You have to knock out the champ. It's an old adage in boxing (if anybody remembers that sport). Rarely does a challenger win a decision over a champion; the underdog almost always needs to 10-count the champ if he (or she) is going to win the fight and claim the title. Just going the distance and "winning" on points usually won't do it. Or, at least, that's the way it used to be back when boxing was relevant.
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Posted by Lee Pender on August 04, 20090 comments
OK, so that whole thing about Microsoft releasing a browser-less version of Windows 7 in Europe in order to appease voracious European Union regulators? Yeah, that's not going to happen. But browser democracy is still alive and well for now.
Posted by Lee Pender on August 04, 20090 comments
Don Quixote lives. Specifically, he lives in Redmond, Wash. and is more commonly known as Steve Ballmer. The Microsoft CEO has been jousting at the windmills of consumer search for years now, and this week he finally got the prize he has sought for some time: a somewhat less-distant second place to Google in the search market.
Yes, finally, Ballmer and Microsoft have signed a 10-year search deal with Yahoo, which basically makes Yahoo a sales arm of Microsoft and its new Bing search engine. Pending regulatory approval, Microsoft and Yahoo will partner to have less than 40 percent (or, some say, less than 30 percent) of the current search market share.
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Posted by Lee Pender on July 29, 20092 comments
The worst-kept secret in Redmond just got...well, a little worse-kept. We now have some idea of what Microsoft's retail stores will look like and what kinds of things they'll feature. One thing is for certain, though: they won't be as cool as Apple stores (nor should they be).
Posted by Lee Pender on July 29, 20090 comments
SPSS makes software that lets companies analyze trends in consumer buying patterns, apparently. It must have done something right, as IBM paid $1 billion-plus for the company. Oh, and Ounce Labs does compliance stuff. It will become part of Big Blue's Rational software operation.
Posted by Lee Pender on July 29, 20090 comments
Democracy has kind of been an on-again, off-again concept in Europe over the centuries, but it's on again now in more ways than one.
In an attempt to get European Union regulators off the company's back, Microsoft has proposed offering a "ballot" of browsers from which users can choose in Windows 7 (as well as in XP and that other operating system, as Mary Jo Foley reveals).
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Posted by Lee Pender on July 29, 20090 comments
There's a special Patch Tuesday fix coming out today -- but if you've been keeping up with your Microsoft updates, you won't need to worry about it.
Posted by Lee Pender on July 28, 20090 comments
The report from Redmond this week is that Microsoft's security initiatives are making progress. Of course, it helps to consider the source here.
Posted by Lee Pender on July 28, 20090 comments
These are the final days of Windows Vista, if indeed Vista ever had its day to begin with. Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 are done. Microsoft has apparently released them to manufacturing.
There's not much more that we can say about Windows 7 that we haven't already said. The bottom line is that it had better be good -- and it does look good. All Windows 7 has to do is save a fairly large portion of Microsoft's financial bacon that has taken a hit thanks to Vista, netbooks and (all together now) the economy.
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Posted by Lee Pender on July 23, 20091 comments
Like summer road crews trying to fill winter pot holes, Microsoft is scrambling to patch a security hole in Windows. But it's proving tougher to fix than that gaping chasm that ruined your tires this spring.
Posted by Lee Pender on July 23, 20090 comments