Redmond magazine just completed a major reader survey (thanks to all
who took the time to answer our many questions!), and the news on Vista is not
good. While there's massive excitement about Windows Server 2008, Vista adoption
is anemic. Apple is taking full advantage of this in the consumer market, making
millions with overpriced but solid and easy to use laptops and desktops.
Apple's laptop hardware, I've found, is as flaky as any HP or Dell I've ever
owned, but the things never crash or get fatally infected with viruses. If you
can afford to pay double or triple for the same amount of hardware, the Mac
is the machine for you!
For many, the price is worth it. In fact, Leopard users tend to be a pretty
happy lot, at least according to ChangeWave Research. Over 80 percent of
Leopard users are "very satisfied." Roughly half of XP users are that
happy. And Vista really took it on the chin -- only 15 percent of Vista Home
Basic users are "very satisfied."
Posted by Doug Barney on 01/21/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Tired of IT? Worried about a recession? Or just hate your boss? Joanne Dustin
may have the answer. No, she doesn't have a bunch of openings for Chippendale
dancers or highly paid Hollywood assistants. Instead, she has a book that explains
how she moved from IT to another career: writing about how she went from IT
to a career writing and speaking about moving from IT!
The book is Life
Beyond IT: Open the Door, Your Future is Waiting. You can find it on
Amazon.com (or perhaps your co-worker's desk drawer!).
Even if you aren't considering a career change, I have a little advice: You
should be a pro, not just an IT pro. That means acting like you deserve a job
that's a level or two (or three) above where you are right now. Act like a pro,
dress like a pro and -- without being arrogant or pushy -- be a leader in your
group. Great jobs in IT and beyond may soon come your way. (Hmm, does that sound
like I stole it from a fortune cookie?)
Posted by Doug Barney on 01/21/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Sunbelt Software has long been a fixture in the Windows third-party market.
Its crown jewel may well be Ninja, a suite of e-mail-centric security tools,
which was
recently
well-reviewed by the experts at
Redmond magazine.
Now, Sunbelt is making it easier to install this anti-virus, anti-spam, e-mail
management tool in the form of the new Ninja
Blade appliance. Based on Dell PowerEdge servers, the appliance is designed
to drop into your network and start working.
Posted by Doug Barney on 01/21/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
If you're one of Microsoft's largest customers or partners, you've probably
been wined and dined on its campus, probably at the Executive Briefing Center.
If you head up there again, you may find fancier digs. After a two-year makeover,
that center is now
20,000
square feet larger.
So if you haven't been invited there yet, now might be a good time to drop
a few hints.
Posted by Doug Barney on 01/21/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
In the early days of programming, you had a language and typed in instructions.
One of the biggest transformations came in the form of integrated development
environments (IDEs). In both cases, the software is still written largely by
scratch (with a few libraries tucked in) and assume the platform is either a
PC OS or a Web browser.
The newest approach is far different. The newest approach assumes that there's
a back-end platform, not just in the form of an operating system, browser or
software like e-commerce, but actual stuff -- servers, storage and even customers!
This is the pitch Google, eBay and Amazon are making
to corporate developers. They want corporate developers to build apps that
tap into the Google/Amazon/eBay cloud, services and infrastructure. Sounds like
a pretty cool head start.
Posted by Doug Barney on 01/14/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Talk about a dubious distinction. Microsoft last year gained top honors as the
most-hacked
instant messaging client of 2007. According to some quick and dirty Internet
research (read: this information could be wildly inaccurate!), AOL has by far
the most IM market share, with Microsoft coming in second with roughly half
the number of users.
If MSN is the most hacked, there are only two reasonable theories. First, it's
easier to hack MSN than other clients, or second, it's just more fun to hack
a Microsoft product. I'd go with the latter!
Posted by Doug Barney on 01/14/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Jeff Raikes, one of the Microsoft execs with the most years under his belt
(and one of the nicest business leaders you'll ever meet), is
retiring
this fall.
Originally from Apple, Raikes has done nearly everything in his 27-some years
at Microsoft. Most recently, Raikes drove the Office System business, especially
the collaboration tools that run on top of Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
Whenever a big-time executives leaves, rumors fly about whether they were forced
out. I don't sit in on Microsoft's board meetings, but I'd venture to guess
that the decision was all Raikes'. First, he's not leaving for nine months.
Second, Raikes recently took the lead in launching Microsoft's Unified Communications
line, which is off to a good start. And third, Raikes, part owner of the Seattle
Mariners, is pretty much free to do whatever he wants!
Meanwhile, the man who drove Microsoft's acquisitions for the last two years
is retiring
next month. Bruce Jaffe, who helped Microsoft spend billions buying everything
from Desktop Standard to aQuantive, started with Microsoft 12 years ago in the
corporate strategy group.
Posted by Doug Barney on 01/14/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
This story I'm about to tell makes me sweat, brings chills to my spine and has
me madder than a flea on a freshly shaven poodle. You see, I spent well over
a decade breaking news, which meant I told things well before IBM, Microsoft
or Lotus wanted me to. I never heard one complaint -- and this is after my stories
moved market caps by hundreds of millions and, in one case, over a billion dollars.
If I'd been covering Apple, I may have had a less pleasant experience. Apple,
for all its touchy-feely, hippy-dippy, Volvo-driving, fancy-wine-drinking image,
has a view of freedom of speech and personal privacy that would make Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad proud.
Here are three examples. I recently spent time -- way too much time -- at an
Apple retailer. They call the sales reps Apple Geniuses, but after one guy told
me it would cost $500 to replace a DC-inboard that I know costs $50, I changed
the name to Apple Imbeciles. Then it took five phone calls to actually get them
to a ship a replacement for a battery that could possibly catch on fire. And
I soon learned that none of these Apple Imbeciles gave out their phone numbers,
so reaching someone required all of my social-engineering skills.
While at the Apple store, I casually asked what kind of machines were expected
at the Macworld show this January. The imbecile told me that Apple would fire
anyone that discussed future products.
I must be mad; I've wasted 244 words complaining without getting to the real
point.
Point No. 2 is that Apple sued and recently settled with a college kid who
owned a Web site that had the audacity to talk about unannounced products. Under
the settlement, thinksecret.com
will "retire." As a journalist, I'm appalled -- and now more appreciative
of Microsoft's more mature attitude.
Next I found out (thanks to Tom's Hardware) that Apple has shut
down a thread discussing problems with its 20- and 24-inch iMacs. If you
post a complaint, all forum visitors see is an error message.
But Apple backers counter that the thread is still open (an old version is),
and that only true flames were deleted. In fact, I found a thread focusing on
iMac display problems, so perhaps Tom's is being a bit rough on Apple.
Posted by Doug Barney on 01/07/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
At this week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Bill Gates gave what he said
was his final keynote, as he's retiring from full-time Microsoft work this summer.
In the speech, Gates gave his vision for the future
of personal computing, one where mice and keyboards are replaced by natural
language and touch (maybe he's been inspired by the iPhone).
But the best part was a video
showing Gates' last day, starring George Clooney and Bono.
The writers must read Barney's Rubble, as the video showed Gates vying for
a role on this year's presidential ticket. As my column did over a year ago,
observers noted the fact that Bill's retirement coincides with the next presidential
term. Of course, you heard it here
first, long before "Dilbert" writer Scott Adams took all the credit.
Posted by Doug Barney on 01/07/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
There's a huge debate raging about just how well XP and Vista exploit our new
generation of dual and multicore systems.
Critics argue that Vista does little to take advantage of additional cores.
And because most multicore systems run at slower clock-speeds, apps can actually
run more slowly. (Do you run dual or multicore desktops? If so, are they faster
than old-style single-cores? Let me know by writing me at [email protected].)
While Microsoft says little about Vista's multicore support (after a week of
solid research, I still haven't gotten any clear answers and have found some
contradictory information on Microsoft.com), Apple is touting how Leopard was
designed for multicore. Leopard apparently has a multicore-optimized network
stack and a scheduler to distribute work across cores.
But perhaps the best way to exploit multicore is to write apps with multiprocessing
in mind. And here, perhaps, RapidMind can help. The company has a development
system where programmers define which parts of the software is to be multithreaded,
and then RapidMind automatically makes these components run against whatever
cores are available. Originally for Linux and Windows, RapidMind today is announcing
support
for the Mac.
Posted by Doug Barney on 01/07/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Tomorrow may be the most relaxing Patch Tuesday ever, as it's a
nearly
patch-free Patch Tuesday. Only two fixes are currently on tap. One is for
a flaw that can let a hacker gain super-user status on Windows 2000, XP or Vista.
The other is for another remote execution exploit.
Don't ignore these two patches, but at least it shouldn't ruin your whole day!
Posted by Doug Barney on 01/07/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Google is vying for a
chunk
of the wireless spectrum that supports Internet access and mobile phone
use, and is offering over $4.5 billion for it (chump change for the Google-izers!).
This is just one more indication that Google wants to do for wireless what
it's done for the Internet: Stake out a colossal market position and make everyone
else try to catch up (hmm, sounds like Google's copying Microsoft here!). The
neat thing about this is that Google wouldn't likely take a traditional approach,
but -- like Apple did with the iPhone -- surprise us all.
But this all might fizzle out. Anyone remember Google's bold plan to offer
wireless to all of San Francisco?
Posted by Doug Barney on 12/03/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments