Your Reader Support Is Appreciated

Today is my birthday and I'm celebrating in the best way possible:  talking with you and meeting a vendor, Crossbeam Systems, at their headquarters.

I'm not kidding about the talking to you part. I vastly prefer to base my articles on what real-world IT folks have to say. And you all have been huge in helping me. I'd say I've done a couple dozen major feature stories based entirely on your input. And some of you have been involved in most of them, readers like Marc W., JC, Mark P., Asif M. and many, many more.

Posted by Doug Barney on 12/09/20110 comments

Exchange 2010 SP2 Arrives

Exchange 2010 customers go an early Christmas/Hanukah/Kwanza present in the form of a second service pack. As with many SP2s, this one rolls up past updates, so it should be more secure and free of known glitches.

In a major shift in emphasis, the on-premise version of Exchange actually gains fixes and features already added to the online rev.

There are also a few new items such as Address Book Policies. Here IT can segment groups of users, so if you are a CEO who doesn't want the peons (or your at-work mistress) to see your address, you can be walled off. More critically, e-mail interaction with partners or customers can be kept entirely separate from insider discussions, but still give outsiders access to a range of appropriate employees. Another cool item is the Outlook Web App Mini. This Internet-based client is text-oriented, and keeps messages lean for low-bandwidth situations.

Posted by Doug Barney on 12/07/20110 comments

Win 8's Slow Start

When Apple introduces a new product, people camp out for hours  -- perhaps mistaking a line for a new iPhone for the Superbowl queue. Even Steve Wozniak waited his turn for an iPad.

Microsoft only gets these crowds on rare occasion, like with Windows 95 (I once saw a long line for Zune -- but that was at the returns desk!).

Now an esteemed research house is dumping cold water on the Windows 8 heat. IDC, in its most recent collection of predictions, believes Win 8 will ship next year, but too few will apparently care.

Posted by Doug Barney on 12/07/20118 comments

Doug's Mailbag: Office's Possible Jump to the iPad

Readers react to the idea of Microsoft porting Office to Apple's tablet:

"This iPad user says Yes to an Office version! I have a good Bluetooth keyboard for my iPad, so I can get real work done on it."
-Keith

"If I was Microsoft, and I was making an iPad version of Office, I'd at least wait until Windows 8 Tablets are released. I mean, if you're going to run Office on a device with a crappy keyboard, it may as well be a Windows tablet, right? Anyway, isn't there an App for that?"
-Dan

Microsoft wants to be the leader. So I would suppose it would prefer to have an Office version for the Windows (8) tablet. But Office is a cash generator so it should develop an iPad version ASAP.
-Jacobo

Did you seriously think Hyper-V coming to Windows 8 was only for their desktop, mobile and smartphone solution set? Why not build a Hyper-V solution for iPad that will run native Office and Office365 that looks like an iPad app, smells like an iPad app and feels like an iPad app? If you're going to go to all the trouble to scale Windows 8 down for less-capable and more power-efficient processors, why not REALLY put a dent in VMWare by making Hyper-V the multi-platform lynchpin of its strategy and letting its premier productivity app run with a ubiquitous abstraction layer instead of porting the app itself, which you point out would be a pretty tough nut to crack anyway?
-Richard

Posted by Doug Barney on 12/07/20110 comments

Unemployment (and IT Jobs) Down

Recently U.S. unemployment fell from 9 percent to 8.6 percent. Not a massive drop, but a psychological boost nonetheless.

So you'd think there'd be more IT jobs. That's not the case. Last month we lost nearly 4,000 IT positions, at least that's what Janco Associates' research indicates.

Telecom suffered the most with almost 3,000 slots sliced. I find that strange. Most everyone has two phones and most families have a cell for each member and a landline. And telcos should be busy building and supporting all these new cloud networks.

Posted by Doug Barney on 12/07/20111 comments

Doug's Mailbag: Want a Windows 8 Tablet?

Readers give their opinions on the prospect of a tablet device running Windows 8:

I don't really like working with the Android OS -- don't ask me why. I feel more comfortable in the Windows environment -- perhaps it's my age. I will be close to retirement and would not be using it for work -- unless the economy forces me to work in retirement (highly likely since I work for the USG and am under the new retirement plan, which, although better than no retirement plan, is not great). I am hoping that it would also incorporate e-reader capabilities. My husband has a Nextbook and an HP Touch. The Nextbook does not provide him with the opportunity for as many apps so he mainly uses that as an e-reader. He loves the HP -- too bad they are taking it off the market.

So, I will judge when there are some real Windows 8 tablets out there and see how they perform. Touch is nice but I am not wedded to it.
-Anonymous

Do I want or desire a Win 8 Tablet?  Absolutely!
I'm now using Windows Phone 7.5 on my smartphone and love it. I've had an iPhone, iPad, etc -- didn't like it, won't buy it again and now waiting for Win 8.
-Stephen

I am definitely looking forward to Window 8 tablets. Will I get rid of my android tablet? No, but the Windows tablet will be more of a work horse.
This is really all going to come together 2012 Q4 when Intel's next chips hit the scene. I will expect to pay significantly more for a Windows tablet that will have more power to it. And, of course, it will be easy to synch with other workstations.

Really cool would be to have a retina screen or something approaching it. I will also be looking at slates, and Windows 8 might see a revival of this form factor for professionals.
As far as phones, at the time Windows phone was not available through Verizon. Getting the major providers behind the platform is necessary for success, even in Microsoft loses dollars on the phone to get it into the ecosystem, thus boosting the overall experience.

P.s.: I am a software developer / architect.
-Michael

Posted on 12/05/20113 comments

Welcome the New Year with Win 8

I know a number of folks who are using the developer preview of Windows 8 successfully. I even sat in a full-day meeting with a Microsoft execs pounding away on a Win 8 tablet without a hitch. I can't always say that about my Win 7 laptop!

That's why I'm not surprised over reports that a full beta may be out this coming January or February. And that could fit in nicely with a late-year release (hopefully my current Dell will be fully amortized by then!).

Posted by Doug Barney on 12/05/20114 comments

No 'Desktop' for ARM's Windows 8?

Unless you are a true insider or student of Windows, Win 8 is a mite confusing. There are two interfaces, "Desktop," which looks like the classic Win 7 desktop, and "Metro," which looks like the user interface on a Windows phone. Two processor architectures will be supported, x86/x64 (Intel and AMD) and ARM. Intel and AMD machines will run older apps using the Desktop interface, as well as newer HTML 5-based apps under the newer Metro interface.

ARM-based machines will run Metro apps, largely written in HTML 5, but the capability of ARM-based machines to run Win 7 apps with the Desktop UI is less clear. Last I heard, ARM would run older apps only if they were rewritten/recompiled for ARM. Now even that is coming into question.

Microsoft is reportedly thinking about dumping Desktop for ARM, leaving ARM as a pure tablet play, not a full enterprise PC.

Microsoft is not helping to clarify matters. After a massive PowerPoint orgy at the Build Conference in September, and the release of working code, Microsoft Win 8 execs have been quieter than Teller ever since.
What is your take on Windows 8 ARM support? Thoughts and advice welcome at [email protected].

Posted by Doug Barney on 12/05/20112 comments

Lync Selling Well

A few months back I interviewed about a dozen loyal Redmond Report readers about Microsoft Unified Communications. UC has never been a full cog in the Microsoft hype machines, so I didn't figure it would be that impressive. Turns out it has far more fans than I realized. Many considered this a transformative technology with much more impact than a standard OS upgrade. You actually helped me write a pretty cool story.

Posted by Doug Barney on 12/05/20112 comments

Office To the iPad?

Redmond columnist Mary Jo Foley, a long-time Microsoft watcher, thinks there will be an iPad port.

I'm not sure if the rumors of an iPad version of Office is kooky or logical. Of course, if I ran Microsoft I'd have made Microsoft apps cross-platform eons ago, and that doesn't just mean supporting the Mac in a relatively minor way.

Posted by Doug Barney on 12/02/20115 comments

Office 365 Update Prepped

Office 365 has been out around 150 days. And with less than a year under its belt, it's already getting a big update.

The new Office 365 will be improved in no less than 30 ways. Let's tick off the most important:

• The online suite will integrate Windows Phone 7.5 with the Internet version of SharePoint.
• SharePoint also gets a boost by talking to Business Connectivity Services (BCS), a tool that lets SharePoint import data from external sources such as line-of-business apps.
•  Apple fans should be pleased as 365 will include Lync for Mac.

Posted by Doug Barney on 12/02/20110 comments

Gates Can't Escape Antitrust Suits

Remember the famous Bill Gates antitrust deposition where he questioned every question, much like when Bill Clinton asked what the meaning of 'is' is?

That was almost exactly 13 years ago. The bad luck hasn't ended as Novell is currently suing Microsoft for using its market power to crush WordPerfect. When did all this happen? Right around the time of Windows 95, which is what, 16 years ago?

Posted by Doug Barney on 12/02/201110 comments