Bad Windows

What keeps Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer up at night? A few years ago, the answer likely involved Linux, Red Hat, MySQL and other disruptive open source upstarts. Now fast forward to this year’s Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC10), and there’s nary a mention of open source here at the event. Why’s that? Three answers: Google, VMware and the cloud. Here’s some perspective from The VAR Guy.

Earlier this evening, The VAR Guy attended a briefing about Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) 14, a forthcoming upgrade to Microsoft’s unified communications platform. During a panel discussion, six Microsoft partners essentially dismissed competitive threats from Asterisk — the open source IP PBX. The reason: The partners claim Microsoft’s API (Application Programming Interface) and software development tools for OCS 14 easily beat alternatives in the Asterisk market.

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Microsoft COO Kevin Turner this morning took aggressive shots at Apple, Oracle, Linux, VMware and Google — even painting Google as a Big Brother-type company that tries to say they’re not evil in their mission statement. During a keynote at Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2010 (WPC10), Turner described how Microsoft’s mobile, desktop and cloud strategy will allow the software giant to beat back top competitors. Turner also described market share gains against Apple, VMware and Google. Here’s a recap.

Turner attempted to provide a reality check on multiple competitive fronts. Among the highlights:

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Microsoft has signed a deal to open its Windows 7 source code up to the Russian intelligence services.

Russian publication Vedomosti reported on Wednesday that Microsoft had also given the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) access to Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft Office 2010 and Microsoft SQL Server source code, with hopes of improving Microsoft sales to the Russian state.

The agreement will allow state bodies to study the source code and develop cryptography for the Microsoft products through the Science-Technical Centre ‘Atlas’, a government body controlled by the Ministry of Communications and Press, according to Vedomosti.

Microsoft Russia president Nikolai Pryanishnikov told Vedomosti that employees of Atlas and the FSB will be able to share conclusions about Microsoft products.

Read more at ZDNet

U.K. government staff suggested replacing Microsoft Corp. operating systems on computers with free alternatives in response to a call for ideas for Prime Minister David Cameron’s cost-cutting drive.

Cameron asked the 600,000 government workers last month to make suggestions on saving money as his administration seeks to cut Britain’s record budget deficit. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne today published a sample of the 56,000 submitted ideas, which including abandoning Microsoft, switching office lights off and centralizing stationery procurement.

Read more at BusinessWeek

Once again, Microsoft has a product that failed miserably. The Microsoft phone “KIN” has already been pulled from the US market, and will not be making its European launch as had been planned. The reality here is that Microsoft’s only money maker is Office. Windows sells well only because of its being pre-installed on most PCs. Linux would likely do just as well were MS Office available for it. Likewise, if people did some research and found out that iWork and MS Office were available on Macintosh machines, I am willing to bet that Mac sales would escalate even higher. This isn’t the first Microsoft product to fall flat on its face (the KIN sold, by some reports, only 500 devices).

Read more at Eleven is louder

As Windows 7 sales kick into high gear and Microsoft begins work on Windows 8, it’s no surprise that the software giant is starting to retire many of its older operating systems. In fact, Microsoft will end support for quite a few Windows releases within days. Here’s the death, er, retirement watch…

July 13th, 2010 is the day you can way goodbye to extended support of Windows XP SP2, Windows 2000 Professional SP4 and Windows 2000 Server SP4. If for some reason, you’re running Windows Vista RTM for some reason, “mainstream” support of that OS will drop as well (though you’ll still apparently be eligible for security updates.)

Read more at The VAR Guy