Doug's Mailbag: No Love for Microsoft's Logo

You really hate it. And here's the proof:

Microsoft looks to be going for a new image, and not with just the logo. From the new Surface tablet to Windows 8's new 'formally known as Metro' interface, Microsoft is changing. The new logo reflects that. It's very simple. But, it is very generic and lacks familiarity. Like you said, it looks like a college paper heading, which it pretty much is. Just a generic font.

Logo recognition is huge in today's market. There are even apps out there to 'guess the logo.' Sadly, I think this is where Microsoft is taking a step backwards. There is nothing there that really sticks out and becomes familiar. I guess MS Paint is a great tool for Microsoft designers!  

Thanks for always having a good read with Redmond magazine. I have to say that some things I read in there make me furious, while others make me smile. Definitely learn a lot every issue.
-Dustin

I'm hearing midi music in my head when I see that new (old school) logo!

Hope you don't have to look at it every day.
-Anonymous

The MS logo we all know had a unique, timeless, clean look to it -- the new logo blows.

The letters aren't even fully kerned!

Bad move for Microsoft.
-Markus

The new MS logo sucks. What is there that is good about it? Nothing. Lame is a nice word for it. Someone should have known better.
-Greg

It sucks.  Kind of like the idea to turn Windows into a touch-centric OS.
-Anonymous

Posted by Doug Barney on 08/27/20125 comments

Analysts Like Win 8 More than Some Users

Windows 8 creates more mixed emotions than a Madonna Super Bowl halftime show. The fact that half the people seem to be tearing their hair out isn't stopping some analysts like IDC from predicting big things for Win 8. To be clear, IDC is not saying XP, Vista and Win 7 users are all going to all upgrade in place. Clearly most of Win 8 criticisms are about Win 8 on keyboard- and mouse-centric machines, with the rest centered on having to switch back and forth between "Metro" and Desktop interfaces.

Posted by Doug Barney on 08/27/20121 comments

New Microsoft Logo Underwhelms

I am usually the guy that defends Microsoft, arguing that the company is hipper than it gets credit for. With the new corporate logo, the company isn't helping my cause. The Windows part of the logo changes to keep the squares Windows 8's "Modern" interface. I thought that part looked pretty lame.

But the name itself went from looking pretty smooth to appearing like the title page of a high school term paper.

Posted by Doug Barney on 08/24/201222 comments

Windows Server 2012 Essentials Essentially Done

You'd think Windows Server 2012 Essentials would be completely done. After all, its big brother (regular old Windows Server 2012) has already been released to manufacturing, which means it's in the bag.

Essentials is almost there, having just gained release candidate status. That means it's almost ready for manufacturing but needs a few more eyeballs to make dead sure.

Posted by Doug Barney on 08/24/20121 comments

SharePoint 2013 Gains Cloud Boost

Microsoft recently showed off a version of SharePoint 2013 built for Office 365 -- and this baby has some "Modern" touches.

Instead of a busy interface, either the old-style drop down or newer-style Ribbon, this one is rather sparse with Modern tiles and a small un-Modern-like menu bar.

Most of the changes are functional, and a lot have to do with the Webification of SharePoint. Specifically, a lot of work has gone into tagging including the ability to tag while posting (rather than as a separate process).

Posted by Doug Barney on 08/24/20120 comments

New Virus Aimed at Saudi Oil Giant, We All May Be Next

Shamoon is a new, or partly new virus that looked to be just a warmed-over version of Flame (probably Flame tweaked by some low-level scripter).

Shamoon might have been used in an attack on Saudi Aramco, the national oil company (this outfit is worth more than Apple!). But that may be only the beginning. Now that this little beastie is getting some press, expect a lot of little hackers to start spreading the goodness.

Posted by Doug Barney on 08/22/20120 comments

Win RT OEM Ecosystem Tightly Controlled

It must be no fun being a Win RT OEM. You now have the company that controls the OS competing with you with Microsoft Surface. Given that fact, you'd think Microsoft would cut you a little slack. But no. Instead, Microsoft controls your every move.

Here's one example: ARM is the company that makes the processor that drives Win RT devices. But these processors become part of a system-on-a-chip (SoC), which is made by Texas Instruments, Qualcomm and NVIDIA. The OEM, which makes the final machines, tablets or tablet/laptop hybrids, are under Microsoft orders to only work with one SoC provider. I'm not sure why this is the case but it sure makes it tough to negotiate price. The same is true on the Win 8 side -- you've got to choose your Intel or AMD poison (and can't flip flop).

Posted by Doug Barney on 08/22/20122 comments

Doug's Mailbag: To Migrate or Not To Migrate

Here are two readers' wildly different opinions on Windows 8:

We've been looking at Win 8 in the enterprise as part of our ongoing research agenda and we are coming to conclusion that Windows 8 (Enterprise) has no real compelling advantages over Win 7 -- and a number of disadvantages and risks for enterprises. In fact, our current advice is for enterprises with XP fleets to immediately begin migration to Win 7 (real pressure points are starting to build on the 50-60 percent of enterprises still on XP SOEs) and ignore Win 8. For organizations that have already made to move to Win 7, we recommend not spending any more effort or resources on examining a Win 8 upgrade.

I am publishing a research paper next week on this very issue. I have offered Microsoft a little time to counter my arguments before publishing.

One of the sticking points in my research is Microsoft's official 'we can't comment' on Downgrade Rights for OEM Win8. If licensing terms stay as they are, this would mean no more deployments of XP (outside of Software Assurance). My guess (guess only) it that Microsoft will not grant N-3 OEM licensing to keep XP alive...and I would not blame the company. In fact, I think Microsoft would be mad not to return to N-1 licensing.
-Joe

What? Me worry? Not a chance, Doug! Vista was NOT 'just a modest upgrade to XP,' and the extent to which that illusion was perpetrated by Microsoft led to Vista's apparent failure.

It wasn't really but it sure felt that way to a lot of people. Microsoft's blunders made a bad situation look much worse than it was, and Vista received an undeserved black eye.

Vista's 2007 public release represented the first Windows kernel re-write since Windows 2000. That is a long time.

Windows 7 and Windows 8 are still running on an enhanced version of that Vista kernel. That is why the transition to Windows 8 will be relatively painless. If an application ran under Vista, it will run on the Windows 8 desktop. Getting used to a Start Screen instead of a 'Start Menu' is not nearly as traumatic as the pundits have been predicted and, if you really do not want to upgrade from Windows 7, there is no need to. Windows 7 will be supported until 2020!

As for the absence of touch on existing notebooks, well that is just nonsense. I use a mouse with Windows 8 and I love it. I detest fingerprints on my screen so I would probably use a mouse on the Surface RT as well.
I couldn't be happier!
-Marc

Posted by Doug Barney on 08/22/20122 comments

Google Steals Books

Google truly has no shame. These days it's nearly impossible to make it as an author. For every James Patterson, there are hundreds of thousands of men and women with unsold manuscripts, and hundreds of thousands who self-publish manuscripts that too few read.

For those lucky enough to get published, Google has a sweet deal. It will get you exposure by scanning and publishing parts of your book for free! That way you don't even have to worry about selling it or cashing all those pesky royalty checks.

Posted by Doug Barney on 08/22/20127 comments

Office 2013 Open to XML

Over the weekend I read Kurt Mackie's story about Microsoft finally supporting the Open XML file format with Office 2013, and I scratched my increasing gray haired head. Didn't Microsoft already do this? Can't I save as Open Document Text? This is an XML format used by OpenOffice. Here is some good background  info from an old friend on all this.

Posted by Doug Barney on 08/20/20120 comments

IIS Boosted in Win Server 2012

IIS is, by most accounts, a pretty good Web server. But when it comes to market share, it pales in comparison to Apache (and probably will for the next decade). It's tough to compete with free, especially when the free is so darn good.

You think Microsoft is going to give up? Not on your life. The next dynamic Web duo is Windows Server 2012 and IIS 8.0, which will come after the current 7.5.

Posted by Doug Barney on 08/20/20120 comments

Which Is Stronger, Security Tools or Training?

Redmond columnist Don Jones poses a lot of interesting questions. The great thing is he usually has the perfect answer.

The latest is whether all these great security tools are making us lax and over dependent on technology. In fact, how often does your shop conduct security training?  See, you may already be lax.

Shops that are overconfident in their security apparatus may be less secure in a way than if they had nothing to protect them. That's because without training, your end users are apt to do all kinds of dumb things -- the kind of things social engineering hackers love to talk them into.

Posted by Doug Barney on 08/20/20121 comments