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.
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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
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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?)
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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
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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
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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):
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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
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Posted by Lee Pender on February 15, 20070 comments