Citrix and Microsoft have a strange relationship, one of the few cases where the term "coopetition" actually applies. In the thin client space, the two have cooperated and competed for over a decade -- Microsoft with its low-end technology Terminal Services (now called Remote Desktop Services) bundled with Windows Servers, and Citrix with its higher-end Presentation Manager (now called XenApp). The companies are so close they even change names together!
The two firms edged even closer with the announcement of Citrix Essentials. The new software runs alongside Hyper-V and offers features Microsoft hasn't had time to build. The key hole is storage, and here Citrix comes to the rescue with StorageLink, which links SANs to virtual machines.
Posted by Doug Barney on February 25, 20090 comments
More readers give their thoughts on how long Microsoft should continue to support XP:
From my perspective, Microsoft should be prepared to continue sticking with XP at least until 2014 as it has previously stated. People will be watching their budgets very closely for the next two to five years and unless there is something so compelling that we all just have to get Windows 7, I think XP is going to be around for even longer. Like it or not, many of us just do not like Vista or are that keen on what we are seeing in Windows 7. We know XP backwards, it does everything we want, the software we currently own and use is more than adequate so no new cost is needed for either hardware or software.
XP has penetrated a vast market. I think Microsoft totally underestimates the marketplace and fails to grasp that no one likes to be bullied into accepting something by dull submission.
-Ken
I think the scheduled EOL and support for XP is sufficient. XP has been out for a long time. It's already stable and happy and has lots of supporters and die-hard "don't kill it" petitioners. Five years of support? We should feel lucky.
Out with the old and in with the new, I say! Vista is stable, secure and has better mobility than XP.
-Rob
Since there seems to be such a nose-turn at Vista, M$ should go ahead and bite the bullet of standing behind XP until Windows 7 has established itself as either good or bad. By that point, I'm thinking that either Vista will be good enough (with continued updates and patches) to stand up on its own or 7 will just settle in as the new XP replacement. In either case, I don't see IT managers taking XP offline and implementing either Vista or 7 until they are proven stable and unshakable. As long as this isn't the case, then XP is still going to be the OS of choice for most administrators.
-Edward
And Marc thinks Microsoft's plan to upgrade Windows 7 starter packs over the Internet is nothing new:
No doubt about it, Windows 7 Starter Edition is crippled for no apparent reason. But the strategy of offering Anytime Upgrades for preloaded Windows software has always been available for all editions of Windows Vista. Windows 7, however, won't even require a software upgrade. As I understand it, the Anytime Upgrade will be nothing more than a new license key which will "unlock" the features of the version you buy.
Frankly, I think it is a smart approach -- provided the customer is not penalized by paying more for this kind of an upgrade than they pay for an OEM upgrade.
-Marc
Check in on Friday for more reader letters! Meanwhile, share your own thoughts with us by writing to [email protected] or leaving a comment below.
Posted by Doug Barney on February 25, 20090 comments
Often, I scratch my head over our legal system. Sometimes, juries seem to get it wrong, as they did with OJ. Other times, judges are the ones making random decisions. Case in point: A judge last week
denied class-action status for a suit claiming that Vista Capable computers were Vista Less than Capable. The PCs in question had the "Capable" logo, but barely supported the OS and only ran the lowest-end versions.
If you want to quibble over words and view "capable" as meaning "able to," then these machines are capable. But most of us see "capable" as "able to do something with some modicum of efficiency." A capable baseball pitcher isn't someone who's barely able to throw, but has some kind of true capacity.
Now people upset with Vista have to file separately. Great -- so you can pay a lawyer $10,000 to hopefully recover a grand or some from Microsoft. I doubt that Judge Marsha Pechman has spent much time using Vista with a gig of RAM!
Meanwhile, Emma Alvarado is also suing Microsoft, claiming it's unfair to pay for a Vista PC only to pay more to downgrade to XP, an older operating system. I hope Judge Pechman isn't hearing this case, too!
Posted by Doug Barney on February 23, 20090 comments
A group in Norway has launched a public campaign to
end the use of IE 6, claiming the browser has never met a standard it actually liked and makes it hard for developers to build compatible sites.
You'd think Microsoft would be upset that an outside group is trying to kill its product -- but Microsoft has been trying to kill IE 6 for years! Microsoft always tries to knock off an older product way before customers are ready. Don't believe it? Then just say these two letters: XP.
Posted by Doug Barney on February 23, 20090 comments
Last week, Doug asked readers how long they think Microsoft should support XP. Here are just some of your responses (more to come Wednesday):
Simple! As long as it doesn't have a viable alternative.
-Anonymous
Microsoft should continue to support XP until popular opinion says otherwise. The people are the ones using it, not The Enterprise.
-Rick
Until Windows 7 comes out.
-Anonymous
XP should be fully supported until at least the day that Windows 7 Service Pack 1 is released!
-George
Readers who've tried out the available versions of IE 8 share the good and the bad:
On using IE 8, the answer is no. For me, this is a significantly inferior product. On the same router, I have two machines in close physical proximity. Using IE on either machine, page load speeds and download speeds are far slower than on either Firefox or Safari. The only great equalizer is Hotmail. Over time, Hotmail performance has been on a steady decline. After marking one or more messages for action, clicking on "Junk" or "Delete" results in a long, pregnant pause, leaving me staring at a "Loading" status message. Worse, IE 8 often kills all Internet connectivity. When this happens, every page produces a timeout error. The only fix is to reboot the machine. I was surprised that the Internet movie database (IMDB.com) was not one of the built-in accelerators. But so far, the scariest thing about IE 8 is that it seems to protect some tracking cookies. However, this may be related to gathering information from Windows 7 beta users.
Given all these issues, there are a lot of good things to be found in IE 8. From simple things like having a palette of emoticons on the edit toolbar to jazzy things like a simple, easy way to create custom accelerators, IE is showing tremendous improvement. Microsoft is one of those rare companies that forges forward, aware it will make mistakes along the way. Microsoft has a proven ability to learn from its mistakes and apply what it learns (as evidenced by the classic "turn the entire corporation on a dime to embrace Web technologies and the Internet"). From the amount of improvement so far, I am looking forward to seeing what happens as Microsoft continues to focus attention on performance, reliability and usability. The future for IE looks pretty bright.
-Dave
Yes, IE 8 R1 is more stable than the final beta, but it still gets in a wad and dumps altogether more frequently than IE 7. That said, it has the courtesy to recover tabs and offer to restart where one left off -- one for the "plus" column. Each browser window is not insulated from the death of another -- very sad to see; one had hoped Microsoft would be able to apply virtualization techniques by now to ensure isolation, but no. It is decently quick at rendering but internal ASP.NET 2.0 apps elicit far too many F5 needs, despite telling IE 8 repeatedly to run in Compatibility mode for the entire internal site. IE 7 doesn't behave in the same way on the same pages on the same version of the app, so it's not an app design "feature." Oh, and Fidelity.com is still MIA even in the supposed "C. Mode" -- very disappointing, MS (and Fidelity).
As a browser and app user, I can't say there's anything "killer" in IE 8, but the "Accelerators" feature is handy. I just wish it would open Google Search or Maps in another window! It's in its early days and many Web sites simply churn out HTML (or whatever) that IE 8 has a stab at rendering. I suppose the C.Mode is a boon 'cos turning it on sure improves things in a hurry. I think my list of compatibility sites is getting very long.
-Stephen
And George has this to say about the impact Bill Gates would have on the economic stimulus -- if he had any say at all:
You wrote: "Imagine if Gates ran the U.S. stimulus effort. We'd see a clean, tight, effective bill for sure!" If I recall correctly, the first principle espoused by Laurence Peter in
"The Peter Principle" is that the primary goal of any organization is to prolong its own existence. Hence, the goal of all those in Congress is not to produce a "clean, tight, effective bill" to stimulate the economy; their goal is to produce a clean, tight, effective bill to buy them votes to get re-elected. That is what "pork barrel" politics is all about and it works remarkably well.
We ought to know better, but apparently we don't. We should refuse to let them use our own money to buy our votes, but we merrily pretend they have given us a gift without remembering that they took the money from our wallets to pay for it (plus a lot of overhead). We will get a better class of politician when we become a better class of voters.
-George
Tell us what you think! Leave a comment below or send an e-mail to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on February 23, 20091 comments
The Domain Name System (DNS) lies at the core of the Internet and our own corporate networks, but most admins and network pros barely give it a second thought. An exploit discovered last summer that's
now starting to spread should make us all take DNS seriously.
The problem comes with the scary name cache-poisoning vulnerability. "The vulnerability involves a weakness in the transaction ID used in DNS queries. Currently, replies to a DNS query have to contain the proper transaction ID, which is chosen randomly from 65,000 values," our report explains. Fortunately, there's a patch -- and has been for about half-a-year.
Posted by Doug Barney on February 23, 20090 comments
Steve Ballmer spoke at a political event recently about how the economy can benefit more from
investing in innovation than by running a debt. Here's what some of you thought:
I must admit your economic analyses are my least favorite part of your newsletter. From an investor's standpoint, I have little faith in Mr. Ballmer. The ideas which seem least popular (for example, seven plus versions of Windows) are always strongly touted by him. Indeed, Microsoft's stock price has remained stagnant for the past seven years after plummeting from its peak a few years prior.
So while he may have some advice for Congress (advice which is naturally biased toward his company's agenda), our country would be wise to take it with a grain of salt.
-Gregory
You and Ballmer are so correct when it comes to the debt (stimulus) bill. Running into debt does not work at home, at work and in the 1930s, and is only going to ruin our great country. People need to WAKE UP and contact their representatives right away. Our children's futures are at stake.
-Joseph
Putting aside the old canard "You can't run government like a business," it should be obvious that innovation and progress can increase tax revenues. There have been plenty of independent studies that have shown that tax cuts not only resulted in business expansion which translates to jobs across ALL industries, but that revenues to the government via the taxes INCREASE. When business leaders that lean left already understand that but the party they support doesn't listen, we have a major problem.
The inflation that will be created by the insane spending at the end of the Bush administration and the beginning of the Obama administration is a recipe for disaster.
-Herb
Having been elected on the promise of better times for all, Washington has to be seen doing something -- even if it means screwing the next generation more than Gen-X has already been screwed for the Social Security cock-up. Although the politicians appear to have thought about the $8 BILLION, they still thought it was a great idea to dig a hole of national debt bigger than any nation has had the reckless stupidity to dig. Maybe they have their collective fingers crossed that it'll be all right on the night. Well, uncross them -- it won't be all right, stupid!
Take time to go back to the likes of Mr. Ballmer and others with integrity and LISTEN with your brains engaged. Maybe then we won't throw greenbacks to the winds, make more unscrupulous millionaires and end up unable to feed ourselves. The feeding frenzy for all those millions is only just beginning and if you happen to be in the middle class and lower, step aside -- it's not for you, really.
-Stephen
Doug doesn't like the idea of Microsoft charging users to upgrade Windows 7 starter packs. A few readers don't like it either -- but that's just the way it is:
I think you are being very old-fashioned when you say, "I'm not a fan of artificially restricting software." Well, I'm not a fan either but it's life. The first time I saw this was in the U.K. with Sky satellite receivers which could record programs. The service was called Sky-Plus. Crafty old Rupert Murdoch (who knows even more than the guys at Redmond about extracting the last penny from his customers) made a charge for the service. So you paid extra for the hardware which could record and time-shift programs, but you had to pay 10 pounds per month (about $20 at that time) to activate it.
Cisco now charges to enable 'features' in a lot of its products. You buy an ACE load balancer and it's limited to a certain bandwidth, though the hardware can process more. You just have to buy the licence. For the future, I can see a day when you can get a really powerful PC for free but it does nothing until you pay a monthly fee to activate its features one by one. You may hate that but you watch -- it will happen.
-Jonathan
In the 1970s, the electronic manufacturer I worked for produced three different models of a certain electronic product. The recommended sales prices were $200, $400 and $600 each. The difference between the $200 model and the $400 model was the installation of $10 parts to the existing circuit board. To make the jump from the $400 to the $600 model, we plugged in a $20 circuit board to the existing $400 machine.
Since I was new to the ways of product manufacturing, it seemed that we were pretty hard on the customers. I realize now that it was just business as it is usually done.
-John
I worked for International Computers Ltd. which had at the time 50 percent of the U.K. market and was big in Eastern Europe. The engineers told me that a thermos flask, sandwiches and a paperback book were permanent pieces of their equipment because when that kind of upgrade was needed they would go into the machine room, lock the door, turn the switch or whatever it was to get the extra speed and extra disk space (I think I remember 40MB disk drives that were sold as 20MB because of trade restrictions on sales to communist countries and "upgrades" when those trade restrictions were slightly lightened), and then get out the thermos et al. to wait the couple of hours necessary to justify the cost.
-Mike
John has a theory about why Microsoft is planning so many versions of Windows 7:
As I was reading about the many versions of Windows 7, I suddenly wondered if one of the versions is practically mandated by the EU anti-bundling stand. MS has to provide a stripped-down version of Windows -- that is, without certain features -- so that it meets the EU requirements. You and I may like our Windows and Office versions to be full-featured, but some people in this world don't like all the parts. (Do I hear the Firefox users here?)
The only other alternative for MS is to sell the OS pieces a la carte, an option that to me feels like I am being nickeled and dimed to death. It still bothers me that the Standard version of Office 2007 has Outlook, which I don't use, and not Access, which I would use. See? Whatever MS does, I won't be happy. What do you think?
-John
And Bernie brings the Windows 7 versioning debacle down to earth after a reader on Tuesday (jokingly?) suggested upping the number of versions to 18:
This has to be a tongue-in-cheek spiel on the prior confusion and conflicts the many versions of XP had, especially after the MC versions were introduced.
Here's what I would do: One Home version that includes the toys automatically -- video, entertainment, games, TV, etc. -- and yes, it needs Internet. And one professional version; no toys automatically, but networking with all options available. The only varying content would be by license support upgrades. The content and tools really don't change across business users, but their support needs do. This would make a helluva lot of people happy...'cept me. I'm always ornery.
-Bernie
Check in next week for more letters! Meanwhile, send us your thoughts by e-mailing them to [email protected]. Or leave a comment below.
Posted by Doug Barney on February 20, 20090 comments
I'm a fan of how public Microsoft is with its security flaws. Patch Tuesday is a tradition that Microsoft should be proud of -- not for the holes, but for the public fixes.
But patches are like blueprints for a hacker, who can now understand the hole and attack unpatched systems. That's what's happening with IE 7 as hackers take the hole disclosed earlier this month and go after it with gusto.
The vulnerability is that hackers can use deleted data, like the history and cookies, as a vector of attack. The fix is in; some of you might as well get it.
Posted by Doug Barney on February 20, 20090 comments
Microsoft is trying to keep a few more bucks in IT pockets by
holding the line on some support pricing. The company had planned a normal increase in custom support pricing, an enterprise customer option aimed at older products. That increase won't happen.
Microsoft didn't offer a reason, but I have two. First, Redmond gets that the economy is rough, and is doing the right thing. But this might -- just might -- have more to do with Vista. XP is the preferred enterprise desktop OS and it's near the end of its supported life.
How long should Microsoft support XP? Dates welcome at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on February 20, 20090 comments
I'm a huge fan of The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and I'm in awe of the fact that Mr. Gates is promising the bulk of his billions toward it. But what impresses me most is the care that goes into each investment. The Gates team carefully researches every effort before spending a dime, making sure these dollars will do the maximum good. Gates' money is already having an amazing effect on disease and childhood mortality -- and he's just getting started.
This is the same attention I'd love to see behind government spending. Imagine if Gates ran the U.S. stimulus effort. We'd see a clean, tight, effective bill for sure!
I just read Gates' first annual Foundation letter -- it's 19 pages of pure gold!
Posted by Doug Barney on February 20, 20090 comments
In the mid-1980s I covered Microsoft for
Computerworld. I remember Steve Ballmer telling me -- and expecting me to tell others -- that customers should move from MS-DOS to Windows to prepare for the ultimate migration to OS/2 and its GUI component Presentation Manager. Ever since, it seems that Microsoft has pushed IT not to skip OSes but move one step at a time, in tandem with Microsoft releases.
Now Microsoft is warning of the perils of skipping Vista. Apparently, there's a very real danger that if you stick with XP, somehow your key apps will no longer be supported. If you believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I can lease you.
Posted by Doug Barney on February 18, 20090 comments
The mobile phone business is nothing if not competitive. Vendors are a who's who of computing, including Google, Apple and Microsoft (I'd like to see all three of these in a room talking about standards!).
Microsoft got into the market a bit late, and early efforts were flakier than a Hostess pastry. Then the software got better and some pretty dang cool Windows phones came out. Even Palm worked with the software.
My understanding is the most recent mobile OS is pretty good, so I expect that Windows Mobile 6.5, which is imminent, is even better. The rev includes a new touch interface, a Web site where developers can sell their wares and better syncing for data, contacts and mail.
Posted by Doug Barney on February 18, 20090 comments