A few weeks back, when we innocuously
asked
for some feedback
on the Microsoft Partner Program, we had no idea that
we were taking a can opener to a
container
full of worms
. But now that the can is
most
definitely open
, the worms are spilling out and we're hearing more and more
about administrative problems (among other hassles) involving the Partner Program.
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Posted by Lee Pender on 06/29/20070 comments
Apparently the big Linux distributor
talked
to Microsoft about a patent deal
before Novell did -- and might still be
in negotiations. Bagging Red Hat would be huge for Microsoft's Linux protection
racket, which has seen some high-profile refusals of its overtures of late --
including one (we all thought)
from
Red Hat itself
Posted by Lee Pender on 06/29/20070 comments
In a move that surely has
this
guy
snooping around a bit more than usual, French defense experts have told
their government officials to
stop
using BlackBerrys
, lest those dastardly American spies steal state secrets
from servers in North America. Never mind that the biggest state secret in France
is probably a soufflé recipe.
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Posted by Lee Pender on 06/22/20070 comments
Last week, in an entry on a
shakeup
in the Microsoft Partner Program
, we asked you to submit your thoughts on
the program -- what it's doing (or not doing) for you, and what you'd like to
see from it. And submit them you did.
Now, we know that Microsoft has lots and lots of partners -- the company now
says 400,000 -- and we're sure that many of them are happy to be working with
Redmond. But the responses we got reflect a few points of frustration that maybe
some of you who didn't write also share. Read and decide for yourself, and please
keep your thoughts coming to us. (And, in case you were wondering, yes, we do
sometimes share these sentiments with Redmond. So you're not just complaining
into a vacuum.)
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Posted by Lee Pender on 06/08/20070 comments
We start today with an e-mail from Peter, who writes to us from Melbourne,
Australia, mate, in response to our recent query on whether partners are making
money off Vista. His news is not good:
"Vista might be booming in Redmond, but in our town it seems to be
a lead balloon. We do not know any other partners running it internally, and
none of our customers have the slightest interest in it whatsoever.
"One of our BI [business intelligence, natch --LP] customers,
a large bank, is just now upgrading from NT4 to Windows XP and is very seriously
looking at Linux. Personally, I am quite happy on XP SP2 and have no plans
to move until high-function machines are common.
"The bottom line is we are making nothing off Vista and, frankly,
getting nothing much from the Partner Program either."
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Posted by Lee Pender on 06/07/20073 comments
Break out the Skittles and Mountain Dew! Don your favorite ironic T-shirt!
Developers have some new toys from Microsoft, including an
Open
XML SDK
and a
Visual
Studio Shell
.
Posted by Lee Pender on 06/06/20070 comments
There have been quite a few of items of note thus far at TechEd, including:
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Posted by Lee Pender on 06/05/20070 comments