Hmmm… I found myself laughing out loud at this Microsoft ad — launched at the Grammys. Or should that be Grammies? Must be losing my grip. How do you spell “Alzheimer’s” again?
Category Archives: Microsoft
Computing’s religious wars
From this morning’s Observer column.
Umberto Eco once wrote an intriguing essay about the differences between the Apple Macintosh and the PC. ‘The fact is’, he wrote, ‘that the world is divided between users of the Macintosh computer and users of MS-DOS compatible computers. I am firmly of the opinion that the Macintosh is Catholic and that DOS is Protestant. The Macintosh is… cheerful, friendly, conciliatory; it tells the faithful how they must proceed step by step to reach – if not the kingdom of heaven – the moment in which their document is printed. It is catechistic: The essence of revelation is dealt with via simple formulae and sumptuous icons. Everyone has a right to salvation.’
The PC was very different: ‘Protestant, or even Calvinistic, it allows free interpretation of scripture, demands difficult personal decisions, imposes a subtle hermeneutics upon the user, and takes for granted the idea that not all can achieve salvation. To make the system work you need to interpret the program yourself: Far away from the baroque community of revellers, the user is closed within the loneliness of his own inner torment.’
Quote of the day
“”It is kind of like going from an Xbox to an Atari”
Obama spokesman Bill Burton (who, like most of the Obama team is a Mac user) on being confronted with the Windows-based technology of the Bush administration.
From the Washington Post.
Microsoft offers Vista replacement. Servers fall over.
From Good Morning Silicon Valley.
Microsoft surely anticipated a crowd when it announced this week that 2.5 million current users of Windows Vista SP1 would be allowed to download a free beta of the upcoming Windows 7 starting at noon Pacific today (see “Microsoft offers Vista users something beta“), but it apparently wasn’t ready for the Wal-Mart-on-Black-Friday kind of mob that gathered outside its virtual doors and collectively clicked its servers into whimpering submission. With the Web site faltering under the load, Microsoft called a timeout and said it needed to add “some additional infrastructure support to the Microsoft.com properties before we post the public beta.” No ETA was given, and prospective downloaders have been left to mill about aimlessly, checking their favorite tech news sites for a new go signal and talking among themselves about the benefits of BitTorrent.
There’s nothing wrong with Vista, of course. Nothing at all.
A New Year message from Microsoft
Link.
Oh, and btw, there’s a class-action suit that claims that MS made $1.5 billion from licences for machines that weren’t capable of running Vista.
SALES OF low-end PCs that were labeled as ‘Vista Capable’ but couldn’t run the premium editions of Vista earned Microsoft more than $1.5 billion, according to a plaintiffs’ witness estimate in the ‘Vista Capable’ consumer class action lawsuit.
Consumers are suing the Vole because they claim it misled them into buying PCs that were capable of running only the Home Basic version of Windows Vista rather than the more full featured editions that included the eye-candy Aero grapical user interface.
The plaintiffs argue that Microsoft “unjustly enriched” itself by deceptively inflating demand for less powerful PCs, increasing their price. This court filing claims to put a price tag on that.
Expert witness Keith Leffler stated, “I have been asked by Plaintiffs’ counsel to estimate the amount of revenue earned by Microsoft from the licensing of Windows XP on Vista Capable but not Vista Premium Ready PCs sold to Plaintiffs.”
After reviewing the Vole’s [redacted] sales figures on Windows XP licences for PCs labeled as ‘Vista Capable’ during the period from April 2006 through January 2007, when Windows Vista became generally available, Leffler concluded: “From these figures, I have reached the opinion that Microsoft revenue from the Windows XP licensing on Vista Capable but not Vista Premium Ready PCs sold to Plaintiffs was $1.505 billion.”
Microsoft: the slide continues
From Good Morning Silicon Valley.
Last month, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer was used by 68.15 percent of the Web surfers monitored. In January 2008, that figure was 75.47 percent; in January 2007, it was 79.98 percent. If you’re in Redmond, that’s got to give you a litte shiver. The agents of this erosion? Mozilla’s Firefox browser, which started 2007 with a 13.70 percent share and finished 2008 with 21.34 percent, and Apple’s Safari, which climbed from 4.72 percent to 7.93 percent in the same span. Even Google’s new Chrome browser, still a blip in the market after being introduced just this fall, did what IE could not and won some new fans.
The Net Applications stats on operating systems were no more encouraging for Microsoft. In January 2007, 93.33 percent of the Web travelers monitored were running Windows; last month, that figure was down to 88.68. Across the same period, the Mac share rose from 6.22 percent to 9.63. And while the use of the iPhone for Web browsing is still comparatively tiny, the growth rate gives Apple even more reason to smile. In just the last six months, its share rose from 0.19 percent to 0.44 percent.
Ignorance scales new heights
Fascinating insight into the mind of the invincibly ignorant. This is an excerpt from an email sent by a Texan school teacher to Ken Starks, an open source evangelist:
"…observed one of my students with a group of other children gathered around his laptop. Upon looking at his computer, I saw he was giving a demonstration of some sort. The student was showing the ability of the laptop and handing out Linux disks. After confiscating the disks I called a confrence with the student and that is how I came to discover you and your organization. Mr. Starks, I am sure you strongly believe in what you are doing but I cannot either support your efforts or allow them to happen in my classroom. At this point, I am not sure what you are doing is legal. No software is free and spreading that misconception is harmful. These children look up to adults for guidance and discipline. I will research this as time allows and I want to assure you, if you are doing anything illegal, I will pursue charges as the law allows. Mr. Starks, I along with many others tried Linux during college and I assure you, the claims you make are grossly over-stated and hinge on falsehoods. I admire your attempts in getting computers in the hands of disadvantaged people but putting linux on these machines is holding our kids back.
This is a world where Windows runs on virtually every computer and putting on a carnival show for an operating system is not helping these children at all. I am sure if you contacted Microsoft, they would be more than happy to supply you with copies of an older verison of Windows and that way, your computers would actually be of service to those receiving them…"
Karen xxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxx Middle School
Source: Blog of helios: Linux – Stop holding our kids back.
Thanks to Good Morning Silicon Valley for spotting it.
Only connect…
Stephen Fry’s experience with Vista networking.
For those who think I was being unfair on either Vista or Sony, I should explain that I wasn't trying to set up a new network, I wasn't doing anything even vaguely complicated. There was a WEP security-enabled network in the room already to which a G1 phone, 2 Blackberry devices, iPhones, an iPod Touch and two Macs were all happily connected. A hotel room.
I introduce a brand new computer, fire it up and try to get it simply to connect to this already existing network. If it was tricky to create a network, to alter a router's parameters, to change SSID's Ð anything like that, I would buckle down and do it, certainly not blaming Vista, for it is always tricky to set up new wireless networks. What was so extraordinary in the year 2008 was that an expensive new piece of kit was unable to join a simple 40 bit WEP secured network. It saw the network, it agreed with me that it existed, I clicked to connect and it failed. Not surprisingly, as at no stage in trying to connect did it ask me for a password or offer a field in which to insert one. It offered to 'diagnose' the problem. Its diagnosis being that I was unable to connect. 'Doctor, I have a headache.' 'Mm. My diagnosis is that you have a headache. Leave your cheque with my secretary.' Bleugh.
Windows market share
Hmmm… Interesting report from Good Morning Silicon Valley.
The latest numbers from Web tracking outfit Net Applications indicate the market share of Windows in November dropped to a level not seen since the days of Windows 3.11 in the early ’90’s. Now, before you go breaking out that bottle of cognac you’ve been saving to celebrate the end of the Microsoft hegemony, note that this slide still leaves Windows, by Net Applications’ tally, with a market share of 89.62 percent, a level most companies can’t even dream of. Still, that’s down from a high around 97.5 percent back around 2002-2003, and a drop of 2.8 percentage points in the past 12 months alone. The major beneficiary of the defections was Apple; Net Applications said the Mac OS market share last month was 8.87 percent, up from 6.80 percent in November of last year and up from 3.2 percent in November 2004. The survey also showed gains for Linux, shown with a 0.83 percent share, up from 0.57 percent a year ago 0.30 percent in November 2004. And it’s not like Microsoft could find any consolation in Net Applications’ browser share figures, which showed Internet Explorer dipping below 70 percent, while Mozilla’s Firefox climbed above 20 percent and Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome also gained ground. The numbers may not have the folks in Redmond tossing fitfully in their beds yet, but they can’t be happy.
All the Microsoft news that’s fit to print
Microsoft had a busy week at its Professional Developers Conference, and announced lots of new developments — in addition to Azure. ArsTechnica has a useful roundup.