For those of you still not using Firefox (oooh, snap), the first release candidate of Internet Explorer 8 is
available
. And, bonus!
Here's
one reviewer's first look at it.
Posted by Lee Pender on 01/28/20090 comments
Champagne in the Valley for VMware, which beat analysts' expectations with its
Q4 and fiscal-year earnings
. But not too much champagne -- and not too expensive -- as the company, like most other vendors, is signaling that 2009 might be a bit difficult. In fact, VMware is following the trend of not forecasting for 2009 at all. Not a particularly good sign, if not surprising.
Posted by Lee Pender on 01/28/20090 comments
We want to believe. We really do. We love the IBM commercials with the cartoon pixies dancing around executives, and we're ready to buy into the promise of green technology -- the cost savings, the benefits to the planet, the overall feel-good nature of the whole thing.
But last time we checked -- and that's not meant to be a cliché; we literally mean the last time we checked -- green technology, green IT or whatever you want to call it was still more hype than reality. Way more, actually.
More
Posted by Lee Pender on 01/28/20091 comments
This
isn't what we wanted to hear
from Redmond about how cost-cutting would affect Microsoft's product offerings. Apparently PerformancePoint Server is
up for the chop
-- more specifically, it'll be folded into SharePoint -- in the months to come.
OK, so maybe PerformancePoint isn't a massive moneymaker (we don't know) and folding its capabilities into SharePoint probably makes sense. But on a broader scale, Microsoft, we wish you'd leave the enterprise stuff alone and look for efficiencies elsewhere. After all, the server and tools business is the one that's still raking in the bucks for you and for the channel.
Posted by Lee Pender on 01/28/20090 comments
Windows Live and Office Live, the somewhat amorphous concepts that (at this point, anyway) aren't hosted versions of either application, are now
under the same umbrella
in Redmond. And if rumors prove to be true, they might end up with a new name: "Kumo," a Japanese word that apparently can mean "cloud" but also "sea spider." That should make for one heck of a mascot.
Posted by Lee Pender on 01/27/20090 comments
Last week's
announced layoffs
made news, but there's more than just pink slips to Microsoft's cost-cutting measures.
This week, Microsoft announced that part of Iowa will remain prairie for longer than planned, as Redmond is delaying construction of a datacenter in West Des Moines. OK, we know -- West Des Moines (probably) isn't prairie land, but we like to think of Iowa as a verdant alternative to slushy suburban Boston.
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Posted by Lee Pender on 01/27/20090 comments
It's all the rage online, but if you want to be a part of Windows 7 madness, you'd better hurry -- download availability of the beta is scheduled to
end on Feb. 10
.
Posted by Lee Pender on 01/27/20090 comments
If accurate,
this news
will come as a terrible shock to the 35 people who are anxiously awaiting Vista SP2. Just kidding; it's probably more like 50. No, no -- kidding again. Hey, with Windows 7 on the horizon, we've got to get our Vista jokes in while we can.
Posted by Lee Pender on 01/22/20092 comments
Last week, in the spirit of the peaceful transition of leadership in this country (no small thing, actually), we
drew some parallels
between Windows 7 and Barack Obama...and between Vista and George W. Bush.
We were only making those comparisons in terms of the relative popularity of the operating systems and presidents. We certainly weren't trying to make a political statement or any value judgments. (In other words, we weren't Bush-bashing...seriously.) We generally stay away from national and international politics here unless we're ripping on the EU. The EU is always fair game.
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Posted by Lee Pender on 01/22/20090 comments
It was kind of like finding out that a person who's been in the hospital for an extended period of time has finally expired. It wasn't unexpected -- it was inevitable, actually, and anticipated -- but when the news landed it still hit with the sudden jolt of a rock on a windshield. All that's left to do now is assess the damage.Â
Microsoft just spat the bad news out today, eschewing its usual post-market-close earnings announcement timing and instead deciding to drop a dead fly in the industry's morning coffee. The company announced layoffs and disappointing earnings, the pertinent details of which are recounted superbly by Redmond Developer News' Jeff Schwartz here. The bottom line? Layoffs, 5,000 of them in the next 18 months, with 1,400 of those coming today. Oh, and earnings that missed expectations.
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Posted by Lee Pender on 01/22/20093 comments
A ray of sunshine in this stormy economy, IBM is apparently
rolling in it
these days.
Posted by Lee Pender on 01/22/20090 comments