Rob Enderle ponders this week whether Microsoft could have taken over the world with Windows Mobile if Redmond just made the mobile operating system seem cooler, the way Apple promoted the iPhone. He has a point, of course, but Microsoft is to marketing as Apple is to non-proprietary development (heh heh). Incidentally, a recent Windows Mobile 6.5 update did come with a few new features.
Posted by Lee Pender on December 02, 20094 comments
We in the software world get so used to blaming Microsoft for these types of things that when news broke of a "black screen of death" (oddly abbreviated KSoD in some places) plaguing multiple versions of Windows, lots of observers, including RCPU, instinctively pointed a finger of blame at Redmond.
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Posted by Lee Pender on December 02, 20092 comments
Your editor is swamped with other responsibilities this week, so expect some short RCPUs. (Yes, we always say that and it never happens, but it's going to happen this week.)
There's an interesting article in the San Francisco Chronicle this week about how Silicon Valley has warmed to Microsoft over the last decade or so. The paper offers a couple of explanations for the thawing of relations between Redmond and the Valley.
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Posted by Lee Pender on December 01, 20095 comments
This is one launch that won't include a ribbon-cutting ceremony, if you know what we mean. Heh heh. Oh, yes, the ribbon will be back and likely more confusing than ever by the middle of next year.
Posted by Lee Pender on December 01, 20091 comments
Chris Liddell is moving on, and Microsoft is promoting Redmond veteran Peter Klein into the CFO role.
Posted by Lee Pender on December 01, 20090 comments
At least that's what one software company and some users are saying. Redmond's latest patch is (allegedly) crashing computers running all sorts of Windows versions.
One thing to note: Black is the new blue. The famous BSOD has gone dark for the fall, as have some computers, apparently. Anyway, it's now the black screen of death, which seems less colorful and festive than the blue screen.
Posted by Lee Pender on December 01, 20091 comments
At first glance, this almost seems a little unfair. The ERP market leader and the market leader in almost everything else -- two companies that aren't always the best of friends -- are teaming up to attack Oracle. But Microsoft and SAP have their reasons for getting together.
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Posted by Lee Pender on November 19, 20092 comments
Cloud CRM pioneer Salesforce.com -- which, incidentally, is doing pretty well financially -- introduced this week a Facebook-like corporate app called Chatter. Naturally, this got us to thinking of the old "Simpsons" episode in which Bart and Lisa have a hockey rivalry (here's a funny scene from it) and Apu tells a forlorn Milhouse to "keep up the chatter!" (True "Simpsons" nerds can find the reference buried somewhere here.)
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Posted by Lee Pender on November 19, 20090 comments
More than a little trouble, actually, as Microsoft's loss in an intellectual-property case there could have ramifications for Windows 7.
Posted by Lee Pender on November 19, 20091 comments
Betas of HPC (high-performance computing, naturally) Server 2008 R2 and Excel 2010 are out for the fiddling pleasure of folks who like their computing performance high.
Posted by Lee Pender on November 18, 20090 comments