Editors' Picks
Will changes detract from Longhorn's success?
Editors' picks
August 27, 2004
Longhorn's long journey
- CNET News.com Microsoft revamps its plans for Longhorn
- CNET News.com Microsoft corrals changes for Longhorn
- Seattle Times Microsoft shifts 70 researchers to software work
- CNET News.com Plan A for Microsoft
- Microsoft Gates promises "holy grail" of XML
- CNET News.com Gates trots out Longhorn
Hearing footsteps?
- ZDNet Linux spreads fast in Asia
- eWeek Why can't we get a slimmer Windows XP?
- USA Today Students crazy about iPod follow the music to Apple laptops
- CNET News.com Apple's Tiger stalks Longhorn
- CNET News.com Ballmer memo targets Linux
In the Justice Department's shadow
- CNET News.com RealNetworks sues Microsoft
- Forbes Rob Glaser goes after his next target
- CNET News.com Search and destroy
- Ecommerce Times Entertainment world slowly starting to deal with Microsoft
- CNET News.com Digital remix
- CNET News.com Mother of invention
SP drain nothing new
- CNET News.com Rough patches for SP2
- Techworld Longhorn delay attributed to SP2 focus
- CRN More vendors report SP2 woes
- CNET News.com Strategy: Microsoft vs. Microsoft
- CNET News.com Software: The end of forced upgrades?
Audio and Video
Microsoft's efforts to close windows of vulnerability
Expected for release later this year, Microsoft XP Service Pack 2 focuses on three areas of security: default firewall, automatic update and scanning for current virus protection. At CeBit America in New York, Microsoft's Greg Sullivan tells ZDNet's David Berlind that while SP2 is a security improvement for Windows, it's just the first step in a continual fight against network threats.
Gates: Some 'holy grails' to be found within decade
At the Gartner Symposium ITExpo in San Diego, Microsoft's Bill Gates discusses how innovations such as reliable speech recognition software will succeed in the next 10 years.
Ready to install SP2?
Problems, delays dominate headlines; CNET expert offers advice for home users.
Ballmer unveils Windows Server 2003
Microsoft is taking aim at Unix servers with the launch of its new Windows Server 2003. CEO Steve Ballmer appealed to IT managers, saying this is the right product for enterprises on tight budgets.
software plagued with security issues, take ages to release
updates, balk at standards and come under serious attacks by
governments, counties, and cities for anti-trust violations and
yet they maintain a dominate power in almost every business
segment they compete in. Is the public that slow to change?
What will it take before people move to viable alternatives?
company would have shifted the design to more modern
standards. MS's insistance that Longhorn, and the X86
processor, must support all the legacy software ever written
guarantees the long overdue demose of the Longhorn concept.
Maybe it's time for MS to wake up and smell the coffee.
But the fact that they are spoling governments worldwide, making them fall into the corruption, is even worse.
Here is an example from Bulgaria:
- Microsoft rented to the government 30000 copies of MS Windows XP and MS Office XPfor $ 14 M. That's about $ 450 / computer, or more than the price for one copy in the shop!
- Microsoft created the e-gateway portal of the Bulgarian government in a way, so that the end-users (sic!) need to have MS Windows and Internet Explorer in order to be able to use the services of the e-government.
- Microsoft wanted to sell another 35000 licenses to the Ministry of Education, although there are less than 1000 computers there that can handle MS WindowsXP/OfficeXP.
All of the above is being done with the help of money under the table. We can imagine what would happen in 2006 with the Longhorn. Perhaps it will be also a Longmoney-under-the-table?
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/48329
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/48176
http://www.iht.com/articles/121033.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/11/technology/11digital.html (and if you don't have a subscription):
U.N. Meeting Debates Software for Poor Nations
Published: December 11, 2003
GENEVA, Dec. 10 -Whether governments should support open-source software like Linux over commercial software like Microsoft's Windows was debated on Wednesday at a United Nations conference on closing the so-called digital divide between rich and poor countries.
Samuel Guimarães, executive secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Brazil, told government representatives at the opening sessions of the meeting that open-source, or free-to-share, software was crucial for the developing world because it would permit poorer countries to develop their own technology instead of having to import it.
Brazil, with the support of India, South Africa and China, wanted the delegates to the meeting, the World Summit on the Information Society, to endorse open-source software as the best way to bridge the technology gap.
But while language declaring open-source software an important option was in a statement by the delegates, it was watered down considerably after pressure from industrialized countries, some conference participants said.
The information and communications technology arm of the United Nations Development Program is advising governments that want to move to open-source software on how that software could become a foundation for local software development.
But Raoul Zambrano, an adviser to the program, said the office was cautioning nations not to require open source for their governments because the goal should be to create choice and competition.
The program plans to open a regional center in Europe early next year to offer support to countries in the Balkans and on the Baltic Sea on this issue.
Veni Markovski, an adviser to the Bulgarian president on technology, said he had asked the United Nations for help because he thought the Bulgarian government had spent too much money on Microsoft products.
Microsoft denied any overcharging.
Microsoft's influence is so great, Mr. Markovski said, that "the end user, the citizen, doesn't have a choice and the government doesn't have a choice."
Microsoft confirmed on Wednesday that it was discussing with the United Nations program how to work together most effectively.
Microsoft, which has said it will invest $1 billion on projects to help bridge the digital divide, said it did not require that its software be used in such projects.
"People, at the end of the day, have the right to choose, and we support that," said Claudia Toth, a spokeswoman for Microsoft.
Peter Dravis, a consultant who wrote a report about open-source software for the World Bank, said, "It is a tough call for a lot of agencies and groups when Microsoft offers to give away software to schools and governments."
But he said that there was a growing demand for open-source software, and that Microsoft's deals with governments would not ensure market dominance.
Mac and Linux are starting to eat them for breakfast on the desktop, and in retrospect XP is proving to be more problem, less innovation. Windows 2000 was the last solid OS they brought to market because it worked, and continues to do so in most corporate networks.
*nix looks better all the time from both a cost and features standpoint. As more critical applications get ported and developed, the period of opportunity for the Longhorns of the world will commensurately shrink. No one in SW dev today can sit on a project for 30 months and expect to hit their target without major revisions and feature changes.
again. Apple new OS to e released first half of 2005(Tiger) will
be years ahead of XP and has features that they are excluding
from Longhorn. Microsoft does not innovate they just copy and
immulate. The features in OS X are so far beyond XP it is almost
hilarious and it is sad that a company like Microsoft can not do
better.
For Example:
Mark my words that Microsofts up and coming music store will
mimics Apple iTunes and they will have one advantage with it...
MONEY! Since they have an endless flow of cash they can
practically cut their price to nothing and beat out the
competition by losing money just to maintain dominance. Sooo
the once famous iTunes will be eaten alive if they under cut
them with very obnoxious low prices. Microsoft does not
innovate they just wait, Then copy, then over dominate because
they can not becasue they are the best. it is very sad!!... :(
on his
keynote Panther release about building a new
foundation.
Microsoft has been working on Longhorn for 4 years at
least. XP
was released in 2000. its now the end of 2004, they
arent
expecting to release it until '07? that is 7 years. in the
mean
time, Apple has released a major OS update every
year. With
Tiger on its way, with features that M$ already has to
cut to
meet its deadline. Which company is making sense and
growing
towards the future? and which one is patching up the
holes for a
few more years?
Unfortunately for MS, they are now too big to move as swiftly as Apple, Sun, Novell, or Linux. There is a old saying... "Ya snooze, Ya loose". Well, unless MS can come up with a rock-steady replacement OS {i.e. SuSE & OS X}, & do it completely within two years, then they will have to face the music of a smaller consumer base & downsizing. I have had my browser hijacked several times, & it wasn't fun! I now have SP2 installed. I hope it works out, but if it doesn't, I'm looking at Suse Linux & Apple as alternatives.
virus', corrupt files, crashes, errors and the blue screen of death.
And, using my computer was BORING! Should it be? Well, check
out a Mac and you will never be bored again. Using a computer
is fun again! I love it. And yes, YOU CAN USE WINDOWS BASED
SOFTWARE ON A MAC. And do much more than you ever could
on a PC. Everything clicks on a Mac. Why wait for Longhorn
when you can have Mac OS X Panther (and the new Tiger in 05')
that runs circles around The "NEW" OS from Microsoft. While Bill
Gates waits to please the 90% of the people who are on their
PC's, those who use Mac's are doing much more than Windows
users ever will. Make the switch and never look at the computer
the same way again! From iLife... KeyNote... iMovie... iPhoto...
iDVD... Everything works better and works together! And all the
software suppliers to Mac users make sure it all works together
too. Better graphics, Unix based, ease of use, everything is just
awesome on a Mac. I am a believer! And I use many Windows
programs on it... They work. Make the switch today!
- So show me the proof where it counts
- by Razzl August 31, 2004 8:12 AM PDT
- I work in a university with near a thousand workstations running as a network with Windows OS. The other 3 universities in our consortium are using Windows in their networked computers. The State's land-grant university is a Windows network. I have XP at home. All of the local libraries, Schools, and small businesses Windows or some Oracle-based mainframe software. I've only met one person since 1989 who uses a Mac, in a private arts college. I've never known anyone or any institution who use Linux. I get around in the world of computer end-users and I can't even see Linux on the landscape.
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(19 Comments)So for all of you futurist blowhards trying to take Microsoft down with your clever predictions I say: show me the money. I can't even find proof out here in the real world that your vaunted competitors even exist, much less that they are a threat to Microsoft.