After 25 years as an IT journalist, I've seen a million patent and copyright lawsuits like the one from i4i. Often, a patent holder demands royalties. Sometimes they get a part of what they ask for, and sometimes they get beaten down by high-priced lawyers.
Some of these claims are legit. If I invented something that an IBM or Oracle used, I'd want some scratch. In other cases, entrepreneurs buy up patents then go after anyone that even comes close to infringing.
That may be the case with Gary Odom, a former Microsoft worker who is now seeking big Microsoft bucks. Apparently, Odom's job in Redmond was to protect Microsoft from these suits, and as part of his contract he agreed not to sue Microsoft himself. Instead, Odom snagged patents that he now claims Office 2007 and its ribbon interface violate.
Microsoft is a big company, and if it can handle the U.S. government, it can handle Odom. But one third party confided in me recently that Odom was, until recently, going after them. This startup needed money for development, marketing and sales. Instead, they were looking at monster legal fees. Odom let them off the hook, but apparently is still going after Microsoft third parties, especially in the development space.
When IBM was threatened with a similar suit, it quickly moved to indemnify customers and, I believe, partners. I'd love to see Microsoft do the same here! As it stands, a trial is set for next year, my source reports.
Posted by Doug Barney on August 17, 20092 comments
Microsoft should be happy that millions of people are using IE 6 instead of Chrome or Firefox. But that's just not enough for the IE product team. They want you on the latest and what they believe is the greatest. There's a big push to move users up to IE 8 to take advantage of vastly improved security.
I myself made the move from Firefox to IE 8 and despite a few weird behaviors (from the browser, not me), I'm basically satisfied.
Many users have little choice but to upgrade as Microsoft update services forces the upgrade upon them. But others have no admin rights and can't make the swap, and still others have older apps that may not work in the new browser. Microsoft is hoping to help third parties and corporations adapt these old apps to IE 8 -- but in this tough economy, I'm not sure if this is a top priority.
Do you use an older browser, and if so, why and which one? Share your thoughts in an e-mail to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on August 17, 20093 comments
I have an interesting proposition. My high school-age son Dave just finished a writing course at Brown University and is itching to become a real published author (he mostly wants to show up the old man).
We thought an article on Bing, based on your experiences, would be fun to work on and fun for you to read. Do you want to be quoted and help a decent lad out at the same time? If so, report your interest to [email protected] and Dave will get back to you with some detailed questions!
Posted by Doug Barney on August 17, 200913 comments
Why do Microsoft executives talk endlessly about VMware? Sure, VMware currently is the leader and a pioneer in x86 virtualization technologies. Like any upstart, VMware got a jump on the market. So why harp on the matter? Isn't Microsoft the perpetual Avis of the software market ("We try harder")? Doesn't it always come from behind to attain near-monopoly control of the market that it challenges?
Maybe the softies are unnerved by VMware CEO -- and ex-Microsoftie -- Paul Maritz. His bio reads like a Microsoft nightmare tale of an insider defecting to the competition. Wikipedia even tells us that Maritz was "often said to be the third-ranking executive, behind Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer" when he worked at Microsoft.
The business of selling software can be a brutal affair. Market reach can be a final blow to smaller fish in the sea, no matter how nimble they are. Think Windows, which was declared by U.S. courts to be a monopoly. Windows was leveraged to bundle IE and kill Netscape Navigator. On the virtualization front, Microsoft is saying that it can undercut VMware's pricing. Microsoft's Hyper-V hypervisor is offered at "one-sixth" VMware's price, we're told. Moreover, Microsoft distributes Hyper-V with Windows Server 2008. It sounds like bundling, but maybe it's not. Will VMware get its virtualization market chipped away as Windows Server 2008 gets rolled out more broadly, or will things be different this time?
Brad Anderson, corporate VP for Microsoft's Management and Services Division, couldn't stop talking about a deal VMware recently proposed with SpringSource that will cost VMware about "$362 million in cash and equity." The proposed acquisition will bring maybe 2 million developers into the VMware orbit as part of its cloud computing push.
Developers? Cloud computing? Where have we heard those terms before? Isn't this a page from Microsoft's playbook taken up by a former Microsoft insider? Who'll win this virtualization slugfest? Tell Doug at [email protected].
Posted by Kurt Mackie on August 14, 20096 comments
Who will tell the investors? Bill Koefoed, Microsoft's GM of investor relations, has that task. And he recently explained that Microsoft's profitability as a company had a lot to do with PC sales, which were "down somewhere between 6 and 8 percent" in the last quarter. In particular, high-profit business PC sales were lower than consumer PC sales. A particular stumbling block for Microsoft was netbooks, representing "about 11 percent of industry PC sales." The low-tech, low-cost, smallish netbooks bring in less OS revenue for Microsoft than traditional PCs. Microsoft's revenues have been dogged by this "netbook effect" for the past nine months, according to Koefoed.
Microsoft currently provides the aging XP for netbooks, but any edition of Windows 7 can run on these devices, we're told. The missing piece of the puzzle is what Microsoft will charge for Windows 7 running on a netbook; most think the price will be higher, but the details haven't been announced.
Steve Ballmer recently hinted at a possible way out of this number-crunching mess. He suggested that a category of netbooks, called "ultrathins," will appear next year. Ultrathins will be higher-powered and higher-performance machines compared with netbooks, he explained. And there's even another mobile computing device category that Microsoft is calling "consumer Internet devices" or CIDs.
Is any of this helping? Would you buy an ultrathin running Windows 7 for a higher price than a netbook running XP, or is that too confusing? Let Doug know at [email protected].
Posted by Kurt Mackie on August 14, 20093 comments
Microsoft and Nokia have struck a deal in which Nokia will use Office Mobile applications on its Symbian open source mobile phone platform.
Microsoft will be developing its Office Mobile solution for a non-Windows platform, and that represents a new first for Microsoft, according to Stephen Elop, president of Microsoft's Business Division.
Is this deal another sign that Windows is becoming less of a profit center for Microsoft? Why did the Office application sell, but not Windows Mobile with it? Answers welcome at [email protected].
Posted by Kurt Mackie on August 14, 20090 comments
Windows 7 is pretty much done, as the release-to-manufacturing (RTM) version has been, er, released. That's good news for IT and great news for the economy. But it's not so hot for those beta testing either Visual Studio 2010 or .NET Framework 4. The three just don't get along.
The good news? Betas don't last forever and no one says a VS or .NET beta tester has to upgrade straight away.
I also learned that release candidate users such as myself have to do a clean install of the Windows 7 RTM, and not just upgrade in place. No biggie. The RC works a lot better than XP, so I'm in no hurry.
Posted by Doug Barney on August 12, 20093 comments
Wow, a busy couple of weeks for Google. Besides leaking news about its new search engine, Google also announced a new beta of the Chrome browser (seems like this has been a pretty long beta for what seems like a clean and solid product). The already fast Chrome is now supposed to be a third faster and now supports HTML 5.
The bigger news, perhaps, is Google's attempt to corner the market on Web video. It already owns YouTube so it has content pretty well in hand. Now it wants to own the back end, as well. To do so, Google is buying On2 Technologies. On2 offers compression software that drives Flash videos, the way most of us view videos. (In fact, I had to bail on Firefox because it doesn't support Flash on Windows 7.) Analysts see On2 as boosting YouTube, as well as improving how the Chrome browser and Chrome OS handle video.
Finally, a note to Google marketers: It makes no sense to use the same name for a browser and an OS. Who came up with this idea, George Foreman?
Posted by Doug Barney on August 12, 20095 comments
It may be just a coincidence, but shortly after Microsoft released Bing to good reviews, Google leaked news of its new search engine back end: Caffeine. Now being tested by Web developers, the new engine is supposed to be way faster and offer more real-time results as well as more Twitter and FaceBook findings.
The front end? The same, old, ultra-simple Google search box. What I didn't hear was any high-faluting technologies or radical new approaches to search. But according to tester comments, Caffeine gathers more results and is, in fact, far faster.
What would your dream search engine consist of? Shut down your browser and e-mail your wish list to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on August 12, 20091 comments
If you're jonesin' for a real, pretty much final copy of Windows 7, you're in luck -- provided you're an MSDN or TechNet member.
Now, bear with me if you're not a Ph.D. in Microsoft naming conventions. Recently, we had a beta of Windows 7 that turned into a release candidate (RC), which means it's almost ready for release (not sure if it has to win a majority of votes). Before we get to the real, true, actual, final, final commercial product, we have one more little beauty -- the release-to-manufacturing (RTM) version, which means OEMs now get the software.
IT insiders can nab this item, as well, so long as they have a special relationship with Microsoft, such as a TechNet or MSDN sub. Many Redmond readers fit into this category and I'm dying to know how you like the RTM. Your impressions readily received at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on August 10, 20097 comments
Dang, it's almost the second Tuesday of the month, and you know what that means: time for some patching. This month, there are nine fixes to contend with, with five deemed critical.
I know I sound like a broken record, but pretty much all or most of the patches plug remote code execution (RCE) holes. As is happening more and more frequently, one patch plugs multiple products, like the critical patch for everything from Office Small Business Accounting, Office 2000 and 2003, to BizTalk, Visual Studio and ISA Server. That's one well-rounded patch!
On the OS front, again one patch repairs RCE problems in clients from Windows 2000 to Vista, and servers from Windows 2003 to 2008.
Posted by Doug Barney on August 10, 20090 comments
The Office ribbon interface is pretty controversial. According to many of your recent letters, most of you are frustrated having to relearn Work, Excel and PowerPoint, while a handful love the new look.
To keep up with Office, Sun is looking to add a ribbon to OpenOffice -- possibly. The ribbon is available for download and the open source community is already up in arms. Not only that, the comments underneath our news story on this issue are universally negative.
Do you use OpenOffice, and if so, do you want a ribbon, even as just an option? Shoot your thoughts to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on August 10, 20092 comments