Redmond Channel Partner

Tech-Ed Pumps Out the News

This week, Orlando welcomes Microsoft customers, execs and assorted hangers-on (like the motley Redmond crew), and as usual there are more press releases than Orlando area theme parks.

Today's keynoter was Bob Muglia, senior VP of the server and tools business. Muglia's theme was "Dynamic IT for the People-Ready Business."

I read reports of his speech but I can't for the life of me understand what Microsoft means by "dynamic." Don't get me started on "people-ready," a vacuous marketing term if there ever was one.

Digging deeper, "dynamic" really seems to mean "well-managed," and this management just happens to come from Microsoft. When systems are well-managed, they're easier to change, upgrade, tweak and add services to, so I guess this could kind of make them dynamic.

We'll be diving more deeply into individual new products in the next few newsletters, but here's a quick rundown:

There are new versions of Forefront security, including a unified system for clients, servers and the edge of the network.
There was a formal announcement of the name of the next version of Visual Studio, due next year. Get this: It's gonna be called "Visual Studio 2008"!
IIS 7.0 was announced and will be bundled with Windows 2008 Server Core. This seems like the perfect Microsoft antidote to the Linux/Apache duo.

Google Strengthens Software Development Hand
Google is dipping its well-heeled toes into the software development market with a new set of tools that will allow the building of apps that can actually run offline (gasp!).

The apps are still browser-based, but through Google Gears users can store the applications on Google's LocalServer, the data in a (you guessed it) database, and WorkerPool, which handles application management-type duties such as synchronization.

Microsoft Pushes Web Apps Envelope
Critics love to make fun of Microsoft failures, not realizing that what seems like a weak effort is actually just the beginning of a long slog to greatness.

Take Web apps. Knee-jerk, self-appointed pundits say that Google is absolutely killing Microsoft in Web software. A Redmond cover story that compared the two companies' Web software found the battle to be much, much closer -- more of a draw.

And Microsoft is just getting started. It just released three new betas of three new tools, including Live Writer, a blogging tool, Live Messenger and Live Mail (not to be confused with Windows Live Hotmail).

Microsoft Licensing Made Less Hard
Confused about licensing Microsoft software? The first thing you should do is read Scott Braden's Redmond Negotiator column every month.

Next, you can hear the Microsoft take through a new Webcast series at http://www.insidelicensing.com.

The first edition included a snippet from Steve Ballmer, as well as a partner and an analyst from Forrester, which has also developed an ROI calculator for Microsoft Software Assurance.

Any information about the confusing world of licensing is good, but always be aware of the source. For instance, the Forrester ROI calculator tends to assume that you exploit all the features of Software Assurance. If you use this tool, make sure all of your assumptions are realistic, and do some side calculations to account for upgrades that don't ship, problems with upgrades and other glitches that can destroy rosy ROI predictions.

Have you looked at the Forrester SA ROI tool? What do you think of Microsoft licensing? Let us know at [email protected]!

Amiga Games: Not Dead Yet
I'm probably the only journalist in North America who still writes about the Amiga. A month or so ago, I talked about plans to actually bring back complete Amiga computers.

Now, UK-based Vulcan Software is bringing old Amiga games to the PC.

In the '80s, the Amiga was the game machine, and many huge arcade machines had tiny, stripped-down Amiga 500s inside. My floppy-based Amiga 500 is still well-protected -- in the bottom of my son's closet!

What Does iTunes Know About You?
Apple may always come off as the good guy, but privacy advocates have discovered that iTunes songs can include information about the buyer, including name, e-mail address and more.

The theory is that this information can be used to hunt down the folks that offer up these tunes on file sharing networks.

So Apple demands that publishers take DRM off music, but uses a secret way of tracking down people that copy it?

Mailbag: "Surface" Thoughts, Big Blue's Buyback Binge
Last week, Microsoft took the covers off "Surface," a table-sized, touch-screen computer. Readers share their thoughts on the new gizmo:

I hate it when I sound like an absolute geek, but what a cool device/concept! Just the education factor alone...think of the possibilities. And for anyone out there who has kids, well, think of the games table you could have now (I dread to think of all the lost Monopoly pieces, playing cards and multi-sided dice from Dungeons & Dragons).

Good technology is "useable." Great technology is technology you can use and you don't even have to think about.
-Michael

I'd like to see a tabletop-sized screen that could be used by draftspersons (architects, engineers, etc.) to "draw" on more like they did when they used paper and pencil.

The trouble with CAD systems is that, often, either the image is too small or you can only view one section of a drawing at a time. If the screen could be, say, 30 inches by 40 inches or so, the architecture and engineering field would really appreciate that.
-Rod

And here's what one reader think about IBM's current buyback streak:

Given the regularity of investor clamor for short-term, maximum return on investment, while ignoring the long-term health and well-being of the company and the overall national economy, I find it encouraging that a behemoth like Big Blue is buying back controlling interest in itself. This allows for management to make the long-term health of the organization its priority, rather than the quick return on investment so many corporations find themselves being brow beaten into following by stock holders.

There is a balance point wherein investors are rewarded for their faith in a company, while the company has the autonomy to follow proper strategic thinking for the long term. Microsoft and scores of other companies do it, and now IBM is making its way there. As more and more companies see the light and reinvest in themselves, perhaps we'll see a brighter future return to American business, along with a more realistic, docile market.
-John

Got someting to add? Send an e-mail to [email protected] or leave a comment below.

Posted by Doug Barney on June 04, 20070 comments

OpenDoc Gets Redmond Boost

Microsoft has been wishy-washy about the Open Document format promoted by the OpenOffice backers. It supports the file format through translators, but not as a native format in Office 2007, which uses OpenXML instead.

Last week, Microsoft gave Open Doc another endorsement when it voted to make the format an ANSI standard. I'd still like to see tighter integration with Office, though.

Windows Server 2008 To Get 2009 Tweak
Windows Server 2008 (formerly Longhorn) is getting closer to shipping, giving Microsoft the confidence to talk about its follow-on. The company believes release 2 can ship in 2009. I've always maintained that Microsoft's server products are superior to its desktop wares. Maybe the server folks should build the follow-on to Vista!

Find out more about Redmond's server roadmap here.

Your 64-Bit Desktop Future
Microsoft has long had a 64-bit version of XP, and it turned out to be a bigger dud than Al Capone's vault. The problem, according to readers I've talked to, is a lack of driver support (sounds just like Vista, eh?).

But there is now speculation that Redmond is poised to put all its desktop eggs in the 64-bit basket with the next major desktop OS running only in 64 bits. Microsoft says it hasn't decided.

I say it should take the plunge: Splitting coding time between 32 and 64 bits makes both versions a compromise.

Microsoft Hits a Popfly
There are all kinds of somewhat-easy-to-use Web development tools. Ruby on Rails, I hear, is pretty good.

Every time Microsoft hears something is cool, whether it's a PalmPilot, iPod or Ruby, the company wants a piece. SmartPhones counter PalmPilots, the Zune (vainly) competes with the iPod (which, now that I own two, is far flakier than I imagined) and now Popfly is Microsoft's answer to mashups and cool, quick Web pages.

Based on Silverlight (itself a bit of an alternative to ASP.NET), Popfly is both a mix of tools and a place for developers to gather. Aimed at nonprofessional developers, the tools are in alpha. Learn about 'em here. And for more of our Popfly coverage, go here.

Meanwhile, my son David tells me Ruby on Rails has some pretty cool ads.

Killer Web
The Web is all about freedom -- maybe too much freedom. I don't want to deny you your Pamela Anderson JPEGs, but I'm not sure I want my kids to have the same privilege. And giving the ACLU and the John Birch Society their say is fine, but Muslim extremists' execution videos give me more than a little pause.

That's why I'm conflicted upon hearing that The Army of God is posting essays by Eric Rudolph, who murdered doctors that performed abortions, as well as articles by Paul Hill such as "I Shot an Abortionist."

I guess this is the price we must pay for freedom of speech, but it still makes me queasy. What about you? Speak freely at [email protected].

Mailbag: The Military's Tangled Web
A few more readers chime in about the military's decision to restrict soldiers' access to certain Web sites like MySpace and YouTube:

When I was in the Navy in 1988 (I can't believe I'm writing this) as a hospital corpsman, I wasn't even able to go to AOL to read mail at all of the naval bases I was stationed. They said some crap about a firewall that I didn't understand.

I remember thinking how wrong that was, but now that I am a bit more educated, those sites mentioned ought to be blocked. There is no reason a soldier/sailor can't find a different avenue to communicate nowadays.
-Chris

YouTube and MySpace are minor annoyances compared to the fact that in some locations -- and I speak from personal "been there" experience -- the Pentagon takes your computer, wipes and reloads the hard drive with its software, and blocks your personal e-mail access, some technical sites, and much more. It's a joke if the Pentagon says that you can check in at home. It's only under its conditions: no personal accounts, only your military account. As a reservist who was mobilized to help with the war, I practically lost all contact with friends and family, and lost business because of the gyrations necessary to get information that was removed from my computer.

Let's face it: In spite of all that the military does to protect information, people who want to get unauthorized information out will do it. People who want access to information they need will work hard to get it, as well, and the simplistic "punish everyone" approach that the military is taking is, in my opinion, bogus.
-Jane

My opinion regarding the restriction on certain Web sites by the military is similar to that of the corporate world; it's their computer/bandwidth, so they can do what they want with it. Now, if it gets to the point of restricting the soldiers' personal computing, then I believe the military will have overstepped. However, considering the complete disregard for constitutional, as well as international, law by the current administration (which is merely extending the precedents set by previous administrations), it probably won't be long before additional restrictions are applied. We can't have the soldiers in the field learning about what's going on at home or, worse yet, revealing the things they see and do to the folks back home, now can we?
-J.C.

Let us know what you think! Leave a comment below or send an e-mail to [email protected].

Posted by Doug Barney on May 21, 20070 comments

Virtually Gone

In an effort to keep its next generation of virtualization from slipping further, Microsoft is delaying a raft of key features.

Viridian (which, besides being a codename, is a real word for the color blue/green) will lose the ability to move a virtual machine that's running to another box. Hot swapping is also getting the cold shoulder. I bet VMware engineers are breathing real sighs of relief.