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Microsoft's Sound And Fury

You would think that, for the launch of its much-anticipated Vista operating system, Microsoft could transcend the typical hype session that companies seem to think are the best way to introduce their products. But Microsoft's vaunted Vista launch event was a bigger version of the kind of production that you usually see at trade shows such as CES or the late, lamented Comdex -- a lot of noise, a lot of lights, and a lot of sound and fury, signifying ... well, you know the quote.

Strange Anti-Microsoft Bedfellows

What do Brussels and Des Moines have in common? An apparent determination to keep Microsoft's competitive instincts under control that goes far beyond what Washington had the belly for.

My Dinner With Google

I drove from San Francisco down to Mountain View last night to attend a dinner with members of the Google Apps and Google Enterprise teams.

I rented a Zip Car for the occasion, since my car wasn't available and public transport wasn't an option. The car was a Cooper Mini. It's a fun little car. It had XM Radio and I have to say I was impressed with the sound quality. But I digress.

Is Microsoft's Impact On The Economy Bigger Than Google's?

Donna Bogatin asks a thought-provoking question: Who has more impact on the economy, Microsoft or Google?

During his annual predictions for 2007, futurist Mark Anderson said that Google and Microsoft represent two very different types of money. Microsoft is plumbing money, Anderson said, while Google is ad money.

Is The Linux Community Breaking Apart?

A lot of talk is going around these days about social networking on the Web and how people are forming new types of communities via sites such as MySpace, Facebook, and LiveJournal. But as far as I'm concerned, the real online communities are those groups of people who gather online wherever they can because of shared interests, shared concerns, or shared values. And one of the most fervent, opinionated, interesting, and influential groups is the open source community.

Hello Windows Vista, Goodbye PC

Microsoft's New York City bash on Jan. 29 to mark the official, it's really, really here, introduction of the consumer version of Windows Vista will be the last "operating system as event" the PC world will ever witness.

A Peek At The Future Of Computing

ORLANDO, Fla. -- One of the best things about the IBM Lotusphere conference is always the glimpses it gives you of the future of computing. The various IBM Research labs send representatives who staff a room filled with demo pedestals -- two dozen this year -- where creators show off their projects. This year, as usual, several projects look like good prospects to become future products, and IBM Lotus has even put one up on the Web so you can get a look at it even though you're not at the conference.

Good Riddance To IBM Workplace

ORLANDO, Fla. — DisneyWorld is such an appropriate setting for Lotusphere, IBM Lotus' annual lovefest for its customers, developers, and business partners. There's been a strong element of fantasy in Lotus' product direct direction for the last half a dozen years. But this morning there was a change, as general manager Mike Rhodin announced two new social-computing products, Quickr and Lotus Connects, that could be real-world successes. Even more important, he killed an old one, the poorly defined Workplace.

Will 'Craplets' Put Windows Vista At Risk?

After a week of anticipation, I finally got Microsoft on the phone to discuss these so-called "craplets," crappy applets that an unidentified Microsoft official told a reporter at last week's Consumer Electronics Show would interfere with Vista if they were loaded by PC makers and system builders onto computers running the new operating system. At first I thought this was a refreshing bit of honesty from Microsoft. It was unhappy that someone else in the PC ecosystem was interfering with its biggest OS launch ever. But the fact that Microsoft's PR firm strung me along for a week without an interview should have told me something. It was in spin mode, trying to figure out how to step over the craplets problem.

Call For Participants: What's Your Opinion On Vista?

OK, I realize that most of us have had news/features/ reviews/blogs/ videos/whatever about Vista pretty much up the whazzoo, and that a lot of you are thinking, "OK, already. Enough is enough! Just release the OS to the public, let us decide what's good/bad/indifferent about it, and leave us alone!"

Podcast: Why Mac OS X Shines In Comparison With Windows Vista

Listen to a podcast interview with John C. Welch, as he talks about his recent InformationWeek article that compares Microsoft Windows Vista with Apple Mac OS X and finds Vista wanting. He responds to feedback on the article, describes why OS X outshines Vista, and talks about the general outlook for Apple vs. Microsoft.

Apple, he says, has a real opportunity to claim market share from Microsoft, in the consumer market and even on the corporate desktop. After listening to the podcast and reading the article, you can find provocative discussion on Slashdot.

Are Legacy Systems In The Crosshairs For 2007?

HP CIO Randy Mott is applying the 80/20 rule to legacy systems. He says in a video interview that his goal is to have his IT organization spending 80% of its time on development, 20% on maintaining and operating its legacy systems.

Vista Lagging, XP Unflagging

Cost of upgrading to business versions of Vista: $199, $299, or $399, depending on which edition you choose.

Cost of staying with Windows XP? Apparently priceless.

That's one logical conclusion based on the stories that InformationWeek readers are clicking on fast and furiously these days.

What The One-Laptop-Per-Child $100 Laptop Will Look Like

The Associated Press has an intriguing description of the user interface and software that comes with the One Laptop Per Child $100 laptop. It abandons the application-document-folder-desktop metaphor that's been used for PCs since the original Apple Macintosh in 1984, instead arranging files chronologically, in a "journal."

Fear Is Driving Users From Desktop To Web

The author of my favorite desktop application that I'm not using anymore kicks off a discussion of why applications are moving to the Web. Nick Bradbury of NewsGator, author of the FeedDemon RSS aggregator, says it's because people are afraid of installing software on their desktop.

Microsoft Wins Hands-Down For Most Disappointing Product Of 2006

Many tech newspapers and magazines have year-end wrap-ups of the best products of the year, and at least one does a wrap-up of the biggest vaporware of the year, but I don't know anybody who's doing a wrap-up of the most disappointing products of the year -- products that were hyped like crazy, and which (unlike vaporware) actually materialized, but proved to be duds once the vendor showed us what was actually behind the velvet curtains.

The InformationWeek Weblog Community Sounds Off

The community discusses the death of outsourcing advocate Sunil Mehta, tools for getting the most from two PCs, outsourcing security, upgrading Windows, and getting around Windows activation.

SmartClose For Windows Saves Time Shutting Down, Re-Starting Programs

The free Windows software SmartClose solves one of the most annoying problems with Windows XP: If you're used to working with a lot of applications running in the background, it's a long, tedious process to shut them all down, and another long, tedious process to start them all up again. SmartClose automatically shuts down running programs and services with a few mouse clicks. It also saves the list of running programs to a "snapshot." And then you can start up all your running programs and services, and resume working where you left off before, with just a few more mouse clicks.

VMware's Rosenblum: Virtualization Means Changes

Mendel Rosenblum, Stanford University operating system researcher and chief scientist at VMware, is an approachable, brainy uncle kind of figure. For example, he pauses to think about a question instead of just automatically answering it.

VMware's Rosenblum: Virtualization Means Changes

Mendel Rosenblum, Stanford University operating system researcher and chief scientist at VMware, is an approachable, brainy uncle kind of figure. For example, he pauses to think about a question instead of just automatically answering it.

What Does 2007 Promise?

Earlier this week, futurist and technology guru Mark Anderson hosted his annual SNS New York dinner, a high-level gathering of VCs, investment bankers, journalists, technology entrepreneurs, and others, at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

Ready Or Not, Time To Upgrade Windows

One of the more baffling objections to open source is the fear that the user won't be able to find support. Users fear they'll find themselves abandoned, with no vendor to turn to when they run into problems. Users see proprietary software as a safer alternative. But, in fact, proprietary software vendors abandon their users all the time. It's a standard business practice -- if you're a proprietary software vendor, and you want to force your users to buy into your product upgrade, just close the spigot on support for your older product. That's what Microsoft is doing with Windows 2000.

How To (Partially) Get Around Windows Activation

The Tomorrow Times has a tip on how to continue using your computer even after the Windows activation period has expired.. You won't be able to do everything, but you can get access to your files, browse the Web, and use some programs. It's actually easy: When starting up the system, start up the Narrator functionality for the visually disabled, and use that to start the browser, which will, in turn, let you start the DOS command line. The Tomorrow Times has detailed instructions with screenshots.

Allchin: When I Said I'd Rather Use A Mac, What I Really MEANT To Say Was....

Jim Allchin's got some 'splainin' to do: The co-president of Microsoft's platforms and services division is attempting to explain away a quote in a 2004 e-mail that recently came to light, wherein Allchin says if he didn't work for Microsoft, he'd use a Mac.

Allchin says he made the comment "for effect" and says, "Taken out of context, this comment could be confusing."

Hmmm... let's take a look and see if the comment really is confusing:

You May Not Run Vista, But Your PC Actually Might

The headline is back: More Than Half Of All Business PCs Can't Run Vista, Survey Says. The last time we saw it was in April. The version then read, Many PCs Won't Be Able To Run Vista When It Comes Out, Gartner Advises . It's a story that's taken on a life of its own. Trouble is, I think it's more scare-mongering than truth-telling.

November's Less Noticed Version Of Windows

Much of the computer industry's attention this past week has been turned on Windows Vista, Microsoft's new desktop operating system. CEO Steve Ballmer raised the curtain on that product Nov. 30 in New York. Since about 800 million of the world's PCs run Windows, the software's release is profound, not only for Microsoft and its customers, but for the hundreds of hardware and software companies in Windows' economic orbit.

Possibly overlooked in the run-up to Vista's launch was another November conference in the less media-centric city of Tampa, Fla. At an annual supercomputing conference the week of Nov. 13, Microsoft showed new demos of its Windows Compute Cluster Server, a high-performance computing version of Windows capable of running on as many as 200 servers.

Now That Vista Is the Past, Let's Look At The Future

One of the best things about the launch of Windows Vista -- finally -- is that it clears the decks. Now we can look past it to the really interesting operating systems coming in the future, like Apple's version of OS X that will natively run Windows XP applications. I swear I'm not making this up. But other people may be.

Post Vista: Microsoft Hints At What Comes Next

When asked the other day about what's missing from Windows Vista, Steve Ballmer refused to be drawn into the discussion. "I don't choose to go down that path, sorry," he replied. At today's official launch of Vista in New York, however, Ballmer opened up, rattling off a list of things customers can expect to see in Vista's successor.

Convert Videos

The free Any Video Converter for Windows lets you convert between many video formats.

Convert Videos

The free Any Video Converter for Windows lets you convert between many video formats.

Do Apple Advocates Use FUD To Criticize The Microsoft Zune?

Jon Lech Johansen, a/k/a DVD Jon defends the Microsoft Zune against misrepresentation and distortions by its critics. Microsoft, he says, is offering features to its customers that Apple isn't offering -- features that give users more freedom in how they share their music -- and then Microsoft is getting slammed for being in media companies' pockets.

The Chicago Sun-Times's Andy Ihnatko would have you believe that Apple listens to the user's needs, while Microsoft listens to the music industry's needs. Yet the Zune lets you sync non-DRM'ed music back to your computer and the iPod doesn't (the iPod only allows you to sync DRM'ed music back). ... Imagine that! Microsoft providing users with a feature that Apple refuses to provide. Not that a Mac zealot will ever admit to any such thing."

Microsoft's Big Day

Gentlemen and gentlewomen, start your engines.

The next generation of Microsoft's flagship operating system (Vista), office productivity suite (Office 2007), and e-mail platform (Exchange 2007) will be officially unveiled this week. The event is hugely significant for Microsoft; its desktop and server products accounted for 82% of the company's $44.3 billion revenue last year. That's one big cash cow.

Put Up Or Shut Up, Microsoft

I can't decide whether Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has been acting on some carefully constructed business strategy, or is just off his meds again. But his threats against companies that run Linux are getting old. When Ballmer blustered that "In a sense you could say anybody who has got Linux in their data center today sort of has an undisclosed balance sheet liability," he probably intended to strike fear into the hearts of companies running Linux servers. But instead it was one of those acutely embarrassing social moments, like when a friend falls off a barstool and begins saying things he'll regret in the morning.

Microsoft Wants You To Party Like It's 1995

Everyone keeps talking about five years. Five years since the release of Windows XP, five years to develop and push Vista out the door.

But Microsoft wants you to double that number, and recall the monumental launch of Windows 95 that coincided with an Office suite upgrade, culminating in the biggest festival Redmond has ever seen. I remember how the cumulous clouds in the blue Redmond sky eerily matched the software’s packaging (like Bill Gates ordered them up for the event), and the nightly newscast featured video of people standing in lines at computer stores into the wee hours to buy the software.

Sneak Peak Of New Windows Mobile "Crossbow"

Pics and reviews of the newest version of the Microsoft Windows Mobile OS have hit the blogosphere. The new OS, codenamed "Crossbow," is expected to debut sometime in the first half of 2007.

Microsoft Sits On Linux Dilemma Of Its Own Making

When Microsoft signed a patent agreement with Novell, owner of SuSE Linux, it thrust itself onto the horns of a dilemma. It seemed to be saying that Linux contains patent exposures. If you're a Linux user, Microsoft may sue you for using its intellectual property, unless you use SuSE.

Or You Could Just Make A Trip To Dunkin Donuts. If You Get Wet, It's Raining

Melitta is selling a coffeemaker that displays the current weather, along with the forecast, while it's making you a cup o' joe.

The coffeemaker gets the weather info using a wireless service from Microsoft.

I know you're all far too mature to make any jokes about things to watch out for if your coffee-maker is Microsoft-powered.

And if you are inclined to make those jokes, I certainly wouldn't want to encourage your childishness by asking you to post the jokes below.

Late-Night Talk Show Host Craig Ferguson Cracks Wise About The Microsoft Zune

Why Open Source Java Is Such A Big Deal

Well, it's not like the Open Sourcing of Java was a great surprise to most industry observers, but this week's announcement by Sun Microsystems that it is, in fact, releasing the Java Software Development Kit and JVM, the Java Compiler, and the just-in-time byte-code compiler known as HotSpot is a Really Big Deal nonetheless.

Coming Soon To the Zune

Ars Technica predicts some capabilities for the Microsoft Zune. Some of these are available in the current product, they're just not switched on. Zune users will be able to connect directly to the Internet and buy tunes wirelessly, without having to go through a PC. Zune users will be able to share video, and a Zune phone is likely.