- Finally, a conspiracy theory I can believe in. Lee Gomes speculates in Forbes that the whole Vista fiasco was a marketing ploy by Microsoft to drive sales of well-received Windows 7. After all, says Gomes, the biggest selling point of many Microsoft releases is that they fix the flaws of the previous release. (Ba-da-Bing!)
- Meanwhile, Microsoft is establishing a cloud presence. It has spent $500 million for a data center near Chicago, where 400,000 servers will run on Microsoft’s Azure operating system. But to compete in the cloud, Microsoft will have to build a new business model as well, in place of those software upgrades that have served it so well.
- And nuclear power struggles to make a comeback. In a section devoted to energy, Technology Review looks at nuclear’s prospects 30 years after Three Mile Island. (No full free access.) The industry’s challenges now are mainly financial. Only large plants are economical, but their high front end price is a barrier, given the uncertain future cost of other power sources.
Archive for the ‘Productivity Software’ Category
Thanksgiving Leftovers
Sunday, November 29th, 2009The March of Time: Hello, Windows 7; Goodbye, GeoCities
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009Windows 7 is out, and getting good reviews. Even the reviews that go looking for faults don’t seem to be finding that many.
A cynic would say to just give it time; Vista also got some good early reviews. But perhaps Microsoft learned from Vista. When all else fails, falling flat on your face can be instructive; it works for the rest of us.
Anyway, it is not as easy to hate Microsoft as it used to be. Apple has gone from cult to hot, Windows Mobile lags, and Google is everyone’s next world conqueror.
But Windows is not going away. Probably it will run on my next desktop, and there’s a good chance it will be running on yours. Perhaps everything will eventually get beamed up into the cloud, but a lot of people will still want or need a powerful local machine and an operating system to run it.
For most of us, for the next few years, that will mean Windows 7. I don’t need to think about it till I upgrade my machine, but if you deal with desktop computing at the enterprise level you need to start thinking about it now.
Meanwhile, GeoCities closed its doors, providing an occasion for sentimental commentary about this ancestor of Web 2.0. The Web, as it turns out, is not forever after all. Many people might be just as happy that their old GeoCities homepage, abandoned ‘under construction’ years ago, has finally disappeared. If they even remember they ever had it.
Just remember that one day your Facebook page may also be half forgotten, then disappear.