A couple of months ago, RCPU brought you
the
tale of Avistar, a maker of video-conferencing software that was facing
potentially fatal challenges of 29 of its U.S. patents from none other than
Redmond itself.
Back then, we held -- as we do now -- that Microsoft was just trying to put
a struggling company out of business and snake its stuff in order to bolster
Redmond's own growing unified communications capabilities. Of course, not
everybody shared our take, but we've stuck with it.
So, it was with a bit of a non-objective sideways grin that we received word
today (as did everybody else; it came out in
a press release) that the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office has rejected,
thus far, 14 of the 29 challenges to Avistar's patents put forth by Microsoft.
To this point, the press release said, the USPTO has agreed to reexamine nine
of the patents, so Avistar is still in danger of losing a few battles.
While we don't know the details of all 29 patents and can't comment on which
ones might or might not be legitimate (and while we'll allow that some are probably
stronger than others), we were never comfortable with the fact that Microsoft
threw all 29 -- pretty much Avistar's entire U.S. patent lot -- up for reexamination.
So, yeah, we're kind of pleased by today's news, honestly. It sort of feels
like justice, and there's not always a lot of that in today's tech industry,
with its domination by a few giant vendors.
Again, we're not anti-Microsoft; we defend Redmond all the time here. We're
just glad to see that a smaller competitor is fighting in the face of a wealthier
(and ill-behaving, in this case, we believe) monster and is actually winning
a battle or two. If nothing else, it makes for an interesting story to follow.
Have any more comments on Avistar or on how Microsoft sometimes does business?
Shoot them to [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on June 03, 20080 comments
Along with pretty much everybody else in the world, your editor got a live
demo last week of Microsoft AX 2009, one of Redmond's Dynamics Enterprise Resource
Planning suites, which is
generally
available this week.
Other bloggers and commentators have mentioned how the latest version of AX
looks like a showcase for the Microsoft technology stack (which it
does indeed, Mary Jo Foley) and how AX might be moving Dynamics closer
to SAP's market territory -- something we've suspected and written about
for a while now.
But, if you'll allow us to gush for a minute, what struck us was how pretty
AX's interface is. OK, so it's based on the Office 2007 "ribbon" look,
which isn't actually our favorite. But it's still the simplest-looking, most
easily navigable ERP interface we've ever seen. And, as we've said before, that's
a major selling point for Dynamics partners.
After all, why do you think SAP was so interested in getting an Office front-end
in the Duet product? Because Microsoft still does user interfaces better than
most vendors and much better than most ERP vendors. And that might help users
actually use AX rather than try to avoid it.
"You don't want to spend the IT budget in user training," Kees Hertogh,
director of Dynamics AX product management at Microsoft, told RCPU during the
demo. "The value of ERP is having all the departments connected to each
other. The more people who use it, the higher the value."
It's the Microsoft party line, of course, but it makes sense; complexity is
the enemy of ERP adoption, and Microsoft has made its interface simple and attractive.
Now, maybe other vendors have something comparable, but they don't often come
by and give us demos. So, SAP, Oracle and the others: If you think your products'
look and feel can compare to that of AX 2009, bring it on. You know where to
find us.
For a look at an AX 2009 demo, check out this
link -- but be forewarned: It'll launch Windows Media Player.
Posted by Lee Pender on June 03, 20080 comments
RCP Editor in Chief Scott Bekker says that Dell's latest earnings release
shows that the one-time direct-sales stalwart is still approaching the channel
with hat in hand.
Posted by Lee Pender on June 03, 20080 comments
It seems as though the acceptance of Office Open XML as a standard isn't a
done deal yet -- at least, not if South Africa has anything to say about it. Excellent
write-up on this topic
here.
Posted by Lee Pender on May 29, 20080 comments
Apparently he'll still
spend
20 percent of his time working for Microsoft. No doubt he'll schedule everything
in Outlook, or maybe even Microsoft Project. Wouldn't it be funny if he carried
nothing but a paper calendar, though? Well, we think it would be.
Posted by Lee Pender on May 29, 20080 comments
OK, so we restrained ourselves from giving this entry the "Sounders get
a kick out of Microsoft sponsorship" headline. But
the Wall Street Journal didn't.
Between NASCAR
and soccer, we figure Microsoft has covered the American demographic spread
pretty well. And, yes, this is the second entry with a soccer reference in as
many days. We're fans here at RCPU -- get used to it.
Posted by Lee Pender on May 29, 20080 comments
So, we
asked you recently
what you were doing with virtualization...and you responded! Let's not waste
any time on this one. Here are a couple of your e-mails:
Jack writes to us from your editor's home state of Texas:
"We here at Clarendon College campuses in Clarendon, Pampa and Childress,
Texas are using it on every system in our IT lab. We are looking into running
a server-distributed solution for a virtual machine image for each of about
15 separate courses with all pertinent OSes included. Classes such as A+ classes
would have availability to Linux and Mac VMs as well as Win9x, 2K, XP and
Vista to compare during lab work and instruction. I haven't found an Ubuntu
image workaround for VMware on XP Pro host yet, but I think I will by mid-July
when we need it. I haven't been successful with Virtual PC and Ubuntu, either.
I also need a cheap version of Mac OS X to study, as well. Our networking
and infrastructure class images need to use MS Server 2008 and 2003, as well
as AS400, NetWare and Apple. As we are still in the development stage, I do
not have enough licenses except for Microsoft OSes (MS has been VERY good
to us here -- think Dreamspark and MSDNAA). We have decent host hardware,
but the challenges seem to be in the software realm. If we stay with Microsoft
products, this is EASY, though we are hoping for some cross-platform operation
as well.
"As we work through these lab settings, we are also setting the stage
for our Enterprise as well, but that is another story. Dummy terminals and
'virtual bubbles' appear to be in our near future across the organization."
Superb stuff, Jack. Thanks for going into detail. Take it easy with that Texas
summer setting in.
Edward had a story for us, too:
"We've been using virtualization for years. In the late 1990s, we
used VMware client so that our developers could create testing environments
and we didn't need to get numerous test machines. Usually, this was to test
our application on Win95, Win98, Win2000 or WinME (that was a mistake).
Working in the midrange world, we frequently would partition our systems
(AS/400s, now i5s) to consolidate and save floor space, etc. More recently,
we've consolidated several of our servers onto a single server and partitioned
it with VMware Server. This took us from 30 cubic feet of server space to
one 4U unit in a rack, consolidating five servers into one. Our next phase
in the server realm will be to replicate this one server and develop a load-balancing,
fail-over configuration. I can't imagine not using this in any shop that has
more than one logical server."
Thanks to you, too, Edward. We're still up for your virtualization stories
if you've got them. Send them to [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on May 29, 20080 comments
A few years ago, soccer legend Diego Maradona, seen
here
scoring the infamous "Hand of God" goal in the 1986 World Cup (sorry,
English readers), was in ill health -- gravely ill, many reports said. As he
lay in a hospital bed in Buenos Aires (as best we can remember; it was in Argentina
somewhere, anyway), huge crowds held a vigil outside the building and waited
for any scrap of news that supposedly came from Maradona's bedside.
The condition of poor Diego held an entire nation captive, even though there
were relatively few updates on how he was doing. The Argentine people, to whom
he was and is such a massively important figure, were hungry for any news they
could get.
We mention this because the trade press -- RCPU definitely included -- tends,
any time someone in Redmond mentions Windows, to virtually flock to Microsoft
in pretty much the same way that those folks in Argentina swarmed to Maradona's
place of convalescence. And this week, just after the Memorial Day holiday here
in the U.S., somebody at Microsoft mentioned Windows. So, here we are.
In fact, Microsoft did more than mention Windows 7 this week. Steve Ballmer
and Bill Gates -- hey, isn't he supposed to be retired or something? -- demonstrated
it at The Wall Street Journal's D: All Things Digital conference
in California. The big news? Windows 7 will have
a touch-screen interface. (As you might imagine, though, not
everybody is impressed.)
Aside from the fact that our computer screens are about to get a lot greasier,
there are only a few other things that we know about Windows 7. Although Microsoft's
Chris Flores blogged
about how much Microsoft isn't saying about Windows 7, Windows Chief Steven
Sinofsky did answer
a few questions about the forthcoming operating system in a chat with CBS's
new property, CNET.
(Also, Microsoft has apparently unleashed a hideous
logo for the not-yet-born OS -- although why we need a logo for a forthcoming
product that only has a code name is sort of beyond RCPU's comprehension.)
Anyway, most of what came out of Sinofsky's interview can be summed up pretty
quickly: Windows 7 will not have a new kernel; the kernel will build on those
of Windows Vista (hmm) and Windows Server 2008. There will be a 32-bit version
and a 64-bit version, and Windows 7 should debut sometime around January 2010
-- although Ballmer mentioned late 2009 at the D show -- give or take a few
months (or years, if we know Microsoft, but that's our little added comment).
Sinofsky and Flores both emphasized that Microsoft is going to be pretty tight-lipped
about Windows 7, despite this week's somewhat impromptu (and, apparently, less-than-comprehensive)
demo. Maybe that's because the company let the hype about Vista get way out
of control, and the OS turned out to be...well, let's just say, not as popular
as Redmond would've liked and maybe not as useful as partners and users would've
liked (although Microsoft executives still
insist that it's great). Yes, we're feeling kind toward Vista today.
So, like the reporters, fans and various hangers-on who waited so impatiently
for updates on Diego Maradona, we're throwing you these scraps about Windows
7. Diego, of course, survived and is thankfully now in much better health. Windows,
we're sure, will survive, too -- despite Vista. We're hoping that, aside from
being more "touchy feely" than previous Windows versions, Windows
7 will be lighter, simpler and more immediately compatible with other software
and devices than Vista was. We'll see. Until then...we'll, uh, keep in touch
with Microsoft for updates.
What do you want in Windows 7? What's your take on the touch screen? Or do
you just plan to use XP forever? Sound off at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on May 28, 20080 comments