For years Microsoft has had a groupware collaboration story more confusing than a Rick Perry sound bite (to be fair I've done my share of public speaking and it is way too easy to freeze and spew a bunch of garbled nonsense).
Microsoft had shared folders in Exchange and collaboration tools built into Office. And then it bought Groove.
Now it is clear that SharePoint is the only sharing tool that truly matters to Microsoft -- it's putting every bit of its substantial weight behind it.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 10/05/20111 comments
We (or at least I) tend to think of IT folks are pretty bright. After all, you've taught me an awful lot in the 27 years I've been covering this industry.
But as good as you are, you all aren't perfect. From time to time you'll goof up, blunder or botch things. Over a dozen of you came clean with biggest boo-boos, and I turned these confessions into a Redmond magazine cover story titled Dumb IT.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 10/03/20111 comments
Microsoft love to flirt with open source -- it just won't commit. Its latest move solidifies an agreement to port Hyper-V to OpenNebula, an open source cloud project aimed at service providers.
This may not be entirely altruistic -- Citrix and VMware are already firmly in the OpenNebula camp.
Expect some early code this month.
How would you advise Microsoft on open source? You tell me and I'll share as long as you write me at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 10/03/20111 comments
Are books going the way of the dodo, thanks to tablets (like the newly announced Amazon Kindle Fire)? Here are some of your thoughts:
I love reading. I hate books, particularly paperback novels. Not like a Fahrenheit 451 hater of books, but I consider them to be a pain to use. I used to love to read for hours at a time. But then I stopped. You know why? Because books suck! They actually get in the way of the reading experience. I hate holding them open and approaching middle age with repetitive stress problems in my hands that sucks more than some might think. I hate losing my place. I hate the dryness of the pages on my skin. I especially HATE those older books that aren't cut straight on the side (whatever the opposite of the spine is called). As much as I loved reading as a kid, I had mostly given up on it, because it was kind of a hassle to me. I started several novels and never seemed to finish because to read a book you have to sit a certain way or lay a certain way and your neck gets stiff.
Then my wife bought me a kindle. I probably wouldn't have bought one myself. I love it. I have read more novels in the nine months since Christmas than I have for the last 10 years. Elmore Leonard, the Sookie Stackhouse novels, heck even the entire Percy Jackson collection. I'll read two at a time, and switch to the one that appeals to me at the moment. It's like I can't get enough of it or I'm making up for lost time. I lay down and plop my kindle down where I can see it and touch it only to turn a page. Print too small? Blow it up (this is becoming increasingly important to me). Can't look at your kindle? It will read to you (that feature could use some work, though. Its a little too robot-y for a dramatic novel, but that actually worked for Super Freakanomics ).
This is probably TMI, but I have a towel rack in front of my toilet that I have rigged a stand to for "hands-free operation" of my Kindle. If I don't know a word, I don't have to look it up in some OTHER book, I just navigate down to it and the definition appears at the bottom. My wife sprang for the 3G model so I can look something up on Wikipedia in a pinch if I'm not at home or around Wi-Fi. (In a pinch, because that 'experimental Web browser' should be codenamed 'SuckAss'). When I read the Elmore Leonard novel with the short story "Fire in the Hole" that they based the TV series Justified on, I decided I wanted to read the other two Raylon Givens novels. I was reading the next one within five minutes! I can play scrabble on it. I can highlight notes in the financial books I read.
Of course, the consequences are more dire if it gets dropped in the bathtub, but I'm extra careful there.
I broke it a few weeks after I got it (my fault) and I was like a jonesing drug addict waiting for Amazon to send me another one.
I still love bookstores. I still like to have hardbacks for Non-fiction science stuff. I'm kind of in the air about technical books, like about programming. But as far as a paperback novel goes, you will be lucky to see me pick one up again.
-Matt
Barney, you are living in the past. Read the 10 things that will not exist in the future. Hard-bound books are one of them, except in libraries. I love paper books but the future is less stuff owned and more stuff rented/leased/borrowed. It has a lot of potential advantages including the possibility of a greener world.
-Anonymous
I find your comparison humorous. Aside from books, music, movies, and apps, the iPad is an expensive way to surf the internet (sans Flash). Both devices exist to help you consume more and more media. One is geared more towards reading while the other tries to be everything for everyone (for a price). That's all.
-Anonymous
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Posted by Doug Barney on 10/03/20111 comments
For consultants, authors and ambitious IT vets focused on Microsoft, being an MVP is the Holy Grail -- comparable to winning an Oscar, Grammy, Emmy or Tony.
There are leagues of brilliant consultants, authors and ambitious IT vets focused on Microsoft, but a small portion are MVPs. Gaining that illustrious status can mean more and better paid consulting work, more books sold and better IT gigs.
So how do you break through? After all, it isn't like Microsoft posts applications and FAQs on an MVP Web site. And it isn't like you can take a bunch tests, ace 'em and get in. You have to find you own way.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 10/03/20111 comments
Fortune magazine is one of the most prestigious magazines in the world. I was lucky enough to intern there as a college senior -- an experience that made me really want to be a journalist.
So I was more than a bit surprised to read an article that compared Steve Ballmer's failures to those of George W. Bush. The column used the recent Microsoft annual employee meeting as a launch point. It regurgitated rumors, still unsubstantiated, that employees fled Ballmer's speech like fans in the last quarter of a Kansas City Chiefs home game.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 10/01/201113 comments
The iPad is certainly, in part, designed to help Apple sell books, movies, music and apps. Fortunately there is a lot you can do with an iPad without shelling out big bucks for books, movies, music and apps. And that more than justifies its $500 base price.
Amazon's approach is the opposite. Its new Android-based Kindle Fire tablet sells for only $200, but barely does a lick unless you load it up with books, movies, and music --which cost money.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 09/30/201113 comments
As mentioned above, there are rumors that employees walked out of the Microsoft annual employee meeting in droves. I'm surprised this is still just a rumor -- there were thousands of witnesses.
Whether true or not, there is an undercurrent of discontent in Redmond. Maybe employees are tired of all the bashing and are taking it too much to heart. Maybe folks are upset that the crazy stock options have gone the way of the dodo. And maybe there are legitimate concerns over the lack of innovation and the continuing quest to produce bloatier and bloatier hunks of software (Windows 7 isn't exactly svelte).
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Posted by Doug Barney on 09/30/20110 comments
Readers give their answers on whether they would or would not be in the market for a Windows tablet device:
Windows on a desktop or laptop, I love it. For an OS to be so compatible with so many hardware vendors and platforms is impressive. Tons of free apps. You could use Windows with freeware-only software titles and not miss a beat from a usage perspective.
Had windows CE lived up to the potential of its desktop counterpart, iOS may have had stiffer competition. With that said, Apples tablet success is due to its iPod/iPhone following. With it being such a popular, well thought out platform, it would be hard to get folks to switch. Especially since the best competitors are more buggy, inferior and lack quality apps. Apple has already dominated the tablet market, slam dunk.
I own every platform of tablet. My personal favorite is the BlackBery Playbook for its overall usage. But based on apps support, I tend to go back to my iPad 1 a lot. If it included Flash, it would be lights-out for the competition.
I think Google stands a better chance than Microsoft at this point. The tablet is no PC replacement -- it should be a mobile accessory to the PC. With that in mind, vendors and developers should know I won't type a thesis on my tablet, but I may need to access, edit or forward it, which a tablet should do. Functionality, reliability, stability and build quality need to be considered. It's these areas especially where the cheaper tablets fall short. Microsoft needs a viable hardware partner, before its considered a competing OS.
-MJ
I'd buy a Windows (x86) tab for work; we have a fleet of HP tablets running XP and Win7 with good success. They run an electronic health record system, and it works relatively well. You have to have Windows compatibility in most business environments. I wouldn't buy a Windows tablet for purely entertainment purposes. The newly announced Amazon tab for $200 sounds like a pretty high-value solution for my needs.
I'll almost never use a tablet in a 'portable' scenario; if it doesn't fit on my belt, it isn't portable enough. I use my BlackBerry for reading when I have downtime away from the house, and currently use a Playbook for media consumption around the house. The Amazon tab would be just about as good for that purpose, and costs 60 percent less. Of course, I'm not someone who can't stand to be offline for five minutes, so my needs may not be typical; I actually like it when I don't have to carry a phone.
-Karl
I think the tablet/slate market is still Microsoft's to win or lose. It has the advantage of offering a fully integrated OS that will provide full functionality in a business environment. Maybe this market will splinter into consumer and business segments. The analysts are all academic sh##heads that have no accountability and a poor track record.
-Anonymous
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Posted by Doug Barney on 09/30/20111 comments
I'm not sure how much I like Facebook. I love the idea and wish I invented it -- that accolade apparently goes to the Winklevoss twins, who are now doing pistachio commercials (I saw one last night!).
I do like the fact that Facebook lets you reach back to the past and reconnect with people you probably never cared about in the first place.
Kids love it, which leads to another problem: Grownups are always trying to friend their kids, grandkids, nieces and nephews. It's like crashing a slumber party. Not cool, old dudes and dudesses.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 09/28/20114 comments
Readers chime in on whether or not they use Microsoft's search engine:
It is a pretty sad state of affairs that searching for solutions to event log errors in Google's search engine works better than Bing at finding Microsoft KB articles relating to that error. Tried Bing but wasn't impressed. I always go back to Google -- although I dislike Big Brother looking over my shoulder.
-Dan
Over the past couple of months I have switched from using Google to using Bing, almost exclusively. At work, I primarily am searching for Microsoft-related content (I'm a Windows System Administrator). When I search Google, I tend to come up with various forums that may or may not have anything close to what I'm looking for. When I search Bing, I almost always come up with a TechNet article first and then Microsoft-sponsored forums second. For this reason alone, at work it is worth my time to choose Bing over Google.
At home, I've switched to Bing as well. Bing seems to lead me to local resources better than Google. Google wants me to purchase online more than Bing does (although that might be a misperception). Google also seems to lead me to purchase sites rather than information sites more often when I want information on a product or service.
That said, Google maps are still better, and I like Google's street view, despite personal misgivings about such a feature. I use Google's RSS reader regularly, and yes, I have a Gmail account that I occasionally use. So I don't think there's a clear winner, unless it is us. With strong competition comes better technology. My only hope is that all the search engines continue to operate ethically and for the betterment of the Internet communities (Yes, yes, they have to make a profit too...).
-Mark
Bing stinks. I have pretty much given up using it. Maybe it is just the way I search but I usually just get garbage when I use Bing and I get good results from Google. I am an academic researcher and trained to use keyword searching and Boolean search terms so that may be why Google is superior for my purposes. If Microsoft is really losing that kind of money supporting Bing it needs to throw in the towel and cede the market to Google -- maybe then the stock price would go up a bit!
-John
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Posted by Doug Barney on 09/28/20113 comments
Microsoft is now barely in the tablet market. And according to Gartner, four years from now Microsoft will still be barely in the tablet market.
While there is hype and excitement over the Windows 8 Metro mode (which is aimed at tablets), in 2015 the iPad will still rule the roost with nearly 150 million units sold that year, Android second with a healthy 116 million tabs taken and Windows less than 35 million making it out the door.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 09/28/20115 comments