Reader Responses: What Else But Vista?

"When I started my company, I bought a Dell Latitude D820 with a dual core Intel processor, 2GB RAM and a 256MB Nvidia video controller. The laptop only registered a 3.1 on the 'Vista experience' meter and was slow from the start. However, since I need to know Vista in order to support my customers, I kept it and learned to live with it. I considered wiping the system and downgrading to XP Pro from Vista Ultimate (which isn't ultimate but a waste). Recently, I've had some physical issues with the system, and as a result of troubleshooting with Dell, I decided to delete the system partition and install XP Pro.

"Do I still need to support customers using Vista? In a word, no. Out of all the systems I've sold and supported over the last year, I can count the Vista systems on one hand. Heck, I can count the Vista systems on one finger. My two main vertical markets are health care and financial services. The software vendors for both of those markets still either require or highly recommend XP. So, I'm swearing off Vista. My business customers (99 percent of my customers) will continue to buy XP Pro preinstalled from Dell. If Microsoft doesn't extend the end-of-life again next July, then I'll probably buy software assurance licenses for them and manually install XP Pro on new systems until Windows 7 becomes the new standard..."

Doug, your story sounds familiar -- although the "counting on one finger" line made us laugh out loud. Of course, Steve Ballmer would still like for you to believe that Vista is a big success. In related news, Ballmer also announced that 2+2=7 and that the sun revolves around the Earth and not the other way around. (OK, not really...but you know what we mean.)

On to Mike's tale, which includes a considerable but justifiable shouting rant:

"Yesterday, my son, who is a captain in the army, downloaded some Vista Windows updates -- then the computer got into an infinite loop configuring the updates. In order to stop this, I had to FedEx overnight ($26) the Toshiba recovery disk so he could get to a command prompt and turn off this process. Thank God he was not in Iraq; it would have been one month to get that DVD! NOW, WHAT KIND OF COMPANY HAS SOFTWARE THAT FORCES A PERSON TO SPEND MORE MONEY JUST TO MAKE IT WORK? VERY ANGRY!!!!!!

"Think about that, Lee. Here is a great kid serving his country and getting shot at; he doesn't need any more crap in his life. But he had to put up with Vista's poorly designed software and be knocked out of the loop for three or four days, and had he not had a dad who knows computers, his computer would have been totally useless..."

Well, first of all, Mike, sincere thanks and respect to your son for his service to our country. Your editor has a couple of cousins who are about to ship out to Iraq, and obviously we all pray that they (and your son, wherever he is) can do their jobs effectively and come home safely. And, yes, you have every right to be angry. There might be nothing more frustrating than having a computer stuck in an infinite loop -- except maybe having to FedEx a recovery disk to that computer's owner for $26. We're actually gritting our teeth just thinking about it, and we're sorry that you and your son had to go through that. We love your passion, though -- please drop us a line more often!

OK, that's it for this week's Vista rants. If you just have to get something off your chest about anything you read in RCPU, send your message to [email protected]. And thanks to all those who have written recently. Keep 'em coming.

Posted by Lee Pender on October 23, 20082 comments

WGA Makes Friends Worldwide

Posted by Lee Pender on October 23, 20080 comments

Office Lives in D.C.

What we don't often do, though, is go and get stories ourselves. That's mainly because your editor's responsibilities -- now more than ever -- range well beyond just writing RCPU three times a week. So, from time to time, you'll see us quote somebody from a first-hand interview, and we're quite specific about the fact that we're doing that when it does happen. But, most of the time, we're trusting that we're using credible sources for our base-level facts, and that the folks who write the stories we link to know what they're doing. And, most of the time, that works just fine.

Last week, though, we messed up just a little bit. In writing about the District of Columbia signing a contract with Google to use Google Apps, we said that Google had "Boot(ed) Office out of DC." We took that line from another story, which suggested that Google was unseating Microsoft in the District. (That story linked to a Bloomberg story, which we also linked to...which, upon further review, didn't specifically suggest that Office had actually packed up and left the capital.)

Well, it turns out that we misread what was happening. Yes, D.C. did sign a contract to use Google Apps, so (and this is important) we stand 100 percent by our commentary on Google Apps and the threat it might pose to Office, as well as on the problems with Microsoft's reticence to take Office fully online. The commentary stands. We're not here to bury the good folks at ReadWriteWeb.com, either -- we suspect that they might have jumped to the same conclusion we did, that Apps was replacing Office. It was an easy mistake to make.

Well, in the interest of setting all records straight, here's what a Microsoft spokesperson sent to us about what's happening in DC. Yes, Google Apps has a foothold, but Office isn't sinking into the Potomac. In fact, Office still figures in D.C.'s computing plans. Here's what Microsoft sent us:

• The government of Washington, D.C., has Enterprise Agreements for Windows XP, Microsoft Office and Microsoft Exchange. The District school system also has an Enterprise Agreement, called a "Schools Agreement," and uses Windows XP and Microsoft Office.
  
  
• D.C. agencies are deploying MOSS 2007 [that's SharePoint --L.P.] and OCS 2007 [and that's Office Communications Server --L.P. again], while the District is planning its migration to Exchange 2007.
  
  
• D.C. agencies are also piloting Performance Point for budget tracking and analysis, as well as Virtual Earth, Microsoft's enterprise mapping application.
  
  
• Washington, D.C. has purchased 5 Surface devices for use in the delivery of innovative citizen service and educational services.

Anyway, that's a long way to clarify a short story, but we're always concerned above all else with getting things right. (We also thought that some of our more faithful readers might be interested in how things work here.) The spokesperson wasn't sure exactly how D.C. would employ Google Apps alongside Office -- and, to be fair, there's no reason why he should know that -- but it's clear that Apps and Office will be co-existing in D.C., at least for the time being.

In a sense, that makes things more interesting. Maybe we'll actually follow up with folks in D.C. at some point to see which system is working out better. And this time, we'll make the phone calls.

Posted by Lee Pender on October 23, 20083 comments

HP Sharpens Blades, Thin Clients

A major target for HP's Blade business is financial traders -- you know, like the ones who used to work on Wall Street. Ha ha. Actually, though, there are still some traders out there, and according to HP folks they might very well be using Blade workstations in the near future. The financial downturn, HP officials told RCPU in a phone chat this week (see -- original reporting!) has led to an increase in interest in HP's wares.

"In this time of turmoil, we're in recent weeks seeing dramatic uptick of opportunity," said Dan Olsen, worldwide business development manager for HP Blade workstations. Blade "is a very interesting tool for an acquiring bank as they acquire somebody else," he said, primarily because Blade workstations allow the acquirer to get traders from the acquired bank quickly up and running on the surviving bank's infrastructure. Plus, the thin-client workstation model is relatively inexpensive, and Olsen says that financial institutions are "looking for very smart ways to spend in IT."

So, there you go! The downturn turns out to be an upturn for some companies, including HP.

Posted by Lee Pender on October 23, 20080 comments

Microsoft Beats Street, Tempers Expectations

It seems as though we've pretty much been right thus far. If Microsoft is any indication -- and we feel safe in saying that it is -- the current economic storm is knocking over a few trees in tech but not ripping roofs off of businesses or tossing cars around. Microsoft's numbers for its first fiscal quarter of 2009 beat Wall Street's expectations and reflected a solid trend upward, generally speaking.

Of course, these are the summer numbers we're talking about here -- June through August -- and the real winds of the downturn only started to seriously gust in September and October. Those are the winds that are going to do a bit more damage, so Microsoft is preparing the Street for lower-than-expected numbers for fiscal Q2 and 2009. This MarketWatch (great site, by the way, if for some odd reason you don't know it) article has the details:

"For its current quarter ending in December, Microsoft said it expects earnings between 51 cents and 53 cents a share, and between $17.3 billion and $17.8 billion in revenue. Analysts have been estimating the company would post earnings of 55 cents a share in the period and $17.9 billion in revenue.

"For the full year, Microsoft said it expects earnings between $2 and $2.10 a share, and revenue between $64.9 billion and $66.4 billion. Analysts have been estimating the company would report earnings of $2.12 a share and $66.6 billion in revenue for the year, according to FactSet."

Apparently, financial analysts and other observers are cool with that forecast and were expecting something like it. It reflects a mild pull-back from expectations but nothing shocking -- which seems totally reasonable to us and obviously seemed reasonable to more learned observers, as well. As we type, Microsoft's stock is up in after-hours trading.

So, while the not-so-good news is that technology isn't immune to the effects of the downturn, the much better news is that it doesn't seem poised for anything remotely close to investment-bank-style total collapse -- at least judging from what Microsoft is telling us. And while that shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody -- after all the current crisis has its origins in different industries -- a little positive news in an uncertain time is always welcome.

Posted by Lee Pender on October 23, 20080 comments

Microsoft Fires Back at Pirates

So, on Microsoft's Anti-Piracy Day -- which was Tuesday, in case it wasn't pre-programmed into your Outlook calendar -- we were already planning to eschew the walk-the-plank, peg-leg-and-eye-patch theme. Then we noticed that somebody -- from your editor's hometown newspaper (well, Web site, anyway), no less -- had done it for us. So, we thank you, The Dallas Morning News, for spicing up RCPU this week. Yarr and all that to you.

What did we learn about piracy from Microsoft this week? Not that much, really, that we didn't know already. Piracy, it turns out, is costly for the software industry and for partners, and Microsoft has a bunch of educational and legal campaigns in place to fight it. Which is good, of course -- and we're not here to belittle anti-piracy efforts at all. (Actually, one thing we did learn is that pirates don't much like Vista, either.)

In fact, the only reason we're writing about this topic this week is because it's been an oddly slow news week for the middle of October, and we found a quote from Microsoft's press materials just as cringe-worthy as the blogger at the News found it:

"It turned out that I had unintentionally purchased a counterfeit copy from an online auction site. The seller had said it was a genuine, unopened product. I was outraged that he had ripped me off. The WGA program turned out to be cool, and I got a genuine copy of the software. I think that Microsoft is the best and I am a Microsoft user for life!"

OK, OK, we're all for combating piracy and all...but "WGA turned out to be really cool"? Good night. Somebody needs to walk the plank for that one. Yarr! (Sorry, we restrained ourselves for as long as we could.)

How does piracy affect your business? What do you think of Microsoft's anti-piracy efforts? Let us know at [email protected].

Posted by Lee Pender on October 22, 20081 comments

VMM Out, VMware Up

Posted by Lee Pender on October 22, 20080 comments

Will OCS KO PBX?

Posted by Lee Pender on October 22, 20080 comments

Microsoft in the Mix

Posted by Lee Pender on October 21, 20080 comments

Ballmer: Vista Success Will Be Hard To Match

A financial success, maybe -- but, really, Steve, give this one up. Just do better with Windows 7, continue to embrace the cloud and let Vista go down as an unfortunate footnote in Microsoft history. Please.

Posted by Lee Pender on October 21, 20088 comments

Microsoft Gains Ground in Virtualization

TV, once the home of massively popular sitcoms that nearly everybody seemed to watch, is now one bad reality show after another. The "characters" quickly fade from memory. Music? Well, we wouldn't know much about that here at RCPU, but it strikes us that today's stars will probably only be famous tomorrow if their lives go completely off the rails.

And so it goes, albeit much more slowly, with technology. Hype about one category of technology or another comes and goes, ebbs and flows, and one red-hot trend eventually gives way to another. If this week's news is any indication, it's virtualization that's coming off the boil just a little bit, downgrading as a market from red-hot to simply growing.

Yes, we know. The economy plays a role in the speed of market growth, but we suspect that there are other factors at work here. For one thing, virtualization isn't a novelty anymore, and there's bound to be a bit of market saturation now that lots of companies have gone from craving it to using it. That's normal. Plus, we speculate, a few unforeseen concerns -- security comes immediately to mind -- might be dampening enthusiasm for the technology just a bit.

What's not slowing, though, is Microsoft's push into the space. The same IDC report that noted virtualization's slowdown also pointed out Microsoft's gains in market share in the space with Hyper-V. Apparently Microsoft's, um, aggressive pricing strategy (better known as under-pricing VMware or giving stuff away for free) is working, at least to some extent -- which should be little surprise, as Microsoft has almost always had success undercutting competitor's prices in new markets.

And, let's be clear -- virtualization is still a hot technology; Gartner even says that it'll be the hottest of all in 2009. But it's not quite as red-hot as it has been for a couple of years. So we're not burying virtualization here by any means -- we're only saying that it seems to be going from, say, box-office smash to top DVD seller. Either way, there's still money to be made. And it's still better than reality TV.

What's your take on Microsoft's presence in virtualization? Are you making money off of it? Sound off at [email protected].

Posted by Lee Pender on October 21, 20082 comments

Google Keeps on Making Money

Posted by Lee Pender on October 21, 20080 comments