Microsoft couldn't be happier with Windows 7. It has almost completely removed that stain that was Vista and has now shipped nearly a quarter billion copies of this puppy. That means that one in five Windows personal computer is actually using the latest version of Windows. Not bad for an OS barely a year old.
I was never a fan of XP -- it always flaked out on me after a while. And I wisely avoided Vista (as did the IT department for my company).
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Posted by Doug Barney on 11/05/20103 comments
Google apparently isn't afraid of the U.S. federal government and is suing the Interior Department because a cloud RFP specifically required Microsoft products.
The Interior was apparently only looking for solutions that included Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite, soon to be renamed Office 365. The Interior's rationale is that BPOS is simply more secure and has a better e-mail toolset.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 11/03/20105 comments
Dell is moving deeper into the cloud with its plans to buy Boomi. While Dell deals primarily in hardware that runs off-the-shelf third-party apps, Boomi is a cloud integration firm that eases the tying together of cloud apps with on-premises hardware and software.
Boomi already has one great reference account: Saleforce.com uses its integration software!
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/03/20100 comments
One reader discusses the recent negativity towards the Microsoft brand:
As a news guy, I'd guess this is not the first time you've seen a strong company treated like it was yesterday's news.
I mean it's really all about the next hot restaurant, company, trend, technology, etc. Business focused PCs are soooooooo last year. All the buzz is about the eventual convergence of consumer entertainment and the PC/computer.
Still, Microsoft keeps a hand in the consumer entertainment market. Some have done well, like the Xbox, while others have not -- the only place I have seen a Zune is at the store. Microsoft is not out of the game yet.
-Andrew
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Posted by Doug Barney on 11/03/20100 comments
I initially scratched my head over this one: It seems that Microsoft just bought Canesta, which makes computer chips that support 3D graphics. But isn't Microsoft a software company?
Sure, for the most part. But it also has the Xbox, and Canesta's 3D chips can detect motion, such as gestures, which can then control game play.
There are also rumors that this same kind of motion capture will be part of the next version of Windows -- that could be pretty wild!
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Posted by Doug Barney on 11/03/20100 comments
For most of North America, Daylight Savings Time rolls up on us this weekend (most of the world started without us, changing their clocks last weekend). With the time change, it's time once again to make sure your systems and applications are in sync. Take care of it now, so you can take advantage of that extra hour of sleep.
- By Michael Domingo
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/01/20100 comments
Another version of the Microsoft browser hit the wire last week, and the feature-complete, ready-for-Web-delivery version is imminent. At PDC, Microsoft claimed 10 million downloads, so this one has seen more eyes than optometrists at a convention.
Are you testing the IE 9 platform preview? With what you've seen so far, will you be rolling it out to the troops? Tell us why or why not at [email protected].
- By Michael Domingo
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/01/20102 comments
You can get your hands on Windows 7 Service Pack 1 as of last week. It's a release candidate, with the final version due some time early next year.
If virtualization means nothing to you, then SP1 probably hasn't registered on your radar. Other than security updates and fixes, you might find two new features for Windows Server 2008 R2 of interest: dynamic memory, for pooling available memory for use with virtual machines; and RemoteFX, which improves graphics performance out to thin clients (for streaming results for your company's unofficial fantasy football league, of course).
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Posted by Doug Barney on 11/01/20107 comments
For some reason, this week was 'Beat on Microsoft' week. Stories went around that the Microsoft brand was dying, the PC was dying and that Microsoft has missed every important innovation in the last five years. Oh, and Ray Ozzie left.
Hey, Microsoft is far from perfect, but from a macro level, the company is doing pretty dang good.
All these stories came out before Redmond released its latest financials (there were even some snarky pieces predicting a bad quarter).
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Posted by Doug Barney on 10/29/20102 comments
Microsoft loves to change product names and even has its own beta software nomenclature. There used to be alpha software (early test code), beta (later test code) and gold (where the code is locked down). Now we have community technology previews, release candidates, release-to-manufacturing and on and on. All of these have their own acronyms that I won't bore you with. It's harder to track this stuff than it is to parse a Dennis Miller standup bit (anyone got a thesaurus and Encyclopedia Britannica?).
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Posted by Doug Barney on 10/29/20101 comments
If you are pretentious enough to coin a company motto of "Do no evil," you should be circumspect enough to actually follow that code -- or at least have the appearance of trying. Google CEO Eric Schmidt is either a hypocrite or living in a dream world, as he continually sloughs off suggestions that his company is anything but pure. Instead, he puts the onus on us to protect our own privacy -- from him!
He suggested that if we were afraid of anyone finding out what we do online we shouldn't do it. He then advised us to change our names to escape our Web pasts (he later told John Stewart it was a joke, but this was weeks after the damage was done. If it was a joke, why not address it immediately?).
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Posted by Doug Barney on 10/27/201018 comments
Ray Ozzie may be leaving Microsoft, but he also hopes to leave a mark. When he joined five years ago, he took a cue from Bill Gates and penned a company-shifting memo. Where Gates bet the company's future on the Internet, Ozzie took it a step further and pushed Redmond up to the cloud.
In what will probably be his parting shot, Ozzie argues that the move to the cloud may fundamentally change the very devices we use.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 10/27/20102 comments