Virtual Vista: Try Before You Buy (or Sell?)

We start today with an e-mail from Peter, who writes to us from Melbourne, Australia, mate, in response to our recent query on whether partners are making money off Vista. His news is not good:

"Vista might be booming in Redmond, but in our town it seems to be a lead balloon. We do not know any other partners running it internally, and none of our customers have the slightest interest in it whatsoever.

"One of our BI [business intelligence, natch --LP] customers, a large bank, is just now upgrading from NT4 to Windows XP and is very seriously looking at Linux. Personally, I am quite happy on XP SP2 and have no plans to move until high-function machines are common.

"The bottom line is we are making nothing off Vista and, frankly, getting nothing much from the Partner Program either."

Right, that's a good reminder -- we're still looking for your feedback on the Microsoft Partner Program. We've had some very good comments so far, but we'd love some more. We'll run the best in Friday's newsletter.

Back to Vista for now, though. Microsoft, perhaps sensing that the new operating system isn't catching on as well as it had hoped, or perhaps just wanting to look cutting-edge, has developed a try-before-you-buy program that gives potential users a 30-day trial of Vista using virtualization. The trial, which lets users test applications on the new OS, is part of a little package of sweeteners aimed at boosting Vista adoption.

We're hearing through RCPU and other channels that partners aren't yet making much money from Vista sales. Granted, it's still a bit early in the sales cycle for a new OS. For instance, lots of businesses are talking about looking at Vista next year (maybe). Now, we want to know what Microsoft needs to do to help its partners profit from Vista now. Or, is Vista just a dud that's destined to never add to your bottom line? Share your thoughts at [email protected].

Posted by Lee Pender on June 07, 20073 comments


Developments for Developers at TechEd

Break out the Skittles and Mountain Dew! Don your favorite ironic T-shirt! Developers have some new toys from Microsoft, including an Open XML SDK and a Visual Studio Shell.

Posted by Lee Pender on June 06, 20070 comments


Microsoft and Linux: Somebody Get Some Lawyers in Here

This story is starting to feel so much like a soap opera that we're going to have to start with a little back story before we get to the news of the week. So, here we go:

You remember the Microsoft-Novell SuSE Linux deal, right? There's no need to explain that one, we hope. You also remember how the Free Software Foundation, which controls the license that governs the use of Linux, wanted to do whatever it could to kill, or at least severely injure, the SuSE agreement. And you remember, too, that Microsoft claims that open source software violates more than 200 of its patents.

Great, so you're with us so far. Well, as we told you last week, the FSF has decided not to "punish" Novell for its Microsoft agreement. But it has written language into the latest -- and probably last -- draft of version three of its General Public License for Linux (the famous GPLv3) that would, the FSF hopes, essentially rid Microsoft of its power to hold patents over the open source world's head like some sort of sword of Damocles by forcing Redmond to extend patent protection to all Linux users, not just SuSE users.

That provision in GPL v3 would make Microsoft's Linux deals -- which are based on shaking down distributors of the open source operating system by getting them to pay for patent protection and thereby avoid potential lawsuits -- sort of useless (or so the FSF hopes -- although not everybody is so sure). And, yes, we said "deals," not deal, which leads us to the news of the week: Microsoft has agreed to another Linux patent pact.

This time, the distributor is Xandros, the name of which immediately makes us think of the late disco-era Olivia Newton John vehicle Xanadu. (What, that didn't come springing immediately to mind for you? We would have also accepted a reference to Xena: Warrior Princess or possibly even Xavier McDaniel.)

The Xandros deal could be far from being a paradise for either party, though, if the FSF gets its way and erases Microsoft's patent claims. If that were to happen, Xandros would have entered into a deal to protect itself from patent claims that Microsoft wouldn't even be able to make. Could that happen? We have absolutely no idea. That's for a gaggle of patent lawyers to decide.

In the meantime, though, we'll say what we've said all along: All of this legal battling, all of this saber rattling by Microsoft and obstinate anti-Microsoft behavior from the FSF (which, incidentally, seems to go way beyond patent fights), all of this lawyer play serves mainly to hurt partners and customers who just want to use Windows and Linux and have them work together. It also hurts the continued adoption of Linux in the enterprise (yes, we still maintain that such deals with Microsoft are helpful, even if they are basically "protection rackets.") Basically, IT managers and financial decision makers are going to think twice before adopting an operating system full of legal land mines. We're still hoping for some compromise -- and common sense -- from both sides of the argument. What we're expecting, though, is more FUD from everybody and possibly a legal battle.

But, hey, the whole thing does make for great theater, if you like daytime television soap operas. So, tune in next week (or, probably, later this week) for more Days of Our Linux.

Do you have a take on the latest wrinkle in the Microsoft-Linux saga? I'm reading, as always, at [email protected].

Posted by Lee Pender on June 05, 20070 comments


Boston Reader Breakfast Still on for June 19

Bostonians! New Englanders! Come have breakfast with your RCPU editor and other members of the Redmond Channel Partner staff. Our June 19 RCP reader breakfast is still on. Check out the details here. There will be more info to come as we have it -- including where we're actually going to hold the breakfast. Details, details.

Posted by Lee Pender on June 05, 20070 comments


Look Who's Copy-Wrong Now

You might remember that Microsoft took a swipe at Google a couple of months ago for what Redmond considered a blatant disregard of copyright law in its upstart competitor's book search. Well, as we all know, Microsoft would never, ever add copyrighted content to its book search. Right?

Posted by Lee Pender on June 05, 20070 comments


OneCare Now Very Slightly Better Than Before

Microsoft's anti-virus offering, not exactly the best of the bunch by some measures, is apparently very slightly better than it was before -- and no longer performs worse than anything else on the market in at least one test. Hey, it's progress...we suppose.

Posted by Lee Pender on June 05, 20070 comments


Goings On at TechEd

There have been quite a few of items of note thus far at TechEd, including:

Bob Muglia's keynote also got a couple of contrasting views in the trade press. Muglia is Microsoft's senior vice president for Windows Server.

Posted by Lee Pender on June 05, 20070 comments


Google's Office Competitor: When Will 'Free' Trump 'Feature-Rich'?

Almost two months ago, while pondering when (or if) Google's nascent productivity suite might eventually be able to seriously compete with Microsoft Office, RCPU offered this thought:

"No, Google Apps, Docs & Spreadsheets -- and most of the rest of the tools in the Google productivity arsenal -- aren't quite ready to threaten Office. But look out. Google's suite is SaaS (Software as a Service) in action. However, when users aren't connected or the company network is down, it's more like 'SaaS inaction.' There is no software installed on the client. This basic fact no doubt has conservative IT folks and users thinking twice about SaaS altogether."

Well, scratch that last bit off the list off drawbacks for Google Apps. Google this week introduced Google Gears, a browser plug-in that lets developers create ways to access Google applications offline. So, with a little tinkering here and there in Gears, it'll be possible for users to work in Google's spreadsheet or word processing applications without being connected to anything. And that's important for any set of productivity apps that wants to make serious inroads into the enterprise. (By the way, Google is basically employing an open source model here by throwing its apps open to developers pretty much without restrictions.)

Of course, Google Apps still doesn't have anything close to the functionality that Office offers, but it does have a lovely price tag -- namely free, or $50 per user per year for a supported version. Plus, the bloated (and very expensive, by comparison) Office arguably does too much already. How many users really use every feature of Microsoft Word, much less every feature in the entire suite? Back in the mid-'90s, software-marketing types would have bragged about a suite like Office being "feature-rich," meaning it was capable of doing a ton of stuff. We're not sure how much of a bragging point that is now, especially for software installed on the client.

On the other hand, Google, in theory, has the advantage of being able to add features to Apps -- or perhaps let users (or partners...or independent developers?) add them -- until users have the functionality they want and need. (We can't, by contrast, imagine Microsoft taking functionality out of Office in chunks to make it more lightweight and manageable. We can't imagine the price going down, either. And, as of today, there's still no purely Web-based version of Office.) With nothing installed on the client, Google Apps won't load down laptops with unused bells and whistles -- or with anything at all, for that matter. (And before we forget: Google's getting into the security game, too.)

It's that kind of potential flexibility -- combined with an attractive price tag -- that could make Google Apps a real threat to Microsoft Office. Eventually, that is, but probably not right now. For one thing, the functionality gap is still a problem for the newcomer. For another, Google Apps isn't the only lightweight, low-cost Office alternative out there, and Office still rules the productivity roost.

Beyond that, Microsoft has one massive advantage that only 90-plus percent market share can bring: familiarity. Sure, Office 2007, with its ribbons and such, is a departure from previous versions. But everybody knows Word, PowerPoint, Excel and the gang. They've become the Kleenexes and the Xerox machines of our time, brand names that define their product category better than the name of the category itself. Most office (small "o," although it really doesn't matter) workers don't think of a word processor as a word processor; they think of it as Microsoft Word. You know -- kind of they way they think of a search engine as Google.

And, if anything, name recognition is what might eventually let Google Apps go where other Office alternatives have failed to go before -- into the realm of double-digit market share. For now, though, Office is still intact as the sweetest of the suites, at least in terms of market share. But Microsoft had better get working on getting a low-cost, Web-based version of Office out the door, lest Google come along one of these days and tip its cash cow.

Do you have any experience with Google Apps? How much of a threat to Office do you see Google Apps as being? Are you running into it in your accounts? Let me know at [email protected].

Posted by Lee Pender on June 01, 20071 comments


More Twists for Microsoft-Novell Linux Deal

If we're to believe a somewhat cryptic, anonymously sourced story that appeared this week, Novell "won't be punished" by the Free Software Foundation for making its contentious (to say the very least) SuSE Linux deal with Microsoft. We'd like to take that to mean that the FSF won't use the forthcoming version GPLv3, the license that governs Linux use, to stop Microsoft from distributing SuSE Linux -- something it currently has the power to do.

But before we take this as a sign that the open source folks are giving in, consider that the latest draft of GPLv3 would strip Microsoft of the patent rights that it claims it has over open source software if Microsoft continues to distribute SuSE Linux. (Hm, and all this time we thought that the FSF folks didn't believe that Microsoft had legitimate patent claims at all. Why bother with eliminating them, then, FSF?) So, evidently, the standoff will continue.

Almost lost in all this is the fact that Microsoft and Novell, after a very successful run in the first fiscal quarter of their deal, saw the fruits of their partnership decline considerably in its second quarter. And Novell, while doing better than Wall Street analysts expected, is still losing money. Are potential problems with patents and licenses keeping people away from SuSE Linux? If so, that's a loss for Microsoft, Novell and the open source movement, as well as more critically for partners and users. As we've said here before, in this kind of battle, nobody wins.

Posted by Lee Pender on June 01, 20071 comments


Gates Misses Chance To Yell, 'I Got the Loot, Steve!'

Bill Gates, perhaps not a fan of the iconic late-'90s TV movie Pirates of Silicon Valley (a tried and true RCPU favorite), apparently missed the opportunity to shout "I got the loot, Steve!" at Apple chief Steve Jobs when the two of them appeared together on stage yesterday for the first time in quite a while.

There was some fun, though, at the Wall Street Journal's D conference (check out some video here), with Jobs both taking swipes at Windows and also showing his softer, more compassionate side when discussing PC Guy from the now-famous Mac ads.

By most accounts, the two yucked it up quite a bit and got along famously. And hey, why not? Sure, they're fierce competitors (well, Gates used to be, at least -- he's about to head off into the sunset and his charity work), but when you've got the cash that both of these guys have, how angry at anybody could you really be?

Posted by Lee Pender on June 01, 20070 comments


Readers on Making Money With Vista and Other Stuff

We didn't get tons of responses to our query as to whether you're making much money off the much-maligned, but apparently not totally disastrous, Vista operating system, but we did get a few interesting thoughts. These probably won't go over too well in Redmond, but here they are.

Nat starts us off:

"I've been making a little money with Vista. I have removed and replaced it with XP a few times and charged my customers for the labor, and I made a little money on the sell of the XP replacement. I still personally don't like it; the new Windows Explorer is awful and the Control Panel items are all mixed up now."

So...not a very strong endorsement there. Let's see if AJ is having better luck:

"The only IT change I'm starting to see at my large clients is a new requirement to purchase Dells instead of the other approved brands when desktops are to be rotated out. Dell has offered them XP instead of Vista."

Ouch. So, from what we're hearing (and we've talked to a few folks outside of the newsletter world who have said the same thing), Vista isn't doing much for partners' bottom lines. That's a shame -- but it's not exactly a surprise.

If you are making money with Vista -- or if you want to complain about how useless it is for you -- I'd still love to hear from you on this topic at [email protected].

We have one more thought this week, this one from frequent contributor Rick, who notes that security problems for open source applications (as opposed to just for Windows and Microsoft apps) appear to be a thing of the present and not just of the future:

"As a network admin I'm constantly watching the security alerts for issues found in the software that my company uses. One of the most common alerts that I'm sure many people watch is from US-CERT Security Bulletins.

"The new twist is that I haven't seen Microsoft listed the past three or four times! They used to be always in the high-risk section. Whenever they were listed only in the medium category, it was considered a win for Microsoft. Now they don't even show up in the low-risk section.

"What I do see is a lot of software based on PHP and other open source stuff. I guess this is the wave of the future."

Apparently so, Rick, as well as the wave of the present. As we've said here before, welcome to the big time, Linux.

Have any other thoughts to share? I'm always here at [email protected], and I really do read every e-mail I get, even if I sadly don't have time to respond to most of them anymore. Also, don't forget that the blog site is always there for comments, fights and other rancor. And have a great weekend.

Posted by Lee Pender on June 01, 20070 comments


Ballmer: Ads and Electronics Are the Future

Aside from dropping a little nastygram to some of the company's former employees, Steve Ballmer told a crowd at the D conference (don't worry -- we had to look it up, too) that online advertising and consumer electronics will be very big parts of Redmond's future.

Redmond is clearly hoping for some heroics from its $6 billion ad firm and maybe a little more life from the "uncool iPod."

Posted by Lee Pender on May 31, 20070 comments