You may have noticed a recurring theme in this newsletter: Most of what I think about Microsoft's products and strategies comes from interactions with real customers -- that's you, the Redmond Report reader.
In my last item, I explained how most of you are having a good experience with the final release of IE 8, with a handful of exceptions. I also learned enough about Windows 7 from you that I wrote a two-part series, the first appearing on the cover of the March issue of Redmond magazine with part two running in April.
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Posted by Doug Barney on March 25, 20090 comments
Last week, Doug expressed his
misgivings
about IBM's possible acquisition of Sun. But Marc thinks he knows what's behind Big Blue's reasoning:
I agree that IBM may not be gaining a lot in a buy-out of Sun, but Sun would certainly benefit from IBM's considerable clout in the marketplace.
What Sun does have to offer IBM, though, is considerable intellectual property rights to Unix, which IBM lacks. As a co-developer of Unix System V (along with AT&T), Sun's IP rights to Unix are equal to Novell's. Buying Sun could free IBM from threats of any future potential Unix litigation. Sun also has considerable x86 assets with Solaris x86, as well as open source x86 assets with OpenSolaris.
-Marc
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Posted by Doug Barney on March 25, 20090 comments
Everything I know about Internet Explorer 8 I've learned from you, the faithful Redmond Report reader. First you told me the beta and release candidate were shakier than the world economy. Then you told me the final version was actually pretty darn clean. But a number of you still report glitches -- and these have the IE 8 dev team tracking, prioritizing and, hopefully,
soon fixing all the bugs
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Posted by Doug Barney on March 25, 20090 comments
Microsoft's open source strategy is foggier than an '80s hair band's stage show. Here's what I've been able to decipher through the haze: Microsoft wants to be friendly to certain open source tools like those from Novell. It also wants Windows to manage the open source tools, rather than having open source tools manage Windows.
What's less clear is whether Microsoft itself should release open source software. So far, there has been little more than dabbling and dribbling. A prime example is !exploitable Crash Analyzer, an open source tool to help programmers figure out why their software is crashing and how to fix it. It can also prioritize crash causes so you can fix the worst culprits first.
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Posted by Doug Barney on March 25, 20090 comments
I've been getting mail from dozens of IE 8 beta and release candidate users and the reports aren't good. The pre-release software was flakier than French pastry. So I asked you all to report how well
the finished product
performs. Somehow, Microsoft pulled off a massive turnaround. This puppy is fast, stable and compatible.
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Posted by Doug Barney on March 23, 20090 comments
As Doug mentioned, most of you who tried the
final version of IE 8
were pretty pleased. Here's what some of you said about it:
I loaded IE 8 on my PC at work. No compatibility problems so far. It's pretty peppy, and I love the "Accelerator" feature (e.g., highlight a word and launch a Google search in a new tab). Another nice organizational feature is coloring related (spawned) tabs.
I also loaded IE 8 64-bit at home on my dual-core Vista 64. Very quick Web action!
-Elgin
Since the release of IE 8, I have done additional testing at work and home and I have found the released version to be quite good. I have noticed a speed improvement -- not by leaps and bounds but something noticeable. I have not had a single crash or freeze. I have tested many sites and tried to focus on some of the problem sites. However, all is well. Overall, I'm quite happy with IE 8.
-Craig
For the past few months, I've been using Windows 7 (build 7000) for my primary workstation, with IE 8 as my primary browser. Under XP, I used Firefox because of speed and security; I avoided IE 7 except for those sites that didn't render properly in Firefox.
On my Windows 7 install, I haven't even installed Firefox. For one site that I've had problems with, I use a portable version of Firefox. This may also say something for the unbundling proponents.
-Yehoshua
I downloaded IE 8 last Friday. My primary driver was that some change on my system had introduced a bug into IE 7 about a week before, so I was hoping that IE 8 would resolve it. IE 8 reported that one of the HP add-ons was incompatible, so I disabled that. It's running fine with no problems.
The concepts in IE 8 are great. Accelerators are a great way to get things done quickly. Group tabs are cool. I haven't noticed a huge difference in speed of presentation of pages -- maybe a slight edge but the real issue is speed of Internet connection and that varies quite a bit. Web Slices will take time to come of age but the concept is good. The SmartScreen Filter is probably helpful for casual users. No stability issues. For me, IE 8 is a mature version of IE 7 and group tabs are a sensible development. Glad to have it and I expect that a rich set of accelerators and Web Slices in due course will be a great improvement. I'm also glad that my IE 7 bug is gone.
-Joe
I got the final release yesterday night on Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1, updated using a very slow Acer 5103WLi Laptop connected to a Wi-Fi network at 2Mbps. The effect was immediate: IE 8 transformed my machine into a FERRARI! Thank you, Microsoft!
-Rainer
I moved from the beta to the final version yesterday. Even in beta, I did not find any issues and IE 8 is and will be my default browser. The installation and automatic removal of the previous version was very smooth.
-Narayana
After countless problems with both beta versions, the version released Wednesday hasn't crashed one single time. I am amazed at the difference in speed and reliability this has over the beta. I think the biggest problem was that add-ons on IE 7 didn't work in IE 8. Best way to use this new IE 8 is to uninstall all add-ons before you download, and wham! It runs like a jewel. I even changed my default back from Mozilla to IE 8, if you can believe that.
-M.
I downloaded twice yesterday, once for Vista Ultimate and once for XP Pro. The downloads were very fast on my slow DSL. IE 8 installed well on both machines and works well on both machines.
I had a little trouble with adding favorites. I looked for the old icon and didn't notice the text line in the favorites drop-down. I accidentally wound up at the Windows Live Favorites, an idea that is pretty cool but I'll look into it in greater detail later. I always seem to choose search terms for Help that don't help me much but after a few tries I found out how simple it now is to add a favorite...to the local list. So far, IE 8 is great. No problems. I am happy.
-Eric
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Posted by Doug Barney on March 23, 20090 comments
Mimosa Systems made its name in Exchange archiving. Now the California-based company is
setting its sights on SharePoint
, a tool that's creating its own growing third-party market.
Mimosa NearPoint for Office SharePoint Server doesn't just archive SharePoint documents, Mimosa executives argue, but does so in a way that saves on storage and energy costs. That's because an optical archive uses less power than a hard drive that whirrs more than a hippy at a Phish concert. Users of NearPoint for Exchange can use the same management console, so in a sense the SharePoint is just an add-on to what you've already got.
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Posted by Doug Barney on March 23, 20090 comments
PC buyers upset that Vista either didn't function or barely worked on new low-end machines have failed for the second time to get any kind of recompense. The first wallop of bad news came when the class-action status of a suit claiming damages because Vista wasn't as compatible as the logos said was
tossed out
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Posted by Doug Barney on March 23, 20090 comments
When I first reported that
IBM was eyeing Sun
in a $6 billion-plus deal, I thought it was a terrible idea. There are too many competing architectures, too much overlap, and Sun would lose its role as one of the last of the big innovators.
Apparently, at least a few people agree, including analyst Dana Gardner (who, like me, used to write for InfoWorld). Gardner sees IBM's only motivation as market share. In my opinion, you're better off building rather than buying market share, which is why I was so against Microsoft buying Yahoo.
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Posted by Doug Barney on March 20, 20090 comments
While I never downloaded the beta or the final beta (what Microsoft calls a "release candidate"), I've spent countless hours on IE 8 -- mostly talking about it. I think at least 75 Redmond Report readers wrote in about their IE 8 experiences, and their input will drive
Redmond
magazine's May cover story.
The browser has a decent feature set, but the test versions -- even the last RC -- were clearly problematic. That's why I was surprised when Microsoft shipped the browser late Wednesday night.
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Posted by Doug Barney on March 20, 20090 comments
I defend the press often. When readers complain of spelling errors, I point out just how many words the average editor processes per day. When they complain of liberal bias, I point 'em to Lou Dobbs or Fox News. When they complain about right-wing talk pundits, I mention Keith Olbermann.
But I can't defend journalists who waste words when there's simply no story. Here's what has me on this tirade: Steve Ballmer recently spoke at a BusinessWeek media event. Somehow, this was construed as the first step in Microsoft buying The New York Times. To some reporters, that little bit of nothing was a big story. Even bigger? Ballmer's adamant denial when surrounded by paparazzi-style journalists after the event.
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Posted by Doug Barney on March 20, 20090 comments
Doug asked readers this week if they'd ever buy a server from Cisco, now that the company has
moved into the server market
. Here are some of your answers:
Nope -- I'm very satisfied with Dell, particularly its support. Cisco support doesn't come close. Given past experiences with Cisco training and router systems, well, Dell is better.
-Anonymous
IMHO, this is an avenue Cisco to sell its own servers for voice systems rather than HP, which it uses now. I can see Cisco offering a package of x number of blade servers, all encased in a nice, neat, single cage for a complete solution -- at least for SMBs such as ourselves. Hopefully, Cisco will also get to the point of offering virtualized solutions for its voice systems, thus eliminating the herd of physical servers that are now required. Knowing Cisco's pricing, however, I have to wonder how competitive it will be in the server market.
-Scott
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Posted by Doug Barney on March 20, 20090 comments