VMware's latest announcement wasn't as big and broad and futuristic as Microsoft's
but for Mac users, it's probably way more important.
The company's latest
rev of VMware Fusion for the Mac works with Leopard and supports DirectX
9.0 on an "experimental" basis. It can also create virtual machines
out of Vista Boot Camp partitions.
And the new VMware tool is shipping!
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/12/20070 comments
PCs these days are so cheap, we usually don't bother buying them used. And if
we do, we often worry about flaky hardware, food-filled keyboards, whether Microsoft
will still support the OS and if we can reinstall it in the inevitable event
that the old machine refuses to work.
Microsoft has an answer. Those that sell used machines in volume can get
licenses from Microsoft in bulk, which means these machines will be supported
and eligible for updates and fixes, service packs, and security software such
as Windows Defender.
More
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/12/20070 comments
Microsoft has a PR machine that J-Lo, Paris Hilton and the Bush administration
must all envy. The company can get journalists (like me) to write about an upcoming
product -- and then get us to write about it again (and again).
Here's how it works: Word sneaks out about a major new tool, and we all run
to our keyboards. Then Microsoft doles out a few official details -- and we
pound out a few thousand more stories. Later, Microsoft actually names the product,
producing more copy. After almost all the details are known, it officially announces
the product. And once the product is finished, there's a huge launch. No one
wonder competitors have a hard time getting their message out!
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Posted by Doug Barney on 11/12/20070 comments
Last week, a computer luminary (let's call him Mark Shavlik) asked me over a
lunch of chowder and butterfish (we live well here at
Redmond
magazine)
what was going on with security. I dabbed the cream and clam juice from my beard,
which gave me time to think (I was stalling).
I know security is the biggest issue but, like with the 9/11 attackers, we
just aren't afraid anymore. On the Microsoft side, the older products are becoming
legacy and have been patched so many times they look like a Three Stooges car
tire. The newer products, so far as I can see, are more secure out of the box.
More
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/12/20070 comments
Microsoft has been working quite well with the world's top scientists on solving
big problems: disease, hunger, global warming and open source (I made up that
last one). A lot of this has to do with harnessing computers to massage massive
quantities of data.
I wrote about this in two different articles (here's
one and here's
the other) and came away impressed.
More
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/12/20070 comments
The Open Document Format (ODF) is a terrific concept: a single file format that
can be used by productivity apps and more, and allows for easy sharing -- even
with Microsoft Office. That's the promise.
The reality ain't so hot. A leading advocate of ODF now says it isn't living
up to its promises, isn't so great at interoperability, and thus not so great
at application migration. All this is leading former ODF proponents to suggest
a newer format, the
Complex Document Format (CDF).
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Posted by Doug Barney on 11/05/20070 comments
For parents, there's no shortage of articles on how to tell if your child is
sniffing glue, drinking booze or even addicted to the Internet. For those worried
about computer mischief, there's also a guide by T. Reginald Gibbons called
"Is
Your Child a Computer Hacker?"
I have no clue whether this is real or a put-on (if you know, tell Redmond
Report readers by writing me at [email protected]),
but Reginald claims he's a model parent, scrutinizing every aspects of his kids'
lives and even tagging along when they go to parties to make sure there are
no shenanigans (I'm pretty sure this is an Irish beer).
More
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/05/20070 comments
A lot of people are sending me links to the $200 desktop running Ubuntu Linux
that Wal-Mart is offering. While it's a fairly low-end box, it packs some decent
power for short money. The Everex Green gPC TC2502 (how's that for an intuitive
name) has 512MB of RAM, an 80GB drive and a CD burner (the DVD is unfortunately
read-only).
What's most interesting is just how much usable software one can get for free,
and gPC has it all -- Mozilla, OpenOffice and every Google app that ever came
out of Mountain View.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 11/05/20070 comments
IT people love to be in control of their own machines. You're not going to spend years becoming an expert only to have someone else tell you how to run your PC. And if you've taken steps to set things up a certain way, and it gets changed anyway, why them's fightin' words!
This September, the WindowsSecrets Web site broke the news that Windows Automatic Update was updating files even if the user specifically blocked those updates.
Now the boys from WindowsSecrets have a
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Posted by Doug Barney on 10/29/20070 comments
VMware is a shockingly good company. It just can't fail. When the company had too much market share, Microsoft started giving virtualization away. VMware just made more money. When nearly all other high-tech IPOs floundered, VMware's was a raging success, giving the company a staggering $40 billion or so market cap (this changes by the hour).
In fact, we're so impressed we put VMware's CEO on the cover of our November issue (read the article online here).
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Posted by Doug Barney on 10/29/20070 comments
Last week I got you all hot and bothered about Leopard, the
new Mac OS
. If you recall, I wondered if Apple was going to make any exciting hardware announcements. I've been waiting for the new OS and some hot new hardware so I can plunk down some of my spare cash down on a Mac laptop, or even the solid-state sub-notebook they've been teasing us about.
But no. A quick search of Apple.com reveals that the hardware line hasn't changed any of its spots. It is the basically same overpriced line they've been selling since they moved from PowerPC to Intel.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 10/29/20070 comments
New versions of the Mac OS, record fines from the European Union, and a slow Vista enterprise uptake have done nothing to tame Microsoft's growth. This quarter was a record of sorts as Microsoft experienced the fastest growth in six years.
Microsoft
pulled in
$14 billion in sales (a run rate of nearly $60 billion) and profits of almost $4 billion. Yes, my friends, software is still a high-margin business.
Posted by Doug Barney on 10/29/20070 comments