By far the strangest part of this story is the fact that a company called Cactus
is based in Canada. Other than that, this is a
tidy
and interesting read about how one Microsoft partner is playing a big role
in the development of Commerce Server.
Posted by Lee Pender on 08/09/2007 at 1:21 PM0 comments
Given that most of the talk about patents in the last eight or nine months
has
revolved
around Microsoft and Linux, you might have forgotten about the patent case
that was going to completely reshape the world as we knew it: Alcatel-Lucent's
"successful"
MP3
patent case versus Microsoft.
Well, it was successful -- until this week, that is. A U.S. District Court
judge in San Diego this week laid a big "I don't think so" on a ruling
that would have required
Microsoft to fork $1.5 billion over to Alcatel-Lucent for patent infringement.
And just like that, the French company's dreams of suing everybody who ever
released an MP3 or made a portable-music player -- as well as of filling its
coffers with a billion-plus of Microsoft's dollars -- came to an end.
The judge's ruling -- never mind the jury's ruling, we suppose, which he seems
to pretty much have overturned -- is partly based on technicalities and partly
based on his opinion that Microsoft, in fact, did not infringe on one of the
patents in question. But we wonder (on rather a hazy and lazy summer afternoon
when we should probably be thinking about something else) whether Microsoft
has in any way shown the open source folks the path to quashing patent-infringement
claims.
Or maybe, if nothing else, Redmond has shown how hard it actually is to win
a patent case as the plaintiff, despite some relatively recent and, in the famous
BlackBerry case, high-profile decisions. Maybe the Alcatel-Lucent case has
nothing to do with anything at all, but we'd be at least amused by the coincidence
if Microsoft took some of the bite out of its Linux patent racketeering by winning
a high-profile patent case as a defendant.
Tomorrow we'll run some reader feedback, so if you want to comment on this
or any other recent entry, shoot me an e-mail at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on 08/08/2007 at 1:21 PM0 comments
It's been way too long since we've made a
Pirates
of Silicon Valley reference here at RCPU. So, with this week marking
the 10th anniversary of Microsoft's big investment in Apple (which happens at
the end of the movie -- not to give it away or anything), we couldn't resist
typing once again fictional Bill Gates' famous words to fictional (but not Fake
--
that's
Dan Lyons) Steve Jobs in the film: "I got the loot, Steve!"
A decade later, though, as one good-if-not-groundbreaking
article points out, Steve's got some loot of his own. It's hard to believe
that it's been 10 years since Wired ran one
of the great covers of all time. And it's hard to believe how things have
changed since then. But we at RCPU sure do love our iPods...well, except for
one nameless editor (not the one writing this), who actually bought a Zune.
Posted by Lee Pender on 08/08/2007 at 1:21 PM0 comments
Fun little story here about Nicolas Sarkozy, the still-new president of France
and noted firebrand,
going
off on a couple of American photographers during Sarko's vacation in New
Hampshire.
We throw this in because: 1) Your editor lived in France for almost five years
and is a bit of a Francophile; 2) Your editor has also been to the lake where
Sarko is vacationing (as have, we're guessing, most New Englanders); and 3)
Sarko is crashing at Michael Appe's pad, and Appe is a former Microsoft executive,
making this entry entirely relevant for RCPU. Or at least as relevant as the
thing about Fake Steve Jobs.
Posted by Lee Pender on 08/07/2007 at 1:21 PM0 comments
Let's not even pretend that we'll have a bigger story than this one this week.
This one is right up there with "Microsoft Makes Major Investment in Apple"
(which happened, by the way, 10 years ago this week) and "Bill Gates To
Transition Away from Microsoft" (well,
sort
of).
After 14 months of stealth
parody of Apple's iconic leader, we
now know who the Fake Steve Jobs has been all along. The decidedly old-media
New York Times unmasked the legendary blogger and new-media meme as...Forbes
Senior Editor Dan Lyons, who just happens to be one of your editor's former
colleagues! (OK, so your editor worked at the same publication as Lyons about
10 years ago and met him once -- it still counts! And we at RCPU can confirm
that Mr. Lyons is a very funny guy.)
With Lyons out as Fake Steve, the comparisons
of Real Dan to Fake Steve have begun, and even the Fake Bill Gates (on a
site full of fake-somebody bloggers that frankly should be funnier) has
chimed in.
Oh, sure, this probably seems a little silly -- and, well, it is. It's not
even Microsoft-related, and it has even less to do with Microsoft partners.
But, hey, it's August, and we don't exactly have news through a fire hose this
week. In fact, it's been more like news dripping from a leaky faucet lately.
So, to our ol' buddy Dan -- who, apparently, will continue to write his blog
as Fake Steve and has a Fake
Steve book coming out, we say, "Bravo!" And thanks for the virtual
good times.
Posted by Lee Pender on 08/07/2007 at 1:21 PM0 comments
Almost as soon as the
first
entry in yesterday's RCPU about mysteriously disappearing Vista fixes went
out, we had an e-mail from Stuart (although not the Stuart whose e-mail appeared
yesterday):
"Get your facts straight, Lee. The fixes you describe are certainly
NOT the bulk of what will be available in SP1 and as of today, 8/1, they're
still available to Connect subscribers."
First off, fair cop on the "bulk of SP1" statement. You've got us
bang-to-rights there, guv'nah. Whoa...sorry, we've been watching too much British
comedy lately. Let's try that again: Fair enough with the "bulk" statement.
You've caught us a bit red-faced there. We don't know exactly what will be in
SP1 -- whether these fixes will be a part of it or whether they might constitute
the "bulk" or just a little part (if any at all) of the service pack.
We suspect, as many
others do, that the fixes were an SP1 preview -- or maybe just most of SP1
-- but we don't know for sure. (Another rumor is that these fixes will come
out on Aug. 14, Patch Tuesday, which would presumably mean that they're
not part of SP1 at all.) So, we were wrong -- or at least possibly wrong --
to say that "Microsoft at some point posted the bulk of SP1 online."
We will be more careful next time.
Beyond that, Stuart, our e-mailer, who is a member of the Vista/Windows Server
2008 Technology Adoption Program (TAP) and who was invited by Microsoft to test
the fixes, tells us that he downloaded them again on Aug. 1 (yesterday, by the
time you read this), after they supposedly
disappeared. Well, apparently, they didn't disappear, exactly -- they just
left the public domain. Evidently, Microsoft has simply repaired the leaks of
these fixes that appeared on several message boards and once again made them
accessible only to the invited members of the TAP who were supposed to have
them in the first place. That's why, for instance, we -- and by "we,"
we actually mean more than one person -- can't get to them when we log into
Connect. The rest of us will just have to wait or see if we can ferret them
out on some rogue message board -- if we're so inclined, which we here at RCPU
are not.
All of this is probably much ado about nothing, then, as old Bill (Shakespeare,
not Gates) might have said. That's especially true since these fixes are for
Vista, the OS that hasn't exactly set the world on fire in terms of adoption,
anyway. Still, we maintain that Microsoft, rather than spending its time chasing
down leaks and trying to hush Vista SP1 rumors, could be a little more forthcoming
about its release schedules and maybe even a little better organized.
For their part, Microsoft officials responded to us by saying that there's
no fire to accompany the smoke in the press: "There were two Windows Vista
updates released last week, and Microsoft has confirmed that they are on the
site, so I'm not sure why folks thought they were removed," a spokesperson
e-mailed us.
Well, then! Apparently they weren't removed from the Connect site, just from
some message boards -- as we figured. On top of that, we got a further, if a
bit canned, statement about SP1:
"There will be a Windows Vista service pack and our current expectation
is that a beta will be made available some time this year. Service packs are
part of the traditional software lifecycle -- they're something we do for
all Microsoft products as part of our commitment to continuous improvement,
and providing early test builds is a standard practice that helps us incorporate
customer feedback and improve the overall quality of the product.
"Service packs are just one example of the work we do to constantly
improve the Windows experience. We also deliver improvements to Windows via
Windows Update, which is an excellent channel for providing our customers
with the most significant updates as they happen. And, since Windows Vista
launched, we have continued working with partners to improve overall device
coverage and application compatibility. There are now more than 2.1 million
supported devices and more than 2,000 logoed applications for Windows Vista.
We think customers will have a great experience using Windows Vista today."
Folks in Redmond might not want to be so confident about that last line. As
promised, let's have some more complaints about Vista:
Von is regretting his migration:
"I was in the market for a new computer right about the time Vista
was coming out. I decided to wait and get a Vista system instead of buying
one with XP. You know -- new technology vs. old technology; go with the latest
instead of being 'behind the times.'
"I'm regretting that decision now. Vista is just too quirky, and I don't
see any huge benefit to it over XP to warrant overlooking the 'quirkiness.'
I wish now I had gone with XP and waited for Windows 7 or at least until I
'had' to give up XP and go with a Vista OS that was several years old (several
years tested and patched)."
Christine is also suffering:
"As a software developer, I was forced to get a machine with Vista
on it. I keep it turned off as much as possible. Invariably, Windows Sidebar
crashes. Windows Firewall is constantly changing my settings because of some
unknown infraction. All sorts of other annoying messages keep popping up,
telling me to enable this or disable that. This operating system is intent
on badgering me! I can't get anything done because of all of these pop-ups.
"In its ever-eager attempt to out-think me, Microsoft has at last
successfully stopped me from working the way I want. I now understand how
all the non-computer geeks feel. This Windows stuff IS a nightmare. Microsoft
tries to do too much in too many odd ways at too many odd times. I still despise
Apple more, but I'm sticking with XP until MS slams that door, too."
And Paul says that Vista has led to some conflict at his firm (and others):
"Let me just say that Vista and Outlook 2007 have both been a very,
very large disappointments for our company and our clients. Very bad blood
has been spilled over both. We went (b)leading-edge and implemented Exchange
2007 at one of our clients' locations, and to say it was a nightmare would
be putting it lightly! This latest set of releases from Microsoft in general
has been lacking."
Apparently so. We have lots of other (negative) Vista e-mails that we haven't
had room to run. They're very good, and we'll try to get to them in time. Thanks
to Stuart for keeping us honest and to everybody who has taken the time to write.
Keep the e-mails coming to [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on 08/02/2007 at 1:21 PM1 comments
Note the asterisk -- because Works isn't just free,
it's
ad-supported. Then again, this is the first time anybody has had a reason
to write about Microsoft Works in about 10 years. It had joined Corel in the
"dead or alive" (or, in Corel's case, "dead, alive or Canadian")
category.
Posted by Lee Pender on 08/01/2007 at 1:21 PM1 comments
Perhaps (although probably not) rattled by RCPU's indictment of Microsoft's
coolness (or lack thereof), Ray Ozzie has been
defending
Redmond's forays into the consumer world. The three(!) guys who write
this
blog have a pretty good take on Ozzie's comments. We'd have written something
similar here at RCPU already, but we have only one writer; we're simply outnumbered.
Posted by Lee Pender on 08/01/2007 at 1:21 PM0 comments
We couldn't make this up. Not only is the
release
date for Vista's SP1 still a mystery, and not only is Microsoft already
starting to drop hints about the
next
version of Windows after Vista, but it now appears as though Microsoft at
some point posted the bulk of SP1 online...and then
took
it away!
Could we get some sanity here, please? And maybe just a bit of transparency?
Look, Vista has been
disappointing enough without all this cloak-and-dagger stuff in Redmond
clouding the picture of the OS' future. Either post SP1 or don't; either tell
us about Windows 7 or leave it alone. Partners need to go to customers with
some level of certainty (especially with an OS that's not exactly selling itself),
not with obfuscation, confusion and rumors. Please, Microsoft, get it straight.
We continue to receive loads of e-mail about Vista. Most of it is negative
toward the OS, but not all of it -- and in the interest of balance, we'll run
some of the positive stuff here. Be on the lookout for more negative comments
tomorrow, though...because some of them are just so much fun.
Stuart writes from London:
"If you really want Vista take-up to improve, then perhaps you should
stop peddling so much negativity. It's quite tiring and frankly naive. All
the Vista problems I'm hearing about are the same ones that appeared when
XP came out: stability, performance, 'excessive' hardware requirements, lack
of third-party drivers and the fact that it wasn't that much different from
Windows 2000. And look what happened: service packs were released, consumers'
hardware caught up, third parties released drivers and users started to realise
that the 'insignificant' user interface changes actually led to a marked increase
in usability and productivity. The Vista story will be no different. Come
2010 (or whenever MS releases the superseding version) we'll all be wondering
why on earth we should upgrade from our beloved Vista."
Well, Stuart, we've said here before that Vista will eventually become most
people's default OS (if we're even bothering to use an OS anymore in a few years
-- hello, SaaS), but we can't blame partners and users for expecting more right
out of the box after years of waiting and tons of hype. Still, you might very
well end up being right in the long run. It's almost always been the case in
the past with Microsoft.
In a similar vein, Mark offers:
"Do you just rerun your columns? Or do you actually put thought and
consideration into each one? It looks like the former.
"If you take your '"VISTA BOUNCE" MORE LIKE A THUD SO FAR'
column in your recent RCP Update e-mail, substitute 'XP' for 'Vista,' it is
virtually the same complaints as in 2001. You are putting too much stock into
partners that are looking for a quick windfall from the Vista release (that
includes AMD's recent whining). Just like the Windows XP release, and Windows
95 before that, it will still take partners to work their sales process to
convince clients to upgrade. As more and more become comfortable with the
new features, as more and more is seen and written on the new features, and
as more and more sales work by partners is done, the clients will move. They
are moving now, as evidenced by the statistics you mildly reference down in
paragraph three. They will move more in the future. If partners want to help
their clients move along, get out there and sell, sell, sell clients on the
benefits, not sit and wait on orders."
That's a clarion call from Mark, partners -- get out there and move Vista.
Tomorrow, we'll run some other thoughts on Vista.
Keep adding fuel to the Vista e-mail fire at [email protected].
We'll get as many in as we can! And thanks to Stuart, Mark and those who have
taken the time to write.
Posted by Lee Pender on 08/01/2007 at 1:21 PM4 comments