A recent report from Forrester Research shows that early Windows 7 users are pretty happy with their decision. While the company only interviewed 40 customers (this is far more anecdotal than scientific), it found they like the new features that replace third-party products such as VPNs and encryption.
On the downside, Forrester believes that two-thirds of XP apps don't work with Windows 7. I'm not sure where they're getting this; I only had a problem with a driver for an old LaserJet 1000 printer (which Redmond Report reader Mike G. helped me fix).
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Posted by Doug Barney on 02/17/201010 comments
Microsoft bought its way into the enterprise search market when it bought Fast Search & Transfer ASA, with its semi-eponymously named FAST line of search tools (makes it almost easy to remember). FAST was a multiplatform system and is just as easily installed on Linux or Unix boxes as it is on Windows.
That will all end with next round of Windows-only search tools. The good news? While FAST won't install on Linux/Unix, future versions will still be able to search across them.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 02/17/20103 comments
Social media and social networking are all the rage. Heck, you can't watch more than 10 minutes of CNN before you're pushed to some stupid Twitter page.
Now Google and Microsoft both want in on the act. Google stepped up to the plate with Buzz (not exactly an original name), a service that brings social features and YouTube hooks to Gmail. The Gmail requirement makes this very much a consumer play. But Google promises an enterprise version that ties into its premier version of Google Apps.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 02/12/20100 comments
Active Directory Rights Management Service (AD RMS) is designed to lock down files so that corporate info isn't sent to competitors, nosy reporters or other unintended recipients.
But if you don't install an update soon, those RMS restrictions will expire, defeating the whole point of RMS. In fact, you won't even be able to access protected files, nor create new protected files.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 02/12/20100 comments
We're all pretty used to Microsoft coming clean with its bugs. We're less used to it disclosing bugs of others. In the case of a bug that affects both Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS), most versions of Windows are impacted.
The vulnerability could let a hacker use these network protocols to gain access to wireless access points. It's a pretty difficult hack to pull off and so far there've been no reports of successful attacks.
Posted by Doug Barney on 02/12/20100 comments
A recent study estimated that salaries will increase by a paltry 1.8 percent. That's not much, but readers are making do with what they get:
While my increase was slightly more than the 1.8 percent, I know others received nothing. I'm thankful to have a job at this point. My sister and others have been out of work for quite a while.
-Andy
This year, my company did not give raises or bonuses due to the economic downturn. I know several people who are out of work and have been for some time so I am thankful to have a job right now. The way I see it, we all have choices to make and I am chosing to be grateful even in this less-than-ideal economy.
-Steve
At the school where I work, the entire staff decided to take four days without pay so that layoffs didn't have to happen. However, we still received our incentive pay, and I got a raise for getting my master's degree, so I came out a bit ahead. I don't like it, but I was able to keep my good job, so it was worth the sacrifice.
-Jim
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Posted by Doug Barney on 02/12/20101 comments
This all may be sour grapes, but an ex-Redmond exec now claims that other Redmond execs are more concerned with holding back competition than taking risks and innovating.
Dick Brass (now that's a great name for a guy who likes to take shots) wrote an editorial in The New York Times arguing that Microsoft's biggest groups, Office and Windows, care more about protecting their turf than breaking new ground.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 02/10/20102 comments
Bill Gates always had a platform for his technical views. Now that he's devoting 90 percent of his $40 billion fortune (it used to be $58 billion before the market melted) to charity, he also has a platform for his views on world issues.
No, Bill doesn't weigh in on all the usual cable news talking points: Sarah Palin, Obamacare, the war on extremists. Instead, Gates talks about less sexy issues: disease, hunger, the environment and education. What's he thinking? No wonder he doesn't get as much press as the talking head buffoons on either side!
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Posted by Doug Barney on 02/10/20102 comments
Two reports came out recently that paint a less-than-rosy picture of our beloved IT industry. While we're in the midst of some kind of economic recovery, it's not exactly raging.
IDC, for instance, predicts the software industry will grow an anemic 2 percent, services a paltry 3 percent, and hardware an OK 5 percent. IT salaries appear to be on a similar but slightly lower trajectory. Research firm Computer Economics predicts average raises of 1.8 percent.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 02/10/20102 comments
Doug asked readers recently what "protected mode" used to mean back in the day. Here are some of your responses:
Wow. That is old, old, old, back in the stone ages of the big hair mid-'80s. Most people don't even remember that x86 processors could only use 640kb easily. If my memory serves, protected mode allowed the system to access the memory above 640kb. Do you remember all of the block device drivers that we used to load between 640-1Mb? SCSI, TSRs (that's a trip...my first IT job was writing a TSR in assembly).
-Joe
Wow. That was a long time ago. As I recall, it allowed 32-bit applications to run on a 16-bit OS. As I recall, it required an 80386 processor, whereas the 80286 processor ran in "real mode."
-Pete
If I remember right, protected mode had something to do with a program being able to use advanced CPU features like paging, virtual memory, etc.
-Jim
Protected mode used to refer to the native 32-bit kernel execution mode of NT 3.x and later -- i.e., the kernel was protected from rogue application actions. This also ensured that one user could not snoop on another user's data in flight. It existed in the 80286 processor family but because it had to be selected at boot time, it was not supported widely. This mode gave wide control over application execution to the operating system.
-Michael
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Posted by Doug Barney on 02/10/20100 comments
If it seems like Microsoft Patch Tuesdays are packed with more and more patches, you'd be correct! Though they ebb and flow every month, in general there are more patches now than there were six months ago.
Tomorrow is no exception, with an unlucky 13 fixes set for release. (Couldn't they have come up with just one more for the superstitious among us?)
On the Windows front, the old bugaboo remote code execution (RCE) gets five fixes. Interestingly, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 aren't covered by all fixes, perhaps proving these products are more secure than their predecessors. Also, Office 2007 doesn't get any patches, while older versions do.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 02/08/20100 comments
I've spent so much time talking to people about Office 2010 I feel like I'm using it already (Office 2010 is on the cover of the March issue of Redmond). And soon I may be. That's because the software is now a release candidate (RC), or what used to be called a late beta back when test software nomenclature was simpler.
An RC is feature complete, but may need bug fixes and tuning. And that can take a while and sometimes several RC iterations. I predict a summer release.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 02/08/20100 comments