You love these, and we love these. So let's just jump in. Our good friend,
Doug, who has been a big help to both
RCP the magazine and RCPU in the
past, gets us started:
"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
The Chinese
aren't
such big fans of Windows Genuine Advantage. We're all for fighting piracy,
but is WGA really the best way to do it? Then again, with piracy rates at something
like 90 percent in China (according to the article, anyway), it's hard to blame
Microsoft for trying to fight fire with fire -- even if everybody ends up getting
singed a bit.
Posted by Lee Pender on October 23, 20080 comments
One of the perils of putting together RCPU the way we do is that we rely a
fair amount on other people's reporting. Our general approach here is to take
the biggest or most interesting news stories of the week and add some commentary
and perspective to them -- hopefully with a touch of flair and maybe a few
pop-cultural references that the over-30 crowd will understand.
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's got a new line of Blade workstations and thin clients out. There are loads
of details about the new lineup
here.
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
We've been saying for a while now on RCPmag.com that the economic downturn
that is wrecking finance, insurance, real estate and a bunch of other industries
seems to have only dealt a glancing blow to technology. And with Microsoft announcing
earnings today, we got an idea of just how hard tech's getting hit.
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
Pirate-themed humor isn't as funny as it used to be, what with
real
pirates making news now in fairly gruesome ways.
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
OK, somebody at MS (MBD President Stephen Elop, actually) says that OCS 2007
R2
could KO
PBX.
Posted by Lee Pender on October 22, 20080 comments
No,
really. Here's what he said: "We're not going to have products that
are much more successful than Vista has been."
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
No longer raging quite so much at open source, Microsoft is now all about
"mixed-source"
ventures. Here's a long and fairly useful Q&A about the whole thing.
Posted by Lee Pender on October 21, 20080 comments
Lasting fame is rare in our YouTube culture. Gone are the days when
Jaws
or
Star Wars would dominate at the box office for months. Movies come
and go, make millions and then fade off into cultural oblivion.
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
Its stock price might have tumbled (with everybody else's) during the recent
market freak-outs, but the fundamentals of Google's economy are
still
very sound.
Posted by Lee Pender on October 21, 20080 comments