November 16th, 2009

Microsoft makes available new high performance Windows Server test build

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 10:00 am

Categories: Azure, Channel, Corporate strategy, OEMs, Office 2010/Office 14, Red Dog, Resellers, System builders, Utility/cloud computing, Visual Studio 10 ("Hawaii"), Windows Server 2008 R2 /("Windows 7 Server"), Windows server

Tags: Microsoft Windows Server, High-performance, Server, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Corp., Beta, Supercomputing, HPC Server, Leadership, Management

Microsoft made available on November 16 a code-complete beta of Windows HPC (High Performance Computing) Server 2008 R2 to selected testers.

The company made the announcement at the Supercomputing 2009 show in Portland, Oreg., where officials said they planned to provide all of the 4,500 or so of the attendees with the bits today. Microsoft also will be providing select testers with access to the downloadable beta via the Connect site today. Microsoft is expecting to release at least one more beta of HPC Server 2008 R2 before rolling out the final version some time in 2010.

HPC Server enables cluster supercomputing on x64 versions of Windows Server 2008 R2. The new release that is in testing is Microsoft’s third iteration of the product.

With the HPC Server 2008 R2 beta, testers can run the test builds of Excel 2010 and Visual Studio 2010, supporting the development and use of parallel and scalable applications, Microsoft officials said.

Microsoft and its partners have been making a concerted effort to increase the appeal of its HPC Server product beyond the small segment of scientists and engineers who typically use supercomputers. Last week, Dell announced it would be the exclusive distributor of the Cray CX1 supercomputing workstation, which runs Windows 7 integrated with HPC Server on a single box.

“We’re trying to make HPC more mainstream and accessible” to more engineers, financial quants and others in a variety of large and mid-size organizations, said Vince Mendillo, Microsoft Senior Director of High Performance Computing. To do this, the team is focused on providing new tools and techniques making HPC Server easier to set up and deploy, Mendillo said.

When Microsoft introduced the first version of HPC Server, Linux dominated the supercomputing market. Since then, Microsoft has been making inroads in market share and performance. Last year, Microsoft added “thousands of customers in large scale organizations” for the product, Mendillo said. (He declined provide any more specific data.) Microsoft now has 159 independent software vendor partners developing applications for HPC Server, Mendillo added.

Because HPC Server is part of the overall Windows Server family, MIcrosoft will fold back into the core Windows Server codebase new developments made by the HPC team. Mendillo said that some of the new parallel enhancements in the new HPC Server release would likely be useful to the Windows Azure team, which is building MIcrosoft’s cloud-computing offering.

November 10th, 2009

Study claims netbook users dissatisfied with Windows 7. Are you?

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 7:07 am

Categories: Channel, Corporate strategy, OEMs, Resellers, System builders, Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows client

Tags: Microsoft Windows 7 Starter, Netbook, Microsoft Windows 7, Netbooks, Nettops & MIDs, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Hardware, Mary Jo Foley

Another day, another Windows 7 study. The latest comes from Retrevo, a consumer electronics shopping site, which asserts that users aren’t keen on Windows 7 netbooks running Starter Edition.

In a blog post entitled “Is Microsoft Trying to Kill the Netbook Market?” Retrevo officials outline their findings, based on responses from 1,100 of its “users.” Among the claims are users aren’t aware of the limitations of Windows 7 Starter Edition (like no desktop personalization, no multimonitor support, no DVD playback). Retrevo said 54% of respondents would not be satisfied if their new Netbook only came with Windows 7 Starter Edition. XP Starter was a better choice, Retrovo’s respondents said.

While I do think Microsoft would like nothing better than for the netbook market to disappear, as it has put a serious dent in its Windows client margins, the rest of Retrovo’s findings seem off-base to me. (Example: Windows 7 netbooks running Starter will support the use of a DVD player via a USB port, contrary to Retrovo’s assertion that Microsoft killed that XP Starter feature.)

Whether you agree with Microsoft’s decision to continue to field lots of different Windows SKUs or not, I’d claim the company has been pretty clear for the past year that Windows 7 Starter was not going to be able to do everything. (Originally, it also was going to be crippled so it wouldn’t allow users to run more than three apps concurrently, but Microsoft removed that limitation earlier this year.)

Microsoft officials also have noted that PC makers can choose any version of Windows 7, including Ultimate, to preload on netbooks. Whether OEMs can cost-justify some of the pricier SKUs is another matter.

I’ve been shopping for a Windows 7 PC starting on October 22, the day they went on sale at retail. I’ve been impressed by the choice of Windows 7 netbooks I’ve found. Many come with Starter Edition; others I saw were preloaded with Windows Home Premium. Toshiba loaned me one of their Mini NB205-N330 netbooks running Windows 7 Starter. I’ve found it very responsive, portable and perfect for my basic daily  tasks (surfing the Web, posting to my blog, answering email, etc.).

Yes, I am a more educated consumer than many out there, so I know what a netbook running Starter will and won’t do. But two different salespeople at my local Best Buy were very clear with me about what Windows 7 starter netbooks would and wouldn’t do. I’m not implying that it’s been completely smooth sailing for PC users looking to move to Win7; Computerworld noted recently that some Dell and HP users who ordered upgrades to Windows 7 are having to wait considerably longer than they were led to believe for their upgrade disks.

I’d be curious what others in the market for Windows 7 PCs have found. Are retailers, PC makers, resellers savvy about the new PCs and upgrade deals out there? Are Windows 7 Starter netbooks good enough for you?

November 9th, 2009

Which should a small business choose: Windows Home Server or Windows Server Foundation?

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 1:36 pm

Categories: Channel, Corporate strategy, Database, Exchange Server, Management tools, OEMs, Resellers, SQL Server, System Center, System builders, Virtualization, Windows Essential Business Server (Centro), Windows Home Server, Windows Server 2008 R2 /("Windows 7 Server"), Windows Small Business Server (Cougar), Windows server

Tags: Microsoft Windows Server, Microsoft Windows Home Server, Small Business, Microsoft Windows, Servers, Operating Systems, Software, Hardware, Mary Jo Foley

Until quite recently, Microsoft officials emphasized the “home” in Windows Home Server (WHS) when explaining how that product fit into its server line-up.

Last week, however, something changed. Microsoft officials added small office/home office (SOHO) users to its list of potential customers for WHS. On November 5, the WHS team posted a new blog entry entitled “Top 10 reasons to use Windows Home Server in your SOHO.” From that post:

“Don’t let the name Windows Home Server fool you into thinking that this product was created for home use only. A lot of the reasons that you would use Windows Home Server in your home are just as applicable to a small or home office. Windows Home Server provides a dependable and affordable way to organize and safeguard your work on up to 10 computers.”

Up until this point, Microsoft’s business-focused Windows Server family looked like this (with entry-level servers listed first):

• Windows Server Foundation
• Windows Server Standard
• Windows Server Enterprise
• Windows Server Datacenter

Other “specialty” versions include the Web Edition, Windows Small Business Server and Windows Essential Business Server. (The latter two bundle together various Microsoft applications, like Exchange Server and SQL Server, with Windows Server.)

Microsoft delivered the first release of Foundation Server in April 2009. The R2 version of Windows Server Foundation is globally available (covering all countries in Western Europe, Central Eastern Europe, France, German and Korea and Middle East/Africa) as of this week. Like WHS, Foundation is primarily an OEM product. The first release of Foundation was available preloaded on servers from Dell, HP, NEC and Fujitsu. The R2 version will be sold by these same server vendors, plus IBM, Lenovo, Acer and local OEMs such as Wortmann (in Germany) Datateknik (Turkey) Lanix (Mexico), Positivo (Brazil) and NTT (Japan), among others, according to the company.

So which should a small business user choose: Foundation or WHS? The biggest difference seems to be in the number of users that are supported. Foundation scales up to 15, while Home Server only supports up to 10, company officials said. In addition, Home Server is also designed specifically as a media server, with storage and file backup features for movies, music and photos,” a spokesperson added when I asked for more information.

“Windows Home Server is for people who work and play at home,” said Eugene Saburi, General Manager in the Windows Server & Solutions Division. “And it’s still based on Windows Server 2003,” at this point, he said. “Windows Foundation is more of a general-purpose platform,” Saburi added. “You can install a line-of-business app on it.”

(There’s no official word on when Microsoft plans to upgrade WHS so that it is based on Windows Server 2008 or 2008 R2. Maybe that’s “Vail” — which could be out next year if the latest rumors are right.)

Meanwhile, if you’re wondering when will the R2-inclusive versions of Windows Small Business Server and Windows Essential Business Server will be out, Microsoft officials aren’t saying. They are not talking about a month, a quarter or even a year (!) in terms of shipping commitments for these two products. Sigh.

One would think it wouldn’t take the Softies long to update the existing SBS and EBS products to include the “minor” Windows Server 2008 R2 update… but if they also include the new Exchange Server 2010 bits, it could take a bit longer. And if they wait for the SharePoint 2010 ones, the next releases might not be out until after mid-2010….

October 28th, 2009

Microsoft's Windows 7 challenge: Selling Live services (without being sued)

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 8:57 am

Categories: Advertising, Channel, Corporate strategy, OEMs, Resellers, System builders, Vista, Windows 7, Windows Live, Windows client

Tags: Antitrust, Microsoft Windows Live, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Corporate Law, Operating Systems, Software, Business Operations, Mary Jo Foley

I was wondering how aggressively — or not — Microsoft would market Windows Live services once it began selling Windows 7.

The answer seems to be somewhat aggressively. But is that tepid enough to keep the Softies out of antitrust hot water?

For more than a year now, Microsoft has been pulling certain features out of Windows and making them available as free “rich” services. The suite of these services is known as Windows Live Essentials (WLE) and includes Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Live Writer, Messenger and Mail.

Although Microsoft officials take care to avoid saying that removing features and offering them separately might be motivated in any way by the threat of antitrust suits, I’d think this would be one (big) definite upside for the WLE strategy/approach. The downside (for Microsoft) around this decoupling is that the company needs to find ways to get users to understand that these functions are available for free download, or, in some cases, preloaded by PC makers on new machines.

I asked Microsoft officials how they intended to let consumers know about the existence of Windows Live Essentials (WLE), a bundle of several Windows Live services meant to complement Windows 7, and received via e-mail this list of “ways we are educating consumers about the offering”:

• The most recent version of Windows Live Essentials (WLE) can be downloaded from download.live.com
• Most large OEMS will ship WLE on Windows 7 PCs.  For example, we have already announced that Dell will ship WLE on its machines, and we expect to announce other specific partners in the coming months.
• Windows.com and Microsoft.com both include information on WLE and where to go to download it
• Windows 7 users can find a link to download (download.live.com) WLE within the Control Panel.  An easy way to find this link is who search to type Windows Live Essentials into the Start Menu search bar
• We offer WLE as an Optional Update through the Microsoft Update program
• Customers who are enrolled in Windows Update will receive automatic upgrades to any WLE applications they have installed on their PC
• WLE is highlighted in the Getting Started experience within Windows for new PC purchasers

One way Microsoft also is getting the word out, which company officials didn’t mention, is by featuring WLE on new “Signature” PCs that are sold through Microsoft’s own Store.

As Todd Bishop over at TechFlash noted recently, the Windows 7 PCs that Microsoft is highlighting on the Microsoft online store come with a number of Microsoft software and service offerings — including WLE — preloaded. (The Signature PCs also include Microsoft Security Essentials, Silverlight, Bing 3D Maps, Zune 4.0, plus a few select third-party wares, like Adobe Flash and Reader.) Signature PCs include systems from Sony, HP, Dell, Acer, Lenovo and other vendors.

I’m surprised we haven’t seen Microsoft push WLE more than through some rather vague mentions by Microsoft spokesperson of the year, the now-five-year-old Kylie. But maybe the specter of looming antitrust busters is keeping the Softies from going all-out with a splashy WLE campaign.

Do you think any of the ways Microsoft is promoting WLE — including the new Signature PCs –might leave open loopholes for Microsoft’s competitors to run screaming to the authorities?

October 23rd, 2009

Windows and Office cash cows take a hit in Microsoft's first quarter

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 7:17 am

Categories: Channel, Corporate strategy, Gaming, OEMs, Office, Office 2010/Office 14, Resellers, System builders, Vista, Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows client, Xbox, Xbox Live

Tags: Revenue, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Corp., EDD, Microsoft Windows, Operational Accounting, Microsoft Windows 7, Operating Systems, Software, Finance

A day after Microsoft launched Windows 7, its first quarter 2010 results are in. And both Windows and Office — Microsoft’s biggest cash cows — took a hit.

For the quarter, which ended on September 30, Microsoft’s net income was down 18 percent, to $3.57 billion, and revenues down 14 percent, to $12.92 billion — both compared to the first quarter earnings for fiscal 2009.

Because Microsoft beat analysts’ expectations for earnings-per-share and Microsoft has continued to prove it can cut costs, the company’s stock price was up this morning. And because of strong pre-orders for Windows 7 (which didn’t go on sale at retail until October 22, which is during Microsoft’s next quarter), Microsoft’s press release is highlighting “the strong consumer demand for Windows,” even though the Windows division’s revenues were down to $3.98 $2.62 billion from $4.28 billion from the comparable quarter a year ago.

Microsoft said the first quarter of 2010 was the biggest quarter for Windows sales ever. But the numbers aren’t reflecting that fact, primarily because of $1.5 billion worth of deferrals from programs it offered PC makers to convince customers to keep buying Vista PCs prior to the launch of Windows 7. Company officials also attributed the lower Windows earnings to more sales of netbooks and a decline in premium editions of Windows sold to business customers. Here’s what the company wrote in its 10-Q report, released on October 23:

“Windows Division revenue decreased primarily as a result of the deferral of approximately $1.5 billion of revenue related to the Windows 7 Upgrade Option and sales of Windows 7 to OEMs and retailers before general availability in the second quarter of fiscal year 2010. Including revenue and units associated with the Windows 7 Deferral, OEM revenue decreased $207 million or 6%, while OEM license units increased 6%. The decline in OEM revenue reflected the 8 percentage point decrease in the OEM premium mix to 63%, primarily driven by growth of licenses related to sales of netbook PCs, a decline in premium editions sold to business customers, and changes in geographic mix. Based on our estimates, total worldwide PC shipments from all sources grew approximately 0% to 2% through growth in both emerging and developed markets.”

Things weren’t quite as bad for the Microsoft Business Division, which sells Office and Microsoft’s Dynamics ERP/CRM products. But sales were still down, even though the Office 2010 release is still quite a number of months away. (It is expected to ship in mid-2010.) The company attributed the revenue decrease to a decline in licenses sold for Office 2007 and to a shift to lower-priced products among consumers. The particulars, again, from the 10Q:

“MBD revenue decreased reflecting decreased consumer and business revenue, and included an unfavorable impact from foreign currency exchange rates of $88 million or two percentage points. Consumer revenue decreased $390 million or 34%, primarily as a result of pricing promotions in the first quarter of fiscal year 2009 that drove increased licensing in that period, a shift to lower-priced products, and a decline in licensing the 2007 Microsoft Office system. Business revenue decreased $161 million or 4%, primarily reflecting a decline in licensing the 2007 Microsoft Office system to transactional business customers and a 6% decrease in Microsoft Dynamics revenue, offset in part by growth in multi-year volume licensing agreement revenue. The growth in multi-year volume licensing agreement revenue primarily reflects recognition of deferred revenue from previously signed agreements.”

Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices division’s revenues were flat for the quarter. EDD is responsible for Xbox, PC games, Zunes, keyboards/mice and other hardware, and Windows Mobile sales. EDD revenue was flat, with growth in Xbox 360 and games offsetting decreased revenue from other parts of the business. From the 10Q:

“Non-gaming revenue decreased $98 million or 14%, primarily reflecting decreased sales of PC hardware products, Zune digital music and entertainment devices and services, and embedded device platforms. Foreign currency exchange rates accounted for a $35 million or two percentage point decrease in revenue.”

Microsoft’s online services unit continued to lose money, and the Server division’s revenues were relatively flat for the quarter.

This quarter reflects changes by Microsoft in its reporting structure, with Windows Live now part of the Windows client unit, and mobile services moved to Entertainment and Devices.

October 22nd, 2009

Microsoft to ease Windows 7 upgrades to netbooks with USB key solution

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 10:19 am

Categories: App Compatibility, Channel, Code names, Corporate strategy, OEMs, Resellers, System builders, Vista, Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows client

Tags: Microsoft Corp., USB, Netbook, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Netbooks, Nettops & MIDs, Operating Systems, Software, Hardware, Mary Jo Foley

Remember the rumors earlier this year that Microsoft was going to deliver Windows 7 on a thumb drive? Well, the rumors were correct — sort of…

On October 22, Microsoft announced it will enable netbook users who want to upgrade from XP (or Vista) to Windows 7 to use a special version of Windows 7 preloaded on a USB stick.

(I have no idea whether this has any connection to the rumored “StartKey” project I wrote about back in 2008. StartKey, the way it was originally portrayed to me, was more of an initiative to put Windows and Windows Live settings on a USB stick.)

Microsoft officials confirmed to News.com that it will make available an online tool, starting on October 22, “that will walk users through the process of moving a downloaded copy of Windows 7 onto a USB drive, be that a memory stick or portable hard drive.”

Microsoft officials sent me the following statement when I asked for more details on the new tool:

“A recurring question is whether we’re going to provide any special tools to help customers install Windows 7 on PC’s that lack a DVD drive, such a netbook PC. Today, Microsoft is announcing the upcoming availability of a free tool to help our netbook PC customers (without DVD drives) install Windows 7. Once a customer has purchased and downloaded their copy of Windows 7 from the Microsoft online store, they can use the tool to create either a bootable USB drive or a DVD using the download. This new resource, known as the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool (WUDT) will be freely downloadable from the Microsoft Store as well as the Microsoft Download Center beginning on October 22nd.

“This tool will be available to support localized versions of Windows 7 including Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese. Customers who want to learn more about the USB/DVD Download Tool can visit www.microsoftstore.com/win7usb.”

There’s more information about and a screen shot of the new tool in this Windows Team Blog post, as well.

October 21st, 2009

Microsoft and PC makers introduce Windows 7 offers for consumers

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 1:16 pm

Categories: Channel, Corporate strategy, OEMs, Resellers, System builders, Vista, Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows client

Tags: Microsoft Corp., Windows 7 Family Pack, Student Offer, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft is really turning up the consumer-focused volume on the Windows 7 launch on October 22 — despite the fact that the company makes a lot of money from selling Windows to business users, either via volume-license agreements and/or various other channels.

Why so much attention on retail — where Microsoft admittedly garners the least amount of Windows revenues? Microsoft officials believe if they can win over consumers with Windows 7, these consumers will push their workplaces to move to Windows 7 more quickly. There’s also, undoubtedly, a large helping of Apple envy/fear that’s part of Microsoft’s consumer push.

To kick off the launch activities, Microsoft unveiled on October 21 a number of retail deals for the product that it has forged with some of its PC partners and retail outlets. Microsoft is calling the promotion “7 Days of Windows 7.”  Company officials said to expect more Windows 7 deals to be added throughout the coming week and to check back on Windows.com if you’re in the market for new hardware, upgrades, support, etc.)

Day 1 (October 22) offers include:

• Best Buy offering Full home technology remodel, handyman included. Best Buy PC Home Makeover
• HP laptop, netbook, desktop and monitor package with Windows 7. Geek Squad wireless home network with router and new PC setup is included for $1,199.00
• Dell Studio XPS 13. Save more than $100.00
• Acer AZ5610-U9072 23″ Touch All-in-One (with Windows Touch) for $880.00
• With the Buy a PC, Get a Discounted Upgrade offer, customers who buy a new PC running Windows 7 Home Premium can upgrade a Windows XP- or Windows Vista-based PC they already own with a discounted box copy of Windows 7. This offer will run through Jan. 2, 2010.
• The Windows 7 Family Pack is available tomorrow in select countries while supplies last. With this offer, consumers can buy three Upgrade licenses of Windows 7 for one price.
• The Student Offer begins tomorrow. For a limited time, the Windows 7 Student Offer gives college and university students in the U.S. and select markets worldwide the opportunity to purchase Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade or Windows 7 Professional Upgrade for a discount.

I’m weighing which Windows 7 machine to buy and am open to suggestions. I’m looking for something that’s lightweight and very durable. (I’m actually considering buying both a netbook and a laptop, making the laptop my primary machine and the netbook what I take on the road.) I don’t care about running games. I don’t want or need touch. I do value battery life and don’t need anything flashy (though something with a little personality would be nice). Any suggestions out there?

One other note: If you’re in the New York City area on October 22, feel free to come by our post-launch party. It’s at the Antarctica Bar on Hudson and will start around 5 p.m. Lot of Microsoft bloggers — including Ed Bott of ZDNet, Paul Thurrott of the Windows SuperSite, Tom Warren of NeoWin and more will be there. We’re also expecting Most Valuable Professionals, testers, a few brave/crazy Softies and other hangers-on to show up to sample the seven beers on tap. Hope to see you there!

October 13th, 2009

Custom PC makers finally get Windows 7 preinstallation kit

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 11:57 am

Categories: App Compatibility, Channel, Corporate strategy, OEMs, Resellers, Security, System builders, Windows 7, Windows client

Tags: Microsoft Corp., System Builder, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Mary Jo Foley

On October 12, Microsoft provided system builders with the Windows 7 OEM Preinstallation Kit (OPK) tools and related documentation they need to preload and customize Windows 7 on multiple new PCs.

System builders are custom PC integrators. They are a lot smaller than the 20 or so PC OEMs who received the final Windows 7 bits and tools just days after Microsoft released Windows 7 to manufacturing in late July.

A number of system builders have said they’ve been frustrated that they couldn’t get the OPK until mid-October, given that Microsoft and its biggest OEMs will be launching Windows 7 and making it generally available on October 22. Microsoft officials have said they believed providing the system builders with the code and tools now would give them enough time to get their systems out by October 22.

“The thing about this is that the WAIK (Windows Automated Installation Kit) was released about two months ago,” said one system builder. “The only big difference is the labelling in the software (basically just the Autorun application), and the docs. It takes 2 months to do that?”

Microsoft said at the end of September that it planned to allow distributors to provide system builders with the OPK on October 12. Microsoft officials have said that system builders can begin selling Windows 7 systems once they’ve preloaded the final bits, but aren’t expecting that to happen more than a few days before October 22, at best.

Speaking of Windows 7, Microsoft issued the first Patch Tuesday security fixes for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 on October 13.

October 8th, 2009

Microsoft adds an 'Office Starter' edition to its distribution plans

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 9:40 am

Categories: Activation, Channel, Corporate strategy, OEMs, Office, Office 2010/Office 14, Resellers, System builders, Windows client

Tags: Microsoft Corp., Office Application, Microsoft Office, Office Suites, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft officials shared on October 8 more details about three new ways the company is planning to try distributing Office 2010 when the product ships next summer.

Via a post on the Office 2010 Engineering blog, Microsoft officials explained three new distribution mechanisms the company will use to get more users to try the next version of Office. The three:

Office Starter 2010: A preload that includes stripped-down versions of only Word 2010 and Excel 2010. (Stripped-down here means basic document viewing and editing only.) Starter will be ad-supported, so, free. But Microsoft is positioning it as “an easy way for customers  to try the product and eventually upgrade to enhanced versions of Office,” not as a replacement for Office. This is meant to replace the Microsoft Works trial that is often preloaded on new PCs. In spite of its name, Office Starter 2010 really has little resemblance to Windows 7 Starter Edition.

Product Key Card: This is a single-license card that unlocks Office 2010 which will be sold at major retailers and OEMs. The idea behind this is to allow users to more easily and quickly upgrade to one of the three full consumer versions of Microsoft Office 2010. There’s no media on the card; it’s just a key. This works when an Office image is pre-installed already on a new machine and the key activates it.

Click-to-Run: This streaming/virtualization technology is targeting the existing Office installed base. Microsoft has been testing the Click to Run functionality among a select group of Office testers since earlier this summer. The Office applications are streamed to you and so you can get up and going in minutes instead of a half hour or longer. You can start using the individual apps as each is downloaded to your machine. And the Click to Run version can be used alongside existing versions of Office that you might already have on your PC.

Microsoft officials aren’t yet sharing any pricing details regarding the Product Key Card or Click-to-Run.

I’m betting a lot of pundits are going to be trumpeting “Microsoft drops price of Office with Starter to zero out from Google Docs pressure!” when they read about this announcement. But that’s not what this is about.

Microsoft knows that older versions of Office are the biggest competitors to a new release of Office and that the company needs to find new ways to get customers to try Office so they’ll consider buying it. If you dig up Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie’s “Internet Services Disruption” memo from 2005, Ozzie focuses quite a bit on how Microsoft needed to do more software trials and devlop new distribution mechanisms to keep the company competitive.

Do you think any of these new distribution vehicles will get more current Office users to give Office 2010 a try? Why or why not?

October 8th, 2009

Ballmer: Testers didn't ring Vista warning bells; Could the same happen with Windows 7?

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 4:55 am

Categories: Channel, Corporate strategy, OEMs, Resellers, System builders, Vista, Windows 7, Windows client

Tags: Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has done his best over the past year-plus to try to dampen expectations around Windows 7. He’s doing it again this week during his pre-launch European tour, telling press, analysts and others there that he doesn’t expect Windows 7 to provide a sudden and miraculous boost to the PC market.

But I’m more intrigued by a related comment Ballmer made, as I’ve thought about this very scenario  myself in recent months. Ballmer pointed to Vista as an example that tester feedback may not always be the best measure of the success of a new operating system release. From an October 7 Bloomberg story:

“’The test feedback (on Windows 7) has been good, but the test feedback on Vista was good,’ Ballmer, 53, said in an interview last week. ‘I am optimistic, but the proof will be in the pudding.’”

It feels like a long time ago when testers were assessing the many Longhorn/Vista builds that Microsoft issued both before and after the “reset” in 2004. Before the reset, Microsoft officials heard from testers that there were some deep-seated problems with its next planned version of Windows. As a result, the Windows team went back to the drawing board and rejiggered it. Then there were lots more builds. And finally, in the fall of 2006, Microsoft released Vista to manufacturing.

I’ve been trying to recall if there were any early warning signs about the problems Vista had when it first came out. Were there any major outcries from the hundreds of thousands of public and private testers about Vista/Longhorn being bloated; slow to power on and shut down; and including such an onerous number of security prompts that many users would just shut off UAC?

The Softies, the company’s PC partners and software vendors all knew that Vista was such a moving target (both feature-wise and date-wise) that it was dangerous and crazy to count on any particular build being final before Microsoft actually RTM’d it. So there were some signs that apps and drivers would likely lag the product substantially.

But was there any widespread tester pushback advising Microsoft not to release Vista/Longhorn because it was not ready? I remember hearing/reading some testers saying this, but not enough to create high-level, widespread panic. (There was considerable panic after RTM, but not before.)

As a result, I’m left wondering about Vista, as many are/were about the current financial crisis: Why didn’t anyone inform us sooner of the impending meltdown? Weren’t there warning signs? Where was everybody?

A lot has changed between the time Microsoft developed/tested/released Vista and when it did the same with Windows 7. The organizational structure and development processes of the Windows unit was overhauled. Testers got fewer, but more predictable builds with relatively few changes. PC makers and software vendors were brought into the testing process far earlier.

Ballmer is right: The early tester feedback on 7 has been good. Those who already have Windows 7 installed seem generally happy.

Is Ballmer simply trying to keep company watchers’ predictions about Windows 7’s success from spinning out of control? Or is there even the most remote chance that Windows 7 might not be as good as the early reviews and feedback have indicated? I’m leaning toward the “Ballmer’s just trying to manage expectations” explanation, but I’m curious what you think.