The Open Document Format (ODF) is a terrific concept: a single file format that
can be used by productivity apps and more, and allows for easy sharing -- even
with Microsoft Office. That's the promise.
The reality ain't so hot. A leading advocate of ODF now says it isn't living
up to its promises, isn't so great at interoperability, and thus not so great
at application migration. All this is leading former ODF proponents to suggest
a newer format, the
Complex Document Format (CDF).
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Posted by Doug Barney on November 05, 20070 comments
For parents, there's no shortage of articles on how to tell if your child is
sniffing glue, drinking booze or even addicted to the Internet. For those worried
about computer mischief, there's also a guide by T. Reginald Gibbons called
"Is
Your Child a Computer Hacker?"
I have no clue whether this is real or a put-on (if you know, tell Redmond
Report readers by writing me at [email protected]),
but Reginald claims he's a model parent, scrutinizing every aspects of his kids'
lives and even tagging along when they go to parties to make sure there are
no shenanigans (I'm pretty sure this is an Irish beer).
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Posted by Doug Barney on November 05, 20070 comments
A lot of people are sending me links to the $200 desktop running Ubuntu Linux
that Wal-Mart is offering. While it's a fairly low-end box, it packs some decent
power for short money. The Everex Green gPC TC2502 (how's that for an intuitive
name) has 512MB of RAM, an 80GB drive and a CD burner (the DVD is unfortunately
read-only).
What's most interesting is just how much usable software one can get for free,
and gPC has it all -- Mozilla, OpenOffice and every Google app that ever came
out of Mountain View.
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Posted by Doug Barney on November 05, 20070 comments
VMware is a shockingly good company. It just can't fail. When the company had too much market share, Microsoft started giving virtualization away. VMware just made more money. When nearly all other high-tech IPOs floundered, VMware's was a raging success, giving the company a staggering $40 billion or so market cap (this changes by the hour).
In fact, we're so impressed we put VMware's CEO on the cover of our November issue (read the article online here).
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Posted by Doug Barney on October 29, 20070 comments
It might be time to break out that old soldering iron as Dell has a challenge for you: If you can design the greenest computer ever made (green as in low power -- not olive, pea or pine) you could walk away with a cool thirty grand.
Get your design wrapped up by next April and send it on down to Austin.
Of course, if you really do design the most efficient computer ever, Dell will make billions -- and you'll make, er, about $30K before taxes.
Posted by Doug Barney on October 29, 20070 comments
New versions of the Mac OS, record fines from the European Union, and a slow Vista enterprise uptake have done nothing to tame Microsoft's growth. This quarter was a record of sorts as Microsoft experienced the fastest growth in six years.
Microsoft
pulled in
$14 billion in sales (a run rate of nearly $60 billion) and profits of almost $4 billion. Yes, my friends, software is still a high-margin business.
Posted by Doug Barney on October 29, 20070 comments
Last week I got you all hot and bothered about Leopard, the
new Mac OS
. If you recall, I wondered if Apple was going to make any exciting hardware announcements. I've been waiting for the new OS and some hot new hardware so I can plunk down some of my spare cash down on a Mac laptop, or even the solid-state sub-notebook they've been teasing us about.
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Posted by Doug Barney on October 29, 20070 comments
IT people love to be in control of their own machines. You're not going to spend years becoming an expert only to have someone else tell you how to run your PC. And if you've taken steps to set things up a certain way, and it gets changed anyway, why them's fightin' words!
This September, the WindowsSecrets Web site broke the news that Windows Automatic Update was updating files even if the user specifically blocked those updates.
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Posted by Doug Barney on October 29, 20070 comments
Apple has a new rev of its operating system
set
to ship late this week
. According to my personal Mac guru (my son David),
Mac OS gets a major upgrade every two years or so, way quicker than Windows.
And Apple was also able to swap in an all-new kernel when it replaced the old
Mac engine with the Mach kernel from Carnegie Mellon.
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Posted by Doug Barney on October 22, 20070 comments
A year or two ago, Microsoft regularly belittled the Google search engine and
talked of taking the top spot. Well, reality has set in. Microsoft still talks
about taking that spot, but CEO Steve Ballmer admits it may take some time.
Calling Microsoft
search "a precocious tot," Ballmer says his engine is a like a
3-year-old, while Google is like a pimply faced, hormone-saturated, pubescent
12-year-old (all right, I added the pimples and hormones). It make take MSN
search 'til it's 10 to take over, Ballmer argues. Doesn't that mean that Google
will be 19?
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Posted by Doug Barney on October 22, 20070 comments
Last week, Microsoft had one of its classic press conferences: a huge stage,
lots of people, carefully scripted speeches and a big city -- in this case,
San Francisco. Bill even made an appearance.
Microsoft has been talking so much about Unified Communications that I reckoned
all this software had been shipping. But no; the press conference was to announce
the availability
of a bunch of pieces, including Office Communications Server 2007 (the core
platform for VoIP and other communications features), Office Communicator (the
client piece), a new rev of Live Meeting and a new video conferencing system.
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Posted by Doug Barney on October 22, 20070 comments
Ever read
The Onion
(
www.theonion.com
)?
I've always liked satire, and
The Onion
is the best thing since the 1970s
National Lampoon
magazine. Unlike
The Onion
,
NatLamp
wasn't
able to make much fun at computers -- there's a limit to the jokes one can make
about an IBM 390!
The Onion
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Posted by Doug Barney on October 22, 20070 comments