iPhone Store Not Completely Open

All this obscures some rather troubling facts: Its computers are overpriced and because they're from a single source, many enterprises are forced to steer clear. And as the king of the Mac, iPod and iPhone platforms, Apple rules with an iron fist.

The latest downer is how Apple is treating iPhone developers. You'd think Apple would want as many iPhone apps as possible, what with Google set to enter the market and Microsoft already a longtime player. As John Belushi might have said, "But noooooo!" If your app competes with Apple's own software, there's no place for you in the iPhone store.

Ever wonder how cool things would be if Steve Jobs and Bill Gates traded places? How would Apple and Microsoft be different with this kind of switch? Random conjecture welcome at [email protected].

Posted by Doug Barney on 09/29/2008 at 1:16 PM0 comments

Ballmer Upbeat

While I wasn't happy that Ballmer was right back then, I'll be pleased if he's right this time around. Last week, in three separate speeches, Mr. Ballmer argued that the tech sector had "buoyancy" and wouldn't collapse despite the Wall Street debacle. In fact, he has so much faith in his company that Microsoft is buying back $40 billion worth of MSFT shares.

Posted by Doug Barney on 09/29/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments

Mailbag: More Microsoft Ad Thoughts

The "I'm a PC" ads are much improved over the Seinfeld ad! The Seinfeld ad was funny and quirky, but really failed to get the message across. I like how the "I'm a PC" ad directly addresses the Apple commercial. It does a nice job of eliminating the spin Apple tries to put on PC users as un-cool, nerdy business types. It effectively shows that a wide variety of people in a wide variety of scenarios choose to rely on Windows-based PCs because they do work super-well, regardless of the Apple spin. Why Microsoft did not do this from the start is puzzling! Is this commercial 3.0? It must be, because MS finally got it right!

The Mojave Experiment commercial and Web site is also a good effort to calm the Vista misconception storm. Bravo, MS! Your marketing efforts are looking much, much better now!
-Jason

I'm a PC for now...but just out of necessity!

I wonder if Microsoft is having problems with its ad campaign because most of the creative minds in the advertising industry use Macs. It just seems like millions of dollars should be able to buy higher-quality ads than what we've seen. I guess we could give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt and maybe, just maybe, it's saving the best for last.
-Richard

I don't see the "I'm a PC" ads as defensive, but rather as mocking. MS took the bull by the horns -- a gutsy move, in my book.
-Bernie

The latest MS ads are even more reason to buy Mac. Keep up the good work, MS! The world is laughing at you. Doesn't Microsoft know that "PC" equals "Piece of Crap"?

The one where the "regular Joe" people are shown the "Mojave Experiment" then told it's Vista...they must have pulled those morons out of the Mojave. If they didn't know Vista and how badly it sucks, why should they have any credibility?
-Tom

Join the fray! Leave a comment below or send an e-mail to [email protected].

Posted by Doug Barney on 09/29/2008 at 1:16 PM0 comments

Oracle Takes the Hardware Road

Now Oracle is back in the hardware saddle, this time with a vastly different and higher-end strategy. This time, the Oracle hardware is designed to support a massive database server and a separate storage appliance.

The move is more about packaging than innovation. Oracle will simply blend its software with HP hardware. Still, moves like this make it easier for IT to buy, install, operate and maintain systems, so there's a clear net plus.

Posted by Doug Barney on 09/29/2008 at 1:16 PM0 comments

Mailbag: Meet the New Ad, Slightly Better than the Old Ad; More

I too have seen the "I'm a PC" commercial (at least the first one). I don't know if it's defensive or not, but it's not persuasive. For one thing, even though I use a PC, I am NOT a PC. Nor am I "PC," although that's a whole other discussion. For another, "PC" is a generic enough term that it's arbitrary to imply that if it's a PC, the thing is automatically a Windows computer. Finally, even though the commercial I saw showed different people using their PCs for different activities, it largely showed someone simply making a claim.

What I'd like to see instead is something along the lines of this: "My PC is me." HP has the tagline "The computer is personal again." Why shouldn't Microsoft make use of something similar? I'd prefer to see a real profile of someone using their PC for interesting activities, rather than just a talking head saying, "I'm a PC, too." Microsoft has partnerships with enough major PC vendors that it could do tie-ins if it wanted. Microsoft just needs to do something different than what it's doing (and has done) so far in its massive ad campaign. I, for one, don't think they're getting their $300 million's worth.
-Dennis

I read your review of the "I'm a PC" commercials and thought it was a bit harsh. The new ad is leaps and bounds better than the Seinfeld ad (mostly because Bill is not in it). Actually, Bill is so goofy that any ad he would be in would ruin it. That said, the new ad has integrity and shows real people doing amazing things with the technology. I am happy Microsoft is finally responding with any kind of ad, actually. It has been tread on by Apple for for too long. I will admit the marketing machine at M$ needs a lot of polish.
-Charles

Really incredibly poor ad. It says nothing. (Are you sure that Apple didn't pay for it?) More and more, it seems like Microsoft is really out of touch.
-Howard

I think the main point of the ads is that while a Mac can SAY how great it is, the fact is that the majority of the world uses a PC!
-Anonymous

The "I'm a PC" ads do a good job of overcoming the myth that only Macs work well. I would like them to go further and say exactly what users like about the PCs. For instance, a Mac ad states that Macs can run Microsoft Office. If I were Microsoft, I would want a PC ad to compare the amount of third-party compatible software and hardware for Macs with PCs. I want to see comparisons of the quantity of qualified support people for Mac vs. the PC.

Given the necessary resources and accepting the limitations of each operating systems, all computers can work well and I am happy for the diversity. Many of my clients only call me after hours of unsuccessful phone OEM support. My PC clients are frustrated by their phone support. My Mac clients accept that phone support didn't help without complaint. Can anyone tell me why the perception is different?
-Earl

I myself find the "I am a PC" commercials confusing and contradictory. If you think about it, the PCs are still a market leader and they perform all the functions that we need them to in one form or another. The commercials are not explaining or saying anything to me other than, "We are all different and we all have our own weaknesses." And what I mean by weakness is the inconsistency of hardware quality. As unique and different as we all are, we are also frail and easy to break if we try to be the cheapest thing out there.

This is exactly why Apple is of such a high quality, including in price. The design is wonderful, performance is amazing, and it is gaining ground because of the opinion that it has a stable OS that is easy to learn and master, and owning one means a sense of longevity.
-Albert

The Gates-Sienfeld ads were STUPID! In fact, they were beyond stupid and rank in stupidity next to the "brilliant minds" who gave us the current financial meltdown.

The current ads are better, but why not try the simple approach? Something like what Sprint did with its CEO talking about how they can personalize the handheld telecommunication box to your needs, rather than spending $300 million on a STUPID Sienfeld ad. Microsoft could've used the money to pay some American developers to test the Chinese-developed Vista OS for bugs and trap doors. That way, MS could've blunted Apple's so-called superiority, as far as system security goes.
-Anonymous

I have to agree with your assessment. How about an ad that directly refutes the so-called "myths"? These ads just make it seem like they are in fact true. It will fail to convince those that need to be.

The "Mojave experiment" is even sillier -- nobody ever said Vista didn't LOOK good.
-Anonymous

Bill thinks Microsoft made another misstep when it decided to buy back $40 billion of its own shares:

I have to disagree. While the stock buyback is an excellent indicator of the strength of Microsoft's balance sheet and fiscal position, it is also an excellent indicator that the company is running out of ideas.

Apparently, they are sitting on a mountain of cash and 1) they can't find (or can't make a deal on) other companies or products worth buying, or 2) they can't think of anything internally in which they can invest. Stock buybacks are, to me, a sign of a company that has lost its vision.
-Bill

In the spirit of Doug's "Speak Out on VMware and Chrome" item, here are a few of you doing just that:

I'm eager for VMware to virtualize more. The best part is the company's focus on quality in both the underlying technology and the management tools. I don't have to be an ESX expert to configure and operate the tools. Assuming VMware maintains this ability to make intuitive, stable products that ease labor, I'm eager to buy, deploy and use them.
-Milton

Chrome is OK, I guess. I remember that when I started using Firefox, I practically gave up IE immediately. With Chrome, it seems that I have to keep reminding myself that I have it, and want to try it out. There is nothing there that excites me about it.
-Jason

I downloaded Chrome a couple weeks ago, and other than a few sites that aren't supporting it too well yet, I've been truly impressed. As an Internet application developer I really get off on the memory usage, multiprocess-oriented tabs and "Inspect element" feature. It's great for analyzing what exactly ASP.NET or any other framework is shipping down to the client. I love the internal task manager with the "Stats for nerds." At work, we're currently doing some final performance testing before we implement into production and would love to be able to use Chrome to help distinguish basic memory usage issues. But alas, my company is much too bureaucratic for useful tools to be downloaded willy-nilly.

My only complaint is that I haven't found add-ins like in Firefox. So from a user perspective, I'd say I still like Firefox better, but as a developer I'm quickly shedding my ties to all other browsers.
-Seth

One reader has a bone to pick with a recent news item that said most botnets come from the U.S.:

According to SecureWorks, 20.6 million attacks originated from U.S. computers and 7.7 million from Chinese computers. But that's meaningless unless you normalize that to the number of users with wideband connections in each country.
-Anonymous

And, since it's on everyone else's mind, Bruce shares his 2 cents on the current economic situation:

Hell yes, the AIG investors should bear the brunt of the fallout! I agree with you wholeheartedly: The investors in those companies should bear the brunt of them failing -- NOT the general public. There needs to be a constitutional amendment against bailouts. Yes, I'm a card carrying Libertarian.
-Bruce

Tune in next week for even more reader letters -- including more of your reviews of Microsoft's new ad campaign. Meanwhile, tell us what you think by commenting below or sending an e-mail to [email protected].

Posted by Doug Barney on 09/25/2008 at 1:16 PM0 comments

Mailbag: Remembering 9/11, Fixing Vista, More

I was on my way to a technical college -- a Windows Server 2000 class. The first news report I heard said a traffic helicopter hit one of the towers. I remember thinking how odd that was. The instructor had the TV on during the entire class. We all sat in horror as the towers came down and as more planes crashed. My nephew, then 14, was frantic until he found out his mother was safe (she is a flight attendant for United). He had recently lost his father. My niece and her family live in Manhattan. Her husband works close to the towers. Again we were frantic for knowledge that he was safe.

I didn't lose any immediate family that day, but I think all of us lost from our American family. How did we as Americans start to gloss over this horrible event so fast? I heard we have an attention span of about two weeks. I think it's shorter.
-Barb

I had just walked out my front door to go to work. Finding that my car had been broken into, I went back into the house and called the cops. While waiting for the police to arrive, I turned on the TV. The news was just breaking; everyone was speculating on whether this was an accident or an act of terror. Then on live TV, we all got our answer as the second tower was hit. When the cops showed up, that police report just didn't seem quite as important. This showed me that even when you think you are having a bad day, you really should go back and count your blessings.
-William

I was on-site at a client office in the medical center in Houston, where we live. Colleagues called me out to the area sitting room to watch the news of the first one. I was touched by the loss of life, digested that, and returned to my desk. After a while came the news of No. 2. I returned to watch and listen. After taking in the images for a few minutes, my heart sank. My wife was in downtown Houston, at her job, on the 44th floor of one of the tallest buildings in Houston. I went immediately to the phone, called her, said something really stupid, then got my wits and told her to leave the building immediately.

Of course our family was safe. There was no threat in Houston. We have counted our blessings many times since that day, sometimes in remembrance of that day. Thank you for taking a moment to remember it, and to invite reflection. Our hearts go out to those who lost loved ones on that horrific day. Special sadness comes over me each time I think of the brave responders running into those buildings and helping others exit. My heart breaks for each innocent life lost.
-Rick

I had the unusual distinction of being in both New York and Washington on 9/11 and saw both the Twin Towers and the Pentagon just before they were hit. You may recall that Jeff Immelt had the unfortunate timing of taking over GE from Jack Welch on Sept. 10. Jeff scheduled a live satellite video feed to introduce himself companywide (worldwide) to over 330,000 employees. I am based in Washington, D.C. and flew to White Plains, N.Y. to work on that project at a Danbury, Conn. building.

I was scheduled to fly home to D.C. the night of Sept. 10, but a big thunderstorm came in and grounded all of the flights. I got a hotel in White Plains and a reservation on a flight out the next morning. The flight took off at about 8 and I flew over Manhattan at about 8:20 (the first plane hit the tower at about 8:45). I had a window seat on the left as we headed south. We flew just west of Manhattan and I got a magnificent view of the city. I recall thinking how I never grow tired of seeing the city from that perspective.

By the time we landed at Washington National, the place was buzzing. No one was quite sure what to do. They knew about New York, but had not yet grounded all flights. I got in my car and started heading to my office in Northern Virginia. The route took me up the George Washington Parkway, which goes right next to the Pentagon (they have since moved the road a few hundred feet to the east so it is not as close). Shortly after I passed the Pentagon at about 9:40, the radio announcers said there was smoke coming from the Pentagon. I looked in my rearview mirror and saw it firsthand. It was all still very confusing and surreal. The gravity of the situation did not kick in until I got to my office and saw the second tower fall on live TV.
-Mark

I was working at my job in Columbus, Ohio (systems analyst with a large insurance company). When the first plane hit, we turned on a TV in our break room and watched as the events of that morning unfolded. I could not help but feel a deep sense of loss, but could not put my finger on exactly what. Having grown up in New York City, I had many friends and relatives living there. Friends who worked in Lower Manhattan. My cousin's wife was on her way to work, but was not in the immediate area yet. Another friend was out of town that day.

Later, I learned that 11 high school mates were in the towers. Seven of them were firemen, and one had been in my graduating class. Two members of the sports car club that I race with were on Flight 63. To this day, I wear the pin from the fire department I belonged to in Upstate New York, and carry memorials on the sides of my race car. I also proudly wear the unit patch from the fire station that my classmate belonged to.
-Anonymous

On 9/11, I was in Houston with three other co-workers. We were expanding our office there and we had brought in two new racks with new hardware. We were eating breakfast at the hotel before we went into the office and the TV was on, showing the WTC and talking about how a plane had hit one of the buildings. With shock and confusion, people watched the TV, some standing, some still eating. Then the second plane hit the other building while we were all watching.

Knowing this was not TV but reality was completely heart-stopping. I called my daughter as she was in New York with her dad. They typically take the subway train which passes through the WTC on up to mid-town. Thankfully, they had not even gotten up yet. I called home to Virginia to check on the rest of my family. I have a sister whose husband worked at the Pentagon. She had not heard from him, and by this time a plane had hit there. She was understandably in a panic. As the day went on she finally got in touch with him; he was helping people within the Pentagon who had been hurt.

Several days later, our work in Dallas completed, I remember sitting out by the pool, still seething with anger over the attack...and in the late evening sunset, an airplane finally took into the air. After the skies above Dallas had been empty of jets, this was a small but significant event, and I was proud. I got on an airplane the next day and the airport was fairly empty. All the employees and passengers were at high alert. I have always enjoyed flying and this day the flight seemed special. The clouds below the wing more fluffy, the land far below more rugged, the people, with or without fear, pushing forward.
-Karen

I was in the dean's office of the engineering college at Ohio Northern University for my work study. The exec assistant came in and said that one of the towers was hit. When I went down to watch, the Pentagon had been hit. It was amazing how the university came together that day and you could walk down the hallway of the dorms and hear CNN without missing a beat.

I remember calling my mom and she said that this event would be, for me, like the assassination of JFK was for her. The world would never be the same.
-Lora

A couple of you share more of your thoughts on Vista:

It is easy to fix Vista. Just demand that people buy hardware that will run Vista well. Apple sells Macs based on quality, not price. HP, Dell, etc. sell PCs based on price. I tried Vista on a relatively low-end computer but it was duo-core with 2GB RAM. It ran badly. I put it on a quadcore with 4GB RAM and it runs well.

Some of the things Vista users hate, Mac users accept without hesitation. One example is Vista demanding Administrator credentials to install programs or updates. Mac does the same thing. I support Windows, Macs and Linux. I prefer Windows, even Vista, to the Mac OS.
-Earl

I'm currently working as a consultant at Microsoft and want to admit full-disclosure to that fact when I give my opinion on the subject. Vista was hard to get used to at first, I agree. There were many pieces of software that didn't incorporate the new rules for coding or new locations of files that wouldn't run on it. There were also hardware issues -- you couldn't just load Vista onto any old machine and expect it to perform.

I'm now happy to say we're past those problems. Most IBM-compatible machines are now built with the intention of running Vista and most software has been upgraded to be compatible with it, as well. It's like any new platform/software/system you have to learn. Once you get used to it, you have a hard time using something that doesn't have the latest features.
-Sharon

And readers chime with their thoughts on the virtualization front:

I would like to see VMware refugees make an even cooler package that will make money and kick others in the pants. Maybe a suite of virtual IP 6-based "hardware" or multiple virtual RAID arrays. With the failover abilities that are out there now with VMware, I think they may have many more ideas up there.
-Anonymous

The question shouldn't be whether Hyper-V is a viable competitor to VMware. It should be whether the hypervisor matters at all. And though it does today, that won't be the case for very long. The hypervisor is a commodity and all the vendors know it. Microsoft made a huge play with the System Center Virtual Manager and that is going to be worth way more money and market share to them than having Hyper-V out there.
-Seth

Check in tomorrow for more reader letters! In the meantime, share your thoughts by leaving a comment below, or sending an e-mail to [email protected].

Posted by Doug Barney on 09/25/2008 at 1:16 PM0 comments

Speak Out on VMware and Chrome

The second article is about VMware and its plans for a datacenter operating system, one that promises to turn all your x86 servers, network connections and storage into a single utility. The company claims 70 percent of this functionality is already in place. VMware users and others can contact me at [email protected] and I'll shoot you a bunch of questions.

Both of these articles show how Redmond magazine is driven by readers as much as it is by our writers and editors. So thanks!

Posted by Doug Barney on 09/25/2008 at 1:16 PM0 comments

HPC Is Mainstream

I lamented the fact these high-end OSes and hardware don't mean much to mainstream IT -- that we're missing out on all that power. In fact, most of our cores, especially on the desktop, go unused (I wrote about that problem in this cover story).

Microsoft is one step ahead of me, at least when it comes to HPC 2008, and is now positioning this clustering tool right at IT. Hopefully its hardware partners, such as Cray, will go along for the ride and give us commodity supercomputers that run database, e-mail and even Web apps. This could give the Crays and the SGIs a whole new lease on life.

Posted by Doug Barney on 09/25/2008 at 1:16 PM0 comments

Early Windows 7 Bits Set for Release

My new question: How many folks will go to PDC just to get a free 160GB flash drive?

Meanwhile, the Engineering Windows 7 blog, which was dormant since its inception, is gaining serious steam. Check it out.

Posted by Doug Barney on 09/25/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments

Google Phones Home

From all reports, the Google phone (sold only by T-Mobile) is fully featured. But the real keys are usability, reliability and how well these features work. It took Microsoft a long time to get phones right, and even Apple has had its hiccups (and Apple has been building operating systems since 1976, way before Microsoft got into the game).

But is the real play Android, the OS that drives the Google phone? Could this be the basis of a range of intelligent devices that ultimately replace our laptops and desktops and thin clients? PC World weighs in on this without reaching any major conclusions.

Are you excited about the Google phone? Don't call -- e-mail your answers to me at [email protected].

Posted by Doug Barney on 09/25/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments

Botnets: The U.S. Is the Problem

According to research from SecureWorks, most botnet attacks (those nasties where a hacker uses your computer to attack others) start right here in the good, old USA.

Posted by Doug Barney on 09/24/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments

Review: I Am a PC

Here's my review: First, the commercials, by taking on Apple's characters, are overly defensive. Last time I checked, Windows was still the market leader. The commercials sound like a high school student who was stood up at the prom. And while they point out that Windows is effective for many, many people, they don't articulate what's so great about it.

The PC revolution has inspired our global economy, led to many technical and creative inventions, changed our very culture, and made the world more unified through nearly ubiquitous communication. Grandparents talk to grandkids a hundred or more miles away, college students e-mail parents...and not always to ask for money!

PCs are also a stunningly great bargain. With so many providers, prices steadily fall, and this commodity hardware is able to run everything from XP to all the major flavors of Linux (note that I left out Mac OS and Vista).

The PC industry has many things to be proud of, none of which I saw in these commercials. Maybe that will be in the next batch.

Are you a PC? Thoughts on these ads welcome at [email protected].

Posted by Doug Barney on 09/24/2008 at 1:16 PM0 comments