There is a raging and too often specious debate over which operating system
-- Windows Server or Linux -- offers a better payback, or in tech-speak, ROI.
Putting that aside, it's arguable that just threatening to move to Linux can
save millions of dollars when negotiating a Microsoft contract. Our resident
Microsoft negotiator Scott Braden wrote a
recent
column explaining exactly how the threat of Linux, real or feigned, can
knock a bunch of dough off your next contract.
Posted by Doug Barney on November 28, 20060 comments
If you can't get enough news about Vista, or need to hone your upgrade plans,
make sure to
check
out what Scott Bekker has to say. Bekker walks through the licensing implications,
how best to work the numbers and how to avoid the activation pitfalls!
Posted by Doug Barney on November 28, 20060 comments
When it comes to Vista, Microsoft apparently believes the more versions, the
better. The same is true for Office, and apparently Longhorn will be no different.
Keith Ward, former editor of Redmond magazine, unravels all the options in a
special report. For today's Windows Server, there are half-a-dozen choices,
while Vista follows up with five choices. Figure out which are best for you
here.
Posted by Doug Barney on November 27, 20060 comments
Do you want to be the one everyone turns to when Vista or Office 2007 go awry
-- or does the mere thought make you flee in terror? If the answer to the first
question is yes, you might want to check out
Microsoft’s
new certifications. The approach is a bit unique -- you start off learning
basic skills, then develop talents suited for specific jobs, such as consumer
customer support.
Posted by Doug Barney on November 27, 20060 comments
If I signed a massive multiyear contract under which millions of dollars changed
hands and the eyes of the world were upon me, I'd probably read it first.
I'm not sure how carefully Steve Ballmer and Ron Hovsepian of Novell scrutinized
their cooperation agreement, as only a week or so later the two are
fighting
over what it all means.
The rub is just who needs patent protection from whom (copy editors in the
audience will tell me if this sentence is correct, parentheses aside). Ballmer
apparently believes that Linux violates myriad Microsoft patents, which is why
Novell was interested in patent protection. Novell's Hovsepian blasted
back that he had more than enough patents and more money is flowing from Redmond
to Waltham (which is where Novell is now headquartered) than vice versa. (Read
Redmond's interview with Hovsepian here.)
If two grown men can’t get along, how can their software?
Posted by Doug Barney on November 27, 20060 comments
Longhorn server
continues
to push forward, with its third beta set for release in the first half of
2007. If that beta stands up to the test, the final version should be out by
the end of next year. About a half a year later, Longhorn's virtualization technnology,
"hypervisor," should be done. The long-term plan is for virtualization
to be baked into the operating system from the get-go.
Posted by Doug Barney on November 21, 20060 comments
The ex-IT director of publishing company Source Media apparently believes that
revenge is a dish best served cold. That's why he waited three years after being
sacked
to
exact his mild revenge -- only the joke was on him. Stevan Hoffacker used
old logons and passwords to get into the e-mail system, and there learned about
impending layoffs. Hoffacker's coup de grace was sending e-mail from a Yahoo
account warning those about to get the boot. He could get up to five years in
jail (and maybe use this time to brush up on his hacking skills). How would
you punish Hoffacker? Let us know at
[email protected].
To see how others have abused their IT powers, check out my story "
IT
Gone Bad."
Posted by Doug Barney on November 21, 20060 comments
ROI guru Ian Campbell of Nucleus Research did some simple math the other day
and calculated that if only one-fourth of XP users upgrade their machines to
Vista, the overall cost would be $13.5 billion (I'm not sure if Campbell rounded
up or down).
Campbell
compares this unfavorably to Jamaica, which has a gross national product
of just $12.2 billion.
I prefer to think of Steve Ballmer, who, with $13.6 billion, could pay for
all these upgrades and still have $100 million to spend on Xboxes for needy
suburban teens.
Posted by Doug Barney on November 21, 20060 comments
Before he died, Bill Hicks accused Denis Leary of stealing his material (apparently,
Hicks was the only comedian who ever joked about smoking). Now I'm going to
steal some of Leary's stuff.
The Amiga's not dead, it's just frozen, and when it thaws out it's going be
pretty #@#543&*!! You know what it's like to take a cold shower? Well, multiply
that 15 million times and that's how #@#543&* the Amiga is going to be.
Fortunately, Amiga fans have Bill Panagouleas, CEO of DiscreetFX, a computer
video company. Bill (it's easier to call him Bill than it is to retype Panagouleas)
hopes to complete a documentary about trans fat (a fatter version of "Super
Size Me"?) and use
the profits to buy out Amiga Inc., which owns the intellectual property
behind the dead but surprisingly modern machine. Once all these things happen,
Panagouleas -- I mean, Bill -- will heat up the Amiga's frozen remains and bring
it back to the living.
If that works, maybe Bill can revive Walt Disney and Ted Williams, as well.
Oh, if you want an Amiga, but don't trust the 15-year-old machines for sale
on eBay, just run the old software through an emulator (nothing beats DeluxePaint
III for graphics, I always say!). Bill says you can get the emulator here.
Posted by Doug Barney on November 21, 20060 comments
Microsoft has been on an interoperability kick lately, starting with the detente
with Sun a year or two ago, and then the deal with Novell to help ensure that
Windows and Linux servers (with a dash of desktop) work together.
This week, Microsoft announced the Interop
Vendor Alliance. So who are the enemies that have joined hands under this
Microsoft-sponsored umbrella? Why, there's Sun and Novell. Oh, right, they're
friends now!
Well, there are bitter rivals AMD and Citrix, sworn enemies Quest Software
and NEC, and longtime foes BEA and Siemens.
Now, if Apple, Red Hat, IBM and RealNetworks all joined up, then I'd be impressed.
Posted by Doug Barney on November 16, 20060 comments
AMD's low-cost (read: $250) PC for the third world has been pulled
due to lack of demand. I'm not sure what to make of this. It could be that
$250 is still way expensive for poorer countries (or maybe the fact that Dell
and others sell machines almost as cheap was the death knell). Perhaps it's
that Internet access is still nonexistent. Perhaps the AMD machine was a hunk
of junk.
In any event, AMD hasn't given up on helping the world. Instead of pushing
its own machine (on which it hoped to make a profit), AMD will help MIT build
$100 Linux laptops.
Posted by Doug Barney on November 16, 20060 comments
Microsoft's security business is getting broader and broader all the time. This
week, the company
released
a beta of its new Forefront client, one aimed squarely at Symantec, McAfee,
Sunbelt and all the other security vendors.
Redmond also has specific tools, including just-launched protections for Exchange
and SharePoint.
Interestingly, Forefront uses scan engines from CA and Sophos, but not Symantec,
McAfee and others that have complained about Microsoft's plans.
Posted by Doug Barney on November 16, 20060 comments