microsoft

Microsoft's unlucky seven

Rea Maor notes seven reasons that Microsoft is doomed. While "doomed" may be too strong a word, he lays out several strong reasons to suspect Microsoft's best days are well behind it.

The reasons? Among others, Rea cites Microsoft's dead-end business model, its fading monopolies (or, rather, the relevance of those monopolies), its false starts on the web, and several others. Have a look.

Possible Zune pics leaked

Thursday, Gizmodo posted pictures that purportedly come from a retail glossy advertising Microsoft's next-generation Zune. The portrayed devices come in two sizes, a large 80GB model and a smaller model with either 4GB or 8GB capacity. All three models look quite different from the first-generation Zune--thinner, without the two-tone translucent rubberized finish, and what looks like a touch pad instead of the circular pseudo click-wheel used last time around.

Microsoft has told me that its goal in the next year is for the Zune to be considered the alternative to the iPod family--the only other device that gives users … Read more

Should "open source" include open data?

I just read Glyn Moody's post on the importance of open data and, increasingly, open source, in science. Good science requires good data--data available to any who want to replicate another's results and ensure that true science is going on, not pseudo-science.

Marry that to Tim O'Reilly's insistence that data, not code, is the new lock-in (and cross that with my own declaration that Microsoft's new platform for lock-in is Sharepoint, not Office), and you end up with what I think is an implicit, urgent need in open source today:

The need to ensure data remains free/open.… Read more

Avoiding the very appearance of evil at Google

The Economist has an amazingly good article this week on Google, and its growing influence and power. Rather than ring alarm bells about Google's sometimes casual approach to privacy concerns, the article suggests that Google...

...needs a deeper change of heart. Pretending that, just because your founders are nice young men and you give away lots of services, society has no right to question your motives no longer seems sensible. Google is a capitalist tool--and a useful one. Better, surely, to face the coming storm on that foundation, than on a trite slogan that could be your undoing.

Amen. Open source provides such transparency, and it's one reason that open source is spreading like wildfire. But Google doesn't play by these same rules (nor do its competitors), which makes it all the more critical that the company embrace "Transparency at all costs" rather than "Do no evil" as its mantra. The former ensures the latter, as Wikipedia is finding.

For, as the article continues,… Read more

Windows Home Server release issues

When last we left Microsoft's Windows Home Server software, it was off to manufacturing and we expected to see WHS-equipped hardware show up at our doorstep shortly thereafter. After a post on Microsoft's official Home Server blog, we get the company line as to why we haven't seen HP's MediaSmart Server yet. As follows:

"We've identified a number of ways to make the product even better since the initial release. As with most Microsoft products, updates to Windows Home Server will be automatically available throughout the lifecycle of the product, and the WHS team … Read more

The farce that is OOXML standards-making

You simply must go read Matthew Aslett's passionate, forlorn description of the farce that is the OOXML standardization process. Petty, shallow, and mean.

Unfortunately, I think the ugliness probably goes both ways, as the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. It's no wonder, then, that some (like Sweden) are throwing up their hands in disgust.

To quote Matthew:… Read more

The UK takes the "special relationship" too far with Microsoft

Glyn Moody points out a range of activities in the United Kingdom that have the government getting a bit too close for comfort with Microsoft. The UK has long had a "special relationship" with the United States, but come on. This goes too far. Especially since Microsoft hardly represents the US. At least, not what's best about the US.

Microsoft has long been working feverishly to lock up the UK as a Windows stranglehold. (Remember this deal from 2004?) But surely at some point the UK should start its own IT revolutionary war? That is, declare its … Read more

Dear Microsoft: "We're not your slaves"

I've written before about how proprietary software pits vendors against customers, making enemies of two groups that should be fast friends. But what I've failed to cover is how proprietary software pits vendors against their partners, and equally unnecessarily.

This is particularly true in Microsoft's case, where Microsoft is reportedly using its partners to police license infractions, infractions which are increasingly difficult to avoid, even for those who want to, as CRN reports:… Read more

iPod to Zune: Heads, I win; tails, you lose

With the new iPod announcement looming on the horizon, there really couldn't be a worse time for the Zune to be unveiled. The folks over at Gizmodo got their mitts on a what could potentially be marketing material showcasing a new line of flash-based and hard-drive-based Zune players (see photo). Whether the photo is accurate or not, the next question (especially in the light of incoming iPods) is a resounding "So what?"

Could it be an Flash player with Wi-Fi and integrated wireless music downloads? If it is, I saw it already when it was called the … Read more