At this point, even we're tempted to say put up or shut up. Steve Ballmer is
back
in patent shakedown mode
, this time throwing Red Hat up against the wall
and threatening to shove it in the trunk of the car and drive it into the woods
for a good working over. Well, in a manner of speaking, anyway.
We're staring to wonder, though, whether Microsoft has any cattle to go with
its patent hat (that is, whether Microsoft is all hat and no cattle on this
issue, as we'd say in Texas -- all talk and nothing to back it up). And Mary
Jo Foley thinks there might be
More
Posted by Lee Pender on 10/10/20070 comments
You don't have to believe this story if you don't want to, but it really is
true. Almost six years ago, your editor got a (short-lived) job as a documentation
writer with Business Objects, the big French maker of business intelligence
software. On a dreary January day in 2002, his second day with the company,
your editor went to a huge, companywide confab on the edge of Paris. While listening
to a standard state-of-the-company presentation, he turned to the (completely
disinterested) person sitting next to him and said, "This company sounds
like a perfect acquisition target for SAP!"
More
Posted by Lee Pender on 10/09/20070 comments
It's all you this Friday, literally. We're clearing out a backlog of our finest
reader e-mails and then heading off into an 85-degree afternoon. In October.
In New England. Hooray for global warming!
Anyway, regarding our post about XP
hanging on a little longer, we actually got a little Vista love in return...sort
of. Diane says:
"With minimal experience, I love Vista, but the market isn't ready
for a system that only works with all the bells and whistles on the latest
hardware. We do love nurturing every last bit of performance from our dinosaurs.
And it's not that the public or corporatations are not willing to adopt it
-- they just don't have enough time or incentive to upgrade all the hardware
or be 'bothered.'
"Am I bothered? Only one of my five PCs meets the standards for running
Vista Ultimate, and frankly I see no reason to upgrade them at this time.
As for Office 2007, until somebody actually knows how to design a SharePoint
Server, the big plus of Groove will become just as muddied. A few years ago,
I used SharePoint very effectively as an application information repository.
Since then, I have not seen or heard of an implementation that was time-saving
rather than another quagmire of useless searches.
"As for IE7, well, most of us are afraid -- very afraid! How many
e-mails from major companies have you had telling you their site would not
work with IE7? Beyond that, the interface is relatively unfamiliar. I do like
it, but still find it frustrating and don't understand all of the new 'features.'
And I am supposed to convince people of its technical benefits?"
More
Posted by Lee Pender on 10/05/20070 comments
It's old-ish news by now, but an
EU
court's ruling against Microsoft
in the company's antitrust case generated
some comments we haven't yet run.
William is all for placating the EU...and then letting the free market take
hold:
"Why doesn't Microsoft just give in to the EU and provide them with
their requested stripped-down product? In the meantime, let our free enterprise
system do its job. If Microsoft gives the EU a choice between the full-blown
Microsoft product or a stripped-down version -- which, by the way, should
cost more in order to customize the software to meet [the EU's] needs -- we
all would see just how far the EU would really take this issue. Isn't that
what free enterprise is all about?"
More
Posted by Lee Pender on 10/05/20070 comments
Another week, another set of stories on Microsoft and Google. This week, Microsoft
threw another jab at its dominant search rival with the
purchase
of Jellyfish
, an online shopping company of some sort. Really, we just like
this story because it contains the following direct quote:
"We purchased Jellyfish.com," Microsoft search and advertising
platform group vice president Alex Gounares said in a written reply to an
AFP inquiry.
More
Posted by Lee Pender on 10/04/20070 comments
Here's something to keep the wheel turning on the rumor mill: The Mini-Microsoft
blog, that anonymously written periodical that calls for a leaner, meaner Microsoft,
has disappeared from Facebook. Mary Jo Foley
has
the details
.
Posted by Lee Pender on 10/04/20070 comments
No, it's not the dreaded Windows Genuine Advantage rearing its terrifying head
again. This time, Microsoft has actually come up with an anti-piracy service
that it's selling to ISVs, and it looks pretty darn useful at first glance.
Keith Ward fills in the details
here
.
And that's not all that Microsoft's doing on the anti-piracy front this week.
Yesterday, it announced the
Get
Genuine Windows Agreement
More
Posted by Lee Pender on 10/03/20070 comments
The first release candidate for Windows Server 2008 came out today, as did
the initial public beta for Vista Service Pack 1.
Keith
Ward has all the details
, including a note on how Vista and Windows Server
2008 seem to be keeping the same schedule (no doubt recorded in their Outlook
calendars) these days.
And, without even trying to make a transition, we'll tell you that Dell is
introducing servers for business intelligence
More
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/25/20070 comments
That's
Houston
in July.
And for those of you who haven't been to Houston in July, well...don't
bring a jacket.
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/25/20070 comments