More Eurofines for Redmond?

Well, that's what " people say ," anyway, according to the Bloomberg headline.

Posted by Lee Pender on 02/26/20080 comments


Yahoo Shareholders Getting Antsy

Another week, another update on Microsoft's attempt to spend every bit of the cash it has in its coffers (and more).

Even if Yahoo isn't ready to accept Redmond's overtures, Microsoft employees will be, or should be, ready for what seems to be an inevitable consumption of the Internet pioneer. Microsoft executives e-mailed the company's employees last week a guide to swallowing Yahoo, laying out how an acquisition would affect Redmond's rank and file.

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Posted by Lee Pender on 02/26/20080 comments


Deconstructing Microsoft's New Openness

Next time you get a traffic ticket, take the money to pay your fine, place it lovingly in a cheery greeting card, deliver it to city hall and declare in the most grandiose manner possible that you're "making a donation to the city." Then, you'll know exactly what it's like to be Microsoft.

Heck, you could even hold a press conference. That's what Microsoft did yesterday to announce its new openness initiatives, the basics of which RCPU managed to sneak into yesterday's issue. The conference call, which evidently required a "War Declared"-level media alert on Thursday morning, started brilliantly -- after waiting about 15 minutes past the start time, reporters finally heard some Microsoft official apologize for the late start and explain that it had been caused in part by "technical problems we had to solve." What, did Ballmer's PC blue-screen when he tried to open PowerPoint, or something?

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Posted by Lee Pender on 02/22/20081 comments


Gates: IT Talent Is Overseas Now

Bill says that graduates in North America just aren't getting it done these days.

Posted by Lee Pender on 02/22/20084 comments


Vista SP1's Nasty Side-Effects

It turns out that a bunch of stuff isn't working with Vista's first service pack -- which seems appropriate given how much stuff never worked with Vista in the first place.

Posted by Lee Pender on 02/22/20080 comments


Tech Data To Offer VMware Wares

The big distributor is keeping it real in the virtual world by offering to VARs the most popular virtualization apps on the market today.

Posted by Lee Pender on 02/21/20080 comments


HP Earnings Surprise the Street

Recession? What recession? Strictly speaking, this isn't channel news (for Channel News Thursday), but it is interesting. HP had a blowout quarter in its last quarter, and things are looking positive going forward. Let's have more news like this, please.

Posted by Lee Pender on 02/21/20080 comments


Extricom Introduces Channel Program

The provider of wireless LAN infrastructure systems has a new partner program. Check out all the details here .

Posted by Lee Pender on 02/21/20080 comments


Microsoft's Service Pack Shuffle

We're as excited as you are about Windows Server 2008. Seriously. After Vista failed to impress last year, the buzz around the star of this year's crop of new Microsoft products has grown steadily.

And why not? Windows Server 2008 has blockbuster sales potential for partners and already has customers' attention. And now, it has an added bonus: a built-in service pack.

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Posted by Lee Pender on 02/21/20080 comments


Microsoft Continues Dance with Open Source, EU

Microsoft made a big kafuffle today to announce yet another "openness" initiative. This time, it involves publishing tens of thousands of pages of software protocols, something European Union regulators have been demanding for some time now. Not surprisingly, the EU -- so far, at least -- More

Posted by Lee Pender on 02/21/20080 comments


Microsoft Repackages Servers for SMBs

Just in care you were confused by Microsoft's server offerings for small and medium-sized businesses (does anybody not know what "SMB" means?), Redmond is here to make things clear. (Yes, that last part was supposed to rhyme.)

Microsoft announced today the Windows Essential Server Solutions family, which we could call "WESS" but won't. The concept behind this is simple. There are two versions of the aptly named Windows Small Business Server 2008 -- Premium and Standard -- for small businesses, and two versions (yup, Premium and Standard again) of the Windows Essential Business Sever 2008 aimed at midsize companies.

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Posted by Lee Pender on 02/20/20080 comments


Survey Says Vista Not Cracking the Enterprise

OK, we know. It's right up there with the news that the earth is round and the shocker that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Still, if you were curious, a new survey "reveals" that half of all IT managers have no plans to deploy Vista .

Well, they have no plans to deploy Vista "at this time," according to the survey. Don't let that bit on the end slip away. What happens when a company undergoes a hardware refresh and can't get anything but Vista for new machines? As we've suggested before in RCP, that's when Vista might finally make a break for enterprise pay dirt.

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Posted by Lee Pender on 02/20/20082 comments


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