According to Forrester Research, the excitement over Windows tablets is fading, which is kind of like saying that sales of Milli Vanilli albums are down.
In fact, the research reminded me that there are actually Windows 7 tablets on the market -- I plum forgot.
One problem (besides competing with the iPad and Android devices) is that Windows 7 tablets weren't designed for touch from the get-go -- touch was more of an afterthought.
But Windows tablets aren't exactly dead in the water. They are just struggling for breath. The lifesaver may be Win 8, which has a pure tablet interface, and in its preview release, already has a feel for touch.
Early this year, things weren't totally dire. Forrester found that a bit less than half of those surveyed actually wanted a Windows tablet. I'm thinking these respondents wanted a true PC companion, much like a netbook (except more fun to use).
By the third quarter, only one quarter of respondents still wanted a Windows device. Taking up that slack is the iPad, which went from a 16 percent want rate to 28 percent.
Do you have or want a Windows tablet, or will Win 8 tablets be too little, too late? Answers to all welcome at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/30/2011 at 1:18 PM12 comments
Presumably tired of the relentless bashing over Windows, Office and IE security, Microsoft recently tried to deflect the blame over to Java. According to Redmond, between one-third and half of the times our machines are compromised, it is Java's fault. The best thing about this for Microsoft? Java is now controlled by Oracle. Take that Larry!
The news, coming from the latest Microsoft Security Intelligence Report, argues that Java exploits are ever increasing.
Being gracious, Microsoft says that most Java holes have been fixed, but that users don't always update their Javas. In fact, some of the most exploited holes are years old, much like a Massachusetts highway.
Do you fear Java hackers? What does keep you up at night? Confess at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/30/2011 at 1:18 PM2 comments
Microsoft has been teasing us all with its vision of the mid-term future. We have sneak peeks at Windows 8, bold cloud pronouncements and then there is the browser.
IE 10 is meant to reinvent the browser much like Win 8 is meant to reinvent the OS. While Win 8 has a fundamentally different look and feel, IE 10's changes are more in the innards.
The key move is to push HTML 5 in place of Flash and Silverlight. The idea is to have a single, open standard drive as a new wave of dynamic Web pages and apps.
Developers have been toying with what Microsoft calls a platform preview. These hunks of software have a limited UI, but the underpinnings are there to explore.
Now a fourth iteration of the preview is out and this one has some tough requirements. In fact, because you need to have Win 8, you need to be running preview software on top of preview software. The first two IE 10 previews didn't require Win 8 -- probably because it wasn't in good enough shape.
So what's new in the preview? It seems like little stuff to me. To a code jock it could be major. Now developers can add captions to HTML 5 video, decide which areas of Web text can be highlighted and where it should be faster.
Have you toyed with this puppy? If so, share your impressions by writing [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/30/2011 at 1:18 PM3 comments
Here's some reader feedback on how big of an issue patch restarts is and the news that they will be limited in Windows 8:
Don't get me wrong, I know why forced restarts have to occur, but I think if Windows were a real operating system, it would be able to deal with concurrency much better. A Unix OS will allow a file to be modified even if something else is holding a file pointer to the file for read access. I don't view this as a problem. Windows does. Or Microsoft's OS is so stuck in backwards compatibility land that it can't get around it.
-Alan
Frequent restarts are only an issue if you shutdown your machine regularly (for instance, with notebooks). I leave my desktop systems on and when I arrive in the morning, all the patches are done. But every time I sit down on my son's laptop or my wife's desktop system, I have to install a bunch of stuff because they don't have administrator privileges. The Windows patches aren't so bad but the iTunes and Adobe patches are a nightmare because they are so frequent.
-Marc
Being a small shop, patch related server restarts are rarely more than an annoyance. Our users are accustomed to brief outages after business hours. For desktops, it is a non-issue. Regardless, any improvement is welcome.
-George
I will bet that Windows 8 will never blue screen either...
-Lester
Share your thoughts with the editors of this newsletter! Write to [email protected]. Letters printed in this newsletter may be edited for length and clarity, and will be credited by first name only (we do NOT print last names or e-mail addresses).
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/30/2011 at 1:18 PM0 comments
Microsoft is working on software that tracks employee behavior -- and it is guessing employees will actually like it!
The technology, currently patented, watches employees during video conferences, on their PCs and through their smartphones. It tracks e-mail, IMs, phone calls and more. Sounds intrusive.
But Microsoft argues this type of tracking actually builds trust. The idea is to spot bad behavior and then direct it to managers for correction. If an employee sees the employer sticking up for them, trust ensues.
Is this wacky or does it make too much sense? You tell me and I'll the rest of the readers at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/28/2011 at 1:18 PM11 comments
SQL Server tools vendor Red Gate has one of the coolest IT promotions I've ever come across. It is running a contest where DBAs take a quiz that enters them into a contest to be blasted off for a free trip into space.
As of my last communication with the company, over 6,000 IT pros have taken a shot. The video quiz is actually in five weekly segments. Once the 15 finalists are picked, other DBAs will vote on a winner.
The ride will be given by Space Adventures, Ltd., and will bring the lucky (and possibly terrified) winner 62 miles above sea level. Starting price for such a trip? A cool $110,000. Space is cool, but I'd rather get a Porsche Carrerra.
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/28/2011 at 1:18 PM0 comments
It feels like 20 years ago all over again (during the Microsoft antitrust hearings). The recent news is that Redmond is the most despised software company. This is according to research from Amplicate, a company that tracks what people say online. I was skeptical and had never heard of Amplicated so I Googled the company and it seems legit. Then to be fair I used Bing and got similar results.
Amplicate gives Microsoft a "70 percent hate score," meaning that the large majority of people that have posted on its Web site have bad things to say about the cost and stability of Redmond tools.
I have an explanation: First, Microsoft is not perfect. I fight its software all too often. Microsoft is both a target for hackers (because it is so ubiquitous) and a punching bag for millions of customers that depend on Windows, Office, et al.
By the way, Oracle claimed a 78 percent level of hate. Ouch.
What bugs you about Microsoft? What do you like about Microsoft? Answers to either welcome at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/28/2011 at 1:18 PM16 comments
Readers share their thoughts on Adobe Flash and competing formats:
As long as a lot of the Web sites I visit require Flash, I am going to shy away from products which don’t support it.
-Marc
I wonder about the flash content we have saved. Will it be viewable in five years? Maybe a great boost for converter companies
-BG
I like Flash. I think it does some cool things. I also think that the blame for the whole Apple vs. Adobe thing lies in both camps. When Macromedia owned Dreamweaver, et.al., (including Flash) it was very Apple friendly. Then along came Adobe, and it's gone downhill from there. The great thing about the Web is that it is not static -- things that were cool a decade ago no longer work. Someday some new and better thing will supplant HTML 5, as it is supplanting Flash. Maybe Adobe is just pulling that stick out and moving on. Finally
-Vic
Until you can create one code base in HTML 5 and have it render identically on all platforms, HTML 5 is a long way off. Just look at the differences now between browsers on a standard that has been in place for years! Check for this, check for that, add this code for IE, add this code for WebKit, add this code for Opera. Then deal with mobile and Linux.
-Mike
Share your thoughts with the editors of this newsletter! Write to [email protected]. Letters printed in this newsletter may be edited for length and clarity, and will be credited by first name only (we do NOT print last names or e-mail addresses).
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/28/2011 at 1:18 PM0 comments
Are you using Google Apps, Office Web Apps, or Office 365? If so, I'd like to know in detail what you think. I'm working on a feature story based on the real-world experiences of actual users.
Share your thoughts at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/18/2011 at 1:18 PM7 comments
Windows phones may have less than 2 percent market share, but this research from Gartner doesn't account for the fact that Nokia is really, really committed to Windows phones. It should be. Microsoft is sliding the Finnish company a billion dollars over the next five years!
The combo of Nokia and Microsoft has developers interested. Too bad that in no way matches the consumer interest we talked about in the last item.
Here's where developers stand: Apple's iOS is tops with more than 90 percent of code monkeys expressing interest. 83 percent of software jocks care about Android and 66 percent like what they see in HTML 5 Mobile Web.
Windows Phone 7 edges out BlackBerry with Microsoft getting 38 percent interest versus RIM's 21 percent -- half of what it had the year before.
Reading these numbers, it is clear developers write for multiple platforms.
What phone do you use today, but more importantly, what will your next one be? Share your plans at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/18/2011 at 1:18 PM7 comments
Technology is complicated -- sometimes a bit too complicated. Every year there are more features, new interfaces and new platforms upon which software must run.
I'm collecting things that really drive you mad. Little things like important items buried deep inside the menu structure, and bigger things like new operating systems that don't work with your old gear.
What bugs you? Let me know at [email protected]. At the same time let me know how I can quote you. Look forward to hearing from you.
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/18/2011 at 1:18 PM8 comments
There are various banes of IT existence: dumb users, flawed bosses, collapsed budgets. I'm not sure where patching ranks, but it sure isn't fun.
Windows 8 will still need patches. What it won't need is so many restarts when you do patch. In fact, Microsoft expects only one restart for an entire patch cycle. The only exceptions are emergency fixes for problems, major worms and viruses that could spread and disrupts thousands, hundreds of thousands or millions of machines -- scourges like Blaster.
Are restarts a big problem? You tell me at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/18/2011 at 1:18 PM2 comments