'm not sure if the Napkin PC was sketched on a napkin or a CAD program.

The Backpacker's Diary also uses a paper metaphor -- in this case, a book rather than a single sheet of absorbent paper. Each page features a different function. One nice thing for those out in the woods for days: solar charging!

If you were to design the next PC, what would do? Let us know by writing me directly at [email protected].

Posted by Doug Barney on 06/23/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments

Can Gates Code?

The editors at our sister publication Redmond Developer News, aimed at corporate software development managers, decided to find out if Gates was as good at making software as he is at making money. Longtime analyst guru Will Zachmann took up the challenge and spoke to a who's-who of software to see just how good Gates was at the craft.

The conclusion? Gates was and is a fine technologist, and clearly knows his code.

Posted by Doug Barney on 06/23/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments