EU Plans to Fine Microsoft in Windows Data Dispute, People Say June 27, 2006
Posted by rjdohnert in Tech News.add a comment
Not very good news for Microsoft. The EU regulators are planning to start charging Microsoft 2 million Euros ($2.5 million US) a day for its non compliance with a court order and refusal to open its protocol documentation to competitors. The EU claims they are trying to promote fair competition.
My Take; Microsoft claims it has opened up enough of its documentation, the EU claims it hasnt. the answer is simple. Give a third part developer access to the documentation. Microsoft and the EU both agree on a solution for that developer to create using only the available documentation. This will give a broader look on wo is full of more shit. The EU or Microsoft.
Dealing with Microsoft Haters June 27, 2006
Posted by rjdohnert in Interesting Reads.add a comment
Microsoft Certified Professional Magazine has posted that article. In it they address everything from Bill Gates to pricing to product quality
My Take; A very good read but the problems Microsoft has with its public appearance has often to do with its own actions and statements by executives. Not necessarily about Linux. Microsofts get the facts site has case studies by customers so I dont consider it any different from when Novell, Red Hat, Xandros or anyone else posts case studies. But they make incredibly weird announcements. Like claiming Windows Vista to be the most secure OS in the industry, why not just scream, Hack us!!! Without any kind of worthy challenes its an awful stupid remark to make. Then an exec argued with David Korn, the inventor of the KornShell, that their KornShell implementation licensed from MKS was standards compliant, when it wasnt. And there are more than enough examples. While Microsoft may be a leader its just not a trusted brand. A Forrester Research study on Brand trust shows Microsoft 20 out of 22. Microsoft has a lot of work to do to get brand trust and respect back from IT workers, not alternate OS zealots but IT professionals.
ODF Plugin Completed June 27, 2006
Posted by rjdohnert in Tech News.1 comment so far
O3 has completed their ODF plugin for MS Office no files are available for download yet but it does appear that this plugin is now completed and works. This plugin will help extend the life of MS Office suites back to Office 2000 and does not have the blessings of Microsoft who uses its software to strong arm consumers into upgrading. Since ODF has become an ISO standard and despite backing from numerous giovernment agencies, Microsoft is still pushing its own OpenXML standard which has not recieved any kind of certification as an open standard and refuses to support ODF. Only time will tell if Microsoft decideds the ODF plugin violates and invalidates your office support contracts.
EDIT: O3 stands for OpenOpenOffice
EDIT2: I have been told I have it backwards. Since the ODF Plugin is completed O3 End-Of-Lifed their project. O3 will not be releasing any software at all nor did they assist in the development of the plugin as far as I know. My apologies for getting it mixed up and for any confusion.
XBox 360 Price to stay June 27, 2006
Posted by rjdohnert in Tech News.add a comment
Microsoft has decided to not lower the price of the XBox 360 in response to rthe Nintendo Wii or the PS3. The $299.00 for an extremely cut down version of the XBox 360 will stay as is.
My Take; This is until Sony makes the PS3 really cheap and has higher specs than the XBox 360. Then the proice will come down considerably.
Carolyn Holmes; Women in Technology June 24, 2006
Posted by rjdohnert in Interesting Reads, Opinions.add a comment
Channel9 runs a segment called Women in technology. They put up what I think is the most interesting one yet. We had heard from women who have been in the industry for awhile. Enter Carolyn Holmes; University of Washington student, Microsoft intern and coder. Yes, I said coder. What I found most interesting about her interview is that its from the viewpoint of someone getting into the computer industry. They go through Stereotypes, her demo on stage with Steve Ballmer, College life and a little bit of Microsofts recruiting process for interns. Its funny how things change so fast from when i first got involved in the computer industry in the 90's until this point in time. We are definately at a turning point where we are seeing more and more women in computer's and its not the sausage fest it was when I first got started.
Xandros 4.0 Released June 24, 2006
Posted by rjdohnert in Tech News.add a comment
Xandros, which releases the Xandros Desktop, a spinoff of Corel Linux, has released version 4.0 of their desktop. The Xandros desktop product aims to make Linux more user friendly to Windows users which has made the product typically referred to as Linux on training wheels.
My Take; Its a nce distribution I actually still have an older version of it installed in a VM. I should update it but Im going to wait for some reviews to ome out first.
Microsoft bets business on Linux June 24, 2006
Posted by rjdohnert in Opinions, Tech News.add a comment
Slashdot.org is pointing to an article about Aruba Networking redoing Miccrosofts wireless network at Redmond campus. Aruba's networking devices use a cutdown version of Linux.
My Take; Article is old, printed in April of 2005. What I find amazing is some of the bullshit comments on the Slashdot discussion forum. First, yeah Arubas networking devices run on Linux, they do not have Windows CE based devices. Can you imagine if Microsoft or any Linux distributor decided to quit running Cisco routers because they run IOS, instead of their respective operating systems? As for does this contradict Microsofts "Get the facts" information site? No, now if they switched their internal databases and server OS's to Linux and MySQL I would say it does. Ironic, sure. And who knows, maybe Microsoft will help Aruba design and build Windows CE based devices.
WinFS suffers the same fate as Cairo? June 24, 2006
Posted by rjdohnert in Opinions, Tech News.5 comments
The WinFS team has put up the 411 on their blog. WinFS will not be delivered as a standalone product. beta 2 and beyond is cancelled. They do intend to deliver parts of WinFS in other products but WinFS will not be what was originally intended for it.
My Take; Just call it Cairo 2. this was the exact same crap that went down with Cairo. Cancelled, butchered and only partly delivered. Fast indexing and search is okay, hardly Cairo or WinFS. But this brings up a point. With Microsoft pulling this stunt with WinFS, how do they expect customers to take any new information on innovations seriously anymore?
Novell users unfazed by Messman’s ouster; Hovsepian praised June 24, 2006
Posted by rjdohnert in Opinions, Tech News.add a comment
Novell users seem to be happy about the outing of Jack Messeman as CEO. In fact its being cheered. Ron Hovsepian is Novells new rockstar of a CEO so we will see if he manages to get Novell back on track. Personally I think its a bad idea for him to accept the position with such high expectations in place. Novells problem is not the quality of its code, its the quality of the outside code. Basically Ron will need to sell a Toyota Corolla as a Lexus. An amazing feat if he can execute.
Maxthon: China’s hip browser June 24, 2006
Posted by rjdohnert in Uncategorized.add a comment
ZDNet has an article that details the background of the Maxthon browser, its current state and where its really made some inroads. Overall a great read. For those of you not in the know there is also a Maxthon blog.
My Take; Its a great browser adds some security features to older versions of IE. Its great and I cant wait for 2.0 to be released.
