It's Patching Time Again

Dang, it's almost the second Tuesday of the month, and you know what that means: time for some patching. This month, there are nine fixes to contend with, with five deemed critical.

I know I sound like a broken record, but pretty much all or most of the patches plug remote code execution (RCE) holes. As is happening more and more frequently, one patch plugs multiple products, like the critical patch for everything from Office Small Business Accounting, Office 2000 and 2003, to BizTalk, Visual Studio and ISA Server. That's one well-rounded patch!

Posted by Doug Barney on 08/10/20090 comments

Who Will Wear the Ribbon? Sun Will Wear the Ribbon!

The Office ribbon interface is pretty controversial. According to many of your recent letters, most of you are frustrated having to relearn Work, Excel and PowerPoint, while a handful love the new look.

To keep up with Office, Sun is looking to add a ribbon to OpenOffice -- possibly. The ribbon is available for download and the open source community is already up in arms. Not only that, the comments underneath our news story on this issue are universally negative.

Posted by Doug Barney on 08/10/20092 comments

Open Source Recession-Proof

Microsoft may have ROI and TCO reports that claim open source is more expensive to operate, but IT pros in this recession aren't buying it. The claim, that is. What they are buying is open source -- lots of open source, apparently. IDC reports that open source will grow almost 25 percent this year, and it may even go higher.

While OSes have driven the bulk of open source sales, apps and middleware are starting to really take off. Some of these apps are even running in the cloud.

Posted by Doug Barney on 08/07/20091 comments

Apple the New Enemy?

Anyone who's read this newsletter for any length of time knows that I have a love/hate (or at least a like/dislike) view of Apple. I see its machines as expensive and proprietary, but admit they're cool and work pretty darn well.

I'm not alone in finding fault with Apple, especially as it exerts more and more control over all of its products. Switched.com columnist Terrence O'Brien makes a similar argument, claiming that Apple is far more proprietary than Microsoft.

Posted by Doug Barney on 08/07/20095 comments

Windows 7 XP Compatiblity Box Ready To Throw Down

If you're running Windows 7 RC like me and find that some things no longer work, like I have, you might want to download the release candidate of Windows XP Mode. XP Mode is essentially XP running in a virtual machine, so apps and peripherals that don't talk nice to Windows 7 can talk nice to the XP VM.

The cool thing is that XP apps are on the Windows 7 taskbar, so the integration seems pretty tight. My only incompatibility so far is with my LaserJet 1000 printer, though I'm not sure if loading XP Mode is worth it just for that one issue. I may just give it a try anyway and report back.

Posted by Doug Barney on 08/07/20090 comments

Windows 7 Free, But Not For All

Some Windows 7 beta testers can convert to the real deal free of charge once it's done. Members of an exclusive club, those actually invited by Redmond to test the software, are eligible. Most of these top IT pros belong to TechNet, but not all TechNet subscribers got the special invites. So how do you know if you qualify? Microsoft will send off an e-mail with all the details.

Posted by Doug Barney on 08/05/20092 comments

Get Your Windows 7 Here

Microsoft let its Windows 7 upgrade pricing out of the bag, and instead of being excited, I'm confused.

Even though the news is only about upgrading from one version of Windows 7 to another, there are myriad versions and multiple pricing plans. Even more confusing, some options may only be available for a limited time. Add in temporary free upgrades for new Vista buyers, as well as other Windows 7 options, and what should be simple is more abstruse than a Visa credit card agreement.

Posted by Doug Barney on 08/05/20094 comments

Raining on Cloud Parade

Making points that are already obvious to most Redmond Report readers, a security researcher is warning that cloud computing includes certain risks such as lack of data ownership and hacker risks when that data is in transit. Hmm, haven't you all been telling me this for over a year?

iSec Partners' Alex Stamos also points out that authorities may be able to access your company data through a third-party cloud provider far more easily than from your internal datacenter. Scary stuff. What all this means is that cloud applications must be carefully chosen and cloud providers carefully scrutinized.

Posted by Doug Barney on 08/05/20091 comments

Doug's Mailbag: iPod or Zune, More

When it comes to being cool, popular opinion says the iPod trounces the Zune, but what do you think? Readers share their media player of choice:

I love my Zune just for the fact that it is not Apple. I cannot stand anything to do with Apple and refuse to support them in any way.
-John

Sorry, I can't help you put lipstick on this pig. I'm a proud owner of four iPods (if you count my iPhone) and they all perform flawlessly, even though some of them are several years old. Perhaps I am more careful with mine than your teenagers are.

If they lowered the Zune price to $10, I still would not need one. I think the attitude that it's just "a small drive that stores and plays media files" is one reason why Apple owns the market instead of Microsoft.
-Ed

I love my Zunes. I have an 80GB and a 4GB. The software is great and there's no better deal around than Zune Pass. I'm not a fan of the iPod, and if MS discontinues the Zune, I'll be left without a device with enough capacity to hold my whole music collection.

By the way, consider yourself lucky to have bought only three dead iPods. My 16-year-old niece is on her eighth. She's got about 2,000 songs with the Apple DRM, and would have switched to a different brand long ago if not for that.
-Dave

I am not a big digital toy guy. I spend nine to 12 hours a day up to elbows in database servers and I don't really need to mess with electronic computer-type junk when I get home. A year-and-a-half ago, my son bought me an iPod as a joke for Christmas and I was a bit perplexed about what to do with it. Eventually, I put all my music collection on it and started listening to it at work in the server room to cover the noise. Now it goes everywhere with me; I use it in the computer room and it rides around the farm and the woods stuck in the visor of my truck. No case. It always works. I have dropped it, kicked it. And my grandson, the 2-year-old, sucks on it. No trouble at all. Ever. If you have had three of them die, you should either stop buying cheap knock-offs, or review your use of electronic devices. Especially if you are 0 for 3.

The only person I know who had a Zune found it to be somewhat problematic and gave it away. Which was OK since he got it as a door prize at a Microsoft software conference. I don't know anyone who has bought a Zune. My view on Apple has always been that it is a cult not a computer, but the iPod that I thought I would never use lets me listen to the 4,750 songs I have collected over the last 50 years and take them with me wherever I go.
-Anonymous

Love the Zune. Both my wife and I have Zunes. The unlimited music subscription (Zune Pass) is great, plus you get to keep 10 songs a month. I don't care if my Zune is cool or not; it's inexpensive and you get a lot more music than you would purchasing songs off iTunes.

And I can't believe you were trying to compare a 1GB iPod shuffle at $50 to an 8GB Zune with a full screen. Booo!
-Anonymous

I bought a 30GB Zune a little over a year ago. I really hated the way the Zune software worked. It was difficult to build playlists that worked the way I wanted. You could waste a couple of hours just setting up and loading four or five playlists. It didn't like to load all the tracks if you had large files. It really wasn't drag-and-drop. I like to see folders when I transfer files, not some proprietary software that is FULL of advertising.

I finally had enough and gave it to my teenage daughter. The drive went out about four months later. I can't say that I will miss it.
-Dave

I had a Zune for about six months, and it was sold only for economic reasons. I loved the hardware design, the simple and functional user interface, the Zune PC software, and the service itself. It's only because these devices were born in the shadow of the iPod that they never gained a significant foothold in the market.
-Greg

I've had great experience with iPods. I have a well-used second- or third-gen hard drive iPod that still does its thing when I bother to charge it up. The other four I have are all flash-based and continue to work just fine. Even the first-gen shuffle still works great, holding enough of a charge to let me use it for a while once every six months or so (the display on the Nanos makes them much more desirable). Of course, any abuse makes them vulnerable, though the only abuse I can see the shuffle exposed to is severe crushing pressure or, I guess, toilet damage. But the hard drive ones only take one good drop to be useless, especially when they are not encased in something bounceable (definitely not kid-friendly)

As for Zunes, I have talked myself out of them two or three times. I think it has a good hardware design but very poor software design and weak marketing. If it wasn't for the "apparent" simplicity of iTunes (including the broad selection of $.99 songs) and the very hip TV commercials, the iPod would never have seen the incredible success it has. So I think if Microsoft had more effectively placed the product in TV shows and in the hands of "popular" kids/sports people, they would have had a shot. But the time has passed for the whole audio product category -- time to move on to a touch competitor with Xbox tie-ins. The Zune's window has closed.
-Andy

My daughter loves her Zune and her friends prefer the Zune. I don't know where to get an iPod of any usable size for 50 bucks, but I know the Zune was cheaper (from Best Buy) for 80g and it has been really reliable, while her friends' old iPods languish in drawers (only because they can't bring themselves to toss them in the trash). Everyone is getting Zunes around here so that they can share/sync with each other. It would make a difference if Microsoft would seriously market the Zune (hopefully, not using whoever was behind the marketing disaster for Vista).

But what do I know? I wouldn't have thought anyone would buy the Kindle for even half of what it costs.
-Gerry

Posted by Doug Barney on 08/05/20090 comments

Doug's Mailbag: Microsoft vs. EU, Windows 7 Adoption, More

Microsoft gets picked on a lot by the EU over issues like browser bundling, but John wonders what the point is:

I think Microsoft has tried very hard to be less monopolistic. I think the EU is unfair. Here is my analogy: You buy a car and it comes with a certain radio (GM's was Delco, if I recall). What would be unfair is not letting the owner change it to, say, a Yamaha. MS allows us to use a different browser -- how much more should it do?
-John

Posted by Doug Barney on 08/03/20090 comments

Zapping the Zune -- Zounds!

Let's face it: Whether it's a Zune or an iPod, we're really just talking about a small drive that stores and plays media files. And speaking as a father who's paid for three now-dead iPods, Apple can't even build a reliable small drive that stores and plays media files. But when it comes to small drives that store and play media files, image is everything, and the Zune -- which has a cool name and is apparently not a bad device -- just isn't cool

Nor is it different in either price or features. The cheapest Zune at Best Buy is $140, while I can get an iPod for 50 smackers. No wonder Wall Street is now begging Redmond to kill the Zune.

Posted by Doug Barney on 08/03/200917 comments

Hyper-V Gobbling Up Share, But What's Really Going On?

The COO of Microsoft, one Kevin Turner, claims that since its release Hyper-V has helped Redmond gain 24 points of market share from VMware. The article, which has fewer details than a Sarah Palin speech (hey, John Edwards is no prize either!), provides no context at all for this rather stunning statement.

I've struggled to find any meaningful virtualization market share info and finally found something from Forrester, which indicates that Microsoft now has 22 percent of the market. So if it gained 24 points, did it start at negative 2 percent?

Posted by Doug Barney on 08/03/20094 comments