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Does Windows 7 Really Matter?

Written on September 24, 2008  |  by RP Mickler  |  Leave a Comment Leave a Comment  |  Bookmark and Share


Microsoft released screenshots for Windows7 milestone three on its official blog the other day. The screenshots show general context menus, start menus, and UI for native applications bearing the ribbon. To me, thus far, the look and feel is nearly indistinguishable from Vista, emphasizing touch-screens as a symbol of it’s feature-richness, and the inclusion of the ribbon is only adding insult to injury: this isn’t what Microsoft’s users want.

Which lead me to the question of is Microsoft relevant any longer?
There are three areas that Microsoft has held a historical dominance: the desktop operating system, the productivity suite, and the Internet browser.
Vista, by all metrics, has been a dismal failure; it’s amazing to me that Ballmer is still in charge. In my experience, small to mid-range organizations are biding their time waiting for Windows7 or something better to come along, leaving a huge hole for rival Apple to demonstrate their competitive differentiator – an o/s that works _and_ is visually appealing; when my customers demand that Vista isn’t on their new machines when I stage them, this should be a key indicator. And although I have yet to see sales stats on Windows 2008 Server, I’m guessing that platform isn’t going to move like hotcakes either. Windows Server 2003 works just fine, thank you.
Microsoft Office 2007 has a love-hate relationship with my userbase; I’d say that roughly 60-percent of my clients have no interest in it, and another 20-percent wanted me to rip it off their systems after install. Deliberately, at least three of my clients asked – point blank: tell me about OpenOffice and how to get around Office 2007 licensing. Presently, I’ve got those three clients using OpenOffice without significant difficulties (even with a runtime license of Access 2007 to run their Access apps), saving thousands in licensing.
Finally, Firefox distribution as an eight-million user market, however Google’s new browser – a completely open source invention whose pieces are likely to end up in Firefox’s base code at some point in time -makes Chrome a double-headed hydra for Microsoft. Not only is this an open competitor as well, but Chrome has been so efficiently re-designed as a browser that the Java VM runs 57-times faster (57x!!) than the IE7 Java VM. Combined with built-in search features and mulithreaded tab control to avoid crashes, Chrome is a self-replicating giant-killer that will run cloud computing apps faster and more reliably than Microsoft’s offering.
Practically, does substantial market losses in these asset classes kill Microsoft? Not likely as the company is well-diversified beyond the PC and may even transition its business model to cloud computing quite effectively. However, what we can say is that – realistically (not just through opinion, distate, or distrust, but through actual licenses sold, consumer trends, and the presence of viable, well-funded competitors) – Microsoft’s dominiance in these three crucial software categories is coming to an end. Average consumers with average technical skills are viewing the microcomputing universe without the lens of Windows, Office, or Explorer, and their opinions are being re-shaped, re-defined, and re-directed.
I honestly can’t believe that Microsoft is relevant any longer: unless my company is running an XBox, Microsoft consistently avoids giving the consumer what they’re looking for. All appearances would suggest that it’s giving them more of the same things they already disliked.
R

Google Releases Chrome

Written on September 6, 2008  |  by RP Mickler  |  Leave a Comment Leave a Comment  |  Bookmark and Share

Chrome is the latest edition to the Internet browser market. Created by Google, Chrome is a direct competitor to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s FireFox. Currently, FireFox has approximately 19-percent of the global browser market whereas Microsoft has somewhere around 73%.  And, presently, I’m using Chrome to write in the blog; I installed it side-by-side IE on Windows Vista… and oddly, Chrome is only available for the Windows platform at this time.
Chrome is free and can be downloaded here.
Information Week has a good online gallery of Chrome screenshots.
Chrome is, well, a basic multi-tabbed browser. It has the standard user interface (an address bar, forward and  backward buttons, favorite list, tools and utilities). What separates Chrome from the pack:
1. The address bar is also a Google search tool. You can type your search right into the address bar and field results from Google. Crafty.
2. Dynamic tabs. You can drag tabs into the browser’s view and maintain smaller snapshots of webpages that you can later view. These are like thumbnails for your top sites which makes for an interesting view of the web: small pictures of your sites with their latest content. Neat.
3. Simplified Downloading. Actually this is pretty nice. Downloads are sent to a status bar at the bottom of the browser and you can keep track of the downloads and their status there instead of through multiple windows.
4. Sandbox. Like IE7, Chrome operates in its own memory space. However, unlike IE7, each tab is its own sandbox. One crash in a tab by a website won’t take the whole browser down.
5. Incogneto Mode. An interesting take from Google – hide your tracks. This mode forces the browser to “forget” where you’ve been while you’re within this mode, so that your history isn’t recorded.
6. Built-in Phishing Protection. Similar to other services offered by competing browsers, Google’s Chrome will attempt to prevent your accessing suspect sites.
So, why Chrome – rather – why does Google want an Internet browser? Google is a search engine.  Having an Internet browser in their portfolio of services and features makes sense as they can monitor what people are searching for, what they click on, and where they go more effectively. So effectively, in fact, that Chrome’s EULA raised some eyebrows this week.
The old Terms of Service stated: “You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services.”
But then that statement was followed by this sentence: “By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google (NSDQ: GOOG) a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display, and distribute any Content which you submit, post, or display on or through, the Services.”
Um, is Google “evil” here – and recall, Google’s mission statement is to do no evil – by asserting ownership over its users’ work. Some have argued that Google makes money off of the copyrights of others, and this term of licensing created a bit of question.  However, as of Wednesday Sep. 3, Google’s EULA for Chrome read that the end user maintains all rights to content posted and viewed within the browser.
Google is also able to have a stake in controlling content by controlling the delivery vehicle for Internet information. Plans have been announced to push Chrome into Android (Google’s 3G wireless services that’ll be released soon) and as a mobile browser for mobile devices.
The question of whether or not that Chrome is good for the enterprise or the small business, I could say that there’s probably more risk in introducing Chrome than sticking with IE.  Again, going back to features and performance vs benefit: IE7 and Chrome currently offer similar features, and adding Chrome would simply be another application to manage in the portfolio. Chrome is, of course, ignorant of Group Policies pushed across the Windows platform. And, some websites may have troubles recognizing and using Chrome; for example, I can’t use Chrome in some of my online university systems because its browser check doesn’t recognize the Chrome signature.
On the question of “revolutionary”, well, Chrome is not. At least not yet. Chrome is a browser that will probably appeal to geeks much like FireFox did when it first started. What’s game-changing about Chrome isn’t the product itself. Chrome represents, instead, Google’s constant and steady march to controlling the desktop. If Google can control the search, portions of content, applications, and the delivery vehicle of Internet content, Google is positioning itself to be more powerful (and, questionably, monopolistic) than its chief rival, Microsoft.  I do think that Chrome would be a significant competitor on non-Windows microcomputer platforms like Linux (ie, Mozilla: Watch-out!), but it’s not by any stretch a rival to Safari on the Mac.
Anyway, in using Chrome – so far – it’s been a pretty pleasant experience, and it renders everything I use (I think) a lot better than even FireFox. It’ll probably be geek-shiek for the next couple of months and it’s worth keeping an eye on, particularly if the enterprise takes a liking to it.
I’d say: if you’re a geek, download it now. You’ll need to talk about this around the water cooler with other geeks next week. If you don’t self-identify as geek, don’t worry about it; keep using whatever makes you happy. You’ll hear more about Chrome soon enough.
R