Microsoft is trying to keep a few more bucks in IT pockets by
holding the line on some support pricing
. The company had planned a normal increase in custom support pricing, an enterprise customer option aimed at older products. That increase won't happen.
Microsoft didn't offer a reason, but I have two. First, Redmond gets that the economy is rough, and is doing the right thing. But this might -- just might -- have more to do with Vista. XP is the preferred enterprise desktop OS and it's near the end of its supported life.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 02/20/20090 comments
I'm a fan of how public Microsoft is with its security flaws. Patch Tuesday is a tradition that Microsoft should be proud of -- not for the holes, but for the public fixes.
But patches are like blueprints for a hacker, who can now understand the hole and attack unpatched systems. That's what's happening with IE 7 as hackers take the hole disclosed earlier this month and go after it with gusto.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 02/20/20090 comments
I'm a huge fan of The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and I'm in awe of the fact that Mr. Gates is promising the bulk of his billions toward it. But what impresses me most is the care that goes into each investment. The Gates team carefully researches every effort before spending a dime, making sure these dollars will do the maximum good. Gates' money is already having an amazing effect on disease and childhood mortality -- and he's just getting started.
This is the same attention I'd love to see behind government spending. Imagine if Gates ran the U.S. stimulus effort. We'd see a clean, tight, effective bill for sure!
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Posted by Doug Barney on 02/20/20090 comments
Microsoft and Novell these days are better friends than Jerry Seinfeld and George Costanza. Redmond recently reached a
new détente
with VMware owner EMC, and just this week Microsoft
made nice with Red Hat
.
The Red Hat deal makes sure that Linux runs as a host under Windows Server and that Windows Server runs as a host under Linux.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 02/18/20090 comments
One reader sees those
six planned versions of Windows 7
and raises you a dozen more:
Why so few? They should give you choices as follows: For the Home versions, Home Real Light (no Internet), Home Light (with Internet), Home Medium (no Internet but peer-to-peer), Home Premium (with Internet and peer-to-peer) and Home Ultra (has everything but costs more).
For the Professional versions, there should be Professional Real Light (more bells and whistles than Home but no Internet); Professional Light (same as Real Light but with Internet); Professional Medium (no Internet but sharing); Professional Featured (Internet and sharing); Professional Premium I, II and III (Internet, sharing, can interface with Enterprise and costs more); and Professional Premium Ultra (Internet, sharing, can interface with Enterprise, costs more and crashes less).
For the Enterprise versions: Enterprise Entry (more bells and whistles than Premium Ultra, somewhat unstable), Enterprise Medium (more bells and whistles than Enterprise Entry but only crashes occasionally) and Enterprise Ultra (rarely crashes, but when it does...).
And then, Ultra Ultimate Windows 7, which would have all the bells and whistles, is better than Enterprise Ultra and, like Mac OS X, what's a reboot? And what's a crash? Because it's a licensed copy of Mac OS X, and what you should've purchased in the first place for much less money.
-Anonymous
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Posted by Doug Barney on 02/18/20090 comments
In the mid-1980s I covered Microsoft for
Computerworld
. I remember Steve Ballmer telling me -- and expecting me to tell others -- that customers should move from MS-DOS to Windows to prepare for the ultimate migration to OS/2 and its GUI component Presentation Manager. Ever since, it seems that Microsoft has pushed IT not to skip OSes but move one step at a time, in tandem with Microsoft releases.
Now Microsoft is
warning
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Posted by Doug Barney on 02/18/20090 comments
The mobile phone business is nothing if not competitive. Vendors are a who's who of computing, including Google, Apple and Microsoft (I'd like to see all three of these in a room talking about standards!).
Microsoft got into the market a bit late, and early efforts were flakier than a Hostess pastry. Then the software got better and some pretty dang cool Windows phones came out. Even Palm worked with the software.
My understanding is the most recent mobile OS is pretty good, so I expect that Windows Mobile 6.5,
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Posted by Doug Barney on 02/18/20090 comments
One reader takes the Indian government's plan to make a
$10 laptop
to the next level:
Why pay even $10 for a laptop? Seems to me that if Radio Shack can offer a netbook for $99 with a two-year wireless service plan, why not just subsidize the whole thing and charge $0 for the netbook with a two-year plan? Granted, the $0 netbook at sign-up becomes a $1,440 netbook (assuming $60/month for service), but the computer itself would be free. Then perhaps you could negotiate your plan to one of these online companies that sublet your contract to another for a small fee. Not that I'm suggesting this scheme or anything...
-Anonymous
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Posted by Doug Barney on 02/11/20090 comments
If you're old like me, you've heard stories about how IBM once sold and upgraded mainframes. The stories go that customers would ask for a $100,000-plus upgrade for new functions and an IBM tech would connect an unconnected cable.
Microsoft is looking at the same approach for Windows 7. Its upcoming Windows 7 starter pack runs three apps. Once you're sick of that, you give Redmond a few more bucks and Microsoft upgrades you over the Internet.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 02/11/20090 comments
Lately we've been telling you how the European Union (EU) is
suing Microsoft
for bundling IE with Windows. Now the Mozilla Foundation, built on the remnants of what used to be Netscape, is
helping the EU press its case
.
The EU believes Microsoft gained dominant market share through bundling, which is true. It further argues that once Microsoft began losing market share to browsers you actually had to install, the company stopped development, resulting in an insecure hunk of software.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 02/11/20090 comments
When it comes to business judgment and economic acumen, I'll trust Steve Ballmer any time. And so, perhaps, should the Obama administration.
You see, Mr. Ballmer is a realist. His advice and analyses are simple and apolitical. Ballmer gave his view at the recent Democratic Party retreat, where he explained that borrowing our way to prosperity is no longer viable, and the only way forward is innovation.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 02/11/20090 comments
EMC and Microsoft have a tricky but generally positive relationship, one that has been formalized through long-standing interoperability and cooperative agreements.
The rub in all this was VMware, a company owned by EMC and which competes 100 percent with Microsoft. EMC played it smart and ignored VMware as if there was no connection at all. In the past, you could search through EMC.com all day long and not find a reference to VMware. But today, if you mosey over to EMC.com, you'll see that VMware has come out of its shell; it only takes an hour or so find detailed VMware product information.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 02/09/20090 comments