Vista SP1 – Microsoft Could Not Have Given Less – Vista SP2 Anyone?

Microsoft had the chance to position the first service pack for Windows Vista as a panacea for the operating system, giving the platform nothing less than a fresh start and another take at the Wow. Instead, Vista SP1 will deliver close to nothing. Users should expect little, because they will get it in full, and because Microsoft could not have given anything less with the refresh. And if you believe that the company didn't try, then you are sadly mistaken.

Microsoft in fact stripped Vista SP1 down to the bare bones, leaving only the essential architecture that would qualify as a service pack. All strictly non-essential features, capabilities, features and improvements were killed from the status of concept, none of them making it to the embryonic stage.

A member of the Windows Installer Team explained why they had to pull references for Windows Installer 4.1, designed especially for Windows Vista SP1, from MSDN and to cancel version 4.1 altogether. "What changed was that the new guard in Windows had a very different bar for the Vista SP than had been in practice for previous releases (at least in my memory). Generally there is lip service to no large feature work in a SP but this time folks listened. Big feature adds were heavily scrutinized. The items we wanted to fix in the SP, UAC tweaks, were big feature by the new bar. When the UAC tweaks were rejected for Vista SP1, the justification for 4.1 faded as there were no new features in the Windows Installer in Vista SP1," the Windows Installer Team member stated.

The new guard at Microsoft is formed by Kevin Johnson, President, Platforms & Services Division; Jon DeVaan, Senior Vice President, Windows Core Operating System Division and Steven Sinofsky, Senior Vice President, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group...although the last executive might be more familiar to you as Steven codename Translucency Sinofsky, the source of the Windows Omerta. By comparison, the old guard involved Jim Allchin, (Former) Co-President, Platforms & Services Division; Brian Valentine (former) senior vice president of the Windows Division and Chris Jones, Corporate Vice President, Windows Live Experience Program Management.

Johnson, DeVaan and Sinofsky lowered the standard as much as possible on the features that would end up in Vista SP1. In this context, the service pack will be comprised of regular Windows Vista updates, application compatibility improvements, device driver improvements, enhancements to performance, reliability and security and a few tweaks to the default desktop search mechanism. Vista SP1 will be nothing more than a standard service pack, planned for the first quarter of 2008. However, the generalized consumer perception, and the continuous user preference focused on Windows XP seem to point to the fact that Vista would actually need a SP2 that will be a repeat of the second service pack for XP.

source: news.softpedia.com

| Continue Reading..

Beyond Microsoft Office: CNET compare 9 suites

Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and their Office allies can be great applications, but not everybody needs everything they offer. How do you know where to start when shopping for alternative software? You'll save money with a different brand, but will it do the trick? Should you buy boxed software, download freebies for your hard drive, access browser-based apps, or juggle all of the above?

We've reviewed nine productivity suites--including downloads and online services--and cooked up a jumbo chart mixing up their gumbo of features and file formats. IBM's release of Lotus Symphony beta added more spice to the stew last week, while continuous updates to the online applications keep us on our toes. All nine products support traditional Microsoft Office files, although not all can read work in the new Office 2007 formats. And although shunned by Microsoft, the Open Document Format is gaining in popularity.

See: Alternatives to Microsoft Office.

Source: Webware

| Continue Reading..

Windows Vista SP1 Beta Install Fair

The Windows Vista SP1 Deployment Team wanted me to pass along notice of an upcoming Install Fair being held here in Redmond at month's end; we've held events like this before and they've always been well received. You're welcome to drop by if you qualify and you're in the neighborhood.
Windows Vista SP1 Beta includes changes to improve performance, reliability, security and application compatibility.

* Date: 27 October 2007 from 9:00am to 3:00pm
* Location: Redmond Campus / Microsoft Conference Center (Building 33), McKinley Room
* Audience: Microsoft employees, friends & family
o Timeslots:There are 2 timeslots with a maximum of 90 openings each for desktops
o 9:00am to 12:00pm
o 1:00pm to 3:00pm
o There is 1 timeslot with a maximum of 20 openings for laptops
o 9:00am to 3:00pm

Microsoft internal registrations: Install Fair Sign-up (first come, first served) (site is MS internal-only) Public registrations must be made via email: Windows Vista SP1 Install Fair Registration (vsp1reg@microsoft.com). Please indicate a preferred timeslot.

The goals of the Install Fair are to:

1. Update 100 Windows Vista RTM PCs or laptops with less commonly found applications, configurations and devices to Windows Vista SP1 Beta.
2. Acquire valuable feedback about the Windows Update and stand-alone installation experience from the broader community.
3. Send attendees away with a usable Beta version of Windows Vista SP1.
4. Generate excitement about Windows Vista SP1 Beta.

What to bring:

* Your PC, its power cable and a DVI-to-VGA converter if necessary
Resources provided:
* Monitors, keyboards, mice, network cables and speakers.
* Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 Beta DVDs and product keys.
* Update analysis tools.
* Food, beverages and a gift for participating!
Checklist/Criteria to attend:
* My important data has been backed up!
* My PC operating system is Windows Vista RTM.
* My PC has an Intel/AMD Processor running at 1 GHz or higher.
* My PC has a minimum of 512MB of RAM.
* My PCs video adapter is AGP4x/8x or PCIe with a minimum of 64MB of RAM.
* My PCs hard disk has a minimum of 6GB of free space (on the same partition as Windows Vista) to allow for installation and analysis tools.
* My PC has a DVD-ROM drive.

We look forward to seeing you there...

The Windows Vista SP1 Install Fair Team

source: windowsvistablog.com, neowin.net

| Continue Reading..

CashOn spyware tops threat list

According to a report released today, the amount of adware "almost doubled in volume since August", moving up from fourth to first place in September. CashOn showed up in 13.9 percent of all threats detected by Fortinet. Its activity rate was also twice its volume growth, the report found. CashOn first made Fortinet's top 10 list in August.

CashOn is installed without the user's permission once downloaded, and it finds its way onto users' systems through downloaded files or exploits on Web sites. Once it is downloaded, CashOn changes the user's browser settings such that each time the browser is loaded, the user is directed to the CashOn Web site.

Fortinet said 99.8 percent of the spyware's activity is based in Korea. CashOn resides on a Korean top-level Web site domain and acts as a gateway to various other Korean-based shopping sites, said Fortinet.

According to the security vendor, other players besides CashOn may be behind the spyware distribution campaign.

Derek Manky, Fortinet security research engineer, said in a statement: "In order to make profits from [an e-commerce site], there is a need for exposure, which requires an effective seeding strategy."

Manky warned computer users to guard against such cyber threats. "Users need to continue to educate themselves on [spyware threats] to ensure that they have the necessary protection to guard against future outbreaks," he said.

Source : zdnetasia.com


| Continue Reading..

Asia finds security in open source

According to IDC's latest study released Friday on open source trends and challenges, security was the top reason for deploying open source technology, followed by budget constraints and the availability of better management tools and utilities. "The results indicate that organizations perceived open source technology as providing better security compared to proprietary products," said Prianka Srinivasan, a market analyst for IDC Asia-Pacific.

The study also concluded that more SMBs (small and medium-sized businesses) were using open source compared to large businesses, while India and China seemed to be the bigger adopters of open source compared to Australia and Korea.

Although cost-efficiency remained a key decision factor, Srinivasan said, the results also suggested that organizations looked to primarily fulfill their requirements for specific functionalities.

The study also revealed a growing interest in the adoption of open source versions of "higher-end" software beyond the current infrastructure and database applications.

According to Srinivasan, survey respondents showed an interest in open source versions of CRM (customer relationship management) and BPM (business performance management) tools. This, she said, suggested that "organizations will increasingly incorporate open source technology in more mission-critical applications".

The analyst firm also advised commercial vendors of open source software to focus on support services and ensure interoperability between their products and others in the market, so as to take advantage of the growing market.

Source : zdnetasia.com

| Continue Reading..

Vista downgrade costs vary in Asia

Since Microsoft changed its policy in June to allow its OEM partners to order Windows XP recovery disks that could be included inside the box with PCs, vendors like Lenovo and Hewlett-Packard (HP) have jumped at the opportunity to meet customer demand. The new program only applies to buyers downgrading from Vista Business or Ultimate editions to XP Professional.

A call to Dell's customer hotline revealed that Dell is bundling the XP recovery CD for free with its higher-end models, such as Dell Optiplex range of desktops. Customers buying lower-end models such as the Vostro range are allowed the choice between either XP or Vista pre-installed on their systems, but not both disks.

Chinese PC giant Lenovo is also offering the XP recovery CD for Vista Business and Ultimate versions until Jul. 31, 2008. Its pricing, however, appears unclear.

Geraldine Kan, Lenovo Asia-Pacific communications director, told ZDNet Asia that Lenovo's XP recovery CD costs between US$50 and US$60, depending on the region and country. But when ZDNet Asia enquired about the XP recovery CD from a Lenovo store in Singapore, a sales representative said the store would re-install XP for free on request. ZDNet Asia was unable to clarify this further with Lenovo at press time.

Gerhard Schiele, HP Asia-Pacific director of strategic marketing for its SMB marketing personal systems group, said that HP has been offering the XP Professional recovery disk since Aug. 1, "for little or no charge", but declined to name a price for "competitive reasons".

Schiele said demand for Windows XP among businesses, especially smaller businesses, is still healthy. HP, he added, has "only recently" seen business customers express interest in Windows Vista.

"What we're hearing is that SMBs without a dedicated IT staff simply need more time to migrate their systems and applications to Windows Vista," he said.

Windows XP is still the suitable operating system for emerging markets such as China and India because of the lack of hardware requirements to run Vista, said Schiele.

Last week, Microsoft announced that it would be extending XP's life for another five months. Large PC manufacturers were originally slated to stop selling XP after Jan. 31, 2008, but the deadline has been pushed to June 30 next year.

In April this year, Dell decided to bring XP back for home systems, too.

Source : zdnetasia.com

| Continue Reading..

Adobe buys Web word processor Buzzword

Adobe Systems has officially entered the "Web office" game.

The company on Monday is expected to announce that it has acquired an 11-person start-up, called Virtual Ubiquity, that has built a free Web word processor called Buzzword. Financial terms were not disclosed. The move expands Adobe's collaborative software services and steps up its competition with Microsoft and a host of other Web application providers, including Google.

Adobe also is scheduled to announce a service, code-named Share, that allows people to invite others to view and access documents stored by Adobe. Documents can be embedded inside a Web page as well. The service, which is still in testing mode, will offer users one gigabyte of storage for free.

Adobe executives are scheduled to detail the Buzzword deal and the other initiatives at its Max 2007 developer and designer conference, which starts Monday in Chicago.

Microsoft, meanwhile, is expected on Monday to detail its own document collaboration service called Office Live Workspace, a free online tool for viewing, sharing and storing Office documents online.

In other Max announcements, Adobe plans to release the beta version of its desktop video viewer, Adobe Media Player, which is now being used by CBS, PBS and Yahoo to distribute multimedia content with advertising. Adobe Media Player version 1.0 is due in the first half of next year.

The technology underpinning these applications is Adobe's Flash Player and AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime), software that lets Web applications run offline. The programs were written using its Flex development tool.

The company's strategy is to assemble a series of collaboration products and services on top of its development platform, said Erik Larson, director of marketing and product management at Adobe. Buzzword will complement its existing online services Adobe Connect and Create PDF, he said.

"Our focus is on document collaboration around a lot of different kinds of documents," Larson said. "There is a lot that can be done with the Adobe platform, and there are still unrealized promises."

Larson said Adobe will focus on online collaboration of "high fidelity" documents, or those that appear the same on-screen and when printed out.

The plan is to make these applications free for paid premium services to businesses.

Rick Treitman, CEO of Virtual Ubiquity, said his company decided to use Adobe developer technologies because they were better than other available programming methods. Adobe invested in the company last year as part of a venture fund set up to promote applications on Flash and AIR.

What sets Buzzword apart from other online word processors is the pagination--it allows people to get an accurate view of how a document will print out as the document is edited. It also has the ability to embed graphics, track changes and organize files.

"Flex and Flash were the means to where we want to go. No one else realized how powerful it was as a virtual machine," Treitman said.

During the Max keynote address on Monday, Adobe executives are expected to show off other rich Internet applications written for Flash or AIR.

One of those will be an AIR version of Pronto, an e-mail application from CommuniGate Systems that is expected to be released next spring when AIR 1.0 is available.

John Doyle, CommuniGate Systems' vice president of business development, said Adobe has the wherewithal to build a line of compelling and simple-to-use rich Internet applications that could lure businesses away from Microsoft Office.

"If anybody has the financial strength, the market reach and the track record of making very good applications, it's Adobe," Doyle said. "They're able to overnight-ship applications through Flash to browsers that will be accessible by 96 percent of the users in the world. That's huge."

IBM last month introduced a beta version of Lotus Symphony, a set of traditional desktop applications that Big Blue is offering as a standards-based alternative to Office.

Adobe's Larson said that Adobe isn't trying to necessarily displace the use of Office. Instead, it is focusing on online collaboration products like Buzzword and Acrobat Connect.

"In general, there is a clear willingness in the working world to accept new applications and accept new ways of working," Larson said.

For example, Adobe and people from Virtual Ubiquity used Buzzword to write a press release announcing the acquisition. Using a shared document model, they were able to eliminate about 200 e-mails and attachments with several different versions of the same release.

Adobe's document-sharing applications are aimed at small- and medium-size businesses, while Microsoft has developed Office Live Workspace for large businesses.

For developers, Adobe intends to release REST-style application programming interfaces for both Share and Buzzword.

Source zdnetasia.com

| Continue Reading..