The lawsuit over "Vista Capable" labels is heating up as more and
more internal
e-mails pop up, showing a pitched debate over what "capable" means
and how Microsoft should proceed. The verdict could really come down to parsing
words.
Here's the core issue: Microsoft agreed to provide the "Vista Capable"
logo for computers that could only run Vista Basic. Critics argue that this
was misleading, that consumers wouldn't understand this limitation. Even Microsoft
insiders
such as Jim Allchin felt this way.
But words have meaning and the labeling, one could argue, was technically correct.
What do you think? Should Microsoft win or lose this case? Verdicts accepted
at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/18/2008 at 1:16 PM0 comments
After Sun announced that it plans to
lay
off up to 6,000 employees over the next year, Doug asked readers what their
own companies are doing to deal with the economy:
I work for a company in the transportation industry, which is already
getting hit due to the high cost of aircraft fuel. We've taken the path of
a hiring freeze and a budget freeze. We've also pushed all IT software purchasing
and projects back to 2010. Only essential purchases/projects are allowed.
-Nicholas
Tell us what you think! Leave a comment below or send an e-mail to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/18/2008 at 1:16 PM0 comments
Late last week, Redmond
continued
its Live PR push, announcing or at least pre-announcing a heap of new consumer
products and services.
Microsoft plans to enhance its Windows Live services with new Redmond-crafted
tools along with items built by partners such as LinkedIn and Flickr. Microsoft
also continues to pump out developer tools for the cloud and Web services --
so many, in fact, that it's actually hard to keep track. And I keep track for
a living!
Microsoft really needs to distill this all into one cohesive, understandable
strategy -- a tough thing for a company of programmers to do sometimes.
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/17/2008 at 1:16 PM0 comments
Parallels, formerly SWsoft, just
enhanced
its hypervisor for Macs that lets these Cupertino beauties run Windows and
Linux.
Parallels Desktop 4.0 supports a staggering 45 different guest OSes, works
with DirectX 9.0, and has backup built right in.
Parallels is a feisty and interesting company, with two lines of server virtualization
tools and some cool desktop action, as well. I profiled it a while back here.
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/17/2008 at 1:16 PM0 comments
For this month's Patch Tuesday, John got way more than the
two
patches Microsoft announced:
It is curious that the patches that Microsoft sends to the home users
seldom matches the number you give. This week I got eight updates to my home
computer. No, these were all new. I use my computer daily, and on patch Tuesday,
M$ sends me updates that install when I shut down for the day. This week it
was EIGHT. That is a lot more than the TWO you warned me about. Do you have
any idea why the count is different?
-John
Have an answer for John? How about a comment on anything else covered today?
Send 'em all to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/17/2008 at 1:16 PM0 comments
Sun Microsystems, one of the few tech companies with true spunk, is
pink-slipping
some 6,000 workers. That's almost the entire population of the small Massachusetts
town I live in.
Sun has been going through a difficult transition. Ten years ago it was like
Apple; almost all of its technology -- SunRay, SPARC and Solaris -- were entirely
its own. It's transitioning to a dual strategy, hanging on to its unique technology
while embracing other technologies (hint: like Windows!).
The Sun layoffs are a pre-emptive strike. It expects business to slump and
customers to delay buys, and wants to get ahead of the problem. Every smart
business person I know is doing the same. What about you? How are you preparing
for what could be an economic tsunami? Give us advice we can use at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/17/2008 at 1:16 PM0 comments
Once Microsoft pre-announces a product with massive competitive implications,
it simply won't stop talking about it 'til the darn thing ships -- no matter
how long it takes. The idea is to convince customers that Microsoft is the most
important game in town, even if it doesn't have a product.
That's what's happening now with Azure, Microsoft's upcoming cloud services
platform. Latest case in point: a speech
by David Treadwell that treads over some old Azure ground and then added
some news in the form of a real, live (or is that Live?) demo.
I'm not how much was real and how much was Memorex, but Treadwell showed how
he could launch a document and then make it available to others over the Web.
Sort of like Google Docs, I guess.
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/13/2008 at 1:16 PM0 comments
I made short shrift of the last Patch Tuesday, not taking it too seriously
since there were
only
two fixes, and only one of those critical.
Turns out one of the patches was for more interesting and important than I
thought. It seems that Microsoft has had a hole in its Server Message Block
-- a hole that took
seven solid years to fix! The vulnerability can let hackers control an entire
network. Security pros have no idea what took so long, and believe that many
may have been hacked this way without even knowing it.
I'm pretty happy with how Microsoft patches, and see this as an anomaly. You
agree? Thoughts welcome at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/13/2008 at 1:16 PM0 comments
Research firm Computer Economics released a study arguing that IT budgets will
be tight next year, but there's
no
real horror show. The better news? IT shops are keen to keep staff.
On the chopping block? Equipment upgrades, travel and entertainment, and temps.
Let's hope they're right!
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/13/2008 at 1:16 PM0 comments
Microsoft may be busy talking up Azure, but Kevin thinks it's not all that revolutionary:
Isn't Azure nothing more than the remaking of the mainframe? Think about
this: Why do we even need virtualization? Shouldn't you be able to run multiple
apps on the same box under one OS? The OS doesn't protect apps from each other,
or them from wrecking it. Remember, IBM's Z/OS allowed hundreds, if not thousands,
of apps.
And I'm not even pointing strictly at Windows, as Unix and Linux also
seem to need virtualization. Virtualization has its place, but not for 80
percent of the servers in a site!
-Kevin
Tell us what you think! Leave a comment below or send an e-mail to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/13/2008 at 1:16 PM0 comments
Live Mesh is a Microsoft technology that lets you synchronize data across the
Internet and keep it all current on different devices. This way your cell phone,
home PC and work laptop can all have your girlfriend's phone number, photo and
schedule. Oh, and Live Mesh apparently can also be used for business!
I've been worried that Live Mesh is too complex, will take too long to materialize,
that applications then have to be written against it and may, in the end, not
work nearly as well as promised.
I may get some answers soon. Microsoft
has four apps that show how the Mesh is supposed to work. The news that
apps exist is more exciting than the apps themselves, which include a bulletin
board (weren't these old hat in the '80s?), a polling program and a multi-user
crossword puzzle. Can't wait!
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/12/2008 at 1:16 PM0 comments
Microsoft made its billions selling packaged software with basic, though sometimes
tremendously complex, licenses. You pay for the right to use the software on
one or more computers. Moving to the cloud, as the new Azure platform entails,
brings a whole new technology, a whole new business model and a whole new set
of challenges.
The self-professed brainiacs from Gartner now argue that Azure is the biggest
Microsoft event since 1996 when Bill Gates realized the importance of the
Internet.
Azure was a big an event, but this isn't the first time Redmond has talked
about the cloud. Ray Ozzie has been pontificating about the cloud pretty much
non-stop since joining Microsoft in 2005. A little Gartner hyperbole? You be
the judge. Send your conclusions to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/12/2008 at 1:16 PM0 comments