Now, that's more like it! Last year around this time, we were talking here in RCPU about how Vista had helped tank Microsoft's earnings. You remember Vista, right? Well, Microsoft probably doesn't want you to because Windows 7 is tossing touchdown passes while Vista threw mostly interceptions. (Hey, it's Super Bowl week.)
And the success of the new operating system is showing up in Microsoft's earnings, which look way, way better now than they did last year. The moral of this story? Never, ever count out Microsoft, especially when it comes to something Redmond knows how to do. Reports of Microsoft's demise (and there were plenty of them a year ago) do now look premature indeed.
Posted by Lee Pender on 02/01/20102 comments
Redmond's much-discussed cloud platform is open for business as of today. (That is to say that those of you who have been using it for free will need to start paying for it if you want to stay on it.) We've droned on here about the cloud and its importance for Microsoft many times in the past, so we're going to leave it to Redmond columnist Mary Jo Foley to talk about some of the ramifications of Microsoft hanging Azure's virtual shingle.
Posted by Lee Pender on 02/01/20100 comments
This entry just doesn't require that much commentary. Jeff Schwartz has put together a fantastic guide to Microsoft's 2010 product roadmap for RCP the magazine. You might find some things in there that you haven't seen yet or read about anywhere else. Partners, we know how much you love product roadmaps. Well, RCPU is here for you. And that's all we really have to say. Really!
Posted by Lee Pender on 02/01/20100 comments
It really looks like a grossly overweight iPod touch? And it's really called the iPad? Seriously? (We're going to take the high road here for once -- unlike a lot of other commenters whose thoughts we've read over the last couple of days -- and hold off on jokes about the iPad name. Let's just say that it's...awkward.) And there's really a slew of stuff that this thing doesn't come with and doesn't do, and it looks like a major pain to use and carry around? Really, Apple? Really?
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Posted by Lee Pender on 01/28/20107 comments
RCPmag.com's Jeff Schwartz was all over yesterday's big Oracle-Sun acquisition announcement like your editor on a free buffet. (Seriously, people stare. But it's free!) Let's rummage through a bit of what Jeff gleaned from Larry Ellison's day-long tour de ego.
Just looking through here (go ahead and imagine that we're kind of whispering and dragging out the last word of every phrase as we flip through pages)...going to focus on bundling hardware with applications and database software; that's interesting...here's something about competition from the Microsoft-HP alliance and from IBM...there's a new product called Exadata...oh, wait; here's a quote from Ellison himself. Let's see what he has to say:
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Posted by Lee Pender on 01/28/20103 comments
You are up and running on Windows 7, right? Well, if you aren't, you probably should be. And if you are, you're going to want to know about this raft of updates Microsoft just released.
Posted by Lee Pender on 01/28/20100 comments
Today is the computer apocalypse, apparently, the day when the Apple tablet will destroy all other known devices in the universe and Steve Jobs and his band of hipster techno-warriors will begin their Cabernet-soaked 1,000-year rule of the planet. Resistance, as you might imagine, is futile.
Seriously, has anything ever received more hype than the Apple tablet? Anything? A Super Bowl? A Windows launch? New Year's Day 2000? We can't remember anything that has moved presses and pixels as much as this long-awaited reinvention of a model that's actually been around for quite a while and has never really been all that successful.
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Posted by Lee Pender on 01/27/20101 comments
The company launched 90 new managed security services this week, and if you want to read about them...well, you'll just have to click on Jeff Schwartz's story here. It's worth it. Seriously.
Posted by Lee Pender on 01/27/20100 comments
Ol' Bill doesn't seem to think that China's Internet snooping is that big of a deal. But one of the commenters on RCPmag.com, who lives in China, begs to differ. Go weigh in here.
Posted by Lee Pender on 01/27/20100 comments
The world's greatest rugby nation (South Africans, we just wanted to see if you were paying attention) has a guaranteed contract with Microsoft for school technology, which actually sounds like a pretty good deal for whichever partner or partners secured it. But one rebellious alternative-learning Kiwi school has shed Microsoft completely and gone open source...with great results, a school official says. The start of a revolution? Nah. A mildly interesting story for a Monday? Sure.
Posted by Lee Pender on 01/25/20101 comments