Got Four Hours to Spare? Download Vista

Of course, now that we’re well into the era of razor-thin workforces and 70-hour weeks at many companies, four hours represents nothing more than a brief pause in another marathon weekday (or weekend, if you’re as unlucky as Peter Gibbons in Office Space). So what do you do when you find yourself with four hours to spare? Well, you could watch both 9 to 5 and Office Space back to back and still have time to make sure you put cover sheets on your TPS reports. Or, you could download Vista. As soon as it comes out on Jan. 30, of course.

Yes, Microsoft, which has sold downloads of other applications for years, is finally bringing the operating system lumbering into the world of electronic software distribution (or ESD for lovers of three-letter acronyms). Office is coming with it, along with a new online system for Vista upgrades and a “family pack” (already under fire here) that will allow Vista Ultimate buyers to purchase up to two additional copies of the OS for about $50 each.

So, who would be interested in spending up to four hours -- even with a high-speed connection -- downloading and installing a legitimate copy of Vista? Enthusiasts (a kinder word for “geeks”), probably, and maybe a few cutting-edge consumers. But how about corporate IT departments, which currently buy the OS through channel partners?

So far, partners are doubtful that their customers are going to abandon them in favor of downloads -- and they’re pretty darn sure that IT folks won’t want rank-and-file users messing around with OS downloads themselves. Partners are probably right about that, too. After all, Microsoft is aiming this effort at consumers, not businesses, and it’ll be selling downloadable Vista and Office at a fixed price that won’t take into account volume discounts or other perks partners tend to throw in for customers.

Besides, as RCP columnist Paul DeGroot points out in the article linked above, nobody makes any money from just reselling software, anyway. Resellers that haven’t expanded to offer some form of services have much bigger problems than Microsoft putting Vista online for download. And as DeGroot says, partners might just make a little scratch fixing users’ errors in downloading and installing Vista and Office. On top of all that, Microsoft has never been in the business of putting the hurt on its partners. Few companies in the industry value the channel as much as Microsoft does, and few use it as wisely or as profitably as the Pride of Redmond.

Still, Vista’s entry into the ESD world is intriguing. ESD is obviously nothing new -- your writer was covering it for a different publication 10 years ago -- but it’s still something of a fledgling model for software sales. Security vendors and makers of small apps, among others, have succeeded with it for years, but with higher-speed connections available all the time, we’ll soon be able to download much bigger stuff (like Vista) without the process taking hours. And as downloadable software becomes more convenient and more widely available, it will likely break into corporate use on a much larger scale than it already has.

How will the channel fit into a world dominated by downloads? Partners will always have revenue opportunities through customization, maintenance and other services (which are already their main sources of revenue, anyway), but what will happen when downloads of all sizes become the norm and not news? And when they take four minutes instead of four hours? How will Microsoft work its partners into that model? How will partners respond?

We don’t have the answers to those questions, and we don’t have to have them -- yet. But it’s something we’re going to ponder while downloading Vista and watching Office Space -- all during our extended workday, of course.

How are you preparing for ESD? Are you even thinking about it, or has it been part of your business model for years? Let me know at [email protected].

We’ll be back next week with reader feedback on Windows Home Server and Microsoft’s celebrity “wows.” Meanwhile, one note: Roman wrote to correct me on an error I made last week. I said that the National Security Administration had helped Microsoft with Vista security. I should have said National Security Agency. Thanks for paying attention, Roman. My apologies to the NSA, which is probably monitoring this e-mail.

Posted by Lee Pender on 01/18/2007 at 1:20 PM1 comments

IE Loses Ground, Longhorn Gains a Name

Also out of Redmond, a real name for Longhorn. But we’re going to make you open the link to see it. Oh, the suspense!

Posted by Lee Pender on 01/18/2007 at 1:20 PM0 comments

Microsoft, Nortel Put “Unified” in Unified Communications

Oddly enough, Microsoft and Nortel showed off their cutting-edge wares in a setting long past its prime -- the "Saturday Night Live" stage in New York. Funny quote here from the Forbes story linked:

“Nothing that they demonstrated today was unique,” said Ken Shulman, chief technology officer for telecom service provider Broadview Networks, who attended Wednesday's event, which included a brief phone, messaging and video conferencing demo.

Hmm, kind of like what we’ve been seeing on "Saturday Night Live" the last 10 years or so.

What are you doing with unified communications? How big a part of your business do you expect it to be? Tell me at [email protected].

Posted by Lee Pender on 01/18/2007 at 1:20 PM0 comments

This Is Almost Painful

Microsoft does many, many things right ... but Enchanted Office is ... well ... judge for yourself.

Posted by Lee Pender on 01/04/2007 at 1:20 PM0 comments

Linux Lovers Gear Up For Another Year of Chasing Microsoft

Well, Mike, you’ll probably achieve a level of accuracy with those predictions that most analysts could only dream of, even if Vista has been (surprise!) a little slow to penetrate the enterprise so far.

One thing that we can count on, though, is a New Year’s flood of Linux enthusiasts telling us that this is the year that their operating system makes serious headway into breaking the hegemony of Windows -- or at least that Microsoft is shaking in its boots over the open source OS. Hey, here’s one now! And for those who are into reading long, esoteric, rambling -- but certainly not uninteresting -- blog entries (and no, we didn’t read the whole thing, either), here’s another, which is actually the source of much of the material in the first one.

The thing is that they’re not wrong. Microsoft is clearly concerned about Linux and has been for a while. That much is obvious. The Novell SuSE Linux deal and Steve Ballmer’s protests that Linux infringes on Microsoft patents show that Redmond has open source on its mind -- and the blogs linked above suggest that Microsoft is doing all it can to infiltrate the open source community, steal its best talent and bring Linux to its knees. If so, great -- that’s exactly what one competitor should try to do to another. Nothing personal, just business.

But Linux folks aren’t taking this lying down, nor should they. And while their OS -- or, more accurately, the various disparate distributions of it -- might not be a threat to take over Windows’ market share in 2007, it is making inroads in important places. Two of those places are India and China, which represent potentially explosive markets that could eventually make the U.S. look like Belgium. In fact, the government of one Indian state looks ready to go open source now and leave Microsoft out in the cold.  

As India and China continue to grow economically -- and, despite all you’ve already heard about them, there’s plenty of room for long-term growth -- Microsoft and the Linuxes (Linii? Linuxi?) could potentially be headed for some seriously high-stakes clashes. Many partners and IT people we talk to say that Windows is cheaper to own than Linux in the long run (and maybe it is -- the arguments for that position seem reasonable), but the open source OS sure does have lower start-up costs, and that sort of thing is bound to appeal to companies and governments in developing and rapidly expanding economies, as well as to a small business or two stateside.

So, while 2007 is still more likely to be the year of Vista than the year of Linux, it’s worth keeping an eye on the open source folks and the inroads they make worldwide. If you’re Microsoft, it’s worth continuing to make Vista better and more secure with patches, service packs and the like. And if you’re a Microsoft partner, it’s time to update that pitch on Windows vs. Linux total cost of ownership and ease of administration. The open source headlights (presumably from one of Mike’s flying cars) are just starting to appear in your rear-view mirror.  

How much of a competitive threat has Linux been for you? Do you do a lot of business in India and China? Start the New Year right by telling me at [email protected]

And while we’re on the subject of Linux patents, Dave had these thoughts to share:

“I think it's the height of hubris for Microsoft to claim patent infringement on Linux. Apparently, if you have enough money and lawyers, you can be a 'legal' thief and punish smaller 'thieves' for 'stealing' from you. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! As far as software patents go, I believe they should all be nullified. Patents were made for physical inventions, not intellectual property (at least as I understand it). And who's to say that MS didn't grab someone else's work and patent it because the original author didn't have the wherewithal to do it him/herself or didn't think it necessary? To quote a line from a movie: 'How much is enough?' Just my $0.02 worth. (And while I'm at it, why don't we have a cent sign on our keyboards like we had on typewriters?)”

Have anything to add? Add it at [email protected]

Posted by Lee Pender on 01/04/2007 at 1:20 PM0 comments

Microsoft’s Goofy Laptop Giveaway

For the record, no fancy laptop came addressed to the editor of RCPU. And if one had arrived, we would have sent it back. But there are two funny things about this story. First off, it just doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. Microsoft gave away some laptops with Vista on them. Oooooh, sneaky. When will the abuse of power stop?

Please. I’ve been a journalist in this industry for a while now (not a blogger, mind you -- a journalist), and I’ve had more freebies sent to me than I could ever hope to repackage and stamp “return to sender.” Years ago, I once got a suite of factory-automation software -- not from Microsoft, incidentally. The case it came in held 24 CDs (as, I suppose, it takes 24 CDs of software to automate a factory) and proved very handy for car trips in the pre-iPod era. Sure, an Acer Ferrari laptop is a bit more expensive than the average giveaway, but Microsoft isn’t the average software company.

Second, even though it doesn’t merit anything close to the press coverage it has received (thank the no-news holidays for that, in part), this does seem like an awfully clunky project for a company like Microsoft that’s usually fairly put together with its public relations efforts. Apparently the laptops originally appeared to be “loaners” before somebody at Microsoft’s “other” PR firm (Edelman certainly isn’t the one we deal with most of the time) clarified that, no, they’re yours (although not mine) to keep! The whole thing just seems strange and amateurish and rather surprising to have come out of Redmond. And we’ve wasted too many words in it already. Such is life three days after New Year’s.

Posted by Lee Pender on 01/04/2007 at 1:20 PM0 comments

Storm's A-Brewin' for IBM (and Others): Microsoft and HP Blow into Town

But the heavy winds outside aren't the only storm brewing in the Pacific Northwest. A front has moved up from the Valley, so to speak, to join forces with the tempest of Redmond. Microsoft and HP announced a huge deal yesteday that essentially combines HP services and the Microsoft technology platform in a single, comprehensive offering. There's a storm brewing, all right, and it's headed east -- toward Armonk, N.Y. (That, by the way, is where IBM is headquartered -- in case that little reference just fell flat.)

To be sure, this new effort is Microsoft's (and HP's) attempt to take on IBM's "On-Demand" business services model in the large enterprise market. And there is huge money to be made there. Not only are there massive services revenues at stake, but the Microsoft-HP offering will now wage a war for supremacy with IBM in the five key areas that the new alliance is focusing on: messaging and unified communications, collaboration and content management, business intelligence, business process integration and core infrastructure. Between this HP deal and Microsoft moving in on SAP and Oracle in the enterprise resource planning space with Dynamics, Microsoft's plan for total corporate domination is now in full swing. Seriously. And it might just succeed.

But who will benefit from it? HP, certainly. What about other partners, though? Some of the attendees at this week's MS 101 partner event here in Redmond might be shaking in their boots this afternoon. After all, most of the partners here are the big guns -- enterprise-focused service providers and consultants. And it's their territory that Microsoft and HP are now moving into together. (Oh, by the way, somebody from IBM is here this week, too. Which could make things interesting.)

Now, the Microsoft and HP folks, not surprisingly, will tell you that this new alliance will reap revenue from new opportunities, not from snaking accounts away from current huge partners. And they say that partners will still have opportunities to complement the new offering, despite how comprehensive it's intended to be (and is).

To some extent, that might be true. But there's no question that the storm that's brewing in Redmond this week will dump nasty weather on more players than just IBM. Some of Microsoft's own partners are going to get wet, and it'll be interesting -- to say the least -- to see how Microsoft balances its new love-in with HP (which goes very, very deep) with its relationships with other faithful partners.

The good news here? Well, it's mainly that competition drives innovation, and that Microsoft's initiative with HP will cause competitors -- IBM especially -- to revamp their offerings and make them more viable, more effective and, hopefully, cheaper. Plus, we might get some more clever TV ads in which nerdy IT guys suddenly become heroes.

In any case, the clouds have rolled in, and a bad moon is rising. Get ready for the storm.

What do you think of Microsoft's HP alliance? Let me know at [email protected].

Posted by Lee Pender on 12/14/2006 at 1:20 PM0 comments

Australia to Jail iPod Users?

Posted by Lee Pender on 11/21/2006 at 1:19 PM0 comments

Company That Squashed Blackberry Ready To Slap Palm

Seriously, are these guys at NTP geniuses, or what?

Posted by Lee Pender on 11/07/2006 at 1:19 PM1 comments

IE7 and Firefox: Not Your Older Brother’s Browser War

Let Browser War II begin! Or at least continue. Right? Well, sort of. It’s great that Firefox is around to kick Microsoft in the shins a little bit and get Redmond to improve its offering. That’s the benefit of competition coming to the fore.

However, this browser war doesn’t feel anything like the all-or-nothing, life-or-death struggle that was IE vs. Netscape in the ‘90s. That battle ended with mortal wounds for Netscape and a DOJ lawsuit for Microsoft. This new battle will likely end with a very good Firefox browser taking on a much-improved IE. Everything considered, the new browser war will probably have better results for users, but it sure will lack the drama of the first clash.

Have any experiences with IE7 or Firefox 2.0 to share? Share them here: [email protected].

Posted by Lee Pender on 10/24/2006 at 1:19 PM1 comments

Security Vendor on Vista: So What’s The Problem?

With Symantec and McAfee still moaning about how hard Microsoft is making it for third parties to develop for Vista and how Redmond still hasn’t fully opened the Vista kernel for security vendors, one security player is wondering what all the complaining is about.

Sophos, a UK security vendor, has smartly stepped into the spotlight and offered its support for Microsoft, saying that developing for Vista is plenty easy -- if you know how to do it -- and that Symantec and McAfee just didn’t prepare well for the new OS. (And, actually, a Russian vendor names Kaspersky -- didn’t he write an angsty novel or something? -- made a similar statement three weeks ago.)

Oh, snap! This has to come as a bit of a slap in the face to McAfee and Symantec, which had actually won some concessions -- thanks in large part to the European Union -- from Microsoft on getting APIs for Vista development but still weren’t particularly happy (even as Microsoft moves ahead with its security plans). McAfee, in fact, has fired back at Sophos already, saying that its stuff is just way more complicated than Sophos’s offerings.

We’ve said here before at RCPU that Microsoft opening the Vista kernel for third-party security vendors is probably a good thing, although that point is hotly debatable (check out some of the comments here). In any case, Symantec and McAfee, market leaders that they are, have set themselves up to be more competitors than cooperators in their new relationship of "co-opetition" with Microsoft. Sophos and its Russian buddy have clearly gone the other way, stepping in to buddy up to Redmond even as Microsoft moves on their market.

It’ll be interesting to see how all of this plays out. Will Microsoft -- and, perhaps by extension, Microsoft partners -- remember Sophos’s support in future deals, or will Redmond’s move into the security market be so brutal that it won’t matter which third party has tried to curry the hungry giant’s favor? Stay tuned....

Are you with Symantec and McAfee or with Sophos in this argument? Pick a side at [email protected].

Coming Thursday: Reactions to the Vista licensing scheme. And, for those who have e-mailed me and haven’t yet received a response, I’m a little behind, but I will get back to you.

Posted by Lee Pender on 10/24/2006 at 1:19 PM2 comments

Ballmer: We’ll Spend Even More On R&D Than We Said Before

Posted by Lee Pender on 10/17/2006 at 1:19 PM0 comments