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Barney's Blog

IBM Pushes System p, Sun Rolls Out Datacenter in a Box

Do you remember the PowerPC processor? This little beauty drove everything from late-model Amigas to Macs. After Apple ditched Power for Intel, it looked like Power lost all its muscle.

But IBM is keeping the processor family very much alive, and uses it to drive the world's fastest PCs to what IBM last year claimed was the world's fastest server.

While IBM pushes its x86 Blade and traditional server lines, the company's most interesting family just might be the Power-powered System p. Mostly aimed at the high-end, there are two new System p's: the 520 and 550 Express. Added to that is a new virtualization technology, PowerVM, that lets the System p run a wider variety of software, including Linux apps built for x86 systems.

Posted by Doug Barney on 02/11/20080 comments

Yahoo Says Ya-Noo!

Yahoo's board of directors this weekend formally rejected Microsoft's takeover offer. The board apparently wants either more dough or to hook up with a different partner, such as Google (which would raise antitrust concerns) or AOL.

I'm no stock market whiz (and have the losses to prove it!), but as I understand it, the Microsoft bid was a huge premium over Yahoo's existing share price. And Microsoft offers the ailing Yahoo resources, market share and commitment -- things Yahoo needs.

Posted by Doug Barney on 02/11/20080 comments

Funny Stuff? You Be the Judge

Every so often, a cartoonist sends me samples of IT humor hoping to get published. In all cases, the work has been lamer than Barbaro's right leg.

There's a new contender for the IT cartoon Hall of Fame, this time sponsored by Microsoft. The strip is called "HEROES happen {here}." Not sure what that name is supposed to mean, but it sure ain't funny.

The strip is also designed to show off Silverlight. In fact, you have to download Silverlight before you can start laughing your IT butt off. I went through the process, wanting to give the strip a full whirl. The result? Less laughter than a Bill Belichick press conference.

Posted by Doug Barney on 02/04/20080 comments

IBM and Virtual Power

Those wedded to Wintel servers may not even realize that the old PowerPC processor (now called Power) still exists. While Apple may have bailed on the Power architecture, it still drives the world's fastest supercomputers and a line of IBM servers, as well.

One of the selling points of the IBM System p line -- besides sheer horsepower -- is energy-efficiency and high-efficiency. The System p actually has virtualization built into almost every aspect of the system, from apps to IO to management.

Posted by Doug Barney on 02/04/20080 comments

Yahoo Ain't Worth No $44 Billion

If you listen to Wall Street, paying $44 billion for Yahoo is the smartest idea since E=mc2. Google's stock is down, and Yahoo is on the rise after Steve Ballmer's public pitch for the No. 2 search engine concern.

Let me toss some cold water on this little love-fest.

I don't see anything in the Yahoo portfolio that Microsoft doesn't already have. It's kinda like Time magazine buying Newsweek, Coke buying Pepsi or BP merging with Exxon -- just more of the same. Even worse, Yahoo is on the decline (its market share and financials are more like Boo-Hoo than Yahoo!).

Posted by Doug Barney on 02/04/20080 comments

Stripping Vista Down to the Good Stuff

Vista gets far more criticism for what it has than for what it doesn't. The big complaints have to do with too many functions running up against too little processing.

If you want Vista but not the overhead of Media Player and other features aimed largely at consumers, then vLite is for you . This free tool strips Vista of all the features you never wanted in the first place.

Posted by Doug Barney on 02/04/20080 comments

Don't Cry for Microsoft

Every year, I hear how Microsoft is under siege, that it just can't compete with fresh new technologies. The Network Computer promoted by Sun and Oracle was going to kill Windows (instead, Windows through Citrix is the OS that drives today's thin clients). Linux was going take over because it's free (instead, Microsoft decided to integrate with Linux while dramatically improving its own server OS).

And, most recently, Google was to lay waste to every aspect of Microsoft's business (in reality, Microsoft has matched Google app for app so far, despite what inexperienced journalists would have you believe).