HP has as broad a portfolio as anyone. And to support cloud services, you need virtualization, security, applications and management tools. HP is
putting this kind of technology toward services that support, at least for now, Amazon and Microsoft cloud platforms.
Many are leery of clouds, but when heavyweights like IBM and HP get behind them, the risk greatly decreases. Are you contemplating clouds? If so, why? Or are you a cloud curmudgeon? What are your concerns? All opinions welcome at [email protected].
Personal note: I'll be travelling to Redmond this week and will hopefully have worthy substitutes for the Wednesday and Friday editions. Treat 'em like you treat me -- with much kindness and regular bashings!
Posted by Doug Barney on 04/06/2009 at 1:16 PM0 comments
Microsoft's been trying to make
certifications seem cool again, but not everyone's convinced:
Certs? Cool? Certifications are no longer prestigious (with maybe the exception of the CCIE cert) as they used to be with Novell's CNE and Microsoft's MCSE. "Certifications" and "cool" just aren't whispered in the same breath anymore.
-Kurt
The MCITP: Enterprise Administrator cert(s) were actually very cool. It was far more interesting that the MCSE 2003. The best cert in the series was the application (437) infrastructure cert -- useful as all get out -- and the AD cert was as nasty as one could imagine. I don't know how I got to be a Charter Member on that one! Good breakfast, I guess!
-Rob
Contrary to what Forrester says, Marc thinks Vista is no more a dud than Windows 2000:
Come on! Vista is no more a failure than Windows 2000. Like Windows 2000, Vista was a complete rewrite. Operating systems need to be rewritten periodically or they die a slow death and those new versions are always developed with stability as the primary concern -- NOT performance. Both Windows 2000 and Vista debuted to lukewarm reviews and neither lived up to the hype. Nevertheless, like Windows 2000, Vista has been a "qualified" success.
That said, Windows XP was everything people hoped for with Windows 2000, and it looks like Windows 7 will be everything people hoped for in Vista. Microsoft made a lot of mistakes in marketing Vista but Vista is stable and reliable platform. I know because I have been using it without problems since December 2006.
-Marc
Ron gives a favorable review of Microsoft's latest ad targeting Apple's price tag:
Actually, the ad is pretty funny! She announces she needs a laptop for less than $1K, and the voiceover says, "If you find it, you can keep it." You've got the Apple store part right, but after she goes to another store and buys the HP,it shows someone handing her the $700 back!
Now I want to sign up for the next ad. I could use a free laptop, myself.
-Ron
And on the heels of one reader's April Fools prank, here's one more:
Coke on a laptop? Nice.
My best April Fools joke was done last year. I told a non-business office e-mail list (with nearly 2,000 subscribers) right after lunch that there was a Red Bull promo vehicle in the back parking lot (not visible from any indoor location) giving out free Red Bull. A crowd of 40-plus people was outside looking for it before they realized what they fell for. A few people came to me wanting a free Red Bull, but laughed knowing I got them good.
-Anonymous
Tell us what you think! Leave a comment below or send an e-mail to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 04/06/2009 at 1:16 PM0 comments
I am a fan of the Mac for its stability, elegance and sheer fun factor. But there's one thing I hate: the price. I can buy an Acer netbook for around 300 bills -- less than a third of the price of the cheapest mobile Mac.
This reality is not lost on Microsoft, which recently launched an ad attacking the economics of Apple ownership. I haven't seen the commercial yet, but apparently Lauren, a young woman, wants a laptop with a 17-inch screen. She goes to the Apple store and quickly finds the only screen she can afford is four inches too small. Instead of uttering the words I might ("$6%%8&!!!!") she deadpans that she's "just not cool enough" for the Mac. Instead, she buys an HP for $700.
My daughter is a young woman named Lauren. She had an HP but ditched it for a MacBook, and so far my Lauren has never looked back. Somehow, I just couldn't talk her into that $300 Acer netbook!
Posted by Doug Barney on 04/03/2009 at 1:16 PM0 comments
Getting an IT certification is no game...or is it? Microsoft believes that certification is not only serious business, but can be fun, as well. It has a
new site that lets you test your skills in game-show fashion. The questions are multiple-choice, so even dummies like me stand a 25 percent chance of getting them right.
How did you do, and are certifications as cool as they used be? Correct answers only accepted at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 04/03/2009 at 1:16 PM0 comments
It's been two days since
Conficker's (supposed) big day, and the world seems to have emerged largely unscathed:
Conficker was an April Fools joke on us. Went to all the trouble to update MS patches and virus scan over the weekend. Nothing there and nothing on April 1. At least it caused many to think proactively.
-Joe
I live in New Jersey and I have had no problems with my home system consisting of four Windows-based computers that I use in a business and personal nature.
I think the media scare may have been worth the pain, just as N.J. uses motor vehicle inspection as a once-a-year opportunity to make folks check their lights and wipers. Perhaps the annual scare of the almighty worm may provide the same results, forcing those who do not perform due diligence to take stock in what they have and how they behave in their online activities.
-Lew
On the home front, I battened down the hatches: AV updated, firewall updated, M$ Web site blocked (joking) and a shiny new version of Firefox. Despite the many variations I heard on the name ("Cornflicker," etc.), the reporting on Conficker and its possible threats certainly created a level of paranoia rarely seen outside of the military. I had inquiries from a few people asking if their home e-mail not working properly is a result of the virus. I almost thought the same thing when I started getting CRC errors when attempting to copy files from a dodgy (corrupt, that is) DVD. Mind you, it's hard to get a virus on a standalone computer with no access to the Internet and weekly manual AV updates!
Whether the dire predictions for Conficker will come true today or next week, who knows?
-Allan
But besides killer computer worms, April 1 is a day for the pranksters. Take this reader:
This is best April Fools joke I ever did, and maybe the only one. I told my boss that I had spilled a can of Coke on this very expensive laptop that I was setting up. Louder and louder he kept saying, "You're kidding me! You're kidding me! You've got to be kidding me!" Before he had a heart attack, I took pity on him and told him, "April Fools!"
-Sharon
Recently, a reader took Doug to task for referring to himself as an "old sow" because sows are female. Apparently, the debate doesn't stop there:
As for "You do know that only female cows have udders?" I wonder if the person who wrote this knows that "female cows" is redundant because only cows are females. Males are not bull cows.
Just further clarifying and educating on farm and ranch terminology.
-Ken
If you had used the correct term "boar" rather than "sow," you probably would have gotten corrected to say that it should have been 'bore' -- so you would have taken your lumps no matter what.
-Dean
Tell us what you think! Comment below or send an e-mail to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 04/03/2009 at 1:16 PM0 comments
When it comes to open source, Microsoft has a balancing act that would be tough for Philippe Petite. Redmond must pacify shareholders by hanging onto commercial licensing, but it can't totally irritate open source-friendly IT pros. If Microsoft is too much of an open source enemy, IT can turn their backs and move to Linux, MySQL and Apache in droves.
Microsoft argues that it's on the right open source track. It believes that open sourcers should respect Microsoft patents, and conversely Microsoft should interoperate with key open tools.
Recently, Microsoft exec Robert Youngjohns took to the podium at the Open Source Business Conference to argue Redmond's case. Youngjohns pointed to support of open file formats and PHP on Windows as examples of the new open source détente.
Posted by Doug Barney on 04/03/2009 at 1:16 PM0 comments
I've heard all the fear mongering about the Conficker worm. According to some, on April 1 millions of infected PCs will turn into zombies and mindlessly take over the computing universe.
I was around when the year 2000 arrived, and spent the night by my machine ready to post stories on the Web chronicling all the horrors. Turned out to be not so scary.
So far, Conficker looks to be as feeble. I'm halfway through April 1, and my Latitude D520 runs just fine, and no reports of widespread havoc have come out.
Did you take extra precautions to fight off Conficker? Is the real trick that it will come out of hiding April 2? Send your tales to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 04/01/2009 at 1:16 PM0 comments
On Monday we told you about the "Open Cloud Manifesto," a white paper purportedly from the
Cloud Computing Interoperability Forum. Microsoft preempted the release, complaining it was strong-armed into signing it when it had no part in writing it. Redmond declined to sign.
Apparently, sponsors of the Cloud Computing Interoperability Forum had no role either, as the group failed to endorse the doc.
Cloud standards are important, but a single white paper apparently written by a renegade cloud activist is not the way to get them.
Posted by Doug Barney on 04/01/2009 at 1:16 PM0 comments
On Monday,
Doug asked readers what it would take for them to make the switch to a non-Microsoft OS shop. Here are some of your takes:
It wouldn't take much. We have Ubuntu Live CDs for both 8.04.1 and 8.04.2 that we're playing with. Both easily recognized all the hardware on a year-old Acer notebook -- and they offer a pretty slick experience. As soon as we reorganize the partitioning of the HD, we'll at least start a dual book Vista/Ubuntu setup.
Not that we're very much of a "shop" -- just a two-person home-based nano-publisher, doing it all ourselves.
-Fred
Very good pricing on the product. Free, competent, easily accessible support.
-Anonymous
The answer is more courage than is currently available among the c-level execs, and certainly more resources for their IT personnel. Any change has difficulty meeting a cost-benefit ratio that's strong enough to give those execs the courage to say, "Go for it!" It has always been, "What is the cheapest way we can do this and maintain it?"
As a mobile computing and communication consultant, I see an amazing lack of courage to make smart decisions simply because few people get fired for making no changes. The bottom line is that IT people will always make what appears to be or is defensible as the safest choice, even when it may not be the best or safest option.
-Jim
First, let me say that I am a big fan of Linux. But for us, it would take something that Linux apparently will never have: the ability to run Windows apps the same way that Windows does. We have too many critical programs that we must run that have no Linux counterpart.
The other issue is that Linux still has some problems that Windows doesn't when it comes to installing software and updates. I recently installed the new openSUSE 11.1 and was disappointed by things that didn't work, by how slow the update process is, by how much of a pain it still is to deal with installing some software. I originally planned to run virtual machines on top of the new SUSE install but failed to get either VMware or VirtualBox to install. I was also disappointed that SUSE didn't perform well. It was faster for me to wipe out SUSE, install Windows and then install the virtual server software of my choice -- much faster. Windows performed much better on the same hardware than did SUSE. I had always thought of Windows as a resource hog but clearly this is not true.
-Andre
For the most part, we have moved to an all-Linux shop. The only holdout is our QuickBooks computer because there is no open source equivalent that our accountant recognizes. The ability to run QuickBooks is what is holding most of my clients hostage to Windows.
-Joseph
I already moved to a non-Microsoft OS and it was because of Vista. I have a pretty good powered system and was very disappointed in the performance difference between XP and Vista. I currently run Ubuntu 8.1 as my primary operating system and have XP, Vista and Win 7 running in VirtualBox for the times I need to jump into Windows. I've found that I am able to do 95 percent of what I want to do in Linux and the few times I can't, I use a virtual machine. It's nice not worrying so much about viruses and spyware, but I'll have to say that I haven't experienced the nirvana that others claim to have with never having to reboot, even after updates.
I've always been a Windows guy and have never been one of the MS bashers, but the increasingly onerous WGA problems have caused some of my customers to discuss switching from Windows to Linux or Mac. They are saying that if they are going to have to buy all-new computers to get acceptable performance, retrain their employees on a new OS and MS Office 2007, buy new software, etc., they may as well look at the alternatives. I've had two clients switch to Linux, one is doing a trial on two employees and another is having their software rewritten in a cross-platform language so they have the option of using something other than Windows.
-Matthew
I'd have to say supportability is the key. If a vendor could provide the functionality, security, and enterprise deployment and administration tools that Microsoft provides, I'd consider it. The one question that has silenced every MS basher I've spoken to who has advocated switching from Microsoft products is: "Can I easily deploy (manage, administer, patch, etc.) 1,000 workstations?" The answer is always no, and so they wander off grumbling about MS conspiracies. Microsoft provides a whole host of support and deployment tools so someone is going to have to come up with a similar solution to gain market share.
It was apparent to me that Apple isn't interested in the enterprise market because it could have made huge inroads due to the ongoing Vista fiasco but opted to make humorous commercials instead. And Linux is no threat either, for the same reasons. One has to be an uber-geek to get it to run, and good luck finding support people. At least Vista is sorta like Windows so end users don't have a huge learning curve -- they just spend a lot of time waiting and looking for stuff.
-J.C.
Check in on Friday for more reader letters. In the meantime, submit your own comment below or send an e-mail do [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 04/01/2009 at 1:16 PM0 comments
The
Cloud Computing Interoperability Forum released a white paper asking that all cloud apps, services and offerings be based on open standards. The paper, with either apologies or kudos to Karl Marx, is named the "Open Cloud Manifesto."
Microsoft shot back, apparently even before the document was released. Microsoft argues that the document is far from egalitarian and is in fact one-sided, allowing a small cadre of vendors to control the means of cloud production and therefore acquire all the das kapital thus created.
So what is the Cloud Computing Interoperability Forum? While it has several sponsors such as IBM, Sun and Cisco, from what I can tell it's largely the work of one man from one vendor. Not sure if it's worth Redmond getting spitting mad over.
Posted by Doug Barney on 03/30/2009 at 1:16 PM0 comments
Marc shares his own take on Vista's dismal enterprise adoption rates, and what that might mean for future OSes:
About as many in the enterprise adopted Windows 2000 before XP came out as will have adopted Vista by the time that Windows 7 ships. And enterprise adoption always lags well behind consumer adoption. The reasons? First, many enterprise-owned programs were developed in-house, while many others are industry-specific and might be costly to upgrade. It can take months to thoroughly test and upgrade all these applications under the new operating system.
Second, most enterprise customers replace hardware based on three- to five-year lifecycles. Operating system upgrades tend not to happen until at least half of the company workstations have been replaced with new hardware. The fact that service packs are released every 18 months or so may simply be coincidental.
-Marc
Last week, Doug described himself as "more of an old sow than a young buck," prompting one reader to make a very significant correction:
You might want to know that a sow is "an adult female swine." I guess I might as well get used to such city-slicker-style errors as we now have a whole generation of kids who've watched "Barnyard" the movie (which is now a TV servies) where the cows walk upright and both the male and female bovines have udders.
You do know that only female cows have udders?
-Anonymous
Tell us what you think! Leave a comment below or send an e-mail to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 03/30/2009 at 1:16 PM0 comments
Reports are surfacing that Windows 7 may ship sooner rather than later, good news for OEMs, ISVs, IT...and the HTWE (High-Tech World Economy). A Web page mistakenly put up on TechNet
indicated a May date for the release candidate. This could give an approximate commercial release date well before the end of the year -- meaning it could and should be a merry Windows 7 Christmas!
Posted by Doug Barney on 03/30/2009 at 1:16 PM0 comments