Charles Cooper, a Executive editor at CNET News.com, discusses an interesting point. One that I’ve seen as well: is Windows still relevant in today’s “web 2.0” centric world?
The answer, of course, is yes. Charles goes on to discuss a quick history of Windows’ “bundling”/anti-trust disputes. What I find interesting, or more correctly – frustrating, is the attitude with which many companies are taking. Charles talks about Symantec and Adobe trying to whip up sympathy in the European Union about Microsoft competing with them in their market.
The part that bothers me the most is that these companies, and others, fail to see that the product that was a lucrative niche market 10 years ago, is today’s commodity toaster. Since AV engines, and portable document formats are a commodity, the are to be expected in the base OS – a base service available at any moment to any requesting application.
These companies simply need to be more proactive, find that new niche. Look forward and discover those new business opportunities, and develop a business plan to exploit them. Simply relying on the old tried & true product song & dance.
Here is more information on the Vista Volume Activation – its called Volume License Key Compliance and CRN has a full article on the topic – link below.
Well, this is one piece of Windows Vista that I had not heard much on. It seems that corporations planning on deploying Vista will require a mechanism to validate or “Authenticate” their Vista installs similar to how retail versions of XP need to be authenticated.
For those who’ve yet to hear about it, Volume Activation is a new digital-license activation technology aimed at businesses. It’s part of the larger “Software Protection Platform” that Microsoft is constructing to combat piracy. In short, Microsoft is not going to allow enterprises to operate on an honor system, when it comes to proving how many copies of Windows they’ve paid to license. Just like it does with individual Windows users, Microsoft is going to start requiring companies to authenticate their new versions of Windows within 30 days of installing.
This will cause more deployment headaches and costs than previous Windows desktop operating systems. It also drives home the concept of centralization again. Instead of all those PCs, move 90% or greater back to the Data Center using Terminal Services/Citrix, and some Virtualization for really unique installs.
Yeah, we can’t get away from Microsoft extracting their full licensing costs, but we can reduce the amount of time and money we spend managing the desktop. Put a dumb terminal on the desktop and move the OS & App’s to the Data Center.
This morning, I’m at Microsoft’s office in Bloomington, MN for a seminar on remote access.
Should be a good session, covering different technologies to enhance remote access to corporate networrks.
I’m in early, hoping to get one of the 50 freebies that were to be given away, but looking forward to the information. From the handouts, it looks like we’ll be covering Citrix, Terminal Services, Security, SSL VPN (the best VPN for torrenting), bandwidth, and server management.
So I’m back in the office for the first time in two weeks! Time to catch up on all those emails and vmails – fun. 🙁
One thing for sure, being back does indeed make one think more about what we do and how we impact each other. During my absence, we lost our COO to cancer. JD was a great curmudgeon with an anecdote for any occasion. He will be missed.
@MAC_Arms Pay taxes when you make your money, pay taxes when you spend your money, pay taxes when you successfully invest your money, pay taxes when you save enough taxed money to afford a house, pay taxes to live in your house, pay taxes when you sell the house that you paid taxes on to
Yup, taxes are criminal and we need serious reforms. I've always said that if you want to see a tax revolt, make withholdings illegal and have Americans write a tax check every payday. They'll revolt for sure. You don't miss what you never had.
Sen. @berniemoreno says voter ID and proof of citizenship are simply common sense.
“We’re talking about a very low threshold — identify who you are and prove you’re a U.S. citizen when you register to vote. I think we’re getting closer to
