Windows 7: You Can Go Back

When Vista came out, many new users clamored for the right to move back to XP. Unfortunately, going back wasn't always easy and wasn't usually free. With that lesson in mind, Microsoft just announced that new Windows 7 customers will have a year-and-a-half to move back down to XP or even Vista (however, the plan only applies to high-end versions of Windows 7).

Posted by Doug Barney on 06/19/20097 comments

Doug's Mailbag: Dell's Online Market, Google's Exchange Killer

On Monday, we asked whether you'd buy downloadable software from Dell's online store, which recently started selling Microsoft Office apps. Charlie's open to the idea, but with a few caveats:

Would I buy from Dell? Maybe, but only if there is a substantial price difference. I don't know how they will do on support, and I expect that if they sell the software, they will be expected to support it.
-Charlie

Posted by Doug Barney on 06/17/20090 comments

Wolfram Challenges Google? Not So Fast

There's a lot of hype over a new search engine Wolfram Alpha, which uses new techniques to give richer results. It's supposed to understand the context of what you're researching, get the relationships between the search term and other data, and simply blow Google out of the Web water.

Wolfram may be the future of search, but its soft launch isn't overly impressive. I gave it the Doug Barney Search Test, which is me searching for my own name. Wolfram basically told me how popular my first and last names are. Not much of an ego boost, eh what?

Posted by Doug Barney on 06/17/20096 comments

IT Good and Bad

Redmond magazine has covered the good and not-so-good sides of IT. I got interested in the seamy side of IT after meeting with about a thousand security vendors. The idea was about selling IT tools that kept out hackers. But more and more, those security players talked about internal threats, with employees themselves doing the hacks. And now, those tools were being given to IT to keep out internal hackers.

So I'd ask, "Who is watching IT itself?" Every vendor was dumbfounded, the assumption being that IT, which controls the network, is inherently trustworthy. "But aren't IT folks just like everyone else, a portion of whom are dirtbags?" Again, the vendors were dumbfounded.

Posted by Doug Barney on 06/17/20091 comments

Doug's Mailbag: Some Love for Office Ribbon, Windows 7

Unlike many of you, Andy prefers the new Office 2007 ribbon to the earlier versions:

I'm an IT trainer who concentrates on the various versions of Office. I have to admit that in the two-and-a-half years that Office 2007 has been out, I've so far done just two days of training in this version. The majority of companies have stayed with 2003. Despite this, I've personally been using 2007 since it became available.

I know I'm in a slightly uncommon situation in that I have to study these packages inside-out, but I really like the new interface. Once you get used to it, everything you need is just there. I really miss some of the features when I switch back to previous versions. It even has some features that I've never seen documented -- like when you scroll down a long list in Excel, it actually slows down for you as you approach the bottom. Genius! I know it's very different to what most people are used to but stick with it, guys (or even get some training). I honestly believe it's worth it.
-Andy

Posted by Doug Barney on 06/15/20090 comments

Another Softie Retires

Redmond magazine's back-page columnist Mary Jo Foley reports at her own site that Microsoft veteran Sanjay Parthasarathy is retiring.

Parthasarathy hustled up the corporate ladder and leaped big into a corporate vice presidency back in mid-2005, when he reported to Kevin Johnson as the head of Developer & Platform Evangelism. Foley's report says his role as Microsoft Startup Business Accelerator honcho will now be headed by another CVP, Amit Mital, from the Unlimited Potential Group.

Posted by Michael Domingo on 06/15/20092 comments

IE 7 Users, Protect Thyself

I have to admit that I'm a fan of Google Chrome. I like its simplicity -- but sometimes it's just a bit too simple. It'll crash on Flash and inexplicably choke on some JavaScript. So my solution is to turn to IE 8. It's a bit slower, but more stable. It definitely was an easy upgrade decision from IE 7, which had its own set of problems that made me check out Chrome in the first place. (OK, I've mentioned this before, so excuse me for sounding like a broken record.)

If you're still on IE 7 and running Vista, there's an interesting security anomaly you should be aware of, detailed in a Microsoft bulletin from this month. In it, Microsoft recommends that you run IE with the protected mode setting turned on to prevent a remote code execution attack. Even with this setting turned on, Microsoft said to still apply the patch. 

Posted by Michael Domingo on 06/15/20094 comments

Security at the Forefront

Microsoft has so much going on that it's easy to forget about Forefront. If you're a fan of ISA Server, pay attention to this release: ISA Server is evolving into the Forefront Threat Management Gateway, which the company said will be out later this year (it's in Beta 3 as we speak).

Posted by Michael Domingo on 06/15/20090 comments

Dell Pushes Soft(ware) Sell Approach

Dell's Download Store this week has started selling Microsoft Office applications for download at discounts slightly lower than Redmond's retail.

The company already sells goods from companies like CA and Intuit. But with only about 10,000 visitors to its download site weekly, it'll take a while before Dell can mount a challenge against Amazon, Ingram Micro or other big online distributors.

Posted by Michael Domingo on 06/15/20092 comments

Doug's Mailbag: Netbooks, Macs, More

Doug asked readers this week for their thoughts on netbooks -- if they own one, and if they (like Microsoft) see them becoming more than minimally featured PCs:

You asked, "Do you have a netbook, and can you see a day when one serves all your PC needs?" I don't. But I did, long before they were called netbooks. I had a Zeos PPC. Did everything I needed at the time, but chewed through its little coin-sized backup cells faster than a teeny-bopper chews through Chicklets. Replaced it with a Grid Pen Convertible running MS Win 3.1 for Pen Computing. That had the size of a netbook, but twice the weight and a 4-bit gray-scale screen. But it also let you see 8-bit color on an attached external monitor. It had parallel and serial ports, an early version of PCMCIA slot and a 14.4 fax/data modem. It had all the external connectivity its day called for.

Today's netbooks, on the other hand, may have ethernet, Wi-Fi and USB connectors, but no fax/modem, no RS-232 serial port, no parallel port, no SCSI HA, no FireWire, no PCMCIA -- not even half the connectivity options I'd need. And touchpads come nowhere near a pen for productive "mouse" control (even if the Grid's pen chewed up its batteries almost as fast as the Zeos PPC drained its). Will I use a netbook? Sure, once one is available that meets all my needs.
-Fred

I bought a netbook when they were called "ultra mobile PCs." I love it for its role -- e-books, webinars when I can't do them from the office, e-mail when I'm waiting for my wife, maps when I'm traveling, etc. I'll probably upgrade within a year because I use it so much.

But to use it for everything? I can't imagine doing photo editing, document editing, Visual Studio, etc. on a netbook. Screens are too small and the keyboard size would wreck my hands. These might become a main machine for some people, but I doubt there will be that many. Someone that has only a notebook and no desktop will mostly opt for a notebook with more room to work. As far as I can tell, only physically small people with not terribly demanding video needs would be logical candidates for netbook-only.
-Bob

I just had the latest Asus Eee 1008HA delivered -- 10" by 7" by 1" and at around 2.5 pounds with the newer atom N280 chip set. It really is a small laptop, or whatever you want to call it. I have not used it just yet, but the primary use is minimal: Internet, e-mail and some other basic uses (sounds like typical computer use). We got it for personal travel, but who knows what else? I sure beats a heavy laptop.
-Andrew

I was considering purchasing a netbook due to its small form factor and cost. As much as I would enjoy it for the ability to browse and read e-mail, the one thing stopping me is poor graphics/video, even with Internet video, and lack of an optical drive. I am cheap and still check out a lot of my entertainment from the library. Sure, you could get some of this from the Web but even if you have a subscription to ATT or Verizon, the decent costing plans are limiting you to 5GB, which will be chewed up rapidly with entertainment.

The irony is that I realized that I already have something better than the netbook in a form factor which is where I see netbooks eventually going: my old Sony TR1, which is still working fine! It weighs only 3.14 pounds, has a 10.1" screen, 92 percent keyboard, 1GB of RAM, 60GB HD and (most importantly) a DVD/CD-R player! It runs full XP Pro and Office and has a resolution of 1,200 x 768, which is better than the netbooks. I realize that at the time of purchase, it was $2,000 but with today's latest technology and miniaturization, I don't see why something like this can't be made for a much lower cost. Perhaps this is what Microsoft was talking about.
-Frank

As an IT administrator and freelance computer consultant, I use a netbook very often. Due to the fact that the netbook is small, light and therefore very portable, it's easy for me to take it along on jobs away from work and home. I have found it to be so convenient that I have stopped dragging my laptop (MacBook) back and forth from work to home; I now leave my laptop at work and use the netbook at home. The main thing I need the netbook for is e-mail, remote connectivity and some browsing. Whereas I have moved all of my support documentation over to Google Docs, I have immediate access to them regardless of on which computer I am working. Oh! And I should note that I am using Ubuntu 9.03.

I think netbooks do have a future, but I am not so certain that they will be that popular for the general public. For those often on the run who need a computer for work and studies, I think netbooks will have an audience. But one final note: I don't agree with netbooks only being good for online content. I have created and edited documents and spreadsheets using OpenOffice (I could theoretically do graphics work, but I just don't do that). I will be taking it on trips in the future and can use it as a temporary silo for photos. I have watched movies on it, listened to music -- even to music on a server at home. Netbooks are full-fledged computers, so there's no reason why they can't do everything one expects a computer to do.
-Curtis

Posted by Doug Barney on 06/12/20090 comments

Netbooks Are No. 1

Laptops have long been the preferred machine for many shops. Personally, I can't image buying a desktop, as I work from a number of locations (I'm writing this from a comfortable chair in a comfortable house on Cape Cod). And laptops that can be taken home dramatically increase -- often to our detriment -- the number of hours we all work each week.

The same set of circumstances is driving sales of netbooks, which now outnumber the sales of PCs and laptops combined.

Posted by Doug Barney on 06/12/20091 comments

Google Wants To Take Over Exchange Mart

I always laughed when I heard that Google was about to squash Microsoft. Google had search, a bunch of ad programs and low-end online apps. That wasn't enough bulk to squash a fly.

But sometimes, if you say something long enough, it comes true. Now Google has a real OS in the form of Android, and a real browser in Chrome. And it wants to take over the lucrative e-mail server market with a new tool, Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook.

Posted by Doug Barney on 06/12/20093 comments