10.31.09
Posted in Google, Mail, Microsoft, Novell at 5:09 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Novell mail fail
Summary: With the Los Angeles decision made final, Novell resorts to cheap shots and excuses to defend its proprietary software
SEVERAL DAYS ago it was made official that Los Angeles will dump Novell's GroupWise. There is a lot of press coverage about it, and by no means good press for Novell, which got dumped for performing poorly.
Here is the relevant part:
The migration from the city’s Novell GroupWise e-mail servers will be handled by contractor Computer Sciences Corp. Other applications such as calendaring, document sharing and chat will be handled by Google Apps too.
Novell’s GroupWise is being labeled “slow and crash-prone” in the New Zealand Herald, so Novell responds.
The move will also end the city’s seven-year contract to use Novell’s GroupWise email and record-keeping software, which city workers have complained is slow and crash-prone.
A Novell senior vice president said during the council hearing that many city departments were not using the most recent version of GroupWise and reiterated an offer to provide additional services for free.
Microsoft too loves saying that the “most recent version” of Windows will fix everything. It is also common for Microsoft to speak about future (even if imaginary) versions of Windows.
More damage control comes from Novell’s PR team (the director Ian Bruce even). It’s a poor response that says for example:
In addition, independent financial data showed that the new system will actually cost more, not less.
No link, no proof, not even a name of the source. Novell also adds FUD about security. Should it maybe use the Sidekick fiasco for more effective FUD? We wrote about it in:
In short, Novell has lost a major client to the so-called “cloud” and it has only poor excuses to defend itself with. █
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Posted in GNU/Linux, Marketing, Microsoft, Vista, Vista 7, Windows at 4:42 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Vista 7 slammed or at least criticised in the press; GNU/Linux offered and also tested as a substitute already
THE reality behind Vista 7 is more than some people are willing to bear. Ahead of the release it was harder to find rants because those who had used Vista 7 before it reached the shelves were mostly Windows enthusiasts and/or computer veterans. It was exactly the same with Windows Vista.
It is difficult to know where to start when it comes to Vista 7 rants. Here is one roundup from IDG. It’s like Vista all over again.
Don’t go to their new stores expecting to talk to anyone who know more about Windows than you do. I had to be passed off to 4 different employees, they called it escalating, before I was able to talk to someone who could tell me if Windows 7 still used a “registry”, and it does. The same old house of cards is still the basis for the “new” OS.
He says it took him more than an hour to upgrade his 3-year-old ThinkPad, and now he’s decided to switch to a MacBook Pro. (Hey, maybe Apple will feature him in a commercial.)
Our reader Ryan tells us that “Hotmail is pinning Windows 7 spam to all email you send.” He explains that Microsoft has added “Windows 7: It works the way you want. Learn more.” to the bottom of all sent messages. Hotmail has been quite a mess recently. Well, anyway…
Harvard University may move to more of GNU/Linux (it already uses some) now that it’s testing Vista 7. New from The Harvard Crimson:
He added that he would not recommend that Harvard switch its computers over immediately because it uses so many clients. Uchiyama also mentioned that Ubuntu, a competing operating system, is due to release a new version today, which gives FAS IT another option. Harvard currently uses Ubuntu on several Science Center computers.
BetaNews has just published an unusual article, considering how much in favour of Windows that Web site really is. The headline says: “Unconvinced by Windows 7? Ubuntu 9.10 debuted today!”
In addition to the new desktop interface, a Karmic Koala Netbook Remix and Server Edition (featuring Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud) were also released today.
Another person calls Ubuntu 9.10 the “easiest, cheapest upgrade ever.”
Having run the upgrade from 9.04 to 9.10 beta, I’m not too worried about any snags. We’ll see how my freshly configured Joomla! install holds up after the upgrade, but since I was already using the most up-to-date versions of MySQL, Apache, and PHP, there shouldn’t be any issues there, either.
Tux Radar provides actual proof that Ubuntu 9.10 performs better than Vista 7. It’s a video depicting one test.
Hot on the heals of the final release of the Karmic Koala, we’ve put together a video montage of 64-bit versions of Microsoft’s Vista and Windows 7 operating systems booting alongside Canonical’s Ubuntu 9.04 and 9.10. Watch all four at once and see which one wins!
The Denver Post has this new piece which explains Vista 7 and promotes GNU/Linux.
For instance, when you read “best Windows ever,” you should remember that reviewers said the same thing about turkeys like Windows ME and Windows Vista.
Further, Microsoft is a big company with thousands of smart employees. Wouldn’t you expect the latest rendition of its flagship product to be the best to date? After all, you expect that from other companies.
When the reviewer says “product activation went smoothly,” it means “to please Big Brother, who may be watching your machine all the time, you’ll need to enter an arcane 25-character activation code, and it may take several tries.”
“Exciting new features in the desktop interface” actually means “You’ll spend many frustrating hours trying to do familiar tasks because they’ve moved everything around.”
“You may need to install new drivers for many of your peripherals” means “You will have to buy a new scanner because the scanner company does not make a 64-bit driver for your five-year-old device, and the driver that worked fine under 32-bit XP will not function under 64-bit Windows 7.”
More about the Vista 7 hype:
Listen closely. Can you can hear it? It’s the kapocketa-pocketa-pocketa of the Microsoft hype machine, as the Windows 7 launch bears down upon us.
Though it’s never worked quite as well as it did back in the halcyon days preceding Windows 95, Microsoft still drags the thing out of the basement every few years, fills the tank with diesel, cranks it up, and hopes it doesn’t spew oil on the carpet or overwhelm us with fumes.
[...]
Of course, this time Ballmer really means it. He also really meant it when he said the same things about Vista, XP, NT, Windows 98, Win 95, and every other Windows OS going back to DOS 2.1, with the possible exception of Windows ME. More disturbing is that he truly believes it.
Ballmer actually knows that Vista 7 will fail in the market. █
“[W]e’re not going to have products that are much more successful than Vista has been.”
–Steve Ballmer
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Posted in Microsoft, Vista, Vista 7, Windows at 3:59 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Vista 7 gets called “just Vista with small changes” and RTM is not suitable for use
IN SOME of our latest posts about Vista 7 we showed that it lacked polished and argued that one should wait until SP1 (or later), which is essentially the fourth service pack of Windows Vista. Yes, it’s true. Watch this new review of Vista 7, which comes from a typically pro-Microsoft Web site. It says that Vista 7 is just Vista with “small changes”. Jim Louderback said the same thing. Here is the overview of this honest review:
Windows 7 review: ‘New’ OS is just Vista with small changes
[...]
Cons: No system performance upgrade compared with Vista, still has annoying Vista pop-ups, expensive for somewhat minor enhancements.
Performance: B
Ease of Use: A
Features: A-
Value: C
Price: $319 (for full Ultimate Edition)
Just as people predicted, Vista 7 is too buggy for everyday use (all Microsoft RTMs are) and Syracuse urges not to touch Vista 7 until SP1, if at all. [via]
Users should wait for Microsoft to work out the bugs in Windows 7 before jumping on the new operating system, a Syracuse, N.Y.-based computer support company said today.
“From the calls we’re getting, as well as our own experience in the past with all Microsoft’s operating systems, we’re recommending that people stick with their time-tested OS and wait for the dust to settle,” said Josh Kaplan, president of Rescuecom.
Microsoft will not appreciate this. It’s bad enough as it is. █
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Posted in Microsoft, Security, Windows at 3:40 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Many months after Microsoft attempted to resolve Conficker using a bounty, things are worse than ever
THE BBC almost never explains that viruses are a Windows problem and the following new report is no exception.
An IT expert from Scotland has denied sending out a computer virus which allowed him to spy on strangers using their webcams.
We have also come across many headlines about Facebook Trojans. It is all over the news, but the obvious does not get mentioned.
Our reader Will has noticed this report about Conficker [via], which is still affecting many millions of people and businesses.
The Conficker worm has passed a dubious milestone. It has now infected more than 7 million [m] computers, security experts estimate.
Some individual sources say that almost half of all Windows PCs are compromised, whereas Microsoft finds that about a third of them are infected. Either way, the total figure of Windows zombies could be something close to 300,000,000, so Conficker is just a tiny part of this problem.
Webopedia has added a new page about the term “zombie”, where it fails to give Windows the special mention it deserves.
(1) A computer that has been implanted with a daemon that puts it under the control of a malicious hacker without the knowledge of the computer owner. Zombies are used by malicious hackers to launch DoS attacks.
Why not say “crackers” instead of “malicious hackers”?
At the beginning of the year Microsoft offered a $250,000 reward for anyone who helps the capture of Conficker's maker/s. It was nothing but a blame-shifting attempt and it never worked. █
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