When it comes to financial projects, Microsoft is more cautious than Neville Chamberlain in 1938. For years, Gates and Ballmer would warn analysts about the next quarter, then promptly blow projections away. The same approach is being taken with Windows 7.
Recently, a Microsoft official warned that sales may be depressed by our current, uh, depression. One factor is that many enterprise budgets are locked down for the year. That means many shops can't move to 7 even if they wanted to. Microsoft is less down on the consumer market, for which 7 should be done in time for the holidays.
More
Posted by Doug Barney on 06/12/20093 comments
Doug's pretty pleased with Windows 7 so far, but here are a few readers whose experiences haven't been so rosy:
My wife was born in mainland China, so when the Simplified Mandarin language pack showed up on Windows Update for Windows 7 RC, I tried to install it. Got a BSOD. Rebooted and tried again. Same BSOD.
Does the RC auto-report serious bombs like this or do I need to try and report to someone at Microsoft?
-Marvin
I like Windows 7 -- just don't install anti-virus yet. Trend WFB packaged destroyed Windows 7. AVG Free ate Windows 7. McAfee home did not want to install. So Mom's new quad-core Intel with 9 gigs of RAM is running XP 32-bit for now.
Other than that, loved Windows 7. Had it running nicely on a 5-year-old 2.8 with 512 of RAM. Try that with Vista.
-Phil
I like the Win 7 RC so far, but the one fatal flaw for me (which I'm sure Microsoft will resolve) is that it is stuck in backup mode even though no backup is occurring or is even possible due to a backup already occurring. The Action Center lists "Backup in Progress." I've been to TechNet and there are several of us who have this same issue (it seems to be incompatibility with some unknown program). The MS Guru on the message boards said it will be fixed in the released version, but probably not in the RC. He told me to start uninstalling programs until I found out which one was causing the problem, but they don't have an easier way to find out what is in conflict. I just don't have time to uninstall everything and figure this out. Fortunately, the image backup part works perfectly even when the "Backup in Progress" indicator is on.
Other than that minor, little flaw (wink), I like Windows 7 a lot and will get it when it comes up for sale. But I sure do wish I could see a real MS backup take place.
-Bob
Let's not get fooled by all the hype and carrying on about Windows 7, please. Nearly everything I see about Windows 7 is that is has nicer icons, it's faster, it's what Vista should have been, etc. To a business user, this translates as marketing hype and fluff and it's never going to be enough to sell to mainstream. I will laugh out loud when I see businesses adopting Windows 7 only to walk away, screaming about costs they did not see coming and the fact that when builds break, the pathetic system restore option they are relying upon is not accessible if the disk fails to boot.
Depending on the cost, I might have one copy of Windows 7 on my shelf just in case, but I certainly have no plans to change my systems or hardware before 2014, because I just do not see any benefits that matter enough to me. I think most sensible business managers will follow suit.
-Ken
More
Posted by Doug Barney on 06/10/20090 comments
I just got a new Dell dual-core running Windows 7 (thanks to my IT guy, Erik!). So far, Windows 7 is working extraordinarily well, though I haven't moved over all my old apps or connected to all the printers I use.
Office 2007 is a different story. I opened Word looking for the basics. You know -- creating a doc, opening a doc, saving a doc. I couldn't find the commands anywhere. Turns out I had to configure the darn thing so these were exposed. It felt bizarre. I'll see if Word 2007 gets more normal the more I use it.
More
Posted by Doug Barney on 06/10/200912 comments
Microsoft has long been an international company. It has operations overseas and hires a ton of international workers. That's why Bill Gates has always been so concerned with expanding H-1B visas. And if the Obama administration and Congress have their way on taxes, more Microsoft employees than ever could be in other countries.
More
Posted by Doug Barney on 06/10/200922 comments
When Microsoft begins to lose control of a market, it doesn't just break out new products -- it also breaks out the speeches and press conferences. And so it was that Microsoft announced its vision for netbooks at a conference in Taiwan, where a good many netbooks are made.
First, netbooks are not netbooks. They are "small notebook PCs." Another revelation? Microsoft is expecting netbooks to move from casual Web surfing tools and travel companions to full-fledged, full-function machines. And that's why Microsoft removed the three-application restriction from Windows 7 Starter, designed in part for netbooks.
More
Posted by Doug Barney on 06/10/20097 comments
Everyone always says Google is a threat to everything. I get the search and content aggregation (i.e. stealing) part. But taking over apps and operating systems? I just don't see it.
And maybe that's because so much of what Google does is in stealth mode. It just doesn't broadcast what it does as boldly as Microsoft.
One way Microsoft gained so much control was through developers. Get them using your languages, tools and operating system and the world is yours.
More
Posted by Doug Barney on 06/08/20091 comments
How's this for a deal? Buy one Vista PC and get Windows 7 free? If you've read the news about Windows 7, it probably sounds pretty sweet. Windows 7, which I started using three short days ago (more on this in Wednesday's newsletter) is every bit as good as many of you Redmond Report readers told me it was. Easy, fast, kinda slick. I like it.
This kind of incentive is just what the market needs to start moving some boxes. And with the Windows 7 Release Candidate as stable as it is, you could be upgrading in no time!
More
Posted by Doug Barney on 06/08/20093 comments
Back in the hippy days, the more patches you had on your jeans the better. My gram used to replace huge sections of my pants just so I could wear 'em out and patch 'em all over again.
What's cool for hippies is decidedly uncool for IT. For IT, patches are more annoying than an Adam Sandler movie marathon.
So get ready champs, as tomorrow Microsoft is expected to release 10 patches, almost of all which involve remote code execution. (Are networks really worth all this hassle?)
More
Posted by Doug Barney on 06/08/20090 comments
Locked-down OSes are this week's topic du jour. Today, a few readers who aren't completely opposed to the idea explain why:
I can't believe I am saying this, but I like the idea of a locked-down OS. With teenage kids, being able to provide them with a locked-down OS would mean the "emergency" repairs to that box at 10:30 at night on Thursday because the big project is due on Friday morning would be gone! And working in a hospital, the ability to provide locked-down KIOSK machines to the patients' families would be a huge benefit to them and to our IT department. I like the idea. I just wonder how much the price will go up for the new "feature"!
-Steve
I would hate to have a locked-down operating system to work WITH, but I would love a locked-down system to work ON. From an IT perspective, a locked-down computer in many cases is not optional.
Working in manufacturing, I would love to see the computer systems tied with specialized equipment to be locked down. An example case, a multimillion-dollar piece of equipment that simply cannot run anti-virus, but must be connected to the network for job information. This is a nightmare to deal with and requires a lot of custom network configuration and hardware to ensure they are not infected. In this case, a fully locked system would be helpful as long as the data can make it out of the system.
-Joe
As long as MS provides a version without this "feature," I don't see a problem. Could be very useful for company tech departments. Also, I wouldn't mind having it on may kids' computers. They have no sense about what they should or shouldn't install; they get stuff from friends and the Internet that can really mess up the system. I'm sure schools would find it very useful, too. The obvious problem comes if MS controls what can be installed, not the user or administrator. I don't mind if they prevent you from installing the same copy of Office on several machines (it is a copyright violation, you know). But suppose they decide that OpenOffice isn't "compatible" enough and prevent us from installing that?
I guess we'll all have to refuse to buy "locked-down" machines or OSes. Sounds easy enough, but on several attempts I've been unsuccessful at getting Linux to run on my systems (and I make my living as a software developer). Also, most of us are walking around with cell phones that are locked to a specific carrier and we just keep buying them, don't we? It would be nice to think that the market would prevent MS from being too draconian, but I'm not so sure we can count on that.
-Mike
The concept is interesting and my recommending it to clients would depend upon the ability to turn it on and off. (Very creative thinking on Microsoft's part! Kudos are in order.)
If we could not disable it in order to make changes -- configuration, etc. -- then I would NOT support it.
-Luke
Most of the USAF already has locked-down computers. The standard desktop configuration (SDC) is preconfigured with all the apps that 80 percent or more of the users need. The user has no admin or power user privileges. And even the local support personnel's admin rights are severely constrained by domain policies.
As a user/local admin, it is frustrating. As a security officer, it is comforting. And I'm sure to high-level IT leadership, it has reduced cost.
-Bob
More
Posted by Doug Barney on 06/05/20090 comments
JavaOne, a show put on by Sun, has been a big and vibrant event. This latest show, however, was overshadowed by the
$64 million question
: Will Java's new steward care as much about the language/system? Oracle, as you likely know, is buying Sun and thus buying a controlling role for the open source Java. (I know it sounds strange that a company drives an open source project, but someone has to lead, eh what?)
More
Posted by Doug Barney on 06/05/20091 comments
Any of you who've read this newsletter for more than a week or two know I'm a bit of an old-timer, at least in computer years. So when I hear that Office has turned into an actual development platform, I'm not surprised. I fondly recall conversations with Steve Ballmer back in the '80s about Visual Basic for Applications which replaced basic batch files.
Office has grown since then, and is now positioned as a front-end to database, ERP, BI and other back-ends. So why was a planned Office developer conference cancelled and merged into a SharePoint event?
More
Posted by Doug Barney on 06/05/20091 comments
Vista SP2 was released last week, but readers are reporting that little has changed:
I installed Vista SP2. I haven't noticed anything -- nothing positive, nothing negative. I consider it a success.
-Jim
I have installed SP2 on some Vista and 2008 machines and it went fine. No problems, just a basic update. I have not really noticed any real changes after applying the update (I'm not using the wireless features). The jump from Vista to Vista SP1 was huge and the jump from Vista SP1 to Vista SP2 is very small.
-Craig
I was a beta tester and SP2 has been rock-solid for months. As soon as the RTM code was made available, I installed it on all of my family's personal systems (leaving my test systems free for Windows 7 RC). In truth, Vista has been stable since before SP1 shipped, so one shouldn't expect too much. SP2 is an improvement but it is not as big an upgrade as XP SP2 was, nor does it accomplish the performance gains found in Windows 7 RC.
Vista SP2 is not going to change the minds of Vista detractors -- nor will it keep the hardcore among us from leaping to Windows 7 when given the chance. That said, with SP2 released, no one should feel compelled to abandon Vista prematurely. On sufficient hardware, Vista is a very good OS. On lame hardware, don't expect much improvement.
-Marc
I've just installed SP2 but it's too early to comment on it. A thought occurred to me this morning about Windows 7, though. My impression is that Windows 7 is basically Vista with a few extras bolted on. Think about Microsoft's version numbers: Windows NT was Windows 4, Windows 2000 was Windows 5, Windows XP was Windows 6...you can see where this is going. Windows Vista must be Windows 7. What do you think?
-Andy
More
Posted by Doug Barney on 06/03/20090 comments