We're talking the feds here, who will be hiring a quarter-million people over the next three years, including more than 10,000 IT pros. Partners, beware: The gummint isn't just going after unemployed folks; it's also (allegedly) poaching from contractors.
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/09/20090 comments
In one of the more hilarious cases of government intervention in the software market, Russia has dropped an antitrust probe that was looking into Microsoft XP.
Really now, Russia. Is this the biggest problem you have on your plate? Is it even a problem compared to everything else going on there? And how can a government that is, shall we say, not the least corrupt in the world seriously carry out this type of "investigation"?
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Posted by Lee Pender on 09/09/20091 comments
Don't mess with Redmond, Texas. (OK, it was a federal court, but we couldn't help but play on the old slogan.) Microsoft managed to get a stay of execution for Word sales to, we believe, no one's surprise.
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/08/20090 comments
Well, now that's a headline that ought to get picked up by a search engine or two (or one, most importantly). Google News, we'll scale your castle walls one way or another! Microsoft! Linux! Patents! Open source! Communists! We're going to go hash-tag crazy when we post this one on Twitter...
Anyway, the post-Labor Day (here in the U.S.) news is that something called the Open Invention Network -- or OIN (catchy) -- looks likely to buy a bunch of patents that Microsoft sold earlier this year to a patent-protection company, the CEO of which is pictured here (OK, not really).
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Posted by Lee Pender on 09/08/20093 comments
Microsoft really wants to you leave XP behind. Microsoft also wants you to forget about Vista altogether (although nobody in Redmond would ever come out and say that). And Microsoft really, really wants you to buy Windows 7.
The final sentence of the preceding paragraph, while not exactly a surprise, became that much more obvious this week, as Microsoft revealed that it'll offer Windows 7 Enterprise to companies for a free 90-day trial. (There's more detail about availability and such here.)
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Posted by Lee Pender on 09/03/200921 comments
It's the community technology preview of the embedded operating system once known as "Quebec."
Microsoft had to release a preview and ditch the code name because the OS kept threatening to break away from the rest of Canada.
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/03/20090 comments
Here's a new front in the browser wars. If Microsoft is going to embed IE into Windows, then Google will go after OEMs -- in this case, Sony, which will offer Chrome as its default browser on VAIO PCs. Scott Baio, whose name sort of looks like VAIO when it's spelled out, has not officially commented so far. As far as we know, anyway.
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/03/20090 comments
There's so much going on at VMworld that we're not going to attempt to cover it all here. But Keith Ward, who's at the show, will be covering it all -- and it's on his blog.
Just one thing, though. Keith reveals in his blog that he doesn't like Foreigner, the '80s band that's headlining VMworld's entertainment. (We really are in a recession, aren't we?) Oh, Keith, you are as cold as ice. Don't you want to know what love is? Come to think of it, maybe Foreigner wasn't so good after all. But get your lighters or cell phones or whatever people use at concerts now ready for that last link. It's power-ballad time!
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/03/20090 comments
How long does the operating system have to live? A very long time, probably. But how much longer will Windows be a major revenue driver for Microsoft? That's another question altogether. The same question applies to the productivity suite, otherwise known to most users as Microsoft Office.
Both stalwart Microsoft moneymakers are under attack again, but this time, the competition looks fierce. The New York Times published this week an interesting piece about how Google and VMware are putting the squeeze on Microsoft by attacking with Web-based applications (Google Apps) and virtualization (VMware, obviously). Here's the crux of the NYT's argument:
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Posted by Lee Pender on 09/02/20092 comments
There was quite a bit of hubbub last week about Microsoft holding sessions with lobbyists and lawyers in Washington, D.C. with the intent of getting Google into some sort of regulatory trouble. And, as we all know, Microsoft knows all about regulatory trouble.
Well, Microsoft has downplayed -- in fact, denied that it even holds -- what have come to be rather crudely called "screw Google" meetings. Our take on this: Who cares?
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Posted by Lee Pender on 09/01/20090 comments