It worked with browsers -- so does that mean it will work with hypervisors?
Microsoft apparently thinks so, as it's now
giving
away Hyper-V.
We've called Hyper-V virtually free since it was only supposed to cost $28
(a strange price indeed). Now it's literally free. The $28 price cut was made
during a huge Microsoft virtualization rollout announcing the imminent delivery
of the standalone rev of Hyper-V.
Trying to match the attention this is getting, VMware in turn announced that
customers were eschewing the Microsoft tool (which hasn't even really shipped)
in favor of ESX. The VMware
press release pointed to a couple of companies that recently had large-scale
ESX rollouts. Not sure how that turns into "VMware Momentum Builds as Customers
Select VMware Platform over Microsoft Hypervisor"!
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/09/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
The greatest virtualization company you've probably never heard of is
now
part of Red Hat.
Qumranet was unknown to me before Redmond magazine Editor Ed Scannell
did an interview
with its CEO. I found out from Ed (and CEO Benny Schnaider) that Qumranet
has an open source Type 2 hypervisor. That means the hypervisor runs on top
of an OS (in this case Linux) and the OS runs against the processor.
Red Hat, which paid just north of $100 million for Qumranet, is now hoping
to push this hypervisor, called KVM, as the primary solution for Linux. With
Red Hat's muscle and Xen owner Citrix's love of Hyper-V, Red Hat might just
get its way.
Red Hat also gets a commercial desktop virtualization product out of the deal.
There are quite a few of those in the market already.
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/09/2008 at 1:16 PM0 comments
Google has had it easy for the last few years. Everyone seems to love this cuddly
company with the kooky name. Its new browser, Chrome, is beginning to change
all that. Fact is, Google is gaining more power and reach -- and with that comes
controversy
and criticism.
Let's start with Chrome. Soon after the beta came out, security researchers
reported a denial
of service vulnerability. The same day, a researcher demonstrated how a
"malformed URL" could take the browser down. All this a day after
the beta came out!
Then there's this: The original license gave
Google the rights to anything you might create with Chrome. That didn't
go over too big.
And there are still fears about how much Google knows about us -- and, more
importantly, will know. For example, some believe that Google does deep-packet
inspection, letting it see everything we do on the Web. I'm not sure about this
deep-packet inspection, but I do know that Google isn't backing down from things
like Street View, which lets strangers see what's going on in your yard and
sometimes right inside your own house.
As you'll see in our Mailbag, Redmond Report readers have mixed feelings about
Chrome. Some see it as fast, simple and slick. Others complain about the lack
of features and how it isn't that friendly with some Microsoft technologies.
Who would have thought? More Chrome impressions welcome at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/08/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Here's the skinny on Chrome from those of you who've already taken it out for
a spin:
Chrome is nice...but no dice. After succumbing to the overwhelming buzz
about the browser, I was one of the first in this part of the world to get
my copy. My immediate impression (from using the browser and reading the comic)
is that the Google Chrome team designed the browser for the pages, not for
the humans browsing.
Reload All Tabs (or Refresh All, in IE talk) is missing. Imagine your
Internet connection going off briefly, and you have like 19 tabs open (after
all, memory usage isn't an issue). You will have to refresh each page one
at a time. Also, when Flash crashed in one of my tabs, it crashed in all tabs.
Where is the isolation? "Evil:%" as a link on mouse-over or typed
in the "omnibar" crashes Chrome completely, warranting a restart.
Also, it had a problem handling a certain malicious site I came across.
-Anonymous
I love Chrome. Yes, it is sparse, but it doesn't have the excess baggage
and Band-Aids of 10 years of kludges. Its approach to security, processes
and even compilation of JavaScript are all innovative and it shows. It seems
rather solid for a beta (a shame it used the unpatched version of WebKit as
the MS press hounds are HOWLING about insecurity already).
I imagine that what Google did with Chrome is very similar to what MS
needs to do with Midori: start from scratch based on today's paradigms.
-Rob
I have tried Chrome briefly. One of my home pages is a Microsoft personalized
Live page. I could log into my Live account but the personalized pages would
not display -- it always went to the Live search screen no matter what I did.
I also could not figure out how to get the bookmarks listing to always be
open on the left side of the program as in IE and Firefox. When you have a
wide screen, there's plenty of room to have that open and still have horizontal
space for page display. It did seem faster than IE but about the same as Firefox.
Biggest concern is what Chrome is doing under the covers to track activity
and report back to Google. Call me paranoid but...
-Jim
I gave Chrome a whirl and I've been kind of puzzled by the number of people
that say it is so much faster than other browsers. I did a side-by side comparison
on three of our own sites that are kind of slow and I did not see any appreciable
difference in performance between Firefox 3, IE 7 and Chrome. I did like the
sparse layout so that more of the page shows in the browser, but it wasn't
as big a difference as I thought it would be. Overall, it is a nice browser
but as someone who works at a Web design firm, my main reaction is, "Great,
another browser to test against." Oh well, more work for us.
-Cameron
I tried Chrome on Vista Business and got an execution error. It loaded
the interface but I could not load any pages.
-David
I thought I had a solution in Chrome only to be disappointed
once again. I have two Gmail accounts. Firefox only allows me to have one
opened at a time (I open them both, but when I access one account, the other
one automatically gets signed out). I thought for sure Chrome was the answer
-- especially after reading the introductory comic strip about different access
for each tab and how crashing one would not crash any others. I -- foolishly,
it appears -- concluded that since the tabs were not synched together in any
way, I could open both Gmail accounts and access them without fearing one
would get logged out.
Not so. In Chrome, the same symptom appears when I open both accounts;
accessing one for action signs out the other. Perhaps only one may run from
any single machine? Not the case. I open one in Firefox and the other in Chrome
and both may be accessed in turn without knocking the other offline. My conclusion:
Chrome is smoke and mirrors. Great concept, poor execution. Perhaps I'm not
knowledgeable enough to understand how it works. If all the tabs in Chrome
work independently of each other, how would it know to sign one Gmail account
offline when the other is accessed without knowing that I'm opening both accounts
from the same machine in two different browsers? My head hurts.
-Earl
And readers continue the debate started by a few
letter writers last week over IE bundling and how it affects market share.
There is a big difference between bundling, as the original writer apparently
intended (embedding), and John's interpretation. IE was and still is embedded
and can never be removed completely without doing irreparable damage to the
OS. I agree that the browser market share stems significantly from this embedding.
If, instead, the browser was just a bundled app on top, not unlike AOL's offerings
(and others), then a great many people would immediately download their browser
of choice and delete IE.
Instead, it is a question of why have two browsers if I have to have
the one anyway. By your statements, John, how can anyone use any ISP other
than AOL? That is how.
-Thomas
Jeff had the correct idea, even if he used the wrong word to express it.
IE does not come 'bundled' with the OS; it is a component of the OS. John
is incorrect in his assertion that one needs a browser in order to download
anything, particularly another browser, from the Net. That's why one can use
FTP. Yeah, yeah, I know, try telling that to your normal PC-challenged user.
I can remember when IE did come separately from Windows. It is precisely because
MS has made IE a basic component of its OS that I despise it so much. The
only reason I ever use it is to visit Windows Update occasionally to check
on patches. Otherwise, I use Firefox and even obsolete Netscape 9. As far
as how one can get the first browser on a new machine if IE were once again
separated from the OS, since most people buy their computers with the OS already
installed, and since most vendors include massive amounts of "extras"
that are suitable only for deleting, these vendors could easily include installation
media/packages for each of the popular browsers like Firefox, Chrome, Opera,
IE, even Netscape, despite its obsolescence. MS would finally begin to get
an accurate guage for its market share and there could finally be real competition.
I'm confident that IE would be left eating EVERYONE's dust.
-Anonymous
Tell us what you think! Leave a comment below or send an e-mail to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/08/2008 at 1:16 PM0 comments
Tomorrow's Patch Tuesday is nice and light. Only
four
fixes are scheduled, all designed to repair remote execution vulnerabilities.
Office, Windows Media Player and Media Encoder all get plugs. Like this item,
Patch Tuesday
should be short and sweet.
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/08/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Is this is a coincidence? Next week is VMworld, VMware's annual trade show hosting
over 10,000 customers, press and partners. This week, Microsoft has a
massive
virtualization launch event focusing on old products, current products and
products yet to come.
The biggest news, in my view, is the release of a standalone version of Hyper-V.
Until now (actually, it doesn't ship for another month) you had to buy Windows
Server 2008 to get it.
Microsoft is also getting serious about management, promising to ship System
Center Virtual Manager 2008 in the next 30 days. The company is also expected
to make noise about Live Migration, a feature it needs to truly compete with
VMware on the high end.
So, is this timing with VMworld a coincidence? Given that the big products
Microsoft is talking about won't be out for a month, I'd say yes.
Is Hyper-V a true competitor to VMware? Yes and no answers welcome at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/08/2008 at 1:16 PM0 comments
Regular Redmond Report readers know there's nothing I like better than good,
old-fashioned competition, and now the browser market is showing signs of becoming
a real battleground.
Even before Google made its Chrome play, the competition was already heated.
Recently, management consultancy Janco Associates claimed that IE had only a
58 percent
market share. Oddly, it gave Google Desktop a 4 percent share, even though
that isn't even a browser.
Janco believes the downward IE trend could continue, dropping
to less than half by year's end. Hmm...and how much share will Google's
non-browser have by then, I wonder.
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/04/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
On
Tuesday, I gave a sneak preview of Google's browser called Chrome. Soon
after I wrote the item, the download became ready. Matt Morollo, our VP of publishing
here at
Redmond magazine, wrote to me raving about Chrome and how fast
it was. I also heard from a Redmond Report reader or two who were similarly
impressed.
I downloaded Chrome on a spare computer -- the one my daughter Lauren gave
me when she made her now famous and controversial switch
to the Mac -- and gave it a whirl.
Like the Google home page itself, the interface is sparse. It did a fine job
of importing my Firefox bookmarks (which are synced on my machines through Foxmarks),
so I was ready to browse. It did seem pretty snappy, and the tabs were easy
to figure out (it uses the same Ctrl-T shortcut as Firefox).
But I didn't see a lot of features -- they seemed as sparse as the interface.
I'm sure they're there, or will be, or maybe I just need to spend more than
five minutes looking for them. The good news for Microsoft fans (and shareholders):
It only runs on Windows!
Have you tried Chrome? What do you like or dislike and what does it mean for
the future of IE? Your expert analysis is welcome at [email protected].
Or if you want your comments to be considered for a review in our print magazine,
fill out the comment form here.
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/04/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
TNT Software, a veteran in the event log management and server monitoring space,
just
upgraded its
flagship product -- with an eye toward Vista and Windows Server 2008.
The company actually changed its plans midstream, according to VP of Sales
and Marketing Brent Skadsen.
"Our plan was to rush out an interim build of ELM to support the adoption
of Windows Server 2008 and Vista. Originally, the scope was to efficiently monitor
systems running these new operating systems," he said. "Then, it expanded
to run on the platform. As the project developed, it became clear, supporting
Windows Server 2008 required monitoring 64-bit systems and adding a mechanism
to manage the higher event log frequency. In addition to boosting the performance
and scalability, filtering features were designed to reduce the event noise."
What do you use to monitor servers, and would you recommend that tool to others?
Experiences welcome at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/04/2008 at 1:16 PM0 comments
It wouldn't be a Mailbag section without some reader letters about Vista. Brian
starts us off by explaining why his company won't be adopting the OS any time
soon:
For my corporation, I feel it's an unnecessary migration to go from XP
to Vista. The migration plus the learning curve for users is not necessary
since there is little that is tangible lost for us by staying on XP, a now
stable and well-known platform with huge user acceptance. It's a big decision
for a company to commit the resources to migrate. In this vein, management
must see a business-need incentive to approve the leap.
-Brian
Meanwhile, another reader doesn't think sticking with XP is a good idea:
To quote your bit on Mojave: "If these [compatibility, performance
and stability] issues can be solved, Vista will be OK. If not, XP will suffice."
No, XP will not suffice. You writing that is a disappointment, and if
I have to tell you why, then you don't get it.
-Anonymous
And Walter steps up in Vista's defense...and wonders about the ribbing we've
been giving it:
My problems with Vista have been far fewer and less drastic/dramatic
than with any other Microsoft OS. In fact, of all the permutations of Microsoft
OSes, Vista has more than lived up to its expectations. I've read your newsletter
faithfully for a couple of years and nary an issue passed without you or some
member of Redmond mag's staff really giving Vista the business. In
fact, you tout Macs and their OSes as the thing to buy.
As with everything, people like what they like. I'm very, very satisfied
with Vista. Very. A friend of mine wrote you fairly much the same thing and
your condescending reply was more than I could take. If you want to continue
to rag on Vista, I suppose you're going to no matter what. But at least keep
in mind that there are plenty of folk out here that like Vista. Everybody
has a right to an opinion...and that includes those who like Vista.
-Walter
While some of you questioned Doug's daughter's move to Mac, one reader seems
all for it:
Don't cave in to the anti-Mac whiners. After supporting Windows for 15-plus
years, I won't touch it unless I'm getting paid to. Mac and Linux systems
comprise my home network. MS can stick its garbage where the sun don't shine.
-Anonymous
And John's left scratching his head after one
reader's comments about Internet Explorer's market share:
I just had to comment on this quote from a reader: "In my opinion,
IE's share of the browser market is a direct result of its bundling with Windows.
If users had to download it separately, Firefox (or perhaps some other player
by now) would have the commanding lead in browser market share and IE would
be an also-ran at best."
How could a user download a new Web browser if a Web browser were not
bundled with Windows in the first place? Would you have to go out to the local
Best Buy and buy a copy? This never made any sense to me. If a computer did
not come with a Web browser pre-installed, just think how much less useful
it would be.
-John
Join the fray! Leave a comment below or send an e-mail to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/04/2008 at 1:16 PM0 comments
Readers share their thoughts on the
second
beta of IE 8, the future of IE in general, and how it holds up against Firefox:
The beta 2 of IE 8 is a significant improvement over IE 7, although still
quite buggy on some sites because of the changes to comply with W3C standards.
I'm just wondering if sites will be willing to change for IE 8 to W3C or mark
as compatible with older versions of IE.
The feature that was the most impressive was the more secure capability
to identify dangerous Web sites such as phishing sites. Checking for dangerous
Web sites is a big jump for IE. In the beta 2 release, they stepped up the
warning message to be sure it is hard to miss. Yet to be seen is whether the
loose coupling helps with performance. The use of Accelerator to invoke a
map is a nice feature. The recoverability feature has limited value for my
use. The changes further place IE 8 as a browser that is trying to catch up
with Firefox along with the many Firefox add-ons, but also likely to keep
IE as a highly popular browser that remains as a corporate standard for most
Fortune 500 companies.
-Joe
I have not seen any reason to use IE over Firefox. I stopped using IE
because it kept crashing (locking up) and I have not had this problem with
Firefox. I have not used IE since V7 first came out so this may not be an
issue today. However, Firefox seems so much more flexible and extendable that
I have never considered going back. And with the new features in Firefox V3,
I just love it even more.
-Wayne
Unless Firefox becomes manageable at some point, it'll always be useless
in a business. With no ability to remotely install, patch, configure and monitor
Firefox, companies that care about security are forced to use IE no matter
which browser they prefer. Hopefully, the new version of IE will catch up
to Firefox's usability and performance advantages.
-Dave
There's no compelling reason to use IE over Firefox, though there's a
compelling reason to use Firefox over IE: The last time Microsoft gained a
monopoly in Web browser usage, it let the product stagnate for years, festering
into a massive security problem and massively slowing the development of the
Web in general.
I'm glad that it has started its photocopiers up again, because Mozilla
and Apple need something to compete against. But Microsoft has proven time
and again that it doesn't innovate, and as soon as its products are "good
enough" that its competitors lose ground, it stops progressing. We need
to make sure it continues to have something to copy.
-Anonymous
In my opinion, IE's share of the browser market is a direct result of
its bundling with Windows. If users had to download it separately, Firefox
(or perhaps some other player by now) would have the commanding lead in browser
market share and IE would be an also-ran at best. Security exploits would
orient around Firefox or whatever browser that happened to be the most popular.
In the past, I've used every available version of IE, Netscape, Firefox
and several of Opera. I've found that each one has had its share of annoying
quirks and agreeable features. I like the fact that Firefox doesn't use ActiveX
and I also like the fact that IE uses integrated Windows authentication. It
all comes down to usefulness. Neither browser is the be-all/end-all platform
by which to enjoy the Internet. IE 8 will be no better or worse; it'll just
be the next version with its set of features and quirks as the all the previous
versions have had.
-Jeff
I think that the big thing missing in IE are plug-ins. Now, I'm not an
expert, and I know that some plug-ins for IE exist, but the one I really miss
is something like Foxmarks. I have four PCs and at least with Firefox all
PCs' bookmarks are constantly in sync.
-Dave
I am happy that Firefox is out there because this forces Microsoft to
make IE a better browser. The features in IE 8 will be a direct result of
this.
The only other Web browser that could give IE a run for its money would
be Apple's Safari. If Apple plays its cards right, it could sneak in Safari
on everybody's PC through the use of all the "i" devices it sells.
-Brian
Speaking of Apple, Doug wrote
last week that his daughter has finally decided to go the MacBook route
-- and that means paying for Mac Office. A few readers have other ideas:
I'm still an Apple hold-out -- there's something about its superior attitude
about the security of what is a completely closed system. But they are very
pretty machines and I understand the allure. But shelling out over $100 for
MS Office as a requirement? No way -- have your daughter download OpenOffice.
I've been recommending it to tons of people recently, and use it on my Eee
PC (Debian Linux). We all find it smoothly integrates with our MS Office (or
Gmail Docs, Spreadsheet, etc.) files, and it's free!
-Coleen
Why shell out for Mac Office? Wait 'til September and use the release
of OpenOffice 3.0 (which will have a Mac version).
-Ron
Finally, these readers are over the Mac-love:
Perhaps you should simply go work for an Apple magazine since it is very
apparent that not only do you not like Vista, you also don't like PCs.
-Joseph
For someone who is the editor in chief of Redmond magazine, I find
that you are decidedly anti-Microsoft (from reading the Redmond Report daily).
I know your goal is to be independent, and I appreciate that. However, recommending
to your family (and everyone else, I imagine) to buy an Apple? It seems to
me that anyone with as many contacts in the Microsoft world could help his
daughter keep her computer from "slowing down" after two years.
I would hope to get some news and insight into the world of Microsoft.
After all, your editorial mission "is to provide readers with the information,
strategies, and behind-the-scenes insight into Microsoft and the Windows computing
platform so they can make better informed decisions regarding their organization's
IT infrastructure." I think its time you changed the name: Cupertino
magazine, anyone?
-Anonymous
Tell us what you think! Leave a comment below or send an e-mail to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/03/2008 at 1:16 PM0 comments
I lived through the John Scully era at Apple. This long-departed CEO did a few
things wrong (can you say Newton?), but one thing he did absolutely right was
to allow Mac clones. Scully was ultimately let go; Steve Jobs returned and promptly
killed the clones.
There is one feisty clone maker out there: Psystar of Palo Alto. Psystar apparently
has some kind of license for the Mac OS which the company thinks gives it the
right to make clones. Apple, of course, sued. Unexpectedly (at least to me)
Psystar
sued back, claiming that Apple has an illegal monopoly over its operating
system.
I hope Psystar wins. For many shops, the Mac is simply not an option since
it comes from a single vendor. If there are multiple sources, the Mac becomes
a possibility -- and this competition puts pressure on Microsoft to improve
the desktop.
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/03/2008 at 1:16 PM0 comments