I have three kids that are dedicated Mac-oholics. One sure sign? Every time they see one on TV, they have to point it out. For instance, there's an ad that runs non-stop on basic cable for FinallyFast.com, which is software that promises to speed up your PC.
"Look, Dad, there's an iBook!" they all said in unison. And there's an iMac! They sure looked like Macs to me, but there are so many styles of laptops and monitors, I wasn't 100 percent convinced.
But the idea stuck in my head, and each time I saw the commercial I became more and more convinced these were Macs, even though the company points out the software only works on PCs. Then, leaning on my vast virtualization knowledge (I did found VirtualizationReview.com after all), I argued that these Macs may have been running Windows under Boot Camp or Parallels.
"Nothing doing," my son David said. "That iBook is a PowerPC -- it can't run Windows!" It's times like this I wish I didn't have such bright kids.
In preparation for writing this item, I did a little Googling (or Windows Live Searching, in Microsoft parlance) and found a blog about this company. Turns out, those were Macs. Even worse, the company is flagged by many as offering software that's barely effective and may actually be harmful. I can't confirm 100 percent that this is true, but there are some rather compelling reports on the matter. Google "Ascentive" and you'll soon see what I mean.
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/13/2009 at 1:16 PM5 comments
I have a love/hate relationship with Keith Olbermann. When Republicans are in power, I can half-stand the smug partisan attacks. And when Dems rule, the fawning (plus the continuing smug partisan attacks on Republicans) sicken me. In fact, to maintain any sanity, I shift from right-wing ideologues to left-wing dogmatists every half-hour or so, whether it's the radio, TV or a friend on the phone.
So I was surprised to watch that doofus Olbermann make fun of our own Steve Ballmer, choosing Steve as one of the worst persons in the world. Did Steve put another rival out of business? Lay off more workers? Defile Puget Sound with a gas spill from his yacht (I don't actually think Ballmer has one)?
Nope. Ballmer has the unmitigated gall to predict that in a decade, PC displays will be as flexible as paper, and that search engines will in that same period be able to guess what we're really looking for based on our basic query.
Olbermann has never been known for his subtle analysis, and so he assumed Ballmer meant that PCs would be like HAL -- more human than not. In reality, Ballmer argued that search engines would be like expert systems, tracking our past queries to rather simplistically predict the future. If we don't get to this point by 2019, my children and I with be sadly disappointed.
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/13/2009 at 1:16 PM16 comments
As a Microsoft vet, Steve Sinofsky is no stranger to pressure. But he better have his Alka-Seltzer ready as Sinofsky has just taken over as president of the Windows Division.
Sinofsky is already off to a good start. The man helped run Windows engineering and has been given credit for producing Windows 7, an OS that while not yet released, is stable enough to let me write this newsletter! Thanks, Steve.
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/10/2009 at 1:16 PM0 comments
North Korea loves attention. Kim Jong Il gets headlines with tough talk and feeble and embarrassing missile tests. Now, North Korean hackers may be trying to spread fear with a series of denial-of-service attacks on South Korean and U.S. government Web sites.
But according to security experts, these hackers are as ineffective as current North Korean missile technology. The worst that happened, according to those attacked, was a bit of annoyance.
That's the good news. The bad news is that politically motivated cyber attacks will go on and the level of sophistication is likely to increase. How can we fight cyber attacks? Is there a technical or political answer? Cast your vote at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/10/2009 at 1:16 PM2 comments
This coming Tuesday will be moderately busy for IT patching pros as Microsoft plans a half-dozen fixes.
I know I sound like a broken record, but nearly all the patches address remote code execution (RCE) flaws. In fact, one patch helps close an RCE hole in all currently supported revs of Windows. Pretty handy.
Microsoft virtual wares get some security help, too. Hyper-V is fine, but older tools such as Virtual PC 2004 and 2007 as well as Virtual Server 2005 need to be patched.
Finally, Microsoft has a fix for DirectX (which hackers, for some reason, particularly like to attack) and tweaks for ISA and Office Publisher 2007.
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/10/2009 at 1:16 PM0 comments
Marc shares his thoughts on how businesses large and small decide which version of Windows 7 is right for them:
When we think of the enterprise, aside from Fortune 500 companies, we also need to think of organizations with robust IT departments, including many medium to large organizations and most universities and colleges. Such institutions often have enterprise license agreements directly with Microsoft so that for a flat fee, all of its members have free access to desktop software (usually the OS and some version of Office). Some enterprise users MIGHT be able to get by with Windows 7 Professional, but many won't -- so why offer it?
Small business is just different. Most small businesses have no IT department and only minimal in-house systems administration expertise. For them, Windows 7 Home Premium might be sufficient, but for slightly larger small business customers with some systems administration expertise, the use of a domain controller (instead of workgroups) might make sense...in which case Windows 7 Pro is a must. In the end, the consumer can now buy ANY addition of Windows 7, but unless you KNOW you need Professional (or Ultimate/Enterprise) you probably don't. And if you find out later you need the more robust edition, Microsoft offers an Anytime Upgrade so you can get it online.
-Marc
The last few days, we've been reading a lot of comments (some good, some not) about SharePoint and its impact. Today is no different, as more readers share their real-world experiences with SharePoint:
The Santa Barbara Police Department has been using SharePoint for about five years. It replaced a very static intranet. By far, the thing IT likes most about it is the ability to put changes in the hands of the various divisions -- creating appointment calendars, logs for court requests, daily notes, forms and policy posts. Officers log problems with cars and computers on SharePoint, and internal news and interesting crimes are updated several times per day.
-David
I work in a federal agency -- the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), part of the Department of the Interior -- in a small field offfice. I built a site in SharePoint to keep folks current and to help managers control the currency of the information we use. Rather than leave information-gathering to the four winds and the four corners of dozens of PCs, we save time and disk space by putting it in one place, using SharePoint like one of those old bulletin boards. SharePoint's secondary role will be to provide an online offsite back-up (all three of our Oklahoma locations are in Tornado Alley; SharePoint is hosted by BLM's Denver office).
We're new at this. We've a lot to learn about how to make the most use of SharePoint. But for now, the bulletin board function is a big help. We hope it will grow to carry records management load and reduce our paper management floor-space requirement. We're using the equivalent of a small barn -- a 31-feet-square room for paper management. We look to SharePoint to help us reclaim that space for human use!
-Anonymous
We have been using SharePoint since the 2003 Portal version came out. We have had the MOSS 2007 Portal for a year and are now consolidating on to a server farm for MOSS 2007. We added the product to our EA, which may be the only place that some have SharePoint licenses. The initial costs were high. Add to that the licenses for third-party products, and I would say we have hundreds of thousands of dollars tied up in the system ($300,000 estimated, not including labor). If we were to roll this out today and do what we have done to this point, SharePoint would not fly because of the cost.
However, users love SharePoint. They love the empowerment, the ease of use and many other features. Add to that the integrations with Office, Exchange e-mail and secure serving of SharePoint through ISA, and you have a whale of a system...provided you have all the other parts and pieces.
-Lawrence
I live and work in the Philly area for a gold partner, and our SharePoint work has been non-stop. I would say that most of our work is "early stage" SharePoint (i.e., discovery sessions to explain/demo SharePoint, or initial installs and configurations for companies wanting to learn how to use the product). A few upgrades from 2003 sites, particularly at firms that had "rogue" installs of SharePoint, and now they want to use the platform mainstream.
-Stephanie
When it first came out, SharePoint seemed like an ordinary intranet portal software for a Web site but with a lot more features and power. I believe it has evolved into much more than just portal software, too. With the built-in abilities to store documents and interact with Office and other programs, it has become an essential desktop tool. We first began using SharePoint as a centralized document management system. Our company seemed to have many documents, contacts and paper going everywhere and a poor filing system; no one who really needed the information could get their hands on it. Then along comes SharePoint. Everyone who needs read or write access can get to the documents and information without bugging someone else to find it.
Some of the down sides to SharePoint are its lack of a good way to link tables (lists) and display master/detail records. SharePoint also lacks a good time control where you can record every minute instead of every five minutes. There are some quirky things that take time getting used to; for instance, navigation buttons on lists do not contain First and Last controls, just Previous and Next controls. But all in all, SharePoint is a great tool! We haven't even tapped into all of its functionality and I don't think any one installation will do that.
-Ken
Check in on Friday, when readers share their thoughts on thin vs. fat clients, Cisco and Windows 7. Meanwhile, leave a comment below or send an e-mail to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/08/2009 at 1:16 PM0 comments
Forefront is Microsoft's suite of enterprise security applications, but it has a bug in it when working with SharePoint. It can delete data when running a manual scan.
Microsoft appears to have a big task getting all of its various Forefront security solutions to work with Microsoft's various software products. But who else will you buy security from for your Microsoft products?
Posted by Kurt Mackie on 07/08/2009 at 1:16 PM0 comments
In another sign that Google means business, the search giant dropped the "beta" tag from its Google Apps brand of hosted applications.
IT pros are used to tracking and testing software upgrades and patches in their shops. Common wisdom suggests they wouldn't deploy a beta version of any piece of software live on the network. But for some time now, Google has established contracts with companies running essentially "beta" software.
Google claims its betas have to pass stringent internal tests before being released. No software is without troubles, though. For example, a beta release of a potential Microsoft Exchange-killer, called "Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook," had a few bumps that have since been remedied.
For those used to Microsoft's releases, a common refrain is to wait until the first service pack is released before deploying an OS or application. Don't deploy betas in a production environment. Do your testing first. But maybe SaaS has changed the game. Can enterprises trust the instant software delivery model such as Google's service? Or are careful testing and patch management indispensible to the enterprise? What's been your experience with managing SaaS-delivered applications? Tell Doug at [email protected].
Posted by Kurt Mackie on 07/08/2009 at 1:16 PM0 comments
A recent announcement from Google seems to be stepping all over what used to be considered sacred ground for Microsoft. On Tuesday, Google announced "Google Chrome OS," a new Linux-based OS to be publicly launched in the second half of next year. Chrome OS will run on netbooks, as well as desktops.
So far, Linux-based OSes haven't made much of a dent in Microsoft's OS market share. Linux holds just 0.6 percent of the worldwide OS market, according to StatCounter. In contrast, XP holds 68 percent of that share, while Vista follows at 22 percent. Mac OS X has a toehold with 4 percent.
Will Chrome OS be any different than other Linux OSes when it comes to battling Windows, which meets the legal definition of a monopoly? After all, Linux was the OS of choice when netbooks first appeared. Now, Microsoft officials crow about a 90 percent attach rate of XP on netbooks and claim that any Windows 7 edition will be capable of running on a netbook.
Still, Google's announcement suggests that things might be different this time. Google is promising security from malware and no constant updates. There's also a big incentive offered for developers: You write for the browser OS and run the application anywhere. ("For application developers, the Web is the platform," Google's blog states.) The appeal to developers is straight from Microsoft's playbook. Does Google have the clout such that application developers will write more for Chrome OS than for Windows?
Much remains to be seen. And meanwhile, Microsoft has a research project called Gazelle that treats the browser more like an OS. What's going on here? Will the browser become the OS of the future? Tell Doug where this is going at [email protected].
Posted by Kurt Mackie on 07/08/2009 at 1:16 PM3 comments
Last week, Doug wondered whether it actually benefited enterprises to use high-end versions of XP or Vista, or if the consumer versions did just as well. Here are some of your thoughts:
The only reason that I can see for using higher-end versions of Windows is for management. If you can't join a domain, you can't apply group policies.
-Andy
The only real reason for Pro is the domain networking. Pro doesn't really open any other doors that I know of. As far as 50 version of Vista...why? Nickels and dimes.
-Phil
Well, the biggest thing you get with the Pro version is the ability to join an Active Directory domain. So if you are not using Windows networking with AD, then you \ really could easily get by with the consumer version. I could see a shop of 30 to 100 users or one that still uses Novell NetWare being able to use the consumer-level OS. Of course, most large enterprises will have the corporate agreements where they get "free" upgrades as part of the money they pay for the agreement.
-Anonymous
We recently bought a trio of very high-end workstations from Dell, but opted to have them ship with Vista Home. Why? We have a Volume License Select Agreement with Microsoft, so we don't need an OS shipped on our workstations. Dell, however, doesn't make it easy to purchase a workstation without an OS on it. Ordering the workstations with Home was actually cheaper than the Linux option they offered us at the time. When we received the workstations we imaged them using our Vista Business volume license.
We've run into similar experiences when ordering larger quantities (40-ish) of workstations. It costs us more to go with the "no-OS" version of the workstation than it does to just have them ship it with an OEM version of Windows.
-Kirk
First of all, change the upcoming version's name from Windows 7 to Windows Vista R2; this version is not a major Windows release but bug fix for Vista. Second, distribute it free-of-cost to all consumers who bought Vista and have gone through the all pain for the last two years.
-Umesh
And more readers chime in on just how "big" SharePoint actually is:
SharePoint is big in the same sense that air is big. You don't hear folks going on and on about air all the time, unless there's a problem. SharePoint is everywhere now -- or seems like it, anyway!
-Ilya
SharePoint is a big deal. SharePoint is a very decent, large toolbox and environment. Its codebase is consistent with many other Microsoft tools -- a big deal. It can do so much that you have to get a good cross section of folks up to speed with the depth of what SharePoint can do for them; they need to understand that it is not an application and it is not one-dimmensional. SharePoint, like any good product, forces some changes in thinking to get the most efficiency. With every new good way to possibly use SharePoint, we have found a handful of standardization questions, as well -- e.g., if SharePoint can do THIS, how might we change how we used to do THAT?
We keep on "unpeeling the onion" of SharePoint. We continue to learn more, and the more we learn, the more we understand what we can do. The more we understand what we can do, the more functional/standards/workflow/etc. issues arise that has us thinking deeper. The more we see and think about all the interconnectedness through SharePoint, the more we ponder what the larger and long-term ramifications are. Bottom line: SharePoint is a very large, very useful, customizable, configurable, integrated environment that I am sure will be foundational for many applications and data interchanges in the future.
-Greg
I work with a couple of organisations that use SharePoint. Both started out super-enthusiastic, saying how cool it would be, blah, blah. They get all of the files loaded and then...that's about it. The few people who like it take and e-mail the files around like before and it never gets updated.
I think that is the key. It gets set up then abandoned, and if you've seen it once, you've pretty much seen it all. One of the groups I work with is fairly tech-savvy; the other has a broad mix. The savvy people are too busy to deal with it, while the others aren't interested.
-Vicke
Two-and-a-half years ago, we (Orange County Public Schools) jumped on the bandwagon to convert our Web sites to SharePoint. As the 11th largest school district in the nation, we dove full-steam ahead with a vision and a team of five people. We managed with the "help"
of a consultant to roll out our Internet in six months while we learned the tool. Then during the next year, with four people and without the consultant, we rolled out our intranet. And finally, in the last year, with only three people and no consultant, we converted each of our 165-plus public-facing Internet sites to SharePoint. But did you notice that we have been losing staff? Management does not have the money to support everything we may want. It is not just us in education; I've seen a lot of the enthusiasm wane in the last year. Maybe it's the economy -- or maybe it is the SharePoint experts trying to make SharePoint sound harder to use than it really is.
Have you looked at the average SharePoint book at the bookstore? Almost all of these authors are out to show how smart they are and how much coding they can do to make SharePoint jump through hoops. Many people just getting started are overwhelmed. My team of three is overwhelmed and understaffed to change the direction of this battleship. I know of several other school districts with a similar plight, some better off, some worse off. However, I still firmly believe that until the average Office user learns how to integrate their daily activities in Office with SharePoint, SharePoint will not achieve its potential. We need to allow publishing of more articles and books on how to use SharePoint features out of the box in language that the average Office user can and will want to use.
-Michael
I use SharePoint Services and I can tell you that I love it. It's very easy to set up a Web page and services. Microsoft has a bunch of templates that are extremely easy to run, including pages for HR, accounting, project management, help desk and so on. Backups are easily done by taking care of SQL. It integrates seamlessly with AD, so the users don't have to remember a different username/password. It's also very easy to secure through IIS and open it up to the world, although that's more firewall work than anything else.
-Jose
Sharepoint is a huge product and I don't believe it can be rolled out overnight. Previously, as a director of IT for a mid-size construction company, we implemented SharePoint. We used it as an intranet and started to have good success with it. I brought in a part-time SharePoint expert to help with the project and this worked out well as SharePoint is overwhelming for a traditional, overworked IT staff and has a steep learning curve, especially for IT. Also, I made sure our training department was up to speed and providing training for SharePoint, as our typical users found it different enough that they had trouble using it even though you still use the familiar Office suite.
I tend to think of SharePoint as the glue that ties all the Microsoft products together. I wouldn't say that it is seamless or painless but I think it is the best approach and over time becomes a focal point of your business' technology. It was still very much a work in progress for us but it was providing real business value and would only get better.
-Matthew
More Windows 7 and SharePoint thoughts coming on Wednesday! Meanwhile, leave your own comment below or send an e-mail to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/06/2009 at 1:16 PM0 comments
Microsoft was never really hot to trot over Java, but when the language/system threatened to take off, Microsoft cooked up a deal to support it. Now, Java is still cool, but hasn't entirely set the world on fire. Maybe that's why Microsoft is comfortable enough to drop Java Virtual Machine support. As of now, the JVM that Microsoft licensed from Sun will no longer get patched.
This is probably not a big deal. My sense is most folks download the real thing from Sun when they need Java, anyway.
What are your thoughts? Did Java fail to live up to expectations or am I missing something? Thoughts can be forwarded to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/06/2009 at 1:16 PM6 comments
Talk to any self-appointed pundit and they'll tell you that Google, Web 2.0 and clouds are the future. And usually, they tell you this by writing blogs, articles or columns. And what do they craft these masterpieces on? Thin clients? Google Docs? Their iPhones? No, it's usually just Microsoft Word running on either a Windows fat client or an Apple fat client.
As we move to these new computing paradigms, are they simply in addition to what we already have -- in effect, thin-client software running on a good, old-fashioned fattie? Or at some point, does the new way replace the old? That is, do we no longer need Windows or the Mac because all the smarts are in the cloud? And if so, what do these new clients look like?
In fact, we may be moving in the opposite direction. Many new Mac users are also running Windows -- two fat clients on the same machine. And many Vista users are virtualizing XP and sometimes Linux -- two or three fatties running on one box. And what do they spend most of their time doing? Surfing and IM. Hmm.
So what's the future, Web thin or Windows/Mac fat? Your vote readily counted at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/06/2009 at 1:16 PM6 comments