For folks who follow standards stuff (which we don't, at least not all that
closely),
here's
a story
about standards being the defaults in the next version of IE.
Posted by Lee Pender on March 05, 20080 comments
Those
huge
fines
that the EU levied on Microsoft last week? A
thing
of the past
, now that Redmond has opened its vault of APIs and protocols,
Steve Ballmer says.
Yeah, well, we'll see. A couple of readers agree with RCPU's take that the
EU is out for more than just "justice"; it also wants a big American
scalp. Andrew says:
More
Posted by Lee Pender on March 04, 20080 comments
It seems that from houses to cars to software, buying isn't so popular anymore.
It's renting that's in -- or coming in, if Microsoft's most recent big announcement
is any indication.
Microsoft this week unveiled Microsoft
Online Services for companies of all sizes. Previously, and somewhat incongruously,
MOS (our name, not an official Redmond tag) had been available only to companies
with 5,000 employees or more. Now, it's out there for the audience that seems
most likely to crave it, SMBs.
More
Posted by Lee Pender on March 04, 20081 comments
The "Vista Capable" class-action suit has exposed a
raft
of internal e-mails
that show just how messed up things can get inside a
company like Microsoft. There's even more hilarity
here
Posted by Lee Pender on March 04, 20080 comments
Marathon Technologies, apparently named for the kind of race thousands of completely
insane people run in Boston every spring, is
having
great success
with its server virtualization partner program.
Posted by Lee Pender on February 28, 20080 comments
OK, so Microsoft's
big
server launch day
wasn't exactly a surprise, and it
wasn't
full of surprises
, either.
Still, the unveiling of Windows Server, SQL Server and Visual Studio -- all
vintage 2008 -- must have required a huge amount of work. There were the logistics
of managing the event itself, the preparation of executive presenters, the handling
of the press and other hangers-on -- not to mention the years of development
that went into the products (sort of) making their debuts. Some positive headlines
would have been nice, even for a press-eating behemoth like Microsoft. Everything
was in place for a lovely event.
More
Posted by Lee Pender on February 28, 20081 comments
Is your partner company doing spectacular stuff with Microsoft technology?
Stand up and be counted! (For those about to consult, we salute you.) Microsoft
is
accepting
nominations
for its annual partner awards.
Posted by Lee Pender on February 28, 20080 comments
Microsoft has just fixed
another
outage
of some of its more popular Live services -- the erstwhile Hotmail
and MSN Messenger among them.
When we hear about this kind of incident here at RCPU, we can't help but question
the current viability of Software as a Service for business-critical applications.
OK, sure, we know that Hotmail and MSN Messenger (or whatever they're called
now -- Windows Live something or other) aren't exactly business-critical for
most companies. (In fact, the IM outage might have increased productivity in
a lot of offices.) And we know that Microsoft doesn't make uptime guarantees
for these consumer services the way it would for mission-critical stuff, a point
made by the always wise Scott Bekker, RCP's editor in chief. Furthermore,
we know that when it comes to CRM and ERP, for example, partners, not Microsoft,
are taking on most of the hosting duties -- all of them in the case of hosted
Dynamics ERP.
More
Posted by Lee Pender on February 28, 20082 comments
Let's make one thing perfectly clear: This is
not
Vista. Or at least,
we don't think it is. Microsoft is launching Windows Server 2008 today, a long-awaited
weapon in Redmond's arsenal of products and a potential gold mine for partners.
Forget the mostly false hype that surrounded Vista. There's genuine buzz about
this new product. Partners are excited about it. Customers want it. Microsoft
has even seen fit -- for some bizarre reason -- to throw
a service pack into it. And now, it's in your hands, partners.
More
Posted by Lee Pender on February 27, 20081 comments
Lifecycle management, lab management and application integration are among
the more interesting functions of VMware's
new
automation suite
, which the company announced at its European user conference
near the azure beaches of the South of France. Really, though, we're just as
glad to be in Framingham, Mass. this week. OK, no, we're not.
More
Posted by Lee Pender on February 27, 20080 comments