Yahoo hasn't done particularly well since Microsoft's unsuccessful hostile takeover
this past February. That same month, Yahoo laid off a thousand workers, but
then hired back more to fill their places. Now Yahoo promises to print up to
1,500 pink slips -- this after announcing a 64 percent earnings decline to $54.3
million in the latest quarter.
Moves like this have driven Yahoo's stock down to the point where it's almost
affordable. In fact, shareholders are pining for the days when Microsoft offered
almost $45 billion for the company. The offer was for $33 a share. Yahoo, last
time I checked, was trading for around 12 bucks. Yikes!
So does this mean Microsoft should offer $15 billion now for Yahoo? Even at
that price, I think it's a bad idea, a me-too play aimed at Google but one that
lacks innovation and punch. Is a $15 billion Yahoo a bargain? Financial acumen
welcome at [email protected].
And you can find the LA Times story on Yahoo's woes posted at our new
Web site, RedmondReport.com.
Posted by Doug Barney on October 22, 20080 comments
Doug recently asked readers about their
thoughts
on OpenOffice.org, which just released version 3. Most of you had positive
things to say:
I have been using OpenOffice since its inception (actually, before that
with StarOffice) and I like it. I use Microsoft Office 2007 in the workplace
as that is the business standard, and I use OpenOffice 3 at home as it can
do everything I need and more. Your beef that it's big, complex and not exactly
fun may be true, but when has an Office suite been fun? Free, useable and
does 90 percent of what MS Office does sounds very, very good to me.
-Craig
I have used it for years in an effort to decrease spending in our IT
department. So far, everyone has adjusted well for their needs. I would like
to see more VBA or macro support. I give it two thumbs up!
-Anonymous
I've recommended OpenOffice for both home and office use with good results.
My only caveat is "it's better than Office, but it ain't Office."
If you require total compliance with a bit of VBA code thrown in, then pony
up for Office. If you're interested in getting the job done and don't have
the compatibility worries, OO is more than capable.
-Gregg
A number of years ago, when I had retired from Microsoft, I took a serious
look at the desktop Linux efforts and OpenOffice. What bugged me in general
about them was that they were so busy trying to emulate Windows and Office
that they weren't doing anything innovative. Their value proposition is "You
don't have to pay Microsoft a licensing fee," and that's about it. And
note that I didn't say they were free or even cheaper, since training, compatibility
and other cost of ownership issues far outweigh licensing costs. From my perspective,
they just totally blew the opportunity.
So what is the opportunity? It was to create completely different and
more compelling experiences than what Microsoft had done. Where was the new
thinking in UI? Where was a new paradigm for information work? Basically,
the open source community shows a complete lack of imagination and innovation
on the desktop. The world doesn't need cheaper software -- it needs revolutionary
software.
-Anonymous
With each release, OpenOffice has grown and matured and got better. OK,
so it doesn't have all the features of MS Office, but the features it does
have generally work as you expect. It doesn't have as many dedicated books
as Office 2007 (but, hey, I don't need a book to use it). Office 2007 has
thousands of features...but once I can type text, insert images, put in a
table of contents and print out labels for my Christmas cards, I'm happy.
If it can open my late 1980s files, it's good (newer versions of Word forgot
the backward-compatibility thing). If it can do a PDF, better (and I have
a utility for that, anyway). If I can open a 60-page .DOC, put comments on
it, e-mail back to the sender, I'm delighted (with 3.0, commenting works more
like Word 03 so that box is now ticked).
The negatives: PowerPoint import can be tempramental (for me, this is
not an issue but I can see how it will affect some). ODF is not fully supported
at work (so I save as PDF/DOC). Sometimes -- and far less than before -- complex
DOC formatting is a bit messy. There's still an expectation in business that
DOC/XLS files will be exchanged and businesses may pay for the security of
knowing MSO will open/close these 100 percent of the time.
-Clarke
For me, it's a simple choice. In my company I use Microsoft OS products
to run critical applications -- but we are not wed. I'm grateful to the Microsoft
market for generating work for me. I run a virtual or real Windows OS (or
two) to support some critical products (mostly Adobe) and run Linux and Mac
OS X for everything else.
With that as context, I don't find the features offered by MS Office
worth the license fee. Looking forward, I prefer the product that will do
what I need and save documents in a format that conforms to an open standard.
I'm really tired of the format lockdown game. My impression is that Microsoft
adopts standards only after every means to thwart them are exhausted.
-Anonymous
One reader thinks not enough has been said about the price of Microsoft Office:
Hmm...for some who regularly gripes about the price of a Mac, I am surprised
you have not commented on the price of Office. Oh, that's right, you probably
got someone else to pay, so it did not occur to you that the rest of us have
to actually buy it.
I have to admit, I've never actually paid for it either, as I have always
managed to wrangle a copy from my employer, and did experience sticker shock
when I saw the price. At a suggested retail of $400, that's almost half the
price of an "overpriced" Macbook.
-Anonymous
Speaking of "overpriced" Macbooks, this reader thinks that as long
as people keep buying, Apple shouldn't change a thing:
I think Apple has one of the smartest marketing strategies in the free
enterprise system! It is no wonder that all Apple users are thrilled with
their platform. Why wouldn't they be when, for less money, they can switch
to the alternative? That pretty well ensures that all Apple users will be
happy, loyal customers. How many other companies wish they could be in that
situation?
As long as Apple is meeting its profit goals and, at the same time, ensuring
a base of 100 percent-satisfied customers, why should it change? Cadillacs
are just Chevys in fancy clothes, but Chevys take heat all the time. When
was the last time you heard anyone complaining about a Cadillac?
-T.W.
More reader letters coming tomorrow! In the meantime, leave us your thoughts
by writing a comment below or sending an e-mail to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on October 22, 20080 comments
Here are more of your thoughts on the high price of Apple laptops:
You say that you find it an outrage, in this economy, to charge such
a premium. While I respect your personal convictions, that statement is a
little too broad for my liking. The Declaration of Independence cites life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness as inalienable rights, not low-cost Apple
computing. What Apple charges for a laptop is Apple's business. That's the
free market. If we find that we are willing to pay that premium, we can join
the exclusive club. If not, then we don't. We have no right to anything at
any cost other than what the market will bear and what the business will sell
for.
Could Apple have greater market share in personal and enterprise computing?
I firmly believe so. Do they care? I am not sure, but I would suspect that
Apple, marching to the beat of its own drum for decades, has its own version
of success. PC computing is definitely the more economical way to go, but
it's nice to have the option to drive a Cadillac if you really want one and
can afford it.
-Kurt
Your comment about Apple not being interested in matching prices with
PCs got me to thinking that maybe it has something there. All of the Mac users
I know are competent computer users; I can't say that of all of the PC users
I know. The Mac users I talk to are usually asking for help on the PC they
need to use at work, not their personal Mac. After 10 years of PC support
in a public school district, I am of the opinion that most people have no
business using a computer!
-Anonymous
It took a lot of convincing to get my wife to go along with getting our
Macbook Pro back in February. And I am glad that we made the investment. Looking
at the new models and stuff now, it would be great to get another one to take
advantage of that extra video memory horsepower and overall performance.
However, the price this time around is not going to work. Apple does
need to reduce the cost of its hardware by a large amount if it is going to
continue to grow and prosper. Our economy now will more than likely hurt Apple
if it does not do something soon. It would be a darn shame to see the current
crowds at the Apple store where to be reduced to one to two window shoppers
that would briefly stop in.
-Albert
Apple has no place or desire to exist in the enterprise. It uses a tailored
version of Unix at the core of its OS, but that does not make it comparable
to *nix clients or servers. It is a consumer-grade device provider, in that
it gives you a shrink-wrapped phone, media player, laptop, 1U server, etc.
with bells and whistles. It does not give you the utility that is a machine
of your own. I would not start buying T-Mobile routers if they started making
them.
Standard or branded PC hardware running Windows or *nix will give you
far more customizability than Apple will ever offer, which is the first foot
into the door of any serious enterprise. Its computers are "pretty"
versions that try to do the exact same thing, but seriously fall short. Any
hardware running XP, Vista or *nix will beat a Mac hands-down in every enterprise
usability test you can throw at it.
-Jeremy
There are a number of companies that do not market to the low end of the
market. Not sure why you are thinking that Apple needs to be all things to
all people. Also, way too often reviewers do not look at all the differences
in the systems (i.e., the mag attached power cord). Mac has a lot more going
for it than a Windows system in a lot of ways. Most people can use a Mac and
not look back to Windows. If you are doing any multimedia, then Mac rules.
For those that must have Windows apps they can get them with Parallels, and
it is seamless.
I think that although the laptops are a bit pricier than Windows laptops,
Apple is right on for being a very profitable company. It is moving up in
market share consistantly. I am seeing more and more Mac laptops in public.
I know of a lot of people that are migrating to Macs also. And I know a very
large number of people (like myself) that are network engineers of one sort
or another that have moved to Mac for their personal systems because we are
just tired of the Windows crap. Macs just work, pure and simple.
-Anonymous
What hasn't been working, at least for this reader, is Vista. More specifically,
older apps that worked fine in XP but fail in the new OS:
About two months ago, I bought a new laptop with Vista Home Premium on
it. I am getting used to the new interface, but have been having a little
trouble with two older applications. Other than e-mail and Internet browsing,
these two are my primary uses for the laptop.
Sometimes the applications will just stop. The mouse doesn't seem to
work and I have to use Ctrl-Alt-Del to get to Task Manager and end my "not
responding" task. When I get to Task Manager, the mouse is responding
again, but not the application. Is this typical Vista execution or what? I
have been using the apps under XP for at least four years and they work fine,
but now that they are installed under Vista, they seem unreliable. What's
up?
-John
But John's problem notwithstanding, at least one reader still thinks Vista
is just as good as a Mac:
Put 64-bit Vista (other than Vista Home or Basic) on a computer with
a quad-core processor, 4GB RAM and only Microsoft-approved applications, and
it will cost and operate similarly to a Mac. It will perform well and applications
will be expensive and limited. On the plus side, it will be easier to find
qualified people to support it and networking is much simpler than on a Mac.
Put it on a low-end computer and it will "suck." This is a classic
case of "you get what you pay for."
Example: Sit at a Vista computer and try to share resources. The Help menu
is easy to find and easy to follow. Try the same thing on a Mac. You will
find out how to connect to shares on other computers. Getting help for a Mac
is easier using a Web search than using its documentation. Our local Mac store
offers free training for purchasers of new Macs. If the system is that easy,
why do users need the training?
-Earl
And finally, Stephen's not so impressed with Chrome. Here's why:
If you're still collecting "Chrome Woes," may I add a few?
One, this site
took five minutes to load in Chrome, whereas I was on the page in two seconds
in IE 7, browsed the entire week in photos, voted and closed out before Chrome
had rendered anything more than the banner and left-nav. Two, we use an open
source Web-based product, Gemini, to track our internal development projects.
It has a RAD Editor component that in IE behaves fine, but in Chrome the Ctrl+
shortcuts are ignored.
Three, signing in to see my iGoogle page took me to a blank page that
was "redirecting" for fully a minute. Maybe those guys at Google
really need to talk to each other before they dink around with the main pages.
For some reason, after 10 minutes, the page was still "loading,"
as evidenced by the spinner on the tab title. "What's it doing?"
one may ask.
-Stephen
Check in tomorrow for more of reader letters! In the meantime, share your own
thoughts by leaving a comment below or sending an e-mail to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on October 21, 20080 comments
It's got to be great to be Steve Ballmer. He's obviously got plenty of dough
and thousands of smart employees, and I highly doubt he ever flies coach. And
because he's the CEO, he can say whatever he wants. Where others in Microsoft
are gun-shy and afraid to say the wrong thing, Ballmer can be bombastic, insulting,
fun and inspiring -- and he talks about details other execs would never disclose
(at least, not without written permission, or perhaps after the product ships).
Case in point: At a recent Gartner event, Ballmer talked in general terms about
Microsoft's upcoming
cloud OS, one that will host Microsoft apps running over the Internet. He
was more specific about Windows 7, indicating that it's really an extension
of today's Vista but focusing on performance and what he calls "cleanup."
He added, "Essentially, the way I'd characterize it -- it's Windows Vista,
a lot better. Windows Vista is good. Windows 7 is Windows Vista with cleanup
and user interface, improvements in performance."
Posted by Doug Barney on October 21, 20080 comments
Yesterday,
we told you about a hacker attack disguised as a Microsoft security alert. Another
new threat consists of
bogus
social networking links that are simply a direct road to malware, at least
according to a report from the Georgia Tech Information Security Center.
I'm pretty savvy about computers, but there's a tiny part of me that's tempted
to click on these links. I even had a boss that once clicked on an "I Love
You" message...and you probably know the rest. The whole organization was
infected with the "I Love You Virus."
These tricks will continue to work, which means anti-virus/anti-malware defenses
have to be strong.
Posted by Doug Barney on October 21, 20080 comments
Not sure if you knew that today was a special day. Yeah, you probably know that
yesterday was National Osteoporosis Day and that tomorrow is International Stuttering
Awareness Day, but that leaves Oct. 21 all to Microsoft -- which has now given
us
Global
Anti-Piracy Day. Microsoft is trying to educate users in 49 countries about
the evils of pirated software.
I don't agree with committing software piracy, but I find that sometimes the
cure is worse than the illness. How many times have you tried to rebuild a system
only to be stymied reinstalling software you already paid for?
What do you think about piracy and piracy protection? Shrieks, howls and common
sense all welcome at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on October 21, 20080 comments
Are Apple laptops worth the price tag? Readers chime in with their thoughts:
In reality, I recognize hyperbole when I see it. Apple stuff is not all
that overpriced in the overall scheme of things. Rejoice and relax -- you
still have the lower parts of the market all to yourselves.
-Bill
You stated by saying that buying a Mac instead of a PC is like buying
a Cadillac instead of a Hyundai. I think a better comparison is buying a Mac
is like buying a Toyota instead of a Ford. We all know Ford could build a
better car if it wanted to, but it doesn't want to. So if reliability and
performance are issues, you buy a Toyota, not a Ford. Same for Mac vs. PC.
-Alan
Apple will never be able to afford to sell entry-level PCs. It simply
cannot generate the volumes necessary to absorb the narrow margins that Dell
and HP must maintain on entry-level products.
That's not really the question, though. OEMs like Dell and HP routinely
offer steep discounts on mid-range to high-end systems in order to attract
high-volume enterprise customers -- and they still make a profit. If Apple
DID care about IT (or perhaps if it simply understood the enterprise market),
it would understand that enterprise customers are not consumers and they will
not pay premium prices for PCs. But when they do buy, they buy in large enough
volumes to make it worth their while.
-Marc
Have you ever met anyone using a Mac that wasn't passionate about their
Apple product? They don't mind paying extra for the look and feel of the Apple
products and love the interface, so why would Apple ever cut its profit margin
in hopes of attracting newbies? It already has a dedicated fan base that's
bringing up children and influencing others with their preferences.
Not for me though -- I'm hooked on Windows and prefer it even with all
the security issues and OS flaws. It's what I use at work and prefer to use
at play. Even if Apple cut its prices down to the $500 level, I'd be no more
drawn to its product line as I'm sure many others would agree. Bet many others
are worked up over this posting!
-Jee
Apple obviously doesn't care about a presence in the enterprise. Most
line-of-business applications won't run on a Mac. There's little in the way
of management, no good story for remote access. Even ignoring the price difference,
there's too much functionality lost with Mac. They're fine for home users
or business users who only need an Office app, but other than that, I don't
see much of a role for them in business. For the foreseeable future, I'm a
PC.
-Dave
I support PCs and am sick of the instability. If Macs are stable, the
$500 premium is worth it. But are they? Based on what evidence?
As the lowly network admin, I'm not really that worried about money per
se; the boss has to pay for it. I'm more worried about my own frustration
regarding malware, users mucking where they shouldn't and general OS instability.
If I could make a defensible claim of higher uptime, higher user productivity
and lower support, I'd be interested in making the case. For now, we are moving
to a dumb terminal configuration using Wyse terminals and Citrix.
-Milton
Interesting to note that Apple once dominated computers in elementary
and high schools, but is now in second place to Dell in sales. Was Bill Gates
smart to settle his antitrust suit by giving away PCs to poorer schools? Not
only is he giving away PCs, Microsoft is providing millions of dollars in
training and technical support for teachers to learn how to effectively use
PCs. Smart move by Microsoft, but will Apple respond with affordable computers
for these low-income students?
-Dan
Since I've always thought (with few exceptions) that Apple customers represent
the best of the snobby, elitist, socially unconscious "arty" crowd,
why would Steve want to stoop so low for the rest of us? Thank goodness laptops
have gone down in price. Hey, maybe someday I can replace my old clunker.
-Anonymous
Apple taking its prices down to PC levels would destroy its business model,
since it wouldn't be the cool, limited club that it is. Its fanboys would
move on to something else if every Joe Six-Pack also owned an Apple; it wouldn't
be special anymore. The coolness is a critical part of Apple's business success...at
least for others. I'm too old to worry about coolness anymore.
-Bob
Check in tomorrow for more of your letters! In the meantime, leave your comment
below or send an e-mail to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on October 20, 20080 comments
Who would've guessed that a free hypervisor aimed directly against one costing
over five grand (for a high-end edition of ESX) would quickly gain market share?
If you said IDC,
you'd
be correct. This veteran research house says that Hyper-V, "when combined
with Virtual Server 2005, helped Microsoft to capture 23 percent of new license
shipments in 2Q 2008." That's great news for Microsoft execs.
So what's the good news for VMware? "Worldwide new server shipments virtualized
increased 52 percent year over year in the second quarter," IDC says. Looks
like there's plenty of business for everyone.
Posted by Doug Barney on October 20, 20080 comments
OpenOffice.org has opened a lot of eyes to open source. I've fiddled with it
and was surprised at how robust an essentially free application can be. My only
beef is that in an effort to be an alternative to Microsoft, it's almost Microsoft
Office. It's big, complex and not exactly fun.
Meanwhile, Office is maintaining the kind of market share that would make my
local electric company proud.
OpenOffice.org gets a lot of backing from Sun, which just
released OpenOffice.org 3. This new release includes better multi-page document
viewing, the ability to import Office 2007 files (but not export them back)
and native Mac OS X support.
What do you like and hate about OpenOffice.org? Is it too much like Office,
or not enough? Votes counted at [email protected]
-- and you don't even have to register.
Posted by Doug Barney on October 20, 20080 comments
Hackers know that Patch Tuesday is a big day, a day when IT prods feverishly
download patches and plug holes. It's also a perfect way to trick users into
clicking on what they think is legitimate security information from Microsoft,
but is
instead
a Trojan horse.
Is this clever? Not really. Dangerous? You bet! You might want to warn your
end users about this one.
Posted by Doug Barney on October 20, 20080 comments
Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have a mini-mutual-admiration society. They support
the same causes (The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) and neither are as
flashy as their wealth would indicate (compare either to Donald Trump and you'll
see what I mean).
But for at least a decade, Bill has outpaced Warren for good, old-fashioned
greenbacks. This year, Buffet finally turned the tables, and is now
the richest man in the world.
We'll check back after Wall Street recovers and see who's on top then. It'll
probably be some short seller we've never heard of.
Posted by Doug Barney on October 13, 20080 comments
IBM is bucking the recession, and is
expecting
its revenues and earnings to rise more sharply than the price of a New York
Giants ticket. Revenue should be right around $25 billion -- which, if you multiply
by four, gives a $100 billion run rate, enough to bail out one mid-size investment
firm. Profits are also expected to be solidly in "kick-butt" territory.
What's IBM doing right? Insight welcome at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on October 13, 20080 comments