I am more than a mite dumbfounded over the news that
only
high-end versions of Vista will be authorized to run on Intel-based Macintosh
computers. Through Boot Camp, Parallels and other forms of virtualization, there
is nothing technical stopping you from running XP, Vista, heck, even Windows
ME on a new Mac.
But Microsoft is putting its foot down on Vista, only allowing the $300 Business
edition or the $400 Ultimate to run. That's a huge hunk of change for an OS
you'll only run half the time.
Microsoft argues that the lower-end versions are a security risk in these virtualized
environments. I wonder what Redmond has to say about running Vista Basic under
its own virtual PC?
Posted by Doug Barney on February 27, 20070 comments
Cuba is
giving
Microsoft the heave-ho and moving as fast as humanly possible (or as fast
as a slow-moving communist government can) toward open source. Besides thumbing
its nose at the capitalist Microsoft, Fidel apparently believes that Microsoft
products present a real security threat, that somehow Redmond is in cahoots
with the U.S. to spy on Cuba through secret software hooks.
Posted by Doug Barney on February 27, 20070 comments
You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand Microsoft licensing; you
just have to be a Harvard MBA and an MIT Ph.D. in statistics!
Let me tell you, this stuff is complicated. I studied the subject for weeks
with the help of gurus like Scott
Braden, now a Redmondmag.com columnist. I then wrote two large articles
dissecting licensing and discussing negotiation ("SA
Exposed" and "Negotiating
with Microsoft"), but I'm still confused in many ways.
Microsoft is trying to simplify licensing, not by actually simplifying the
licensing, but by improving
tools to help customers makes choices, including the Microsoft Product Licensing
Advisor and the Forrester ROI tool.
Here's a bit of free advice for you: Take the Forrester ROI analyzer with
a huge pile of salt. If you use it, or have a salesperson try to run you through
it, make sure you build in negative assumptions along with all the positive
ones.
Posted by Doug Barney on February 26, 20070 comments
Bill Gates may have the OS, the browser, Web services, games and a whole bunch
of sites, but that doesn't mean his kids can spend all day in front of a screen.
Gates and his wife strictly
limit
the amount of time the kids spend online.
Like any other average parent, Gates says the kids can do whatever they want
-- once they're 18!
Do you limit your kids? If so, tell us how at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on February 26, 20070 comments
When journalists move to PR or marketing, it's called "going to the dark
side." I'm not sure what you call it when an independent analyst becomes
a Microsoft shill -- hopefully, you can at least call it a pay raise.
Former analyst Michael Gartenberg -- by all accounts a good and smart guy --
is now a
Redmond product evangelist (I've always been a bit offended by the evangelist
title, not for its religious connotations, but because it just seems so darn
arrogant).
As soon as the news broke, critics crawled out of the woodwork saying Gartenberg
was hired to dispense disinformation.
I say it's a free country and if a smart guy wants to get paid for explaining
Microsoft's virtues, then good for him. Tell me where I'm wrong at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on February 26, 20070 comments
I love motorcycles (I have 14 of the darn things), but I hate certain people
that ride them. I hate middle-aged men who buy a Harley as their first motorcycle
and then claim that rice burners stink (these are the same guys that slam on
their rear brakes when confronted by an obstacle that they promptly hit).
But more than that, I hate nuts on high-powered sport bikes that wheelie down
the road wearing shorts and T-shirts, endangering themselves and all the cars
they pass along the way.
One such moron got his just desserts in the U.K. Jeremy Parrot filmed
himself pulling every knucklehead stunt in the book, then put the video
up on YouTube. Can you say busted?
Posted by Doug Barney on February 21, 20070 comments
The Onion is the epitome of American satire today. While not as side-splitting
as the old National Lampoons I hid from my mother in the '70s (so she wouldn't
steal them for herself), the Onion has a subtlety lost in the new generation
of rude, crude, lewd and obvious humor.
In the Onion's
list of the top eight Vista features, the first five are all snoozes, and
the last three a hoot!
Posted by Doug Barney on February 21, 20070 comments
A week after fixing a few major Word zero-day vulnerabilities,
Microsoft
is fessing up to another one. This hole is only in older versions, specifically
Office XP and Office 2000, and like the recently patched problem, can let a
hacker take over your computer. Redmond is working on a fix as we speak.
Posted by Doug Barney on February 21, 20070 comments
I used to enjoy the "Opie and Anthony" show when it was on the radio
in Worcester, Mass. They played music, made a few jokes and pulled a few pranks.
Now that they have replaced Howard Stern, they feel compelled to talk for five
hours a day, putting me to sleep after I've just woken up!
Anthony is actually the funny one and recently ran into some problems moving
to Vista, which
he chronicles in this almost amusing clip (trust me, this guy can be much
funnier than this item indicates).
Posted by Doug Barney on February 21, 20070 comments
After years of slogging, Microsoft has turned the old SQL Server code it got
from Sybase into a major database competitor. Now SQL Server 2005 is an even
closer member of the Microsoft family by virtue of its new ties to Excel 2007,
Visio 2007 and Vista.
All these hooks come courtesy of SQL
Server 2005 SP2.
Posted by Doug Barney on February 21, 20070 comments
OK, OK. I write about my kids a lot (they keep track so I have to mention them
all equally). Here's another item courtesy of a young Barney, this one from
13-year-old David (for equality's sake, I need to point out that he has an older
sister, Lauren, and a younger brother, Nick).
Dave, a Mac and Linux bigot, found
a little story about a kid whose dad wanted him to get and install Vista.
Instead the kid installed Ubuntu, and the dad has been raving about it ever
since!
Posted by Doug Barney on February 20, 20077 comments
Microsoft could have used OpenDoc, the file format for OpenOffice and other
apps, as the file format for Office 2007, but that just wouldn't be right. Microsoft
wants it own file formats for market control, and so that the file formats can
handle anything Microsoft apps need them to.
And so it is that we have OpenOffice XML, a Microsoft format that others can
use, along with an open source translator that can convert Microsoft files into
OpenDoc.
I guess that makes Microsoft open -- open
enough to criticize OpenDoc backer IBM for being closed!
In an open letter, Redmond accuses Armonk of trying to hold back Open XML in
favor of OpenDoc. Can't all monopolies just get along?
Posted by Doug Barney on February 20, 20070 comments