Welcome to an abbreviated version of RCPU: We're in the midst of a lot of other
stuff, including an article for that
pesky
print publication, so, for once, we're employing an economy of words. And
we're in a linguistic recession right now.
So while we know that partners don't seem overly interested in a potential
Microsoft-Yahoo deal (and, really, we're not, either), we did find it interesting
that Yahoo has launched a spate
of new initiatives even as Microsoft continues to breathe down its neck.
Could these be the last acts of an independent Yahoo? Frankly, it seems likely,
but as we've said before, nobody knows. For now, though, it passes for news.
Posted by Lee Pender on April 01, 20080 comments
Reports indicate that Microsoft might kind of, sort of, be thinking about developing
something that would be a little bit like a
hosted
version of Office. Maybe. Kind of. Eventually.
Posted by Lee Pender on March 31, 20080 comments
The revelations from the ongoing and high-profile Vista Capable class action
lawsuit against Microsoft continue. (Check out the entire litany of subpoenaed
e-mails in a huge PDF file
here.)
Apparently, a surprisingly (to us, anyway) large percentage of Vista crashes
in the operating system's early months were caused by
dodgy
drivers from NVIDIA.
This lawsuit thing just gets better and better -- it's full of hilarious
e-mails, revelations of decisions that favored one partner over another
(Intel seems to have benefited, while HP kind of got
the shaft) and vendors on the block for supposedly coming up with faulty
drivers or no drivers at all. Highly entertaining, the whole thing. But is this
scenario all that unusual, really?
We wonder, and we really don't think that it is. Microsoft is a big company,
and Vista is a big, complicated product. We're guessing that a lot of "compromises"
happen between vendors and partners in the engineering and marketing of major
releases, and we know that the first release of any product -- especially an
OS -- can be buggy, to say the least.
All we're seeing with this lawsuit is how the sausage got made (a process once
explained to your editor in excruciating detail by a well-meaning woman from
the South of France...over lunch) and how it always gets made. The fact that
the sausage itself (Vista) is mostly still sitting
in the butcher's freezer rather than being gobbled up by hungry consumers
and enterprises is probably the result of a combination of factors, only a few
of which were revealed in the lawsuit's e-mail collection.
In other words, while the e-mails from the lawsuit are great entertainment
(seriously, print them out and read them on your next flight), we really doubt
that they reveal business practices that are all that out of the ordinary for
Microsoft or for any other big technology vendor. And if Vista isn't a success,
its relative failure is down to more than just a botched marketing campaign
-- a lot more, actually.
What we're wondering, though, is whether the Vista Capable saga has shaken
your faith in Microsoft and the way it does business or has changed your view
of the company at all. How much do you care about this lawsuit and its implications,
and what's your reaction to it? Sound off to RCPU at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on March 31, 20082 comments
It's not just the new OS that's having a hard time breaking into the corporate
world. It's also (editorial comment coming) the
genuinely
awful IE 7.
Posted by Lee Pender on March 31, 20080 comments
We've heard so much from Microsoft in the last year or so about its hosted
customer relationship management offering that it's hard to say why the news
of a name change for the product didn't arrive until late last week.
Dynamics CRM Live isn't anymore -- well, it isn't "Live," anyway.
The hosted application suite lives, but it's now Dynamics
CRM Online, an altogether better name that helps alleviate some confusion
in Microsoft's branding. Until now, it seemed as though everything Microsoft
did that had even the most remote connection to the Internet was branded as
"Live." Online might not be groundbreaking, but it's simple and descriptive.
Of course, once again, as with Longhorn server, we would have preferred CRM
Online's codename, Titan, to the name it ended up with. But, hey, nobody's paying
us to be branding experts. Still, Titan -- it just sounds powerful and sort
of menacing, not unlike Microsoft itself.
While we're on board with the new name, we do find the timing of it odd: Why
not bust it out at Convergence, which just took place in Orlando a couple of
weeks ago? Oh, well, no matter. Dynamics CRM Online it is. Finally.
Posted by Lee Pender on March 31, 20080 comments
The provider of tools for SQL Server management has a new deal for Dynamics
partners. Check it out
here.
Posted by Lee Pender on March 27, 20080 comments
Given
this
week's news that Symantec drivers and Vista Service Pack 1 are getting along
about as well as Microsoft and the European Union, we thought we'd bring you
readers' yarns of frustration and anger about SP1. (Yes, somebody out there
is running Vista and trying to install this service pack. Hey, it came as a
surprise to us,
too.)
To the e-mails. Richard starts us off:
"The release candidate caused an entire system rebuild because the
damage was so extensive and because it inactivated Vista and, without the
physical media from Dell (except for the 'restore' disk), nothing could be
done to reactivate it.
"While the released SP1 hasn't done that kind of damage, it also
won't install. I've run it seven times now, with varying numbers of CHKDSK,
SFC and memory validation (as prescribed in the 'failed' dialogs), all to
no avail. I'm chalking it up to my system being a Vista Ultimate x64 unit
(Dell Precision M90 laptop) and Microsoft STILL not getting it right for the
x64 variant, but, I've got to tell you, this is getting very, very old..."
We hear you, Richard. At least you're not alone. Eric dropped an old-fashioned
(and highly entertaining) rant on us:
"My wife recently got her laptop, and it came with 'only' Vista.
We were getting BSD all the time, so I called Dell to enquire. They mentioned
that SP1 for Vista should fix the problems.will have to see if it does.
"Here are my personal observations:
- Why is the service pack 430MB in size? That is not a service pack;
that is a complete OS!
- Why does the file name of the service pack not even mention the word
'Vista'? If Vista was supposed to be called Windows 6, then why was it not
called Windows 6?
- Upon my first attempt to install the SP, I got a message telling me
that the software I am trying to install has not been digitally signed and
might be unsafe. Cute one, Microsoft! Does that bullet in your foot hurt?
- My first attempt at the install failed, giving a Web site to access
for more information. Of course, the URL was provided in the error message
but was not a hyperlink. Why should it be? The URL, once typed in, provided
six scenarios to apply the SP properly. Luckily, the first option actually
worked.
"My wife is now the proud owner of a slow computer running Vista
SP1. No BSD as of yet. Knock on wood..."
Knock on wood, indeed. High marks to you, Eric, for braving the SP install.
Marsorry writes from Africa to say that he couldn't be more sorry (ahem) about
installing Vista in the first place. SP1 isn't even part of the equation yet:
"We are running 10 percent of our desktops in production to see its
effects. It hasn't been pretty, to say the least. We've been waiting for reviews
to see whether the service pack was any good, and time will tell, I guess.
We've worked hard at workarounds to get all our production apps working properly
and toyed around with security for these few, but quite frankly, we're nervous
whether this SP will 'stuff' up all that work again. Regardless, it's a step
that has to be taken which should help us understand whether to go mainstream
with it or downgrade the 10 percent and wait for the next one."
Microsoft might have a suggestion for you on that front, Marsorry, but you're
not alone in contemplating whether "upgrading" to Vista is a good
idea. Not by a long shot.
We're just starting to get e-mails about the great XP
SP3 conspiracy so we'll run them next week. Add to the pile at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on March 27, 20083 comments
OK, so not everybody has a
disaster
story or a cautionary tale to tell about Vista. In the interest of balance,
here are a few happy tales of service packing.
Bob seems pretty pleased so far:
"I've been running Vista since beta 1, and my only complaint is user
access control. Everything else, including better drivers once they became
available (for mainstream hardware), and lots of other pluses made me a convert
on both x86 and x64 long ago. SP1 installed onto an x86 workstation, my main
x64 monster box and my Dell e1505 laptop without a hitch the day it was available
(via MSDN)."
Excellent. As much as we enjoy bashing
Vista, these are the stories we (and partners) like to hear. Todd has another
one:
"Vista SP1 installed flawlessly on my Dell laptop over the weekend.
It took about an hour or so for the whole process (wireless download through
Windows Update, install, reboot and three-step install). The Windows Update
process took care of everything. It was so easy, a caveman could do it.
"I haven't found anything it broke yet and didn't really have anything
I was waiting for it to fix. However, this laptop is only moderately used
for basic Web application testing (in IE 7, Firefox 3 beta, Safari 3 for Windows),
run-of-the-mill Web browsing and GoToMyPC access to my office desktop, so
I had really expected it would be a fairly low-risk update."
Ken is right there with you, Todd:
"So far, I have patched my home machine, and I have developed several
SP1 baselines for our enterprise, using Vista Enterprise. I have seen no problems
so far; in fact, I have noticed some improvement. However, we are still very
early in our enterprise development, but things are going well."
Very nice! Mike says that things are going (mostly) well, too:
"As an MCP, an associate to a Certified Partner and an inquisitive
techie, I started using Vista as soon as I could (partly as it is part of
my job).
"I have three machines running Vista, one with Enterprise, one with
Home Premium and one with Vista Ultimate. I have SP1ed the Enterprise version,
which runs on my Dell Inspiron 1300, which I mainly use for editing my photographs
in Adobe Photoshop CS2 and running Microsoft Expressions Web as well as Microsoft
Access for developing databases. My desktop PC has Vista Ultimate, which I
use for RAW image processing, printing and e-mail (Office 2007).
"I have not, as yet, experienced any post-SP1 issues. At work, we
have tested Vista (non-SP); however, one of our software vendors is still
having issues with the Vista version of their software due to significant
changes in the OS, and another vendor is having very noticeable speed issues
with their Vista version -- their new version still runs significantly faster
on XP SP2."
Well, Mike, even a mitigated success is still a success, especially as far
as Vista is concerned. Thanks to all who took the time to write, and remember
that the door to RCPU is always open at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on March 27, 20082 comments
Ken Schrader's No. 49 car will sport a
big
ol' Microsoft logo -- and a small-business partner logo, as well. What we're
wondering is if Mr. Schrader should suffer an unfortunate crash during a race
(hey, it happens in NASCAR), will anybody say that he "blue screened?"
Because we would.
Posted by Lee Pender on March 27, 20080 comments
Oh, it's a slow news week. What better time to drum up a little drama? On top
of much ado about not much regarding the
first
Vista service pack, this week we have news about ol' reliable XP and its
forthcoming major update.
Apparently, XP SP3 could RTM -- how's that for alphabet soup? -- as
early as April. Now, given that we've all been running XP for the better
part of a decade now -- and given that most people seem to have almost a Brett
Favre level of totally irrational love for it -- it wouldn't seem to be that
big a deal if XP SP3 comes out in, say, June, instead of in April...right? After
all, it's been a while, almost an Olympiad, since the last XP SP.
Oh, no. The conspiracy theorists are out, raging hot about Microsoft possibly
delaying
the release of XP SP3 in order to further pump up Vista SP1 and, by extension,
Vista itself. (OK, so it's only one sort-of, would-be conspiracy theorist. We
told you that it was a slow news week.)
Whatever. First of all, of course Microsoft wants people to upgrade to Vista
now that SP1 is out. Is Redmond delaying XP SP3 in order to help that happen?
Maybe. But, really, who cares? Apparently some people do...in a slow news week.
Are you bothered by Microsoft's service pack release schedule? Sound off at
[email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on March 26, 20084 comments