In 1986 I covered microcomputing for ComputerWorld newspaper. At the time micros, from companies like Vector Graphics and Altos, along with rudimentary LANs, drove the downsizing movement where mainframe apps were moved to these cheaper systems.
Twenty-four years later IDC claims that high-end versions of Windows (with clustering, HPC, etc.) are taking on apps that used to run on mainframes. Where have they been for the last two and a half decades?
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Posted on April 21, 20101 comments
After Doug commented on the news that Microsoft will be offering limited troubleshooting for expired Windows Service Packs, here are a few of your responses when asked how long they should support their products:
Even though I would personally like to see Microsoft support their products as long as someone is using them, I can also see that nearly everything we buy has a warranty that expires over time. If the customer chooses to continue using the product after the warranty expires, such as a car, then they need to pay out good money to get the product fixed by someone else.
When it comes to software, the Internet provides a wealth of information and free help that can keep many of Microsoft's products going for years on end. So I am torn on this issue for the home user.
However, when it comes to the corporate environment where hundreds of thousands of dollars may have been invested in Microsoft, then I feel that support should be provided indefinitely for a MODEST amount of money. Give the corporations as much time as they need to upgrade. Microsoft will still be making some money off their older products, the customer will be happy and more likely to buy their newer stuff when the need arises and users feel confident that Microsoft will support them long into the future.
-Joe
I thought they were to support a product seven years after it was retired?
Government mandate?
-Anonymous
For three years after the release of the first service pack for the next version of the product. For instance, three years after the release of Windows Vista SP1, support for Windows XP should end.
-Pat
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Posted on April 19, 20102 comments
We all know that hackers are after government and corporate computers. But someone must have been mighty curious about the Dalai Lama. Twelfth son of the Lama. The flowing robes, the grace, bald... striking.
A group of hackers managed to purloin a whole year's set of e-mail. Perhaps the hackers were looking for a little something, you know, for the effort, you know. Perhaps on their deathbed, they'd like to receive total consciousness. But that's asking a lot from a group of two-bit hackers.
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Posted by Doug Barney on April 19, 20101 comments
I'm not sure if it's Windows 7, record low computer prices or an economy just starting to get back on track, but PC sales rose nearly 25 percent in the first quarter compared to a year ago. That equates to nearly 80 million PCs sold worldwide in a short three months.
Analyst firm IDC attributes much of the growth to long delayed refreshes that are now back on track.
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Posted by Doug Barney on April 19, 20100 comments
You think something as potentially exciting as a series of Microsoft cloud applications would have a cool name. You'd be wrong. What name did Redmond choose for its online versions of SharePoint, Exchange, Office Live Meeting and Office Communication Server? Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). Marketing 101 suggest that one never create an acronym with the letters POS embedded.
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Posted by Doug Barney on April 19, 201011 comments
TechNet is an amazing resource. I should know. My group now runs TechNet magazine and MSDN magazine. Thank you Microsoft!
TechNet (the overall site, not the magazine) has a new wiki that IT pros such as you can contribute to. All you need is a Windows Live ID and you're good to go.
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Posted by Doug Barney on April 16, 20101 comments
A Microsoft Office official Andrew Kisslo may be the Dennis Miller of software (without Miller's obscure and inane references to Boswell). Kisslo blogged about the Google Docs upgrade, ridiculing exciting new features such as being able to move spreadsheet columns and have a margin ruler in a word processor (a feature that seems to have disappeared, at least as a default, in Word 2007).
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Posted by Doug Barney on April 16, 20104 comments
One of the problems with cloud apps is they are only as fast as the servers that house them, the network that carries them and the PC that ultimately runs them. Google is hoping to increase their performance with tweaks to Google Docs that speed their JavaScript processing, not just making them snappier but able to handle larger files as well.
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Posted by Doug Barney on April 16, 20103 comments
We start today's mailbag with an e-mail from a reader calling Doug out on some of his statements regarding Microsoft's riboon and sharing his own thoughts on it:
Your column in the April issue marks at least twice you have somewhat misinformed your readers on the subject of menu commands in Office 2007. The old menu commands are still there; there are just no menus to get to them. You have to remember the keystrokes (always beginning with Alt-something) on your own (which shouldn't be too hard for the "curmudgeonly users"). In fact, you generally get to the old dialog boxes directly from the ribbon interface for the more sophisticated tasks (such as changing axis features in Excel charts).
My personal opinion is that the ribbon is a disaster. It is slightly more convenient for the simple tasks, but requires many more keystrokes (or mouse clicks) to get to the really detailed stuff. More importantly, it's ugly and uses up too much real-estate; I keep it closed most of the time. I have also voted with my feet. I use OpenOffice whenever I can.
-Anonymous
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Posted by Doug Barney on April 16, 20100 comments
Until this week, when a Service Pack stopped being supported it actually stopped being supported. Under a new policy, when a Service Pack stops being supported, Microsoft will offer limited support in the form of quick and dirty troubleshooting.
But Microsoft will only go so far. If it can't fix the problem quickly, it will advise customers to move onto the next Pack or product revision.
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Posted by Doug Barney on April 14, 20102 comments
A regular to Doug's Mailbag comments on what the FCC/Comcast court ruling spells out for Net neutrality:
For Comcast and all other cable operators, the issue is network stability. Why should a neighborhood of 100 (or 1,000) Comcast customers be at the mercy of one customer who decides to turn on three or four computers in his home and start a massive peer-to-peer file-sharing download?
The cable company needs to be able to throttle back certain kinds of traffic in order to keep a small number of customers from negatively impacting performance for a large number of customers.
Networks are built on average loads, not peak loads, like the electric company, the gas company or the water company. If network operators cannot regulate a handful of abusive customers, who saturate their network at certain times of the day, they cannot guarantee any of their customers reliable service at any time of the day.
The cable provider's ability to control how many hours of porn you download (or even which porn you download -- or which TV station you watch) is a peripheral issue because demand will drive which services you can access.
The threat is not that Comcast has the technical ability to do that. The threat is that the Patriot Act permits the U.S. government to ask them to do that without presenting them a warrant served in a public court. And even worse, legislation protects them from being sued even if the government action is illegal and the network provider complies anyway.
There is simply too much money to be made for Comcast, or anyone else, to care what you do with their service, as long as your use of their service is not detrimental to others who also expect a certain level of service from the same provider.
Thanks for the opportunity to comment.
- Marc
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Posted by Doug Barney on April 14, 20101 comments
Microsoft is a lot like the British -- under withering fire the company keeps a stiff upper lip and simply plods on. That is exactly what Redmond is doing in the mobile phone market with the upcoming release of Windows Phone 7, which I hear is pretty good.
But Redmond isn't about to wait for 7 -- it wants more mobile territory now, and is invading the youth space to get it. The Kin phones, made by Sharp, are built from the get-go with social media in mind. They have sliding keyboards and store data, such as photos, in the cloud. This is actually designed not just to store more stuff, but to make it easier to upgrade to new phones since you simply have to download all those items to the new device.
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Posted by Doug Barney on April 14, 20101 comments