Readers react to suggestions on what needs to improve in Apple's tablet for enterprise use:
Really? These guys are complaining about all the downfalls of using these things in a corporate environment? They are consumer play toys. What do they expect? They were never meant for corporate environments. They were meant for Dick & Jane to play movies on and surf the Web.
-Anonymous
SAP uses iPhones and iPads in the enterprise, and offers customers mobile applications. Afaria centrally manages the devices and advertises enterprise apps to the device. It's self-service, but for the most part our people manage just fine. I spend a ton more time supporting Windows than supporting the iPad or iPhone.
-Deb
I agree that much needs to be done to further secure and 'corporatize' iOS devices. However, some folks are not aware of the solutions already offered by Apple, that at least partly, begin to corporatize their devices. Take a gander at Apple's enterprise page, which describes how enterprises can utilize their Configuration Utility to publish enterprise Apps OTA, punch VPN settings and certs, and otherwise manage mobile devices. Yes, Apple has much to do, but my point is that it is aware and working towards a more enterprise-ready approach.
-Reed
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Posted by Doug Barney on 01/09/20120 comments
Redmond columnist Don Jones has been spending some time with Windows 8, and the technically astute scribe believes you just won't want to try it -- you'll be excited to migrate.
Don has four key reasons Win 8 will jump off the shelves: First, it is an easy upgrade, as Jones expects broad compatibility with Win 7. Second, Win 8 is relatively lean and mean. In fact it "will use just over half of the RAM Win7 uses to start up, which is a fundamental performance gain. That means users will be able to use more of their computers' memory for their applications," Don argues.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 01/09/20122 comments
I spent literally months trying to understand Microsoft's Software Assurance (SA), and even though I wrote two major features, I feel I never gained total command. That's because Microsoft doesn't want you to understand its licensing. Confusion gives Microsoft sales an advantage.
A Forbes columnist is on the SA trail, provocatively asking if SA is actually extortion. Why is it extortion? Because to get Microsoft's higher-end security and virt products, you pretty much have to buy SA, which is nearly a third the cost of your original software license -- every year!
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Posted by Doug Barney on 01/09/20121 comments
Windows Server 2008 has an option called Server Core, which is nothing more than a version of the software with the GIU cut out.
Don Jones, a seasoned Redmond columnist, loves Server Core. And so does Microsoft. It is going to convince as many customers as possible to go with the Core with Windows Server 8.
Jones, who does a lot of teaching, recently worked with a university that made a massive move to Server Core. It achieved the results Jones has been promoting for as long as I can remember (now that I'm older I estimate that's about two years).
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Posted by Doug Barney on 01/06/20123 comments
One reader shares why he is not looking forward to the next Microsoft OS:
We would be excited by Windows 8 if Microsoft would do us the favor of detecting if the computer is a tablet or not before forcing us into the Metro interface. The underlying features of Windows 8 would be a real boon to us. However, the Metro interface we have seen in the Developer Preview is so awful it would almost certainly be a deal killer for us despite our having a campus licensing agreement that provides the latest version of Windows whenever it is released.
I cannot see our students, let alone the faculty, willing to try to stumble through the new interface. When we installed Office 2010 onto Window 8 the Metro Start menu became so cluttered with helper applications as tiles that it was utterly unusable. The situation reminds me of early Windows 95 users I once saw who had installed entire applications directly to their Desktop rather than Program Files.
Brass tacks: Windows 8's Metro interface feels like a giant leap backwards for desktop and laptop computers. With no Taskbar visible and applications filling the entire screen it is difficult to multitask at all. Just try and close the Remote Desktop Connection. It fills the screen and has to clear option to close it. Worse yet, applications appear to close while continuing to run. At least Apple has the decency to give some visual feedback when closing an application actually just minimizes it. Windows 8's interface is like a melding of the worst part of DOS and Windows 3.1 -- which may be just what a person needs when their input method of choice is as precise as their fingers. But, in reality, it is horrible for productivity in a more traditional environment. So far, Windows 8 strikes me as the biggest misstep Microsoft has made since Bob.
-Mark
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Posted on 01/06/20126 comments
Redmond writer Derek Schauland, an IT pro for a decade and a half, happens to like the Mac. He just doesn't like the software library (or lack thereof).
There are five Windows programs that Derek is dying to either see ported to the Mac or have their Mac versions made right.
First up is OneNote, a cool tool I admit I haven't much used. I keep my notes in the docs I'm working on or in separate Word docs. The really important stuff? That goes on a piece of paper!
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Posted by Doug Barney on 01/06/20122 comments
Do you miss the old days, the days where you went to work at 9, took an hour at lunch and then headed home to the fam at 5?
With computers, some of us go to work at 9, take an hour at lunch, and then head home to do more work at 5. Travel, telecommuting, and working nights and weekends at home also lays a new burden on IT. You all have to securely give all these stiffs secure access to corporate computers (and by safe I mean safe for the corporation). Access must be secure with no data leakage and corporate machines must be protected from personal PC-borne viruses.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 01/06/20120 comments
Readers share their thoughts on Silverlight's role in a Windows 8 future:
It is too bad you are not more of code monkey as you might appreciate the power that Silverlight brings to the table. Yeah, there is much to do about HTML 5/JavaScript and it is an evolving solution that might be where Silverlight is in a few years (if it does not splinter into Google/Microsoft versions).
Silverlight lets a developer work in object orientated languages like C# where we leverage the power of real classes, interfaces and dependency injection. Thus we can build robust Web-based apps that are almost as responsive as desktop apps. Now, one can do this is JavaScript (and I have), but it takes so much more time and code. The more code, the more support issues. Silverlight SVG is step beyond HTML 5 as transformation matrixes (rotation, translation...), and can be apply on a object basis (where in HTML
5 they are a property of the canvas).
Of course Silverlight is XAML-based and so is one of the programming models for Windows 8 metro. I am currently porting a Windows 7 Phone Silverlight app to Windows 8 as a pure Silverlight app. Much of the XAML moves to the new platform without change.
Because of this, I believe we should be discussing XAML solutions vs. HTML 5. I see a need for Silverlight to build robust business apps like in the medical industry. And, if properly designed, they can run in Windows 8 Metro. However, I must add that the Metro design is not good for developing apps like this and the Silverlight UX will need to be 'watered down' so the business app is better off in the old windows Desktop mode. I must say that I do not see the need to write desktop apps in this day and age.
The other issue is Silverlight vs. WPF. And here I really believe that WPF will gradually fade away, especially now that SL use XNA for its 3D graphics.
The JavaScript option for Metro is interesting as I guess Microsoft is trying to bring in the legions of script developers. But make no mistake: the JavaScript they write is Metro-specific. To make the code portable to a browser will take some great architecture.
-Anonymous
'One important thing to understand is Silverlight has a purposely limited role. For instance, while you can build Win 8 Desktop apps, it is useless for Metro.'
Not entirely accurate. I would say that Silverlight is simply one host for XAML applications, particularly pre-Windows 8. With Windows 8's Metro interface, your Silverlight apps (with relatively few changes) become native XAML Metro applications. Your 'Silverlight' applications continue to live on, now as native Metro applications, and will continue to live in the Silverlight host (at least through 2021) for non-Metro environments. That's a pretty optimistic picture if you ask me.
-Ken
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Posted by Doug Barney on 01/04/20121 comments
The Apple iPad has been on the market for little less than two years, but in that time the tablet device has sparked a wildfire for demand -- one Microsoft and Google are trying to play catch up to.
Redmond readers are evensinging the praises of the iPad, not only as a consumer device, but the role it can play in the enterprise. And readers really seem to like it.
But the Apple device is far from perfect. Reader Rynbrandt shares what he believes is the biggest issue with the tablet:
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Posted by Doug Barney on 01/04/20126 comments
I judge the hotness of a topic by how much mail I get on it. Based on this criterion Win 8 is hotter than a Texas Porta-Potty. Let me take that back -- Win 8, to me, looks much more inviting. Win 8 is hotter than a Man vs. Food chili challenge.
You've had a lot to say about Win 8. A vocal group found one of my items far too negative. In fact, my item was quoting a reader who struggled with the Metro interface and had even more issues with the Desktop interface. This is weird because Metro is brand new and Desktop is essentially an update to Win 7 (which works just fine).
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Posted by Doug Barney on 01/04/20124 comments
Microsoft clearly beat Apple to market with cloud services like Windows Live and SkyDrive. That didn't stop Apple fan boys (and girls) from gushing all over iCloud.
Microsoft is answering Apple, and raising the stakes with SkyDrive for Windows Phone 1.0.
While the name says Windows, it will also store data for Apple machines such as iPod Touch (which connects via WiFi), iPad and the iPhone.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 12/16/20112 comments
To the average person, Mark Russinovich is as obscure as the fourth Osmond brother. But to IT folks, Mark is every bit a hero as Wozniak, Gates or Ken Olsen.
Mark is also an example of Microsoft's thick skin. Where some take criticism personally, I've found Microsoft to be eminently even-handed. Heck, the company still talks to me!
Russinovich was a thorn in Microsoft's side for years. A security guru, Mark publicized Microsoft security flaws. And in the early days of Windows NT, he proved that NT Workstation and NT Server were essentially the same -- something Microsoft denied at the time but later came to embrace and even brag about.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 12/16/20113 comments