On Feb. 27, Microsoft is kicking off a
three-headed
launch event
for Visual Studio 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Windows Server
2008. As ever, with these formal launch events, the actual date of the shindig
has little bearing on the state of the software itself. Visual Studio 2008
went
final
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Posted by Michael Desmond on 01/24/20080 comments
Looks like things are heating up around the next version of Internet Explorer,
expected to arrive in beta form in the first half of 2008. Back in December
2007, IE Group GM Dean Hachamovitch wrote in a
blog
posting
that IE 8 had
passed
the Acid2 compatibility test
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Posted by Michael Desmond on 01/24/20081 comments
Last
week
, I wrote about the recent Burton Group report that provided an overview
of the Office Open XML (OOXML) and OpenDocument Format (ODF) file format specifications.
The report, which is aimed at an enterprise readership, concludes that OOXML
enjoys a number of critical advantages over ODF, in large part because it maps
aggressively to the existing features and functions provided by current and
past versions of Microsoft Office. You can find a synopsis of the report
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Posted by Michael Desmond on 01/22/200823 comments
With the February vote approaching to ratify Microsoft Office Open XML as a
standard under the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), we're
keeping a close eye on developments in both OOXML and the Open Document Format
(ODF) specifications.
Last week, Burton Group analyst Peter O'Kelly published a detailed report that
looked at both OOXML and ODF, and assessed their relative position in the XML
file format space. You can find that report here.
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Posted by Michael Desmond on 01/17/20087 comments
MySQL has emerged as the database engine of choice among open source and LAMP
application developers. But now that Sun Microsystems has
snapped
up the little database-company-that-could
for $1 billion, you have to wonder
-- what next?
Yes, the acquisition immediately vaults Sun into a position to approach Oracle,
IBM and Microsoft as a viable database vendor. "It changes the landscape,"
said Gartner Vice President Donald Feinberg. "It's immediate in some areas
but it's really more of a play for the longer term. I think over the next five
years, it will really start to grow."
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Posted by Michael Desmond on 01/17/20080 comments
Last week, Microsoft announced that Jeff Raikes, president of the Microsoft
Business Division, will
retire
in September
. The gentle, nine-month transition will allow plenty of time
for Raikes' replacement, former Juniper Networks COO Stephen Elop, to step in.
Elop will be taking over the Information Worker, Microsoft Business Solutions
and Unified Communications branches at Microsoft. It's worth noting that before
arriving at Juniper, Elop was the former CEO of Macromedia and president of
worldwide field operations at Adobe.
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Posted by Michael Desmond on 01/15/20081 comments
Last time, I blogged about Bill Gates' boast that Microsoft has
sold
100 million copies
of its latest OS. Here are some of your thoughts:
Don't Drink the Kool-Aid!
"There's a need for a reality check. How many of the 100 million copies
are actually used? Were they shipped with PCs that got immediately 'downgraded'?
Were upgrades installed and removed? I know of some that were and it's not
an urban legend.
How many people have the time to learn a new interface for no real reason
other than 'it's cool'? Businesses can't support it. For instance, Microsoft
has a complete set of standalone tools to show people where things once were
in Office 2003 and where they now are in Office 2007. Seems to me that answers
a problem with the rollout of the product.
By the way, for real businesses, if they have to learn a new user interface,
why not look at Linux or OpenOffice? Yes, there's a support cost, but there's
a support cost to Microsoft as well -- what's the cost delta? Besides, it's
free, which somehow seems to cover some of the cost of support and training
since you aren't in the position of using your prior product experience.
Once you make major improvements to the user interface, you open the door
for re-evaluation of the product. For the record, my company develops Microsoft-focused
applications using the .NET platform.
You should also give some thought to where the market for information
use is going. Most users need a subset of functionality and not the bloatware
they're presented. More and more, I seem to be getting requests for BlackBerry,
PDA and SmartPhone functionality and not PC platform applications, which are
used more by 'clerical types' and not by managers, road-warriors, floor-staff,
etc. At least, that's been my recent experience with several of the [small
to medium sized-businesses] my company deals with.
Contrary to popular belief at Microsoft, I don't think the majority of
users (programmers included) like having to (re)learn how to use products
they once knew how to use, and at the same time meet business-driven deadlines.
Maybe that works in consumer products, but it's different when your boss is
breathing down your neck.
But that's just my opinion. And frankly, I never developed a taste for
Kool-Aid.
-Gus Coniglio
Vice-President of Software Engineering and Operations
Newport Beach, Calif.
Vista Is Better
I know that there is an undercurrent about Vista; however, I develop for
both XP and Vista and I have to tell you that I much prefer Vista to that
of XP.
Just for the record, I have personally developed software for all Windows
operating systems. Yes, from Windows 1.0 and up. Vista is the best so far.
-Pete Smietana, Ph.D.
BioXing
Danville, Calif.
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Posted by Michael Desmond on 01/10/20080 comments
Forget about the Super Tuesday presidential primaries. The biggest election
in February could be the long-awaited vote to approve Microsoft Office Open
XML (OOXML) as an industry standard under the International Organization for
Standardization (ISO).
You want to get a rise out of a group of developers? Tell them you see no difference
between Open Document Format (ODF) and OOXML, since both simply map the features
and functions of their respective, underlying Office application suites, OpenOffice
and Microsoft Office.
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Posted by Michael Desmond on 01/10/20080 comments
When Microsoft announced today that it would buy enterprise search firm Fast
Search & Technology for a cool $1.2 billion, it signaled Microsoft's serious
commitment to staving off the threat of both Google and IBM's OmniFind in the
enterprise search arena.
FST will give Microsoft the ability to woo developers with a richer set of
tools around enterprise search, enabling sophisticated functions like pivot
searches and expanding the scope of search beyond data to people in the organization.
The purchase also promises to amp up the scalability of Microsoft's enterprise
search offerings. Ultimately, FST CEO John Lervik expects search to emerge as
a bonafide platform that handles all search "in a unified manner."
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Posted by Michael Desmond on 01/08/20080 comments
Microsoft CEO Bill Gates announced at the Consumer Electronics Show this week
that Microsoft had sold
100
million copies of Windows Vista
, which brings to mind comparisons to the
signs McDonald's puts up on its roadside restaurant banners, trumpeting the
number of burgers sold. And I found myself wondering, if Microsoft were McDonald's,
what would the fast-food industry look like today?
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Posted by Michael Desmond on 01/08/20081 comments
2008 promises to be a terrific year, as dev shops scramble to make use of all
the shiny new tools and technologies Microsoft has delivered over the past year.
How does your shop plan to assimilate all the new resources? Shoot me an e-mail
at
mdesmond@reddevnews.com
.
Posted by Michael Desmond on 12/19/20070 comments
The first 2008 issue of
Redmond Developer News
will hit the streets
in about three weeks and will feature a bevy of developer-related predictions
to help managers anticipate challenges in the coming year. We got some terrific
feedback from key experts in areas such as .NET data-centric programming and
WPF development. In fact, we got so much feedback, we couldn't fit it all into
the issue. So here are a few tidbits that are well worth sharing:
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Posted by Michael Desmond on 12/19/20070 comments