The goal seems to be to help PC users who cannot move to Windows Vista move smoothly to the next version of Microsoft's desktop operating system, Windows 7.
read more | digg story
Showing posts with label Vista. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vista. Show all posts
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Microsoft gives users six months longer to flee from Vista
read more | digg story
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Microsoft Admits What Went Wrong with Vista!
"Way back in January 2007, after years of hype and anticipation, Microsoft unveiled Windows Vista to a decidedly lukewarm reception by the PC community, IT pros, and tech journalists alike. Instead of a revolutionary next-generation OS that was chock-full of new features, the Windows community got an underwhelming rehash with very little going for it. Oh, and Vista was plagued with performance and incompatibility problems to boot.Since then, the PC community has taken the idea that Vista is underwhelming and turned it into a mantra. We’ve all heard about Vista’s poor network transfer speeds, low frame rates in games, and driver issues—shoot, we’ve experienced the problems ourselves. But over the last 18 months, Vista has undergone myriad changes, including the release of Service Pack 1, making the OS worth a second look. It’s time we determine once and for all whether we should stick with XP for the next 18 months while we wait for Windows 7. But before we answer that question, let’s review exactly what’s wrong with Windows Vista."
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Road to Mac OS X Snow Leopard 64-Bit: Santa Rosa PC Swindle
Snow Leopard's across-the-board leap to 64-bits, from the kernel to all of its bundled apps, will do more than just make more memory available. It also exposes a great PC swindle and highlights Apple's lead in 64-bit computing. Here's why. "Microsoft even changed the way the OS reports the amount of RAM available; rumor is, due to pressure from OEMs," the developer told us. "In Vista and prior, it reported usable RAM, while in SP1 they changed it to report installed RAM ignoring the fact that much of the RAM was unusable due to overlap with video memory." And so many PC users are installing 4GB of RAM in their PCs and thinking that it is being used by the system, when in fact it is no more beneficial than if the RAM were simply poked halfway into the CD slot.
read more | digg story
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Why Macs Still Aren't Right for Most Businesses
"There's no doubt that the Mac is a great machine. But, Is Apple too flashy? Is it more trouble than it's worth for the basic computing tasks? It seems that Apple's quirks don't alway suit small businesses ...at least not yet. Many smart shops I chat with are dumping their Windows machines for Macs. Bottom line: If you're facing a Vista upgrade, you would be a dope to flatly ignore Apple gear. Get down to an Apple Store - or even better, use the company's nifty Apple Consultants Network to let a real pro cook up a bid for you."
read more | digg story
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Why PC Coders Avoiding Vista and Mac Coders embracing Leopard
PC World - Business Center: Coders Tell Why They're Avoiding Vista: "Windows developers are confirming the results of a survey released yesterday that found fewer than 1 in 12 programmers currently writing applications targeting Windows Vista."
"None of our customers are saying, 'G******it, we need those WPF controls now!'" said Julian Bucknall, CTO for Windows programming tools maker Developer Express Inc. , referring to one of Vista's most highly-touted features, its new graphical subsystem, Windows Presentation Foundation . Rather, "we find most are still sticking with ASP.Net and Windows Forms applications."
"Microsoft tends to dump ten new technologies on us, but only 2 or 3 really stick," said Michael Krasowski, vice-president of PDSA Inc., a Microsoft-focused 20-developer firm in Tustin Calif., citing the Windows DNA Architecture as an example."
"Vista is too bleeding-edge -- not for us, but for our clients," Krasowski said. PDSA's clients include large, blue-chip customers such as Kaiser Permanente and Boeing Inc. "They're all leery of Vista."
"Contrast this against the following article, published in January over at Theocacao. Cocoa developers are champing at the bit to implement their products using the new libraries available in Leopard and pushing the compatibility envelope along with it. More and more applications are Leopard-only."
"None of our customers are saying, 'G******it, we need those WPF controls now!'" said Julian Bucknall, CTO for Windows programming tools maker Developer Express Inc. , referring to one of Vista's most highly-touted features, its new graphical subsystem, Windows Presentation Foundation . Rather, "we find most are still sticking with ASP.Net and Windows Forms applications."
"Microsoft tends to dump ten new technologies on us, but only 2 or 3 really stick," said Michael Krasowski, vice-president of PDSA Inc., a Microsoft-focused 20-developer firm in Tustin Calif., citing the Windows DNA Architecture as an example."
"Vista is too bleeding-edge -- not for us, but for our clients," Krasowski said. PDSA's clients include large, blue-chip customers such as Kaiser Permanente and Boeing Inc. "They're all leery of Vista."
"Contrast this against the following article, published in January over at Theocacao. Cocoa developers are champing at the bit to implement their products using the new libraries available in Leopard and pushing the compatibility envelope along with it. More and more applications are Leopard-only."
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Don't give Microsoft the remote control - fight against DRM
If you put Microsoft at the center of your home entertainment system, be prepared to hand them the remote control, literally. Microsoft has gone to great lengths to restrict users from saving a television program to their computers, we call this kind of functionality an "antifeature". "A Microsoft spokesperson told CNET News, "...Windows Media Center fully adheres to the flags used by broadcasters and content owners to determine how their content is distributed and consumed."Don't be fooled into their claims that they are following regulations by the FCC -- the court ruled that the FCC has no power to make such regulations. This is also claimed as a measure just to stop unauthorized file sharing, yet what Microsoft is doing is trying to make sure that they are on every end of the market, from how it is delivered, to how you watch it. As Ars Technica reporter Jacqui Cheng puts it, this is not about Microsoft preventing people from sharing files without permission, "[i]t's about the ability to strictly control how we consume content"[2].
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Vista Blues Weakens Microsoft's Influence On Software Market
Vista Blues Weakens Microsoft's Influence On Software Market
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
May 7, 2008 2:08 p.m.
By Jessica Hodgson and Ben Charny
of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones)--Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) wants to stop selling its XP operating system June 30, but a crescendo of complaints about the software giant's replacement is making it nearly impossible.
The world's major computer manufacturers, reacting to gripes about Vista's performance, plan to continue offering the XP software inside their computer for years after Microsoft stops selling it.
The strong response shows how manufacturers can, in essence, veto Microsoft's decision to upgrade its key software product and instead, keep the old one going. It also illustrates how Microsoft is losing its ability to dictate the pace of business software upgrades, which may force the software giant to re-examine such practices.
Chief Executive Steve Ballmer hinted as much when he said XP may live on because of the customer feedback.
"We can always wake-up smarter, but right now, we plan an end-of-life for new XP shipments," Ballmer said recently in Belgium.
Such a move is sure to be welcome by PC makers.
"This a large issue for every personal computer maker," said Bob Rosin, senior vice president of computer maker OQO Inc. "Microsoft's got to adjust to that, and seems to be."
Manufacturers are responding to their customers, who in uncertain economic times and with questions over whether investing in Microsoft's new Vista operating system is worthwhile, want to hold off on Vista entirely. They would rather wait for the next Microsoft operating system's debut, which is at least two years away.
Vista Misunderstood
The unpopularity of Vista isn't likely to present any immediate major risks to Microsoft's earnings profile, analysts say, because the Microsoft Windows operating system is so ubiquitous in most workplaces that, according to Forrester Research analyst Benjamin Gray, there is "no viable alternative" in most large corporations to deploying Vista.
Big companies typically buy a blanket license to use the Windows operating system on a per-seat basis. That means even if that company doesn't deploy Vista but retains Windows XP, it will effectively be paying for Vista, and Microsoft's client unit sales are unlikely to suffer, said Lee Nicholls, global solutions director for Getronics, a $3.4 billion IT services company that counts itself as one of Microsoft's biggest systems integrator partners.
Nonetheless, there is dissatisfaction among Microsoft's key customer base over Vista, which could become a longer-term threat as disgruntled IT managers delay their upgrade cycles as it creates more ill will among the Windows user community.
That was evident in how Microsoft's client division third-quarter sales, which includes the XP and Vista operating system, fell 24% compared with the year earlier period. Although the decline was expected because of a one-off revenue gain of around $1.6 billion in the year-earlier quarter, client revenues were lower than analysts expected.
At the time, Microsoft denied that the lower client revenue was associated with Vista, pinpointing instead issues around piracy management.
Yet InfoWorld, an online magazine aimed at the IT community, launched a campaign designed to persuade Microsoft to halt plans to stop supporting XP, and has more than 175,000 signatures.
"People are consistently saying to us 'We don't understand the benefits of Vista,'" said Galen Gruman, executive editor of InfoWorld.
Even supporters of Vista have concerns. Getronics' Nicholls, who likes Vista, said "the business argument for upgrading to Vista is distinctly lacking."
New Hardware Required
One of the specific charges leveled at Vista is the fact that getting optimum performance requires IT managers to install new hardware. "For a big organization, this means effectively you're faced with buying a new computer for every employee," InfoWorld's Gruman said.
IT research company Gartner noted recently a number of organizations delayed their decision to implement Vista.
"Most users do not see Vista as being better enough than Windows XP to make incurring the cost and pain of migration worthwhile," Gartner analysts Neil MacDonald and Michael Silver wrote.
In addition to the weak Vista response, Microsoft is also seeing increased competition in its core office tools marketplace from competitors such as Salesforce.com Inc. (CRM), which makes software targeted primarily at sales executives and sold over the Internet, and Google Inc. (GOOG), the Internet search giant.
In order to kick-start Vista sales, Microsoft last month said it would stop selling Windows XP in June. As it has done since 2001, though, Microsoft lets computer makers obtain "downgrade rights," which let them ship computers with two versions of Microsoft's operating system on board. The rights only pertain to business computer systems, thus limiting their potential impact. Consumers may still be able to buy machines with both operating systems but, in some way, must request the XP downgrade.
Representatives for No. 1 computer maker Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ), No. 2 Dell Inc. (DELL), Acer Inc.'s (2353.TW) Gateway and Lenovo Group Ltd. (0992.HK) say they will be shipping computers post June 30 with both XP and Vista on board.
"We appreciate Microsoft's flexibility in meeting the needs of customers," a Dell spokeswoman said.
Through at least July 30, 2009, H-P will ship its business desktop computers, notebooks and workstation with XP on board, and the right to upgrade to Vista. More so than any complaints about Vista, H-P's decision was due to the time it takes its customers to transition to Vista, a spokeswoman said.
-By Jessica Hodgson, Dow Jones Newswires; 415-439-6455; jessica.hodgson@dowjones.com
-By Ben Charny, Dow Jones Newswires, 415-765-8230; ben.charny@dowjones.com
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
May 7, 2008 2:08 p.m.
By Jessica Hodgson and Ben Charny
of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones)--Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) wants to stop selling its XP operating system June 30, but a crescendo of complaints about the software giant's replacement is making it nearly impossible.
The world's major computer manufacturers, reacting to gripes about Vista's performance, plan to continue offering the XP software inside their computer for years after Microsoft stops selling it.
The strong response shows how manufacturers can, in essence, veto Microsoft's decision to upgrade its key software product and instead, keep the old one going. It also illustrates how Microsoft is losing its ability to dictate the pace of business software upgrades, which may force the software giant to re-examine such practices.
Chief Executive Steve Ballmer hinted as much when he said XP may live on because of the customer feedback.
"We can always wake-up smarter, but right now, we plan an end-of-life for new XP shipments," Ballmer said recently in Belgium.
Such a move is sure to be welcome by PC makers.
"This a large issue for every personal computer maker," said Bob Rosin, senior vice president of computer maker OQO Inc. "Microsoft's got to adjust to that, and seems to be."
Manufacturers are responding to their customers, who in uncertain economic times and with questions over whether investing in Microsoft's new Vista operating system is worthwhile, want to hold off on Vista entirely. They would rather wait for the next Microsoft operating system's debut, which is at least two years away.
Vista Misunderstood
The unpopularity of Vista isn't likely to present any immediate major risks to Microsoft's earnings profile, analysts say, because the Microsoft Windows operating system is so ubiquitous in most workplaces that, according to Forrester Research analyst Benjamin Gray, there is "no viable alternative" in most large corporations to deploying Vista.
Big companies typically buy a blanket license to use the Windows operating system on a per-seat basis. That means even if that company doesn't deploy Vista but retains Windows XP, it will effectively be paying for Vista, and Microsoft's client unit sales are unlikely to suffer, said Lee Nicholls, global solutions director for Getronics, a $3.4 billion IT services company that counts itself as one of Microsoft's biggest systems integrator partners.
Nonetheless, there is dissatisfaction among Microsoft's key customer base over Vista, which could become a longer-term threat as disgruntled IT managers delay their upgrade cycles as it creates more ill will among the Windows user community.
That was evident in how Microsoft's client division third-quarter sales, which includes the XP and Vista operating system, fell 24% compared with the year earlier period. Although the decline was expected because of a one-off revenue gain of around $1.6 billion in the year-earlier quarter, client revenues were lower than analysts expected.
At the time, Microsoft denied that the lower client revenue was associated with Vista, pinpointing instead issues around piracy management.
Yet InfoWorld, an online magazine aimed at the IT community, launched a campaign designed to persuade Microsoft to halt plans to stop supporting XP, and has more than 175,000 signatures.
"People are consistently saying to us 'We don't understand the benefits of Vista,'" said Galen Gruman, executive editor of InfoWorld.
Even supporters of Vista have concerns. Getronics' Nicholls, who likes Vista, said "the business argument for upgrading to Vista is distinctly lacking."
New Hardware Required
One of the specific charges leveled at Vista is the fact that getting optimum performance requires IT managers to install new hardware. "For a big organization, this means effectively you're faced with buying a new computer for every employee," InfoWorld's Gruman said.
IT research company Gartner noted recently a number of organizations delayed their decision to implement Vista.
"Most users do not see Vista as being better enough than Windows XP to make incurring the cost and pain of migration worthwhile," Gartner analysts Neil MacDonald and Michael Silver wrote.
In addition to the weak Vista response, Microsoft is also seeing increased competition in its core office tools marketplace from competitors such as Salesforce.com Inc. (CRM), which makes software targeted primarily at sales executives and sold over the Internet, and Google Inc. (GOOG), the Internet search giant.
In order to kick-start Vista sales, Microsoft last month said it would stop selling Windows XP in June. As it has done since 2001, though, Microsoft lets computer makers obtain "downgrade rights," which let them ship computers with two versions of Microsoft's operating system on board. The rights only pertain to business computer systems, thus limiting their potential impact. Consumers may still be able to buy machines with both operating systems but, in some way, must request the XP downgrade.
Representatives for No. 1 computer maker Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ), No. 2 Dell Inc. (DELL), Acer Inc.'s (2353.TW) Gateway and Lenovo Group Ltd. (0992.HK) say they will be shipping computers post June 30 with both XP and Vista on board.
"We appreciate Microsoft's flexibility in meeting the needs of customers," a Dell spokeswoman said.
Through at least July 30, 2009, H-P will ship its business desktop computers, notebooks and workstation with XP on board, and the right to upgrade to Vista. More so than any complaints about Vista, H-P's decision was due to the time it takes its customers to transition to Vista, a spokeswoman said.
-By Jessica Hodgson, Dow Jones Newswires; 415-439-6455; jessica.hodgson@dowjones.com
-By Ben Charny, Dow Jones Newswires, 415-765-8230; ben.charny@dowjones.com
Monday, November 19, 2007
The Tao of Dilbert
Most IT people and they will agree that many times Dilbert reflects their life at the office. How many times have you read the comic and said to yourself oh that sounds like so and so at my office?
Amazon started selling Kindle an electronic book, newspaper, and blog reading portable device for $399.00. Now at $400 bucks would you buy it? I mean that's the same as buying another iPhone if you have one. Do you really hate carrying around a paper book so much that you would spend $400 bucks???
PC Magazine recently pointed out the Microsoft's Zune can't win when compared to the iPod. I agree and I think they should spend their efforts on oh lets say fixing all the problems with Vista. Really I think the big problem with Microsoft (other then stealing ideas, squishing competition) is that they lack focus. If they put all their effort into a few core area's then they might actually produce some great products.
The tinfoil hat groupies were busy this week tossing out conspiracy theories about how Apple is tracking you via the iPhone and in the end their claims have been found to be bogus.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Leopard spanks Vista!
Today Computerworld wrote that "There's really no contest. Tiger is a better OS that Vista, and there are no long-term downsides to Leopard. Vista doesn't measure up. " I also found and interesting article about the myth that buying a Apple costs more then a PC. The author explains how that PC you are thinking of buying really will cost more then the an Apple Macintosh would. Looks like Apple is also working on 10.5.1 and it's said to have at least two dozen fixes. Also included are updates to Leopards FireWall. iLounge talks about the secrets & features of iTunes 7.5. My odd bit of interesting news for the day was a Digg Story the spooky side of Scientology.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Why Leopard rocks and Vista is a sleeper for older PC's
Don't get me wrong Vista is much better then Windows ME but is it better then Windows XP? Well much of that may come down to your preferences and if you own a new computer or not. The major problems with Vista is that in addition of the sucking sound of your CPU used by all the extra DRM that unless you do a lot of work making sure you have the correct drivers Vista is not a simple upgrade.
What is the average use to do thinking of upgrading to do? Well if you are going to by a new computer you might as well consider the Apple Macintosh running Leopard and of course the OS will work with most of the current Mac's as well. Leopard will offer 0ver 300+ new features that are sure to dazzle most users but not all. In my mind there are a few features that really jump out like much improved security, parental controls, automatic backup, and Unix! Yes, Unix and that is a major reason why OS X is so stable. Lets not forget that every Macintosh comes bundled with iLife 08 which I would say is a must have and there is no bundle software on the Windows side that you can even compare to iLife.
Another option for users of older computers who can't afford a new PC running OS X or Vista is Linux. There are many flavors of Linux and each has its plus and minus but if you have no preference then a very popular choice is Ubuntu. I was able to take and install Ubuntu on an antiquated dell laptop with no problems. The Ubuntu software recognized all the systems hardware and made the system feel almost new.
However these days do you even really need a full computer? If you are not a heavy Internet user consider the iPhone or iPod Touch. So far the iPhones have had very strong sales and I have yet to meet an iPhone owner who is sorry they bought it. Both devices ship all the software you should need to be productive and soon Apple will add third party software.
Chris | Live Tech Support | Video Help | Add to iTunes
What is the average use to do thinking of upgrading to do? Well if you are going to by a new computer you might as well consider the Apple Macintosh running Leopard and of course the OS will work with most of the current Mac's as well. Leopard will offer 0ver 300+ new features that are sure to dazzle most users but not all. In my mind there are a few features that really jump out like much improved security, parental controls, automatic backup, and Unix! Yes, Unix and that is a major reason why OS X is so stable. Lets not forget that every Macintosh comes bundled with iLife 08 which I would say is a must have and there is no bundle software on the Windows side that you can even compare to iLife.
Another option for users of older computers who can't afford a new PC running OS X or Vista is Linux. There are many flavors of Linux and each has its plus and minus but if you have no preference then a very popular choice is Ubuntu. I was able to take and install Ubuntu on an antiquated dell laptop with no problems. The Ubuntu software recognized all the systems hardware and made the system feel almost new.
However these days do you even really need a full computer? If you are not a heavy Internet user consider the iPhone or iPod Touch. So far the iPhones have had very strong sales and I have yet to meet an iPhone owner who is sorry they bought it. Both devices ship all the software you should need to be productive and soon Apple will add third party software.
Chris | Live Tech Support | Video Help | Add to iTunes
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