With the next version of
somewhat-maligned
Windows Live OneCare supposedly
on
the way, we've had some great reader e-mails on experiences with Microsoft's
fledgling anti-virus suite.
Bill says that he likes it just fine:
"I have it on three home computers: An on-campus university student's,
a World of Warcraft player's and a laptop used for e-mail on business and
pleasure travels. Windows Defender is loaded on all of them and they are all
kept up-to-date. None of them has been affected with anything and I have not
had any trouble with the software. I do not use the backup (I am still making
images with Drive Image 7) nor the defrag (I use PerfectDisk 8).
"I like the invisibility of OneCare and was pleased with the lack
of problems. I will have to check out the AV test results.
"I also use Norton AntiVirus 2007 on three computers with mixed results.
NAV provides annoying messages and on one machine shuts down AutoProtect at
random."
David writes from Australia (and not Austria) to say that the anti-virus tests
that banished OneCare to last place recently might not be the most reliable
out there:
"The anti-virus tests you've referred to may not be all that reliable.
I've always found the Virus Bulletin VB100 results to be reliable and in testing
for Vista compliance, OneCare failed, but so too did the AntiVirusKit from
G Data."
But Tom, who said in the subject of his e-mail that OneCare was "Amateur
Hour," isn't so impressed:
"It was fairly obvious, beginning with the ordering process, that
OneCare would not live up to the normal Microsoft standards. In order to get
an invoice which included tax, I had to visit their Web site (most online
orders will reflect an invoice in your browser after the purchase, plus send
you an invoice via e-mail for good measure). OneCare also noticeably slowed
down the system, which was a Vista PC."
See, Tom, you wouldn't have this problem if you worked for the Department of
Transportation. But we digress.
Paul wasn't thrilled either:
"I tried OneCare and it had so many holes that I uninstalled it and
will never try it again. One reason Microsoft stated for the holes was that
if anything you loaded in the past had an End User License Agreement that
stated it would infect your computer, Microsoft would honor the EULA. It would
find stuff and then tell you it could not remove it, and it just plain missed
stuff completely. I had pop-ups even when Internet Explorer was not open;
the system slowed to a crawl, and I found applications running that I could
not stop nor delete."
So there you have it. Incidentally, I am sorry that I no longer have time to
respond personally to every e-mail I get. Rest assured that I always read newsletter
responses, though, and I really appreciate your input. Thank you all.
Any other thoughts? [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on March 08, 20070 comments
Yin and yang on the security front last week for Microsoft. For starters, it turns out that a
script that supposedly circumvented Vista licensing by using a "brute force" method (we'll let you dream up your own imagery here) turned out to be a
big joke and doesn't really work at all. This no doubt made for
big laughs on nerdy message boards and gave Microsoft cause for a little sigh of relief -- despite the fact that some pundits insist that such a script
could still work in a blind-squirrel-finds-a-nut sense once in a while.
Unfortunately for Microsoft, that was the good security news. The bad news involved Windows Live OneCare, Redmond's fledgling antivirus software. In tests by a bunch of Austrian graduate students from an organization called AV-Comparitives.org that compares antivirus applications, OneCare not only failed to be certified as a "standard" (as in, barely better than useless, as far as we can tell) performer ... it actually finished dead last out of 17 AV packages in the competition. The numbers were not especially pretty, either, as OneCare whiffed on 17.6 percent of the malware that came its way. The winner, by contrast, the cleverly named AntiVirusKit from G Data Security, had a failure rate of less than one percent. Microsoft officials are "looking into the methodology" used in the tests, as you might imagine, but it appears as though they have work to do.
What has your experience been with Microsoft antivirus applications? E-mail
me (if you're not recovering from a crippling attack that OneCare didn't catch)
at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on March 06, 20070 comments
Funny little story this week regarding Dell. A couple of weeks ago, the
computer maker launched a suggestion-box site called IdeaStorm. (Really,
did somebody get paid to come up with that name? Maybe we should call
this newsletter WordFlood.) Within about 10 days of its launch, IdeaStorm
got bombarded with posts from users demanding that Dell release PCs pre-installed
with Linux. Dell then released a statement saying that it would certify
some of its lines of computers to work with SuSE Linux from Novell, which
is the distribution of Microsoft interoperability fame. So then a bunch
of half-baked stories and blog entries (most of which seem to have disappeared)
came out in the tech world talking about how Dell is going to offer PCs
with Linux pre-installed.
Well, uh, sort of ... but not quite. Dell is going to certify some
of its mainstream computers to run SuSE Linux, meaning that they should
work with the operating system. It already
offers some high-end machines with Linux pre-installed. The company
is also talking about selling more computer lines with no
OS at all installed. But massive pre-installation of Linux on mainstream
PCs isn't going to happen ... yet. Why? Because, as the second
article linked above notes, neither Dell nor Linux enthusiasts can decide
on which distribution of the OS to use. (Plus, Dell apparently doesn't
support Linux on its machines. No small matter, that.)
Therein lies the continuing problem with Linux and the reason Microsoft
isn't sweating open source more than it already is -- a lack of organization
in the open-source community around Linux and a lack of consensus among
Linux users about which distro should be standard. (And there has to be
a standard eventually, right? For business use and supportability, there
does.) In fact, some experts are not so sure that Dell offering Linux
broadly is such a great idea ... for a lot of reasons, compatibility
and support issues chief among them. As we've said here before,
the business case for switching from Windows to Linux has never been clear,
and there's no solid proof (and if you have some, please send it
our way) that Linux is cheaper to run than Windows in the long run.
Keeping all of that in mind, more than 80,000 users (and perhaps far
more than that by the time this e-mail hits your inbox or you read the
blog entry) had hit IdeaStorm demanding Linux on Dell PCs. Of course,
you know how the internet can be -- a small but determined minority
can make itself look very large and influential on certain sites.
Still, 80,000 -- in not quite two weeks -- is a big number of user demands,
and it's one that Dell is obviously taking seriously.
What does all this mean for the future of Windows? Probably not much
right now, given Linux's perpetual state of confusion and Microsoft's
monster market share. But this little episode does raise one question.
Is Dell's IdeaStorm experience just an incredibly successful hijacking
by a determined band of Linux lovers, or is it a real sign that a significant
number of PC users want to turn away from Windows? We're guessing
a lot of the former and a little of the latter. And we're not predicting
a mass exodus of users -- especially business users -- to Linux anytime
soon.
But for Microsoft and its partners, the need to understand what's
driving people to Linux (and who is along for the ride) becomes more pressing
all the time. That's no secret to Redmond, of course, as recent events
show -- but what we'll be waiting to see what further steps the company
takes to combat its scattered but increasingly popular rival and just
how big of a thorn in Microsoft's side Linux will really turn out
to be.
Would you like to see more PCs pre-installed with something other than
Windows ... or nothing at all? Do you think Dell's experience represents
a genuine cry for Linux or a tempest in a teapot? Tell me at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on March 01, 20070 comments
First, Microsoft throws a wrench into Vista upgrades for Mac owners citing
concerns about virtualization and security. Then, VMware, virtualization king
of the jungle, attacks Microsoft for "trying to restrict customers' flexibility
and freedom to choose virtualization software by limiting who can run their
software and how they can run it" (and Mary Jo Foley thinks she might
smell
another lawsuit). Is Microsoft
stumbling
all over itself with its virtualization "strategy"? Hard to say,
but there could be a couple of showdowns coming for Redmond with this vital
new technology. Stay tuned.
Any thoughts on Microsoft's virtualization entanglements? Toss them my way
at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on February 27, 20070 comments
In a non-surprise announcement that has nevertheless garnered major attention,
a beefed-up version of Google's hosted productivity suite is
out
there for businesses for $50 per user per year. Its
obvious
target is Microsoft Office, but it's hard to say, with volume discounts
so prevalent in so many companies, whether Google's offering will actually be
cheaper than Office for businesses, especially larger ones. It's also hard to
say whether corporate IT directors will open up to a hosted model for a productivity
suite or whether users will be willing to accept applications that don't have
all the options that Microsoft Office offers. (On that last point, actually,
we've often wondered if Office actually offers way too much -- what percentage
of Word's functionality do you actually use?)
Still, if software as a service is going to be the way of the future, this
is where it starts: a lightweight, hosted, reliable (at least according to Google)
suite that won't break the budget. Salesforce.com has done very well for itself
in customer relationship management using the same concept, and Google has the
name recognition, the resources and the innovative drive to make a serious run
at Office -- if not with this somewhat limited offering, then certainly with
the next one or the one after that. And small businesses tired of forking over
$300 or $400 for Office might just have a look at Google's wares right now.
How should Microsoft respond to Google's effort? (Maybe not with something
called Office Live, thanks
to another lawsuit.) How much longer will Office survive as a massive suite?
How coherent a strategy is Office Live (or whatever it will be called) right
now? It's a cliffhanger for now, but we'd love to hear your take at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on February 27, 20070 comments
Oh la la!
Quel coup! It's champagne and caviar all around for struggling
French equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent. Last week, a federal jury in sunny San
Diego (where we'll be attending Microsoft's Convergence show in March, we note
as we watch the snow fall outside) ruled that Microsoft had violated patents
on MP3 technology held by the French firm. The ruling?
Microsoft
owes Alcatel-Lucent $1.5 billion dollars
Granted, that's a lot less than the $4.5 billion Alcatel-Lucent wanted, but
still, for Redmond, that's got to sting. In fact, it could be the biggest patent
infringement ruling...ever. So much for Microsoft's legal team getting the company
out of jam after jam with relatively minimal damage. This is, of course, all
pending appeal and lots
of other legal wrangling already underway, and, oddly enough, Alcatel-Lucent
might have sued itself right
out of some potentially profitable partnering opportunities with Microsoft.
Still, for Alcatel-Lucent, the ruling could be a nice little shot in the arm
for a company that's had some hard times lately . (And trust us, any company
that's laying people off
in France en masse is in some pretty serious trouble. Big layoffs
are not easy to pull off over there.) It's also, as about
a billion reporters have already written, potentially an invitation for
Alcatel-Lucent to sue -- or, at least, bully into paying exorbitant license
fees -- anybody and everybody
involved with MP3 technology, including the ultimate
merchant of music-player cool, Apple. Jackpot!
The details of the patent dispute are full of twists and turns (for a good
summary, check out this
article), but the point, as we've told you in
this space before, everybody has to be vigilant about patents. This means
you, if you develop just about anything. Seriously. Do your due diligence, get
a good patent lawyer on retainer, read the news (we love this topic in RCPU,
actually), talk to experts -- do whatever it takes to avoid a patent dispute.
They can be expensive, nasty and very hard-fought. Quel horreur! Just
ask Research in Motion or Microsoft...or maybe Apple in a few months.
What do you think of the proliferation of huge patent lawsuits in the technology
industry? Do you worry about patent lawsuits yourself? Tell me at [email protected].
Coming Thursday, reader e-mails on Vista and bunches of other stuff. And coming
in March -- hang on, you're not ready for this -- RCPU
four times a week. Oh, yes.
Posted by Lee Pender on February 27, 20070 comments
Microsoft sponsored a Zune-themed
frat
party not long ago at the
University
of Pennsylvania. Maybe instead of collecting patent money from Microsoft,
Alcatel-Lucent could just put Redmond on double-secret probation.
Posted by Lee Pender on February 27, 20070 comments
Everybody's favorite malfunctioning anti-piracy software
is back, and it's got a spectacular new wrinkle: a shrug of the shoulders that indicates that it's "not sure" whether your software is genuine.
We're not sure what WGA will do if it's not sure about your installation, but we're curious to get feedback on the new system as soon as folks start using it. So, please, be sure to drop an e-mail to [email protected] as soon as you've had some adventures with the new, less judgmental WGA.
Posted by Lee Pender on February 22, 20070 comments
Everybody knows that we live in a bottom line, what-have-you-done-for-me lately culture, short on patience and long on desire for short-term results. Sports fans know it. Hollywood watchers know it. Investors know it. And Steve Ballmer knows it, too.
Last week was rough for Ballmer. His plea to financial analysts to tone down the hype on expectations for Vista sales got a cool -- to put it mildly -- reaction from the brutal financial community, and his company's ever-fragile stock price (or, more specifically, its market capitalization) took a multi-billion dollar beating not long after he told everybody to chill. Far from being his usual cool yet hyper-enthusiastic self, Ballmer seems nervous these days ... and maybe even a little lost for words. Check out his response to a financial analyst's question from this article (an article that, off topic and incidentally, offers the tantalizing suggestion that Microsoft should buy Salesforce.com):
"What I basically tried to say in the very highest level was that you shouldn't think of a huge surge in fiscal year ‘08 versus fiscal year ‘07, huge relative -- I mean, in some senses whatever you think the growth is of PCs in developed markets, in developed markets -- because I talked about emerging markets -- we should do somewhat better than that. We shouldn't do that much better, we should do that much better, whatever it means. This is before the accounting one-time blah, blah, blah."
Uh, thanks for that, um, guidance, Steve. We're sure that Microsoft investors, partners and customers feel much better now or will as soon as they get your answer translated into something closer to Standard English.
We're not here to bury Ballmer. Yes, things are little tough for Microsoft right now. Vista is on somewhat shaky ground so far (despite the fact that Bill Gates is trying to rally the troops), and the all-important stock price, which showed serious signs of life throughout the fall and winter, is starting to become an issue again. Redmond has even suffered some public humiliation at the hands of Apple and its advertising agency without really being able to mount an effective response.
But let's not go crazy here. Microsoft still rakes in billions upon billions of dollars every year. It has massive cash reserves. It has overwhelming market share for Windows and Office and probably will continue to dominate those markets, at least for the time being. Yes, there are challenges: Apple is making a serious consumer push, Linux might be on its way becoming the OS of choice in developing countries, and the specter of piracy worldwide looms. But Microsoft's doom is not imminent, nor is it even hovering in the distance. The company is still a juggernaut.
All of that considered, we're not ready for Redmond to throw a veteran like Ballmer under the proverbial bus. Not at all. What we're wondering, actually, is whether Ballmer himself is getting tired of the game. He has obviously had a stellar career, and he's not likely worried about retirement funds. The question is whether his recent dip in enthusiasm (and, perhaps, coherence) is just that: a dip or a sign that he'll be taking his gold watch and heading for the easy chair soon. Ballmer's no quitter -- never has been, as far as we can tell. But there would be no shame in him joining his old buddy Bill in Microsoft lore and handing over the operation to a new generation. We'll see how many battles he has left in him, and how many he can win.
Is Steve Ballmer still an effective CEO? How long do you think he'll continue to lead Microsoft? Tell me at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on February 22, 20070 comments
Amazingly, Congress actually decided to do something. Not so amazingly, it's going to screw life up royally for pretty much everybody in the United States. Get ready for
changes in Daylight Savings Time to mess up your clocks, your calendar and lots of other stuff.
Maybe one of those old-fashioned paper agendas wouldn't be such a bad idea.
Posted by Lee Pender on February 15, 20070 comments
The long, protracted, embarrassing (Jim Allchin saying he's buy a Mac if he didn't work for Microsoft is now part of industry lore) anti-trust trial in Iowa is over for the Redmond legal team.
Microsoft settled, but we're not sure for how much.
Who won? Well, that's hard to say, but for a hugely entertaining and completely dead-on read, check out your editor's former colleague, Dan Lyons, and his take in Forbes on the whole mess.
Posted by Lee Pender on February 15, 20070 comments