Ray Ozzie, as it turns out, is a pretty darn good writer. The soon-to-be-ex-Microsoft chief software architect laid out effectively, at times even beautifully, his vision for the future of computing in an entry on his new blog.
Lots of folks have taken a shot at dissecting Ozzie's little manifesto; our favorite interpretation comes from esteemed Microsoft watcher and Redmond magazine columnist Mary Jo Foley. Allow us, though, if you will, to break down in the very simplest and most direct of terms what Ozzie says so eloquently: Microsoft is too fat, too slow and too dependent on fading technologies.
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Posted by Lee Pender on October 25, 20100 comments
Yes, we're talking about the portable cassette player here. Sony was still selling them in Japan(!) but will finally cease production more than 30 years after the famed device's debut. The Zune of its day...haha, just kidding...the iPod of its day, the Walkman will go down as one of the great relics of the 1980s and the device that ultimately killed the boombox (held on the shoulder, naturally) and ushered in the era of tuning everybody else out in favor of, well, some tunes. Vaya con Dios...
Posted by Lee Pender on October 25, 20101 comments
Where might Ray Ozzie turn up next? Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff sure did have some sweet things to say about him this week. Of course, Benioff, likely still stinging from losing a patent battle with Microsoft, also poked a little fun at his larger rival, suggesting that Ozzie's resignation "happened much faster than a Microsoft upgrade." OK, that's a little funny.
Posted by Lee Pender on October 21, 20100 comments
Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Scott Bekker:
It's always interesting to scan through the comments at the infamously anonymous employee blog Mini-Microsoft when there's a major executive shakeup in Redmond, like Ray Ozzie's pending departure. Reaction to the Ozzie news is mixed over there. But more specifically, there's an anonymous post from a commenter claiming to be on the corporate sales force that's relevant to partners and the Microsoft Online Services effort. You can never tell, but there's enough detail in the post to make it seem credible. Money quote:
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Posted by Lee Pender on October 21, 20101 comments
Hey, the PC market is somewhat less bad than it used to be! This has to be good news, right? That full economic recovery must be right around the corner...right?
Posted by Lee Pender on October 20, 20100 comments
Finally, an honest-to-goodness, basically full-featured, legitimate online version of Microsoft Office is in beta. It's competitively priced and aimed squarely at the right market -- small and tiny businesses. And, fortunately, Microsoft decided to drop one of the worst and most hilarious product names of all time -- BPOS -- and give the service a decent moniker, Office 365. Although we are worried that Xbox 360 might get jealous at some point...
Posted by Lee Pender on October 20, 20100 comments
Before you start reading this entry, click on this link and read Scott Bekker's take on Ray Ozzie's "retirement." Seriously, just do it. Go back right now and click it. Your editor won't be offended. Bekker nailed this thing, and you're better off reading his blog post than you are reading what follows here.
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Posted by Lee Pender on October 20, 20100 comments
We've had the X-Men, the X Files, OS X, Generation X, even the movie Malcolm X...and now Adobe has given us Acrobat X. Oh, sure, we know that some of those X's are actually tens in Roman numerals, but we're trying to work with a theme here...
Posted by Lee Pender on October 18, 20100 comments
It's a shame that Microsoft can't come up with a catchier name for this product because it's very popular and very useful. SCCM doesn't even really spell anything, and if it does, that's a word we'd rather not have to pronounce.
Posted by Lee Pender on October 18, 20102 comments
If you had a billion dollars to spend, how would you spend it? Would you advertise your new mobile operating system and motion-controller game peripheral? No?
Well, that's how Microsoft is about to spend a cool bil. The combined advertising budgets of Windows Phone 7 and the Kinect game add-on (what is it with Microsoft and the word "kin," anyway?) will amount to one billion dollars.
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Posted by Lee Pender on October 18, 20101 comments
How will Microsoft's new mobile operating system fare in the market? And is it any good? RCP's Jeff Schwartz offers some excellent observations (but only tepid enthusiasm) on the matter following his live coverage of the Windows Phone 7 launch event.
Posted by Lee Pender on October 14, 20100 comments