The Coupons Are Coming
Just as we all expected,
Microsoft
and OEMs will be doling out coupons this holiday for free (or at least heavily
discounted) upgrades to Vista for machines bought this year. Imagine the excitement
on your children's faces when they see that coupon under the tree!
You Don't Need a Coupon for Firefox 2
No need for a Firefox 2 coupon. First, the browser is free. Second, it's
shipping! My two sons are anxious to give this puppy a whirl on their Macs
(Safari is passé), and I'm looking forward to loading both IE7 and the
new Firefox on my Latitude 520 to see which will reign as my default browser.
Cisco Pushes Back
I doubt Cisco liked it when Microsoft announced its Unified Communications Strategy;
communications is Cisco's playground. Cisco spit back this week, debuting a
new
virtual meeting product aimed squarely at kicking Live Meeting's butt back
up to Washington state. The Cisco tool promises to replace that pitiful, jerky
excuse for video with smooth, realistic, corporate meeting action. Boy, the
Internet backbone is going to love all these high-res files!
An SA Oops
I tried to become an expert in Software Assurance. I thoroughly read a report
from Scott Braden, who writes
a column for Redmondmag.com, about negotiating with Microsoft. I also read
a 100-plus-page report from Directions on Microsoft and then devoured everything
Microsoft put out. Despite having written a
10,000-word PDF on the subject, I still readily admit to being confused.
And I was plenty mixed up last week when I said that Microsoft's new desktop
optimization tools were free for SA customers and $10 a year for non-SA end
users. Like Mel Gibson at a traffic stop, I clearly misspoke. It is $10 a year
for SA end users and not available to the rest of us. Here's
what Microsoft has to say on the matter.
About the Author
Doug Barney is editor in chief of Redmond magazine and the VP, editorial director of Redmond Media Group.