ITNews

(Credit: Business Week)

A number of companies are opting not to embrace Redmond’s latest operating system and, like GM, are waiting for Windows 7 instead, so reports the Business Week posting Closing the Door to Microsoft Vista.

Unfortunately some decision makers are still buying and drinking the Microsoft Kool-Aid, and hoping for a better outcome. More of them are joining the chorus saying “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore.”

General Motors (GM) may take a detour around Vista, the latest computer operating system from Microsoft (MSFT). The automaker has encountered so many speed bumps getting Vista to work on its machines that it may just wait for the next version of Windows, due in 2010 or 2011. “We’re considering bypassing Vista and going straight to Windows 7,” says GM’s Chief Systems & Technology Officer Fred Killeen.

Vista taxes all but the most modern PCs with hefty processing and memory requirements. Many of GM’s PCs can’t even run the system. “By the time we’d replace them, Windows 7 might be ready anyway,” Killeen says. Then there are compatibility problems with all the software that needs to run on Windows. GM’s software vendors still haven’t ensured all their programs will run on Vista trouble-free. So the company is sticking with Windows XP for now. Killeen figures GM could install Windows 7 in three or four years.

Many of Killeen’s counterparts across Corporate America are finding themselves similarly vexed by Vista. The resulting delay or rejection of Microsoft’s flagship product is stepping up pressure on the company to expand other areas of its business, including online software. Vista was first released in late 2006, but the dismay with it has come into sharper focus as slower-than-expected uptake affects Microsoft’s bottom line, Google (GOOG) spiffs up its own free versions of competing software, and corporate tech managers move to put more Apple Macs on employee desks.

Microsoft looks to have been masters of selling visions and eye candy to most decision makers for years.

My posting Microsoft Twelve Step Recovery Programs may need a bit of revision.

It seems to me, Microsoft is continuely plastering do-everything and over featured user interfaces on troubled code. It’s like heaping more layers of frosting on a cake that’s molding on the inside. The cake may have marketing flash and sizzle, but customers are getting sick eating it. For what ever reason, they keep coming back and paying, and paying, for more sugar highs from the frosting.

Looks to me like denial and addiction behavior. Maybe Microsoft Twelve Step Recovery programs are the next big thing.

The seemingly rejection of Vista by corporate America may be signaling Microsoft is going south from its zenith.

…John

eWeek is reporting ISPs Assailed at FCC Hearing.

Unfortunately none of the ISPs accused of wrongdoing showed up to hear the harangues by the Cristian Coalition, Raging Grannies, and other irate citizens complaining about IPSs mucking with packets.

You’ve got to hand it to ISPs like Comcast for doing about everything wrong to contain a public relations blowout.

…John

In a presentation at a Gartner-sponsored conference in Las Vegas, analysts Michael Silver and Neil MacDonald said Microsoft is overburdened by nearly two decades of legacy code and not responded to the market and faces serious competition that will make Windows moot unless the software developer acts. Never the less, they are reported to be optimistic about Windows’ revival.

Joe Wilcox isn’t. His Microsoft Watch posting Broken Windows Can’t Be Fixed disagrees with those thinking Windows can be fixed.

It’s the problem of legacy and Microsoft’s ridiculous integration strategy. Windows is a fat client for a thin world. There’s no future place for the desktop client. Computing is shifting from the desktop to the device and server. Windows, particularly Vista, has too much middle-age girth to dance with the lithely crowd.

Operating systems are commodity products, and no wishful thinking by Microsoft will change that. Commodity status is one reason why Microsoft maintains its Windows monopoly. In the 1990s, Microsoft reached monopoly because Windows provided a platform from which so many third parties could make money. The company maintained the monopoly, at least since the turn of the century, because of the operating systems’ declining importance. Windows was a checklist item for consumers or IT organizations, something that came with new PCs.

The supporting ecosystem remains significant, but not the commodity operating system. Most businesses and consumers don’t buy operating systems. OS decisions are predicated by applications or hardware.

Microsoft could have maintained a happy, commodity-driven sales situation, if not for the Web 2.0 platform’s success and Windows Vista’s failure. The Web 2.0 platform and Vista are juxtaposition. Web applications tend to be light and simple, with complexity pulled to the server and new features easily made available; service updates go out to all users instantly. The Web platform can deliver up applications to most any client—anytime and anywhere.

By contrast, Vista dramatically increases operating system complexity and hardware requirements. But, with the increasing business and consumer shift to mobile devices, the market demands less complexity and lower-powered hardware. Microsoft’s inability to offer Windows Vista for low-powered laptops is example of the problem’s size. Vista demands too much. Something else: Deployment complexity plagues Windows and many supporting applications, particularly in the enterprise.

Windows is now in an inevitable state of decline that can only accelerate as people use more powerful, smaller devices. Web 2.0 is ideally suited to lower-powered, highly-functional mini-laptops and smart phones. Vista is not. When I say, “inevitable state of decline,” I don’t mean immediate. Windows will have a place as a commodity operating system for many years yet. But real computing and informational relevance has shifted to the device, server, IP network and anytime, anywhere access on anything.

I agree with Joe. The rest of his posting delivers more details. Give it a read if you’re interested in the ongoing story of Microsoft slipping from its zenith.

…John

Did you know some ISPs (Internet Service Provider) inject advertisements into your Web queries? This and other stupid things some ISPs do are discussed in the Electronic Frontier Foundation posting Software for Keeping ISPs Honest.

The March 27th, 2008 announcement of a détente between Comcast and BitTorrent was great news. The two parties announced they will undertake a collaborative effort with one another and with the broader Internet and ISP community to more effectively address issues associated with rich media content and network capacity management. Read the details in the BitTorrent posting Comcast and BitTorrent Form Collaboration to Address Network Management, Network Architecture and Content Distribution

Unfortunately, the general problem of ISPs doing strange things to Internet traffic without telling their customers is likely to continue in the future. EFF and many other organizations are working on software to test ISPs for unusual (mis)behavior. In this detailed post, we have a round-up of the tools that are out there right now, and others that are in development…

Yep, it is likely to continue. The mighty power of greed knows no boundary. As though defending against Internet hackers, crackers, and crooks, isn’t enough, we will soon need to defend ourselves from unscrupulous ISPs.

…John

The iLounge posting Apple TV 2.0 vs. Blu-Ray, DVD & HD Cable: The Comparison provides an extensive comparisons using the same material on each technology.

(Credit: iLounge)

Bottom Line

From where we stand, frequent and quality-sensitive video watchers will find Netflix or Blockbuster to be better month-to-month values for HD video rentals than Apple TV or on-demand cable services, while Apple TV provides an option that’s in the upper middle of the pack on quality and the best on convenience, so long as you’re willing to pay the $229-$329 cost of entry. The question is: are you?

To my eye, Apple TV is looking good, especially since it is running HD at 720p.

I have an Apple TV on my lust list. I may wait until it supports 1080p. The Robert X. Cringely’s weekly column I, Cringely posting Blu-ray Blues: With the HD War Over, Why Aren’t We Seeing Blu-ray Drives in Apple Computers? discusses and hypothesizes about Apple and 1080p.

Here are some interesting tidbits from the posting.

Jumping to 1080p is a huge challenge for iTunes. Just look at the comparative sizes of the QuickTime HD trailers for the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull on Apple’s own web site. The 480p trailer (that’s standard definition and slightly better quality than the 640-by-480 shows most people download through iTunes now) requires 47 megabytes while the 720p file is 78 megabytes and the 1080p version requires 126 megabytes. The trailer runs just under two minutes (1:51). The three prior Indiana Jones films were 115, 118, and 126 minutes, respectively, so let’s take the average and figure this new movie will come in right at two hours in length. Extrapolating from the size of the trailer, then, a good guess about the ultimate file size for the H.264 download versions of this upcoming blockbuster are 3048 megabytes, 5059 megabytes, and 8172 megabytes, respectively.

Apple faces a number of challenges offering files of this size for download, the least of which is economic. Yes, it will probably cost Apple four times as much to offer downloads of a 1080p version of a movie than its 640-by-480 version, but the market is already expecting to pay an HD premium, at least for a while, so money isn’t really a major factor. The real speed bumps are the sheer impact of a true volume HD service on the Internet, itself, and the sad fact that most Macs can’t even play 1080p video. They simply aren’t powerful enough.

As for giving Macs enough grunt to play 1080p video, I explained more than a year ago that Apple has privately committed to putting an H.264 encoder/decoder chip in its entire range of machines. That specific chip began sampling last July so Apple should be able to start shipping the new Macs any time soon, certainly long before Christmas.

Most interesting, Robert.

…John