“This week, speaking at a Gartner conference in Orlando, Florida, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said some fascinating things about Linux and about Open Source software in general. And thanks to those remarks and the blinding realization they caused for me, I finally understand exactly why Microsoft doesn’t understand Open Source.”
Cringely always makes interesting reading. Listen and watch Ballmer’s statements here.
What a great lead-in line to an article:
“The most powerful piece of software inside Microsoft may be the $40 application from a tiny vendor called Userland that Robert Scoble uses to write his weblog.”
The article, by Ed Cone in Baseline, goes on to describe the potential power of blogging for businesses. A good read, but a great opening. It certainly snagged me.
Apple’s Knowledge Navigator revisited.
“During my session at BloggerCon I referred to Apple’s famous Knowledge Navigator concept video. I first saw that video in 1988. Today I tracked down a copy and watched it again. It stands the test of time rather well!
…” [Jon’s Radio]
The DynaBook demo was truly a vision at a time when color CRTs were a
novelty in the business world: a flat panel with sound and color and
animation, touch screen drag-and-drop and small memory cartridges with
large capacities. So much of the hardware has come true, and so little
of the software functionality is available! It seems we have once again
underestimated the complexity and resources required for software
development.
CNET News.com – Front Door carries the story that \”PC sales bolster Microsoft profits. The software giant reports earnings that narrowly topped Wall Street expectations as sales rose 6 percent from a year ago. \” Not a surprise to those of us who follow Microsoft. What was surprising was the breakdown of sales across Microsoft’s seven divisions and the fact the CNET reported it without any analysis of what, if anything, those numbers meant. Perhaps a picture would have helped…
This one, perhaps, that would have shown that revenues were flat in client (Windows) and Information Worker (Office) divisions – no surprise with a flat economy and little innovation. That Server bumped up by 15% surprises me, Can anyone explain that one? And it’s pretty obvious, in the big picture, those are the three that matter. In the smaller divisions, though, there’s where the growth is: Mobile up an astounding 88%, Home nearly 20% and MSN 15%. Business Solutions also turned in a respectable 21%. Too bad these weren’t standalone companies: their returns would have been better than the 4.9% overall increase in sales. But then again, would the sales have occurred without the backing of Microsoft?
Remember the weekly Microsoft Security Bulletins that Microsoft
announced would be reduced to one per month to relieve the burden on
adminstrators? That lasted three weeks. In my inbox this morning are
two messages, titled “REVISED: Microsoft Windows Security Bulletin
Summary for October 2003” and “REVISED: Microsoft Exchange Server
Security Bulletin Summary for October 2003” Each bulletin is a complete
reprint of the original, with a paragraph tacked on the front
explaining that one of the items in each bulletin has changed
significantly, and to see that particular item for details.
Well, it’s better than not telling us at all, but the format could be better. I’d prefer individual security bulletins.
Perhaps switching off the Microsoft OS is not possible for you right
now, or you can’t afford a second machine to mess with. There are still
alternatives. On my main development machine, a Windows XP Professional
machine, Mozilla is my default
browser. Mozilla is more than just a browser, it’s an internet
application development environment, with HTML markup editors and
javascript debuggers. And OpenOffice.org
is my default office suite, with built-in word processing, spreadsheets
and presentation packages competitive with any of the commercial
suites. I used the OpenOffice.org Write and Impress packages at the
recent Great Lakes Great Database Workshop conference to present my white papers and slides, without any problems.
And, if you’d like to dip your toes into the water without fully committing to a Linux install, check out Knoppix.
Knoppix is a full Linux distribution that boots and runs from CD,
without writing to your hard drive at all. This is a great way to try
Linux out without messing with your machine, although, of course, you
lose any changes when you shut down your machine. I’ve heard that
people have gotten their USB storage devices to work with Knoppix to
save documents. Check it out. It’s free.
Microsoft’s Integration Strategy Is Costly For Customers, according to this article at Internet Week. It starts:
Microsoft’s strategy of increasingly integrating its
server and client products — as best evidenced by the Office System
line-up which officially launches next week — means some enterprises
may end up paying 10 to 40 percent more to stay with Redmond’s wares, a
recent report from Jupiter Research suggests.
Information Week has an interesting articled called Staring Down Linux
that has some thoughtful points about how Microsoft plans to play the
game when dealing with customers and partners and Linux. Not
surprisingly, the word uncooperative describes much of their
\”strategy.\” Also, read the embedded surveys on why customers choose
Linux vs. why Microsoft. Pretty interesting stuff.
Microsoft Warns of 4 New Windows Flaws OSNews points to an article on Salon
that makes a few interesting points: Microsoft is going to monthly
security bulletins as some sort of comfort for the plethora of patches
that must be applied. Frankly, I’d rather know now, than the first
Wednesday of the month, when a weakness is discovered. This just
expands the threat window from discovery to closure (assuming the patch
works) from a week to a month.
In one email from Microsoft, titled “Microsoft Exchange Server Security
Bulletin for October 2003,” I was warned of the following:
MS03-046, titled “Vulnerability in Exchange Server could allow Arbitrary Code Execution (829436)” allows remote code execution.
MS03-047, “Vulnerability in Exchange Server 5.5 Outlook Web Access
Could Allow Cross-Site Scripting Attack (828489)” also permits remote
code execution.
The second email message was also titled “Microsoft Exchange Server
Security Bulletin for October 2003,” but the body of the message
indicated it was really “Microsoft Windows Security Bulletin Summary
for October 2003.” This included five new threats for you to evaluate,
mitigate and/or patch:
MS03-041 – Vulnerability in Authenticode Could Allow Remote Code Execution (823182)
MS03-042 – Buffer Overflow in the Windows Troubleshooter ActiveX Control Could Allow Code Execution (826232)
MS03-043 – Buffer Overrun in Messenger Service Could Allow Code Execution (828035)
MS03-044 – Buffer Overflow in Windows Help and Support Center Could lead to System Compromise (825119)
MS03-045 – Buffer Overrun in the ListBox and in the ComboBox Control Could Allow Code Execution (824141)
I’m runing Windows Update on a few machines in the home office here,
and you’ll probably want to do the same. It’s the 42nd week of the year.
Visual FoxPro 8.0 Service Pack 1 Released.
Download Visual FoxPro 8.0 Service Pack 1 (SP1). Discover the many
enhancements and stability improvements designed to improve the
reliability and performance of Visual FoxPro 8.0. By Microsoft. [FoxCentral News]