Microsoft Making Database Gains

Posted by Lee Pender on 08/27/2008 at 1:22 PM0 comments

IT Spending on the Rise

Posted by Lee Pender on 08/27/2008 at 1:22 PM0 comments

Vista Picking Up Steam?

Well, maybe so. But we've heard this sort of thing before, haven't we? Vista's always just around the corner from breaking out and becoming the next XP (just as XP eventually became the next Windows 2000). If it's true that one-third of Vista licenses end up being downgraded to XP, we won't hold our breath on Vista taking over the world.

Really, though, we're just using this entry to tell you that tomorrow we'll be running positive -- yes, positive -- comments about Vista. (Hey, we told you we'd run them if we got them.) So, send your thoughts to [email protected].

Oh, and also tomorrow -- in what should be an electrifying Reader Feedback issue of RCPU (you just have to love late August) -- we'll be running your suggestions on which celebrity would make the ideal Microsoft spokesperson. So shoot those our way, too, at [email protected].

Posted by Lee Pender on 08/27/2008 at 1:22 PM0 comments

SBS Takes Next Step Toward Launch

Posted by Lee Pender on 08/26/2008 at 1:22 PM0 comments

'Cool' Still a Four-Letter Word in Redmond

But we're weird that way here. Your editor DVRs old episodes of "WKRP in Cincinnati" (although he already owns all 90 episodes on DVD with the original music -- just with poor video quality) and watches them with the same gusto with which he downs a full Southern (or English) breakfast. On a brief road trip this past weekend, more than a few Creedence Clearwater Revival songs figured among the tunes of choice -- and we still have no idea who the Jonas Brothers are, although we keep seeing their images on T-shirts. Just today, we read that someone named Daddy Yankee had endorsed John McCain for president and wondered why George Steinbrenner would be so interested in the race for the White House.

So, in recruiting Jerry Seinfeld to do an ad campaign for Vista, Microsoft has hit a nostalgic nerve with this segment of the 30-something market -- although it's not as though we can't see Jerry at his best twice a day in reruns of his sitcom. (And, really, George was the funny one, anyway.) We're officially, gleefully out of touch with pop culture here at RCPU -- a fact you won't have missed if you've ever paid attention to our rotting cultural references -- and we like it that way.

It's too bad, though, that we're not the audience Microsoft is trying to reach with its "Windows, Not Walls" (our response: "What?") campaign. And, in case you've been sequestered without TV or Internet since last Thursday, nobody else likes the idea of Seinfeld pitching Vista, either. There are approximately 4 billion blog posts about the topic floating out there now -- 99 percent of them negative, from what we can tell (there's a pretty representative wrap-up here).

We've said before that Microsoft needs to stop trying to be cool, but here we have to say it again. Redmond, Apple roasted you with those Mac Guy ads, and everybody knows it. Apple is cool, and everybody knows it. And you're not -- and never will be. Because being the gorilla in the market isn't cool. Being the enterprise's OS of choice isn't cool. Being Steve Ballmer's company (as opposed to one run by Zen master Steve Jobs) is definitely not cool. But being all those things has been pretty darn profitable and probably will be for the foreseeable future.

Vista's problems were a lack of application compatibility and onerous hardware requirements -- plus the fact that many people didn't see a reason to ditch XP for Vista. A lack of coolness was -- and is -- way down the list of factors holding Vista back from mainstream public acceptance. But still, Microsoft is spending $300 million to try to fix the wrong problem...and Redmond can't even get that right, passing over the stars of the moment (Ben Stiller? Seth Rogin? Steve Carell? Chris Rock?) for a guy who, while likeable enough, conjures up memories of the era of enormous cell phones and molasses-slow, dial-up Internet connections.

Again, we don't mean to pile on here (although we don't have much better to do). But Microsoft, enough is enough. Embrace your nerdiness, or throw us a total curve with somebody like Carlos Mencia or Bill Engvall (or a woman, for heaven's sake -- what a radical concept) as your spokesperson. But don't try to be cool. It's still not working.

Who would your idea Microsoft spokesperson be? Tell us at [email protected].

Posted by Lee Pender on 08/26/2008 at 1:22 PM1 comments

Citrix Unleashes XenApp 5

Posted by Lee Pender on 08/26/2008 at 1:22 PM0 comments

Just Call It Red Hack

Posted by Lee Pender on 08/26/2008 at 1:22 PM0 comments

Microsoft Chucks Another Hundred Mil at Novell

Posted by Lee Pender on 08/21/2008 at 1:22 PM0 comments

More Tales of Vista Woe

"I am a Microsoft partner; however, I cannot in good conscience support Vista. Even after Service Pack 1, Vista does not network properly with XP. In addition, its file structure seems to lose files and folders for no apparent reason. Vista is also far slower than XP at opening programs as well as opening folders. Most of my small-business accounts have refused to switch to Vista. I am now custom-building machines with XP for them. When my supply of XP runs out, I do not know if I can sell them Vista systems. I have lost some home users to Macs due to my former customers' frustration with Vista.

"Microsoft must improve the networkability of Vista and fix the lost file problems and speed issues. If they cannot, they should bring back XP. To save face, they can make some graphic changes and rename it to XP Pro Advanced."

Lost some customers to the Mac, huh? More on that in a minute. For now, we like the idea of XP Pro Advanced.

Nat sounds a lot like Ronald in his e-mail:

"I have tried Vista personally, and I have installed it on a few of my customers' computers. I gave up on it myself when I couldn't print to the lower paper tray of my office printer and when my mailing label documents would not open in Office 2007. I am an avid user of the Windows Explorer in XP, and I like it. The version in Vista is awful; I kept getting errors when I was trying to move groups of files. The Control Panel also had me baffled with all of the re-named items. Customers also complained, and I think that I only have one that has stuck it out -- the rest have had me take them back to XP. None of my commercial customers has switched; I still sell them XP on new machines that I deliver."

Nat, we hear you...but the question is, does Microsoft? Maybe it will if Rusty's e-mail is a sign of things to come:

"You said that Apple and Linux are not any real threat to Microsoft in the enterprise. Well, it is interesting that I am seeing other articles that are talking about how Apple is starting to get enterprise penetration. Also, when I sit out front of the Apple store here, I see Macs going out the door several per hour. Also, Apple is posting amazing increases in sales compared to this quarter last year.

"I think people don't understand the ground swell that is starting to happen. I work in computers and have for more than 20 years. I am at the point now that we are starting to change all the computers in the house to Macs. I know several co-workers who are making the switch, too. In the one of the most recent Reader's Digest magazines, there was a listing of the things true computer people will tell you to fix your computer problems, and one of them was to buy a Mac. Although I don't see Microsoft toppling any time soon (people have been predicting similar things for IBM forever, too), I do see it continuing to lose market share to Apple (and Linux) month by month. I also think that Vista is one of the biggest reasons for the migration now, kind of like the final straw."

Rusty, great comments. Let's be clear about what we meant regarding Microsoft not being threatened. From what we're reading (and what you're reading, too, apparently), yes, Macs are making an impact in the enterprise and taking market share from Microsoft. (In the consumer space, its more traditional realm, the Mac seems even stronger.)

By saying that the Mac wasn't a serious threat, we meant that we don't see Microsoft's market share getting hacked down to, say, 50 or even 75 percent any time soon. It's still 90-plus, as far as we know, which gives it a long way to fall before Microsoft has to really start freaking out. There are just so many companies with big investments in Windows that it's hard to imagine Apple or Linux eating away at Microsoft's enterprise dominance in any serious way in the next few years.

However, we can easily imagine the SMB market moving toward the Mac and Linux, and if Windows 7 is as big a dud as Vista, some bigger shops might look in those directions as well. So, we take your point (and you did say that you don't see Microsoft toppling any time soon) -- Windows is on the way down (for now, largely thanks to Vista), and other alternatives are on the way up. We'd agree with that. We just don't think that the change will be as much revolution as evolution. And we're not ready to count Microsoft out...yet. By the way, we love the Mac at RCPU, in case we haven't mentioned that in the past.

Thanks to all who contributed to this topic. It remains one of our favorites. We had a couple of late e-mails that we couldn't sneak in, but we'll try to get to those later. And we're always open for more Vista e-mails at [email protected].

Posted by Lee Pender on 08/21/2008 at 1:22 PM6 comments

Salesforce.com Makes Acquisition, Announces Results

And while we're on the topic of SaaS, David writes from Australia that Google's recent blip is nothing to worry about:

"SaaS is here to stay, and will take over the world. A little outage like that can happen to anyone that has not spent a fortune on IT. Of the 2 million businesses in Australia, there would only be a couple hundred who could claim this would never happen to them with in-house servers. This is still a five-9s standard and will suit 99.999 percent of business users."

Thanks, David. We agree that SaaS is here to stay. Will it take over the world? Maybe...eventually. For now, though, there are still some psychological (and maybe a few practical) barriers that folks face before adopting it. It's all about control, really -- control of data and control of the situation when a system does go down. Some IT folks like to have both, even if it costs more. Still, we're bullish on SaaS. Don't get us wrong on that front.

Posted by Lee Pender on 08/21/2008 at 1:22 PM0 comments

Microsoft Relaxes Virtualization Licensing

Posted by Lee Pender on 08/20/2008 at 1:22 PM0 comments

Redmond Offers Ultimate Support

Posted by Lee Pender on 08/20/2008 at 1:22 PM0 comments