On Wednesday Microsoft announced that it was extending its partnership with Novell to the tune of $100 million and immediately the blogosphere alarms went off -- some accusing Microsoft of still trying to take down Linux and others
accusing Novell of selling out. Same old same old. But if you are an enterprise with a Windows network, what it means to you
is a source of enterprise-grade Linux that you know will work well with your Microsoft software for a nice cheap price. This
thanks to the hefty subsidies paid by Microsoft to Novell. What's not to love? READ MORE.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting 
that Jerry Seinfeld scored a $10 million deal to become Microsoft's new advertising spokesperson. Seinfeld is hilarious. But he's also an icon from the 1990's, which hardly helps Microsoft build a young, trendy image. (There are probably high school and college students who doen't even know who Seinfeld is.) It is so ironic. By hiring him Microsoft is almost proving the Mac guy's point. "Windows and Zune: Technology for the older crowd." I'm sure Don Rickles was available, too. Why not hire some young, up-and-coming YouTube favorite, like Bo Burnham?
VMware can't pretend it has got the wherewithal to face down a direct attack by Microsoft and survive. So it has done the smartest move available -- cooperation. Earlier this week Microsoft said it was revamping its licensing fees for products on virtualized servers but would not support products running on VMware. That, coupled with VMware's other missteps, obviously put the pressure on VMware to come to Microsoft's table. But why shouldn't VMware join the other hypervisors and get its hypervisor certified by Microsoft as compatible with Microsoft server products? Leaving itself out of that party only gives users even more reason to check out Hyper-V or Citrix Xen. They have plenty of reasons already given the price of the younger hypervisors.
Over one-third of enterprises downgrade from Vista to XP08/19/08We are all familiar with the marketing tactic used by Microsoft to report Vista shipment numbers that leaves a big loophole -- the downgrade license. A PC ships with Vista, but the PC manufacturer, via the
user's consent, "downgrades" the desktop OS to wipe out Vista and use XP instead. But just how many enterprises have bought new Windows PCs without Vista? About one-third, Infoworld reports. The magazine tapped into its database from its Windows Sentinel project to determine this. (Windows Sentinel is a joint project between InfoWorld and the exo.performance.network in which participants deploy an agent that monitors Windows systems, processes and network performance while contributing to a global repository.)
Microsoft doesn't deserve praise for lifting some of its draconian virtualization licensing restrictions, announced as expected today. Microsoft seems to trip itself up over the idea that customers should be happy (not manipulated for every penny). But Microsoft would be smarter to forget about the pennies it might get from manipulating licenses and to go ahead and jump in now and say that it will support its software on VMware -- for a price -- while offering free support to Hyper-V. Why not serve the customer and never give them a reason to leave you?
Gartner's high opinion of Microsoft OCS creates stir08/18/08It can come as no surprise that Gartner's praise of Microsoft's Office Communications Server 2007 has
caused a stir. Gartner placed OCS in the "Visionaries" quadrant of its "Corporate Telephony" report. Digium, maker of the software-only open-source Asterisk platform, joined Microsoft in the same quadrant while the more traditional hardware players, Nortel and Siemens, were placed in the Leaders quandrant. The implication is that telephony without hardware is what is being called out as visionary. OCS is only one example. (OCS reportedly did not score especially high when it came to Microsoft's ability to execute on the vision.) But readers of blogs throughout the blogosphere seem upset that OCS could achieve any kind of visionary standing. Some say the product is lacking basic telephony features.
The question is whether Microsoft has bullied Taiwanese computer makers, (including the global giant Acer) into supporting only Microsoft operating systems. If so, it just might be guilty of anti-trust violations. But how exactly would the move to a new operating system on a new computer hurt Taiwanese consumers? Would they be forced to throw out all of their existing software/peripherals and buy new ones? That's not the case with Vista in the U.S. (even though the operating system had suffered from a lot of compatibility issues when it first shipped – most of that has since been resolved). Could be that Taiwan is merely interested in jumping on the "fine-Microsoft-for-some-easy-money" bandwagon.
Windows 7 engineers' blog to say much about nothing08/15/08Microsoft will be more guarded in what it shares with the outside world as its engineers busy themselves 
working on Windows 7, according to a new Engineering Windows 7 blog created by two senior W7 engineering managers, Jon DeVaan and Steven Sinofsky. The authors say they will post "regularly" but that Microsoft will be "maintaining a little bit more control over the communication around Windows 7." They add: "We ... definitely learned some lessons about 'disclosure' and how we can all too easily get ahead of ourselves in talking about features before our understanding of them is solid." There will be a lot of white space to fill in their blog if they're duty-bound not to say much.
Microsoft news from Network World
Hey, Dell, get off of my cloud!Rejected! Dell gets denied at the cloud-computing goal line by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. No "cloud computing" trademark for Dell. Dell trying to trademark "cloud computing" would be ...Read more
Mitchell Ashley is a serial entrepreneur who is currently CEO and Chief Strategist of his fourth company, Converging Network, LLC.
Blogging and stealing, sometimes go hand-and-handFor bloggers there is a constant push to post content. In some cases, the content is new, original, and even sometimes funny. However, there are also some cases that the ...Read more
Tyson Kopczynski is a specialist in Active Directory, Group Policy, Windows scripting, Windows Rights Management Services, PKI, and IT security practices and the author of Windows PowerShell Unleashed.
System Tools Hyena: tips and tricks The first tool I wrote about for A Better Windows World was System Tools Hyena. Of all the tools I have come across thus far in my 11+ years ...Read more
Ron Barrett is president of RARE-TECH, an IT training and consulting company. He is a co-author of The Administrator's Guide to Microsoft Office 2007 Servers, How to Cheat at Administering Office Communications Server 2007, and a contributor to many other titles.
Vista – Like it or hate it?I have been working with Vista for a while and after a few initial “What the…” moments I am starting to think that Vista is a pretty good OS whose ...Read more
Chip Wenz is an instructor for New Horizons and holds is a MCSE, MCSA+M, MCDBA, MCAD, MCSD, MCTS, MCPD and MCT. New Horizons offers a monthly giveaway for free training. See right column for details.
Microsoft is developing a new, super hard certification testIf you do a little scouring on the Internet, you can come across snippets of information about new Microsoft tests that are in development or in the beta ...Read more
Randy Muller, MCT, MCSE, MCSA, MCDST, is currently an instructor with Global Knowledge. Global Knowledge sponsors a monthly giveaway on Microsoft Subnet (see details, page right: Giveaways and Contests ... HINT: June trivia answer is "beta test").
Windows Mojave Launches!According to CNet News Microsoft has launched a new version of Windows, Windows Mojave. The response so far has been overwhelmingly positive. Users are amazed at the easy to use ...Read more
When not writing Microsoft-related books, Alex is a senior IT consultant and involved in many early adopter and TAP programs, working with new technology often 2-3 years before public release.
Watch out for those wireless microphones!In a previous blog entry, I talked about my job at Sybase University running new hire training for new consultants. In 1995 Sybase was expanding rapidly as the company took ...Read more
Brian D. Egler, MCITP-DBA/MCSE/MCT, is currently an instructor with Global Knowledge, teaching various Microsoft training courses. Enter the free monthly giveaway sponsored by Global Knowledge. Details are on the right of this page.
What will they think of next? Faking a Retun CallI have to admit, I am sort of intrigued by this concept (but not necessarily in a good way) but I wonder if this is just another way to avoid ...Read more
When not co-authoring books such as Essential SharePoint 2007, Sue Hanley is an information architect.
Server 2008 Hyper-V: Alternative to VHDMOUNT (Part II)Ravikanth Chaganti's VBS script to mount a VHD does seem to work, with one caveat. But first things first: How do you install it? There are two files - VHDMOUNT.VBS, ...Read more
Glenn Weadock is an instructor with Global Knowledge, teaching the MCSA, MCSE, Server 2008 and Vista tracks. WIN a free 'Cool Stuff' gift from Global Knowledge. See details to the right of this page.
USING HIGH-AVAILABILITY OPTIONS IN EXCHANGE 2007Email is typically one of the most mission-critical applications for a company. So it makes sense that your customers are striving for high availability within their messaging infrastructure. To get ...Read more
Ross Mistry is the author of SQL Server 2008 Management and Administrationand other SQL Server titles. When not writing books, he designs SQL Server, Active Directory and Exchange solutions for Fortune 500 companies.
Its about uptimeA while back, I wrote a post about downtime and managing IT Operations (see http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/20187). As a follow-up to that, I just participated in a blog interview with StackSafe about ...Read more
Kerrie Meyler's current book, System Center Operations Manager 2007 Unleashed is now available. Check out out this free chapter.
20 most useful Microsoft sites and moreMicrosoft Subnet is dedicated to make your job easier and your day more fun. Here are a few of our biggest hits:
20 great Windows open source projects you should get to know
6 free security tools you shouldn't live without
20 most useful Microsoft web sites
10 funniest Microsoft YouTube videos
9 worst Microsoft products
Library of free chapters from best-selling Microsoft books Read More
Imagine Cup 2008 Final Competition Paris
iTunes Achilles' Heel In iPhone 3G Launch
Microsoft Analyzers Tools - Free help that's worth trying
Windows Server 2008 High Availability Alternatives - Failover Clusering & Network Load Balancing
My response to “my Vista 64-bit runs just fine"
The next class for our newest IT members
Converging on Microsoft podcast series 08/20/08, Network World
Mitchell Ashley talks with interesting people about topics in the world of Microsoft.
Latest episode: Tom Simmons, Citrix vice president, on powering off and saving the world (08/20/08) (22:46)
Listen:
Blogs we watch 04/22/08, Microsoft Subnet
Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog
The Road to Know Where
The Converging Network
istartedsomething
Groklaw
Scobleizer
ScottGu's Blog
CyberNet
Microsoft TechNet Edge
Eileen Brown's WebLog
Dmitry's PowerBlog: PowerShell and beyond
footnoted.org
All about Microsoft
Robert McLaws: Windows Vista Edition
Network World's blogs
August Patch Tuesday the largest in 18 months
Microsoft during August Patch Tuesday released its largest security alert in 18 months to patch 26 vulnerabilities in Windows, Office, IE, Windows Messenger and other software. At least two of the vulnerabilities have already been exploited in the wild, Microsoft acknowledged. Those two, plus another pair, said one security researcher, should be considered "zero-day" bugs since technical details about the flaws had been circulating prior to August Patch Tuesday. Microsoft left one expected fix off the table: a patch one or more critical flaws in Windows Media Player 11.
READ MORE
A MICROSOFT TRAINING COURSE WORTH UP TO $2,500 FROM NEW HORIZONS
New Horizons Computer Learning Centers is sponsoring a monthly contest on Microsoft Subnet. One lucky reader will win a free Microsoft training course worth up
to $2,500. Next deadline is August 31. Check out the New Horizons' catalog and start dreaming of your free class. Entry details available here. (Hint: answer is "flash cards" and can be found here.)
WIN FREE BOOKS FROM PEARSON EDUCATION
Win one of 15 copies of the book Microsoft Dynamics 4.0 Unleashed, published by Sams (a $59.99 value). Plus, READ a chapter excerpt.Entry details available here. (Hint: answer is "Add attachment" and can be found here.)
In response to the recent onslaught of SQL injection attacks against Web sites using ASP, Microsoft has developed a new static code analysis tool for finding SQL Injection vulnerabilities. Web developers can run the tool on their ASP source code to identify the root cause of the attack. The tool will also scan ASP source code and generate warnings related to first order and second order SQL Injection vulnerabilities.
PRODUCTCheck out Microsoft Research's WorldWide Telescope. Download this and turn your computer into a virtual telescope, based on imagery from the best ground and space-based telescopes in the world.
BLOGThe Microsoft Exchange Team Blog is offering step-by-step instructions to Exchange admins who are seeing iPhones being linked up to Exchange. This post includes advice for implementing policies and more.
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