Recently, some have complained about a conflict of interest or possible collusion due to the fact that the CEO of Google sits on Apple's board -- especially since Apple and Google share a common enemy. Well, fret no more, as Eric Schmidt just resigned as an Apple director.
The easy answer here is that Apple and Google are now one another's enemy, with Google going into mobile operating systems and browsers, and with the Chrome OS eventually fighting over the desktop.
The precursor to all of this was Apple's well-publicized decision to not run Google Voice on the iPhone (though some believe it was the government that put the kibosh on it). What's most interesting about this whole story is how we still have powerful, fascinating personalities driving our top tech companies: Ballmer, Jobs, Schmidt and even Ellison. Now if we could only get Scott McNealy back!
Who's your favorite tech exec? Nominations readily received at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 08/03/2009 at 1:17 PM0 comments
This week, some readers wrote to describe their eventual acceptance of the Office ribbon. But a few of you just aren't having it:
Hate the ribbon.
-George
Hate it.
-Anonymous
On Monday, Kurt (covering for Doug) reflected on Microsoft's dismal earnings report and asked where Microsoft went wrong. Here are a few ideas:
Where did Microsoft go wrong? Vista. Vista is for home users and people who do not want to learn how to operate a computer. Microsoft thought that businesses would follow. But Win 2000 was the last OS designed for business.
-George
Based on the variety of users I have contact with (university users, small offices, home users), few today even consider an OS (or Office) upgrade as an option. They may get the new version when they get a new computer, but will never change the version on an existing computer. So Microsoft sales are tied very directly to new computer sales.
-Keith
Where should I start? Well, first, one of my beefs is "site sprawl." There are SO many different MS sites that you can not only get lost, it has become impossible to find info. Even the KB is becoming useless. Now let's talk about PowerShell, the great new DOS on steroids. It may be a great tool, but to leave out the GUI counterpart is ludicrous! Then look at SBS, where MS really lost sight of small businesses. We used to run SBS premium on a P3 with 2GB of RAM. Now, with P4 quads, they want an edge server and a server for SQL, and they DIDN'T bring in the backup capability of Home Server!
Then, there are all the different directions: SharePoint, OneNote, Mobile, edge servers, virtual servers, etc. And along with having to keep abreast of that, there are new viruses, new hardware and a slew of new versions of programs. We are a small OEM shop, an Intel partner, and Microsoft isn't making it any easier to keep up.
-Ron
Finally, a few more readers chime in with their experiences with Windows Home Server:
I have been using WHS since the early beta stages. My primary use is for remote access to files that I share with a number of users. Otherwise, I store items there as a secondary backup. I find this to be somewhat frustrating in use; I am often locked out of my own account, either using remote access or my computer sitting right next to the WHS (using the connector software).
I also have problems when downloading files (as do the other users). It will often stop mid-download. It does not seem to matter if the file is small or large. It has proven to be most useful streaming my music files using ORB.
-Jay
I set up my family on WHS a year ago and it has been great for the automated backup, and restoring has been super easy. Just for that, it is worth it!
-Ralph
The home server is great! The single-instance automated backup is the best thing going for it. That alone is worth its weight in gold. The protected storage functionality is great, too (each file is stored on more than one hard drive, sort of like RAID 1 but better from a consumer point of view). There's also a lot of plug-ins available that will add all sorts of functionality. It's an awesome product.
-John
Tell us what you think! Leave a comment below or send an e-mail to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/31/2009 at 1:16 PM0 comments
Satire is my favorite form of humor; it cuts through hypocrisy, stupidity and arrogance like a well-sharpened deli slicer. And as I've mentioned before, The Onion is perhaps our greatest source of satire, a proud replacement for the old National Lampoon magazine.
Fortunately, The Onion likes to tackle tech issues, which gives me an excuse, however slight, to talk about its articles. My latest find? An article called "Apple Claims New iPhone Only Visible to Most Loyal of Customers" that skewers the cult mentality of many Apple customers. The headline is pretty self-explanatory, except that it includes a sly reference to "The Emperor's New Clothes," implying that Apple products aren't worthy of such reverence. Here, I'm not so sure, as the darn things are pretty darn well-engineered.
Are Apple products deserving of such passion? Yes and no votes welcome at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/31/2009 at 1:16 PM2 comments
Who are the leaders in core virtualization tools? VMware, Microsoft and Citrix. That's a pretty good list. Red Hat hopes that you'll soon include one more, and think of the fourth as every bit as important as the big three. And the $100 million-plus acquisition of Qumranet should lay the groundwork.
Qumranet, named after the caves that held the Dead Sea Scrolls, has the KVM hypervisor and virtual desktop tools. From all accounts, KVM is pretty cool, but is it cool enough to break through the VMware/Microsoft/Citrix marketing machines and third-party ecosystems? You tell me.
Do we need another hypervisor? What's your favorite virtualization vendor? Real answers can be sent to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/31/2009 at 1:16 PM3 comments
At Redmond's latest financial analyst meeting, Ballmer took to the stage -- Ballmer does take to the stage like a duck to water -- and drilled into the key issues facing Microsoft today.
As usual, the candid and expressive Ballmer had a few surprises, including this whopper: He himself has been personally managing the Windows business for the past year or so. I'm not sure how Steve Sinofsky, who is responsible for that group, feels about that comment.
Ballmer is bullish about his new baby, Windows 7, of which some 8 million copies have been downloaded -- including the copy running just fine on my machine. Ballmer, usually cautious about projections, is clearly bullish on 7. Just as I've argued, despite a couple of down quarters, Microsoft had a heckuva year, with profits most companies (except Exxon) could only dream of.
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/31/2009 at 1:16 PM2 comments
Last week, Doug asked for your verdicts on the Office ribbon (and the source of the line "Who, who will not wear the ribbon?"). Here are some of your thoughts:
The line "Who, who will not wear the ribbon?" comes from, of course, "Seinfeld," when Kramer is in the walkathon. That was easy, since that episode was on a recently (of course, all the episodes seem to be on recently).
Like all new things, the ribbon takes awhile to get used to; once you get used to it, it becomes an "old" thing. And then something "new" comes out. I was not crazy about the ribbon but after wearing it...er, using it, I've gotten used to it, and in general it does make some things easier to find.
-Craig
Kramer was in an AIDS walk and would not wear the ribbon. I knew my years of watching "Seinfeld" would come in handy some day...
I have been using Office 2007 for about a year. I hated it for the first month. In fact, I kept both Office 2003 and 2007 on my computer and kept going back to 2003. I finally broke down and learned how to use the ribbon. After I started using it, I can't go back to the old way. Things are more organized and easier to find.
-Anonymous
I love the ribbon.
-Terry
My vote: I hate the MS Office ribbon.
-Anonymous
The ribbon is the nicest thing Microsoft ever did for me. I really can't stand fly-out menus, and have hated every last one since they were introduced. Office 2003 was truly a torture to use due to those awful moving menus. I know what I want to click. I know the command is buried three menus deep. I try to slide the mouse ever so carefully. The mouse hits a crumb/dust speck/God only knows what...poof! Menu is gone -- again! I even tried OpenOffice and StarOffice just to make it stop, but they had no features.
Now that I have the ribbon, my commands are not only in plain sight, they sit still! The ribbon has made me love Office all over again, maybe more than ever. And you know what? After the first week or two of learning the new menu, I am so much faster and more productive than before, and people have actually asked me how I make such cool-looking documents and reports. Yeah, they asked me. Me! Isn't that crazy? I love the ribbon, I'd buy the T-shirt and, yes, everyone will have to learn it, because I will never go back to that horrible old interface. You'll have to pry my ribbon from my cold, dead hand!
-April
I am a speed freak and I hate the ribbon! One, your eyeball has to move side to side the entire width of the screen, and also up and down at the same time in a zig-zag motion. While you're doing this, you have to process hieroglyphics and some "helpful" text -- way too much processing for my poor dual-core CPU sitting inside my left and right brain. Two, I make extensive use of keyboard shortcuts. My fingers are like a second brain to me; they know what shortcut sequence to tap out when I want to do something. I noticed on the old menu, the average shortcut sequence was three keys, but on the new one it's four. So my fingers need to know twice as much as before (2 to the third power versus 2 to the fourth).
Three, in Word I usually work with a tall, narrow window off to one side of my laptop screen, as I'm making notes on what I'm looking at simultaneously in my other windows. The ribbon menu is an even bigger hassle when you scrunch it down to a narrow-width window! Often, I have to maximize my window just to figure out what the ribbon is trying to say. And four, I'm in Tier 3 tech support. It takes even more time now to tell somebody what to do if they aren't a ribbon-head. Like, if you want to attach a file, click the "Message" menu and look for the "Include" section (which is after "Names") then "Include File," but if you're not maximized (do you know what that means?) you won't see those words, so just look for the paper clip thingy and click on it. It's much easier to say, "Click on the Insert menu, then Attach file."
I can't take it much longer! But Windows rules in the government space, which is where I work, so I'm living with it.
-Mark
In Office 2010, will there be a way of modifying the ribbon without having to use programming tools, perhaps something like the modifications to toolbars in the previous versions of Office? There are features that I'd like to use, like changing the type case of a section of a document, but I can't find that feature anymore, and there are few things I hate worse than programming. In the words of Rowan Atkinson, I spurn it as I would spurn a rabid dog.
And by the way, the quote you mentioned comes from "Seinfeld" season 7, episode 119: "The Sponge."
-Anonymous
Got some thoughts of your own about the ribbon (or anything else Microsoft- and IT-related, for that matter)? Send them to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/29/2009 at 1:16 PM0 comments
What's your favorite soap opera? "Days of Our Lives"? "Guiding Light"? How about Microsoft and Yahoo?
These two have been negotiating on and off for months, and every time talks break down, execs lash out like petulant lovers. Apparently, these two companies either have a real reason to work together or they just love the drama, because they just can't stop negotiating.
Now the deal is finally done: Yahoo will adopt Bing and sell search ads while Microsoft collects all the search data.
This would be a big boost for Bing and for Microsoft's adCenter Web advertising platform. And now I can finally change the channel.
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/29/2009 at 1:17 PM2 comments
More and more, it seems Microsoft is releasing patches separate from its once-a-month Patch Tuesday. The latest out-of-band patches include an easy fix for Visual Studio and a more serious remedy for IE.
The Visual Studio patch is only for developers building custom apps, and allows programmers to craft code that hackers can't easily bypass.
The IE fix is for nearly everyone, whether you use IE 5, 6, 7 or 8, and helps prevent remote code execution. Marked as critical, security experts advise IT pros to download and install this puppy pronto.
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/29/2009 at 1:16 PM0 comments
The Black Hat conference includes an eclectic group of weirdos, geeks, security crusaders and a healthy dose of posers. While it used to have a slight aura of evil, now the conference attracts major vendors seeking major security solutions. This week, Microsoft made an appearance and pledged its undying cooperation with friends and foes alike.
Critics may argue that Microsoft still doesn't build the world's greatest software, but you can't really fault the company for trying to fix what's broke. New initiatives include giving customers monthly reports going over general security issues. Redmond is also offering frameworks to help IT structure its response to problems and patch releases.
Finally, Microsoft has Project Quant (the name of which either refers to quantitative analysis or the obscure Dutch flautist), an "open community project" to improve patching.
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/29/2009 at 1:16 PM1 comments
The good ship Microsoft didn't make it unscathed out of troubled waters. The company's fourth-quarter financial results showed 29 percent hit on its Windows side, with Windows revenue dropping nearly a billion dollars quarter to quarter.
And there was trouble all around. Every Microsoft division showed a loss for the quarter -- a new low. Microsoft's biggest moneymaker, Windows, was its biggest loss leader. The only other division close was the Entertainment and Devices Division, down 25 percent quarter to quarter.
Every company besides Goldman Sachs is feeling the pinch these days, but Microsoft is known as one of those steady-sailing large-cap stocks. The keel may pitch, but the ship doesn't take on any water...usually. It seems that Microsoft has a bigger problem in that new OSes may not be the catalyst for sales of new PCs and servers. Microsoft still hasn't announced pricing for Windows 7 on netbooks, which sell well but also cut into its profit margins. Netbooks are still running XP, and a lot of business users are also running XP -- quite happily, it seems.
Are we just seeing the waning days of Vista reflected in Microsoft's financial report? Will Windows 7 turn the ship around when launches in October? Where did Microsoft go wrong? Let Doug know at [email protected].
Posted by Kurt Mackie on 07/27/2009 at 1:17 PM8 comments
Microsoft last week announced a proposal it placed before the European Commission that will let new PC users install the browser of their choice through a so-called "ballot screen" in Windows.
Of course, EU users have always been able to use a different browser than IE. To date, IE use in Europe tracks somewhat closely with Firefox use (48.6 percent versus 37.6 percent, respectively, according to StatCounter). Earlier, Microsoft announced a Windows 7E (for Europe) edition that lacks IE. (IE is actually there in the Windows bits, but you have to check a dialog box to add the browser.)
A lot of this discussion about unfair "browser bundling" with Windows may seem like déjà vu here in the United States after many years of similar litigation. Now, it seems, karma has caught up with Microsoft in the EU. Opera Software, Mozilla and Google are all weighing against Microsoft in the case.
Has Microsoft changed in all those years or is it still the same old convicted monopolist, pushing its products through Windows, and needing the firm hand of government? Sound off to Doug at [email protected].
Posted by Kurt Mackie on 07/27/2009 at 1:16 PM6 comments
A coalition of industry and academia is trying to push the U.S. government more in the open source direction, at least in terms of the software it uses.
Sometimes, open source is derided as just an alternative marketing scheme, but it really just provides greater control over software. Even Microsoft appears to be willing to play ball with open source Linux in some situations -- especially when it means broader use of its Hyper-V virtualization technology.
Is the future open source? Would Microsoft be the mega-corporation that it is in a truly open source world? Tell Doug at [email protected].
Posted by Kurt Mackie on 07/27/2009 at 1:17 PM1 comments