“…Microsoft wants to hold on to Vista regardless of where it takes the company. Will it force the company into a tailspin? I think it already has. Will it get worse? Possibly. But if Microsoft heeds my warnings and follows some of the tips I will outline below, Windows Vista may not be the utter failure I think it will be if nothing changes.” Read the full article on C|Net blogs
…As many of you are aware, I think Windows Vista is a blunder. And with its annoying UAC system, and horrifically slow operation, it won’t take long before the majority of home users agree with me. And if the recent figures showing Mac OS X is already gaining market share is any indication of the future, look for Leopard to outsell Vista by a staggering margin. Read the full article on C|Net.Com
Microsoft’s getting into the advertising business instead of fixing its operating system issues, so why shouldn’t Google put its billions to use developing a free, better OS? Microsoft has been in the news a lot lately, and there are two distinct themes to the coverage. The first is the generally negative press about Vista—that people are complaining about it, and that many are reverting to XP. In this kind of situation, you’d think a corporate effort would be made to fix any and all flaws.
But instead, we hear a lot of denial while Microsoft pushes its new agenda: advertising. And I’m not talking about buying advertising, like any normal company in the software business does, but about selling ads—as Google does. Read the full article at PCMag.Com
Dell is testing the waters with a Linux-equipped notebook computer, in a challenge to Microsoft and Apple. Dell’s Linux PCs are cheaper than computers with Microsoft’s Vista operating system because Dell does not need to pay a licensing fee. Read the full article on NYTtimes.Com
Whether Google Docs & Spreadsheets is a full-fledged Microsoft Office competitor is up for debate. But StarOffice, Sun’s desktop-productivity suite, is definitely a head-to-head Office rival. And StarOffice distributed by Google? There’s no way anyone could claim that isn’t meant to be a direct shot across the Microsoft Office bow. Read more.
…So what is the point of this crummy product? Is it done just because Google has something like it (albeit the Google version seems more adult and useful)? The problem I’m seeing with a lot of these new ideas from Microsoft is that they are indeed simpler, but they lack power to the point that they are useless. Building products that are simple to use but useless is not a good formula for success, yet it seems to be the mantra at Microsoft. Read more.
Microsoft succinctly and clearly identifies many of its major competitors. Why should anyone outside of Microsoft or among shareholders care about this information? Partners can identify areas of Microsoft strength or weakness that could impact their businesses. For IT organizations, Microsoft loosely identifies alternatives to its own products through its list of competitors. Read more.
Personally, I wonder if the company can survive without Gates there on a day-to-day basis, berating the masochistic coders with his chiding. Two of his favorites include, “Do we actually pay you to work here?” and “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve EVER heard.” People always complain that Steve Jobs is a big meanie to the staff, but Gates is just as bad. Read more.
Microsoft faces an uphill battle to convince IT managers like me that they are relevant in the face of Google and Linux. If [Vista] is your best response, well, it hasn’t been all that nice knowing you. Read more.
Google chief legal officer David Drummond said in a statement, “We are pleased that as a result of Google’s request that the consent decree be enforced, the Department of Justice and state attorneys general have required Microsoft to make changes to Vista.” Nevertheless, Drummond said that “Microsoft’s current approach to Vista desktop search clearly violates the consent decree and limits consumer choice,” Read more.
c|net reports that Microsoft plans to release a beta version of SP1 for Vista later this year. Personally I thought service packs were bad enough, but a Service pack BETA?!?! Read more.
The latest Department of Justice status report on Microsoft’s antitrust compliance is out. And Microsoft’s concessions to a Google complaint regarding integrated desktop search are a key component of that report. Read more.
Office isn’t the only Microsoft hegemony that Google Gears could help destroy. One of the defining differences between Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux is the application lineup. That’s given the crew in Redmond, Wash., tremendous power. But technologies like Gears render the operating system irrelevant.
According to German magazine “Focus” Apple is working on a navigation system for cars. At the start in 2009, it will be exclusively available from Mercedes, but 6 months later the other vendors are allowed to follow. Read more.
Have you seen that new Apple “Get a Mac” ad about PCs being loaded with bloatware? Have you wondered how truthful it is? The folks over at PC Pitstop performed their own study to determine how bad the problem REALLY is.
The high priests of free software have congregated at Google Inc. headquarters this week to debate the future of the movement and face down recent patent threats by Microsoft Corp.
While Microsoft and Google duke it out over alleged violations of trade commission policy, Apple is left free to nimbly establish leadership in certain areas of interest to all three companies, and steal away market share in others. Read more.
MacScoop has it that Apple’s .Mac is about to get a helpful hand from Silicon Valley buds, Google. According to their sources, Apple’s neglected .Mac service is set for a Google infrastructure overhaul which includes updated pricing, more services, and an increase in storage.
Google’s complaint about Microsoft’s allegedly anticompetitive Vista desktop search may find support among state Attorneys General, even as the Department of Justice counsels the states not to pursue the matter. Microsoft has been accused of making Vista’s built-in search indexer unreasonably difficult to shut off, and Google complains that it interferes with Google’s own desktop search product. Google filed a confidential complaint about the matter with the court overseeing the Microsoft antitrust consent decree, which then became public over the weekend. Read more.
The top antitrust official at the U.S. Justice Department last month backed Microsoft Corp. by urging state prosecutors to reject a confidential complaint filed by Google Inc., The New York Times reported on Sunday. Read more.
“Google has quietly made its first anti-malware acquisition, snapping up GreenBorder Technologies, a venture-backed company that sells browser virtualization security software. GreenBorder’s software creates a DMZ (demilitarized zone) between the Windows desktop and programs downloaded from Web pages or opened from e-mail messages in Microsoft Outlook. Read more.
Microsoft’s plan to buy Web advertising firm aQuantive increases the likelihood that the software giant will also buy Yahoo, according to Goldman Sachs analyst Anthony Noto. Yahoo would plug a “strategic hole.” Also: Yahoo might be seeking to shed assets or get acquired.
In the pantheon of controversial Microsoft comments CEO Steve Ballmer’s quote this week about the Apple iPod: “There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It’s a $500 subsidized item,” ranks right up there. But Between Ballmer and Chairman Bill Gates that comment would be hard pressed to crack the Top 15 all-time most controversial or even colorful things the two of them have uttered in the past oh, 20 years or so. Read more.
Microsoft is paying $6 billion to buy digital marketing firm Aquantive in its biggest ever acquisition.
The all-cash takeover will allow Microsoft to expand into the highly lucrative internet advertising market, that Google and Yahoo have targeted.
Aquantive advises agencies and website publishers on putting adverts online, connecting buyers and sellers. The $66.50 per share offer is 85% higher than Aquantive’s Thursday closing price of $35.87
“In an interview with USA Today, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer claimed there is no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. The article also deals with Microsoft’s friction with the Justice Department, friction with Google, and the profitability of MSN. Read the rest of this entry »
Google said first-quarter profit rose 69 percent, to $1 billion, or $3.18 a share, up from $592.3 million, or $1.95 a share, in the period a year ago. The results topped analysts’ expectations, sending Google’s shares up more than 3 percent in after-hours trading.
The NYTimes has a boilerplate article about Microsoft, Yahoo! and Google going after the cellphone. This line is interesting, though: Google has gone so far as to build a prototype phone with its own software inside, according to one person who has seen it.
With today’s announcement that Microsoft is officially launching Windows Live Hotmail, we thought it would be a good opportunity to compare it to our current webmail favorite - Gmail.
Let me preface by saying that Microsoft is not about to stop making gobs of money. It’s just that there is virtually nothing interesting or exciting happening (with the lone exception of the X-Box360) with anything the company is doing. To make matters worse none of the upcoming upgrades to the operating system or Microsoft Office appear to have any ‘must-have” qualities needed to boost sales in a meaningful way. Compare what is going on at Microsoft to Apple. Apple is piling on with new TV commercials ridiculing all the viruses and security issues you buy when you buy a Windows-based PC. Microsoft advertising ironically highlights dinosaurs. Read more.
Early this month, Neil Holloway, president of Microsoft EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa), said that in six months Microsoft’s search engine “will be more relevant” to the consumer than Google’s. It is no coincidence that Holloway used the word “relevant.” In high tech more than in any other industry, if your technology has been bypassed by the newer and better, you’re dead. Maintaining your relevancy is Job One. And for years, it has been Microsoft’s Achilles’ heel. Read more.
“…Microsoft wants to hold on to Vista regardless of where it takes the company. Will it force the company into a tailspin? I think it already has. Will it get worse? Possibly. But if Microsoft heeds my warnings and follows some of the tips I will outline below, Windows Vista may not be the utter failure I think it will be if nothing changes.” Read the full article on C|Net blogs
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Posted by vistasucks
…As many of you are aware, I think Windows Vista is a blunder. And with its annoying UAC system, and horrifically slow operation, it won’t take long before the majority of home users agree with me. And if the recent figures showing Mac OS X is already gaining market share is any indication of the future, look for Leopard to outsell Vista by a staggering margin. 
Microsoft’s getting into the advertising business instead of fixing its operating system issues, so why shouldn’t Google put its billions to use developing a free, better OS? Microsoft has been in the news a lot lately, and there are two distinct themes to the coverage. The first is the generally negative press about Vista—that people are complaining about it, and that many are reverting to XP. In this kind of situation, you’d think a corporate effort would be made to fix any and all flaws.
Dell is testing the waters with a Linux-equipped notebook computer, in a challenge to Microsoft and Apple. Dell’s Linux PCs are cheaper than computers with Microsoft’s Vista operating system because Dell does not need to pay a licensing fee. 
Whether Google Docs & Spreadsheets is a full-fledged Microsoft Office competitor is up for debate. But StarOffice, Sun’s desktop-productivity suite, is definitely a head-to-head Office rival. And StarOffice distributed by Google? There’s no way anyone could claim that isn’t meant to be a direct shot across the Microsoft Office bow. 
…So what is the point of this crummy product? Is it done just because Google has something like it (albeit the Google version seems more adult and useful)? The problem I’m seeing with a lot of these new ideas from Microsoft is that they are indeed simpler, but they lack power to the point that they are useless. Building products that are simple to use but useless is not a good formula for success, yet it seems to be the mantra at Microsoft. 
Microsoft succinctly and clearly identifies many of its major competitors. Why should anyone outside of Microsoft or among shareholders care about this information? Partners can identify areas of Microsoft strength or weakness that could impact their businesses. For IT organizations, Microsoft loosely identifies alternatives to its own products through its list of competitors. 
Personally, I wonder if the company can survive without Gates there on a day-to-day basis, berating the masochistic coders with his chiding. Two of his favorites include, “Do we actually pay you to work here?” and “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve EVER heard.” People always complain that Steve Jobs is a big meanie to the staff, but Gates is just as bad. 
Microsoft faces an uphill battle to convince IT managers like me that they are relevant in the face of Google and Linux. If [Vista] is your best response, well, it hasn’t been all that nice knowing you. 
c|net reports that Microsoft plans to release a beta version of SP1 for Vista later this year. Personally I thought service packs were bad enough, but a Service pack BETA?!?! 
The latest Department of Justice status report on Microsoft’s antitrust compliance is out. And Microsoft’s concessions to a Google complaint regarding integrated desktop search are a key component of that report. 
According to German magazine “Focus” Apple is working on a navigation system for cars. At the start in 2009, it will be exclusively available from Mercedes, but 6 months later the other vendors are allowed to follow. 
The high priests of free software have congregated at Google Inc. headquarters this week to debate the future of the movement and face down recent patent threats by Microsoft Corp.
While Microsoft and Google duke it out over alleged violations of trade commission policy, Apple is left free to nimbly establish leadership in certain areas of interest to all three companies, and steal away market share in others. 
“Google has quietly made its first anti-malware acquisition, snapping up GreenBorder Technologies, a venture-backed company that sells browser virtualization security software. GreenBorder’s software creates a DMZ (demilitarized zone) between the Windows desktop and programs downloaded from Web pages or opened from e-mail messages in Microsoft Outlook. 
In the pantheon of controversial Microsoft comments CEO Steve Ballmer’s quote this week about the Apple iPod: “There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It’s a $500 subsidized item,” ranks right up there. But Between Ballmer and Chairman Bill Gates that comment would be hard pressed to crack the Top 15 all-time most controversial or even colorful things the two of them have uttered in the past oh, 20 years or so. 
Microsoft is paying $6 billion to buy digital marketing firm Aquantive in its biggest ever acquisition.
If you think the Kings of Redmond are scared of Google or Linux (in general) then check out the story behind the “$3 software.”
Let me preface by saying that Microsoft is not about to stop making gobs of money. It’s just that there is virtually nothing interesting or exciting happening (with the lone exception of the X-Box360) with anything the company is doing. To make matters worse none of the upcoming upgrades to the operating system or Microsoft Office appear to have any ‘must-have” qualities needed to boost sales in a meaningful way. Compare what is going on at Microsoft to Apple. Apple is piling on with new TV commercials ridiculing all the viruses and security issues you buy when you buy a Windows-based PC. Microsoft advertising ironically highlights dinosaurs. 
Windows Vista Refunds!
