May 13, 2008

Hyper-V's Achilles' heel

A house of cards -- that's how I'd describe the current state of the Windows device driver ecosystem. With so many Windows-compatible devices and so few competent driver developers, it's no surprise that hunting for driver updates has become a necessary part of every power user's skill set. Most of the time, the search ends in frustration: Either the new driver doesn't correct the existing problem(s) or, worse, creates a set of new ones. And now, with the introduction of Hyper-V, we have a whole new failure vector to think about. In a nutshell, one of Hyper-V's advertised strengths --... more

TAGS: Hardware, Linux, Virtualization, Windows Vista, Windows XP

May 08, 2008

Are MCSEs too stupid to learn Linux?

That's the conclusion seemingly reached by the resident *NIX zealot on another news site. According to this joker, learning Linux, Solaris or any other *NIX derivative requires a degree of conceptual understanding that MCSEs are either unwilling or unable to attain. To master these advanced OS, he says, you must first immerse yourself in the theory behind the implementation - starting with some arcane UNIX programming tome written way back in 1984. Failure to do so will, apparently, leave you branded as a member of the great unwashed (i.e. someone foolish enough ask the kind of stupid "noob" questions that... more

TAGS: Linux, Windows Vista, Windows XP

May 07, 2008

How Unix politics are killing OS innovation

It's frustrating. Each time I think I've found a viable long-term replacement for my Windows development and testing environment, along comes some stumbling block to trip me up. And while these hurdles are mostly technical, the "root" causes (pun intended) are almost always political in nature. Case in point: My various bouts with the disease known as "Ubuntu-itis." Every six months or so I get the urge to jump ship and join with the great hippie masses swaying to the open source beat. But then "the man" has to come and spoil the fun. All that finger pointing about the... more

TAGS: Hardware, Linux, Productivity, Virtualization, Windows XP

May 01, 2008

Streaming Office: Death knell for Google Apps?

It's the holy grail of punditry: You make a bold, unconventional prediction that's way out in front of an emerging trend, then get to gloat as that prediction comes true. In my case, the prediction involved Microsoft's recently (at the time) acquired SoftGrid technology. I saw the acquisition as a clear sign that Microsoft was gearing up to deliver a subscriptions-based, hosted licensing model for Microsoft Office. Of course, not everyone agreed with me. In fact, the CTO of a key Microsoft competitor all but dismissed the possibility on technical grounds. SoftGrid, he said, was an "inside the firewall" technology,... more

TAGS: Productivity, Virtualization, Windows Vista, Windows XP

April 29, 2008

Windows XP SP3: More than a simple Service Pack

Update: It appears that Microsoft is continuing to play games with the SP3 release schedule. First they make it available via MSDN, then they tease everyone with general availability (via Windows Update and direct download) only to pull the release hours later due to an obscure bug involving Microsoft Dynamics RMS. If I were a cynical man I might see this latest delay as a deliberate attempt to sabotage their own Service Pack release (and thus give Vista another reprieve) - sort of like "cutting off your nose to spite your face." I mean, delaying the most anticipated XP Service... more

TAGS: Windows XP

April 21, 2008

Note to Popular Mechanics: Leave the PC reviewing to us professionals

As a veteran IT professional, I often get a kick out of how the mainstream media views technology. Whether it's some pseudo-custom UI in a Hollywood blockbuster (take "True Lies" and the Arabic Mac-in-Windows, for instance) or a newscaster trying to explain the intricacies of the DOJ/Microsoft antitrust ruling, I can't help but snicker when I see or hear something that shows just how ignorant the presenter really is. Case in point: The recent "Ultimate Lab Test" showdown in Popular Mechanics. Why this bastion of insight into experimental flying machines and homemade survival shelters felt the need to comment on... more

TAGS: Apple, Hardware, Productivity, Windows Vista

April 20, 2008

"Beryl" comes to Vista

I have to admit, one of the most attractive (to me at least) features of the Linux desktop has always been the famous Beryl/Compiz 3D "cube" plug-in. I first dismissed the feature as pure "eye candy," however, after several months experimenting with various Linux distros, I came to appreciate the simple beauty and practicality of a 3-dimensional workspace. The ability to assign windows to different "surfaces" - and then navigate between them intuitively - made me more productive by allowing me to "un-clutter" my desktop. So you can imagine my delight in discovering that I can create roughly the same... more

TAGS: Linux, Productivity, Windows Vista

April 16, 2008

Why I'm glad I don't work for Microsoft

Speechless. That's how I felt when I came across this latest gem from the bowels of Microsoft's sales & marketing organization. Never mind that they've completely dishonored "The Boss" - this whole production is an abomination! Who on earth thought this would be a good idea? I actually feel sad for the Microsoft folks who received this thing in their inbox. It's hard to take pride in your work when your employer talks down to you like this. I've seen better motivational pitches at an Amway convention. Perhaps Microsoft thinks its employees live in a vacuum. After all, anyone even... more

TAGS: Apple, Productivity, Windows Vista

April 15, 2008

Solving the legacy Windows compatibility puzzle

There's been a lot of chatter lately about how Microsoft needs to start over with Windows. Many point to the (NT) code base's 16-year history and how the need to maintain backward compatibility is hampering efforts to move the platform forward. According to these critics, a clean break is necessary in order to stop the kind of bloatware madness that so crippled Windows Vista. Dump the creaking legacy that is the Win32 API/ATL/MFC, they say, and solve the compatibility riddle through VM technology. While I can appreciate the logic behind these assertions, I don't agree with the proposed remedy. For... more

TAGS: Productivity, Virtualization, Windows Vista

April 10, 2008

Ubuntu: More doomed than ever...

UPDATE: I just tried a clean install of the Ubuntu 8.04 RC build. Setup completed, the system rebooted and I logged into the desktop. I then clicked the Power button in the upper right corner and chose Suspend from the list of options. Went to resume and...wham! Black Screen of Death! On a pristine install with no proprietary drivers (first boot after setup completed). Unacceptable! I consider myself a patient person. When it comes to OS quirks and difficulties, I've put up with more than my fair share. After all, I was an original Windows NT 3.x early adopter (feel... more

TAGS: Hardware, Linux, Windows Vista

April 09, 2008

Burned by Acrobat and Windows Update...on the same day!

I'm starting to hate Windows Update. No matter how many times I try to disable the Automatic Updates feature it somehow manages to re-enable itself, often with disastrous results. Case in point: This week's "Patch Tuesday" batch of updates for Server 2008. I went to manually check for the updates and force a download only to discover that they were already 95% complete - this despite the fact that I had very deliberately disabled Automatic Updates when I first installed Server 2008 as a "Workstation" OS. Worse still, once the download had completed I started getting those "nag" screens about... more

TAGS: Hardware, Productivity, Windows Vista

April 08, 2008

Bitter fruit and broken promises: My "hackintosh" odyssesy (and more)

A week ago I solicited suggestions on which version of *nix to try next. I'd been "jonesing" for a new OS experience, and it made sense to see how some of my previous choices had evolved during my six month hiatus. So, after collecting a long and varied list of possible targets, I set out on my odyssey to find out if any of the current crop of  *nix variants could serve as a full-time replacement for my satisfying - yet entirely unsupported - Windows 2008 "Workstation" configuration. Since I was starting from scratch, I decided to go with the... more

TAGS: Apple, Hardware, Linux, Windows Vista

April 04, 2008

Why we still need Windows XP

This week, the blogosphere has been chock full of ranting about Windows XP's impending demise. The confirmation by Microsoft that Windows XP will cease to exist as a commercial product at the end of June has triggered all kinds of commentary, including at least one exhortation to just "let XP die, already!" The problem with this logic is that it assumes there is a viable alternative. Unfortunately, Windows Vista is not it, a fact attested to by the OS' meager 6 percent installed base in the enterprise. And while Windows Server 2008 has proven to be a formidable workstation OS,... more

TAGS: Hardware, Productivity, Windows Vista

April 01, 2008

Greed, politics, and CanSecWest

I've been following with amusement the developments coming out of the recent CanSecWest hacking contest. While most of the headlines have focused on the "quick death" of the MacBook Air system on day two, the really juicy bits didn't emerge until later in the event. In fact, it wasn't until after the Vista box fell to an Adobe Flash exploit that the fur really began to fly. The opening salvo was fired, unsurprisingly, by the Mac community. In his RoughlyDrafted blog, Daniel Eran Dilger questioned the validity of the event while throwing mud in all directions: at the winning hacker... more

TAGS: Apple

March 28, 2008

Windows Search 4.0 preview: first impressions

I just finished downloading and installing the Windows Search 4.0 Preview and I must say I'm impressed by the results. File system searches are now blazingly fast (at least within indexed folders), while preview images of even complex documents pop-up almost instantly. Even Outlook seems to have gotten a speed boost. Searching for an object using the All Mail Items option is no longer a coffee-break-inducing endeavor. Overall, it's a major improvement over the integrated desktop search in Vista and Server 2008 (it updates them seamlessly), and it also serves as a nice upgrade for users of Windows Desktop Search... more

TAGS: Productivity, Windows Vista

March 25, 2008

Is Microsoft artificially delaying XP SP3?

It's a valid question. Last week, virtually anyone who was anyone within the SP3 Beta community thought that the release of Service Pack 3 for Windows XP was imminent. InfoWorld even commissioned a lead-out news item on the subject (penned by yours truly) of SP3's arrival. Now we learn that SP3 has been delayed once again, this time until late April. Up to now, things has been going swimmingly for SP3, with recent builds showing RTM-levels of polish. Then, all of a sudden it's "not ready." No explanation for the delay - just a "failure to launch" when everyone expected... more

TAGS: Linux, Productivity, Windows Vista

March 25, 2008

The six month *nix itch: How should I scratch it?

It's been a little over six months since I tested the Linux waters with Ubuntu 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon." Back then I found Ubuntu to be a very attractive OS with some unfortunate architectural issues (poor ACPI support leading to frequent power management-related hangs). It was an educational experience, my five days living exclusively in Linux-land, and it gave me a new, less prejudiced perspective on my previous OS home, Windows Vista. Since then, I've discovered the joys of Windows Workstation 2008 (faster, more stable, less bloated than Vista) while watching with curiosity as the fervor surrounding "Ubuntu-as-Windows-replacement" died-out. Some of... more

TAGS: Linux

March 20, 2008

You can never have too many cores

Or be too young. Or too thin. Or too rich. It's a truism: Ever since the introduction of Windows 2000 Workstation - which was the first mainstream Windows client OS to support Symmetrical Multiprocessing (SMP) - desktop PCs have been in a position to exploit multiple CPUs and/or CPU cores. However, most early users couldn't understand why they might need or even want more than one "brain" in their systems. After all, how fast does Word need to run before you start to see diminishing returns? Of course, what these early users didn't see (and what many current users still... more

TAGS: Hardware, Productivity, Windows Vista

March 17, 2008

Was Vista DOA?

As if the commotion over Windows "Workstation" 2008 weren't enough, a recent survey of IT shops shows that over 70% of respondents will still be using their "current OS" in 2009. Since the overwhelming majority (92%) of these sites are still running Windows XP, that means that Vista will likely never achieve critical mass in the enterprise. To those of us working "in the trenches," this really comes as no surprise. Resistance to Vista has been stiffening in recent months, with many shops crying a Roberto Duran-esque "no mas" as they leap off the Wintel treadmill in droves. [ Tell... more

TAGS: Hardware, Productivity, Windows Vista