Opinions

On the face of it, Microsoft without Bill Gates seems a bit like The Simpsons without Homer. This isn't meant to be a cruel comparison; my point is simply that the two 'people' are largely synonymous with the vehicle of their fame.

That the PR hordes at Microsoft would begin the jungle drumbeat for the next version of Windows within an ace of the launch of Vista was, of course, to be expected. The company's default position whenever challenged about its latest products has always been to pique the appetite for the next version through calculated leaks, the drawing up of roadmaps, the tossing around of code names and the issuing of possible feature details. This predictable tactic is rearing its head again with a steady stream of stories appearing in the media: Google News today lists 862. The question is: why do we play along?

One of the most talked about topics right now is innovation. Hardly a day goes by without some prominent publication featuring comments from consultants, academics, and now politicians about how the key to breakaway success is to out-innovate the competition.

Broadly speaking, there are two main reasons for companies to go green. The first is to reduce energy costs, thereby saving the company money. As one IT executive put it to me recently, "Green computing is all about saving greenbacks."

Last week, Microsoft released its virtualization product, Hyper-V, to manufacturing. Previously, the company had promised to make a production-supported version of Hyper-V available to Windows Server 2008 customers within 180 days of the official release of the operating system itself. By releasing Hyper-V in late June, Microsoft beat its self-imposed deadline by about a month, although delivering less than was originally promised.

Taiwan's High Tech Computer (HTC) revealed its new Touch Diamond handset early last month to rave initial reviews, and it beat Apple to announcing a 3G (third-generation telephony) handset.

Microsoft has welcomed the transformation of the Symbian mobile-phone platform into an open source project, because the software giant contends the change will create a host of new problems for the Symbian community.

About 20 years ago, one of my first programming assignments as a Unix systems software developer related to backup. Specifically, I was to modify the device driver for a quarter-inch cartridge tape subsystem to improve streaming performance and to enhance the associated system-level command set for ease of management.

Bill Gates Q&A with Network World May 15, 2000

Initially sold to customers as a server appliance replacement, virtualisation is quickly breaking out of its boxy cost and containment confines and becoming a key consideration across all manner of IT implementations.

The fact there are now more portable PCs being sold than desktops was always going to happen, so I wasn't surprised to hear from IDC last week that portable units represented 50.3 per cent of total PCs shipped during the first quarter of the year.

By the time you read this, there are only a few days left in the financial year and you no doubt have a very good idea of how it panned out for your business. There's still time to close a couple of big deals that will sweeten the numbers but, at this stage, they'll be little more than a cherry on top of the cake.

It's hard to determine whether IT departments should start thinking hard about Google's open source mobile Android platform, mostly because no Android devices or enterprise applications actually exist yet.

All evidence points to the fact that smartphone viruses will be a threat to your network even though they aren't at this moment. After all, the latest mobile devices are packed with more and more applications and corporate data, are enabled for real Web browsing and online collaboration, and can access corporate servers. What's more, they live outside your firewall and often make use of three wireless networks (Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and cellular).

Whether fixed-mobile convergence is for you in the near-term depends in part on how you define it, but for most, there's no rush.