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Uh... I'm not sure if this was your intent, but your link to a "Microsoft Store" actually is of an Apple store. One giveaway is the Apple Genius logo on the back wall. From searching, it seems the pic is from 9to5mac - here's a similar shot of what appears to be the same store: 9to5mac.

It's sad that so many "smart" people are using Chrome that has so many privacy concerns. The following information is from Wikipedia but you can find this information all over. Google fanboys need not reply.

1) Suggest - All text, searches, and URLs typed into the address bar are sent to Google

2) Downloads - Chrome sends the URL and IP of the host and other meta data, such as the file’s hash and binary size, to Google when downloading files

3) Page not found - All URLs and text typed into the address bar (Upon receiving "Server not found" response) are sent to Google

4) Google Update (Windows) - Information about how often Chrome is used, details about the OS and Chrome version.

5) Bug tracker - Details about crashes and failures (including information about the machine and software being used)

6) clientID - Unique identifier along with logs of usage metrics and crashes.

7) Installation - Randomly generated token included in installer. Used to measure success rate of Google Chrome once at installation.

8) RLZ identifier - Encoded string, according to Google (if you trust Google), contains non-identifying information how Chrome was downloaded and its install week, and is used to measure promotional campaigns. Google provides the source code to decode this string.

This is the reason for products such as SRWare Iron that remove all the privacy concerns from Chromium:

"Google's Web browser Chrome thrilled with an extremely fast site rendering, a sleek design and innovative features. But it also gets critic from data protection specialists , for reasons such as creating a unique user ID or the submission of entries to Google to generate suggestions. SRWare Iron is a real alternative. The browser is based on the Chromium-source and offers the same features as Chrome - but without the critical points that the privacy concern.

We could therefore create a browser with which you can now use the innovative features without worrying about your privacy."

To me, it's just disappointed at the sheer number of sheeple who couldn't care less if Google tracks everything they do on the internet. Which also gives support to them tracking everyone else - including their own family members. Oh wait... but Google can be totally trusted, right? I mean, they would never do anything evil with all that data since they are an advertising corporation who's sole purpose is to make money. Ya, sure.

It's sad that so many "smart" people are using Chrome that has so many privacy concerns. The following information is from Wikipedia but you can find this information all over. Google fanboys need not reply.

1) Suggest - All text, searches, and URLs typed into the address bar are sent to Google

2) Downloads - Chrome sends the URL and IP of the host and other meta data, such as the file’s hash and binary size, to Google when downloading files

3) Page not found - All URLs and text typed into the address bar (Upon receiving "Server not found" response) is sent to Google

4) Google Update (Windows) - Information about how often Chrome is used, details about the OS and Chrome version.

5) Bug tracker - Details about crashes and failures (including information about the machine and software being used)

6) clientID - Unique identifier along with logs of usage metrics and crashes.

7) Installation - Randomly generated token included in installer. Used to measure success rate of Google Chrome once at installation.

8) RLZ identifier - Encoded string, according to Google (if you trust Google), contains non-identifying information how Chrome was downloaded and its install week, and is used to measure promotional campaigns. Google provides the source code to decode this string.

This is the reason for products such as SRWare Iron that remove all the privacy concerns from Chromium:

"Google's Web browser Chrome thrilled with an extremely fast site rendering, a sleek design and innovative features. But it also gets critic from data protection specialists , for reasons such as creating a unique user ID or the submission of entries to Google to generate suggestions. SRWare Iron is a real alternative. The browser is based on the Chromium-source and offers the same features as Chrome - but without the critical points that the privacy concern.

We could therefore create a browser with which you can now use the innovative features without worrying about your privacy."

To me, it's just disappointed at the sheer number of sheeple who couldn't care less if Google tracks everything they do on the internet. Which also gives support to them tracking everyone else - including their own family members. Oh wait... but Google can be totally trusted, right? I mean, they would never do anything evil with all that data since they are an advertising corporation who's sole purpose is to make money. Ya, sure.

Maybe you're under a command & control botnet.

I guess that's one name for them... I'm sure they've been called many more.

http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/operating_systems/windows_updates_sneaky_updates.html

It's not clear why Microsoft and NSS Labs waited until December to release the results.

Maybe it's like the last time this happened?

Furthermore, Moy said, the study started as a private test for Microsoft's engineering team, which was seeking to make internal improvements. "They decided to release it based on the positive results. Many of the test reports we write do not get released by vendors, but they do get used to improve products. So what does 'sponsored' mean in this case?"

So you (internally) strike a deal to test your browser (but also your competitors') with an "independent company" that you pay to perform this service. You get to define the "success parameters" of the test. Then you get the results back and you fix everything. After that time spent fixing has passed, you release the report and add that you have fixed all the problems with your product. Unsurprisingly, you look really really good when this news hits. Since your competitor is not also paying NSS Labs, NSS has no reason to update the report to meet the latest and greatest version of browsers. Meanwhile you can decide if your competitor's browser performed inadequately enough or not for the report -- maybe you even select the success parameters afterward? Heck, you already waited to see if you could release the report.

Independent? HA!

...open IBM hardware specifications...
Don't you mean when Compaq pried it open? I heard there was quite a battle over that.

Apple's "walled garden" - despite the price of admission - is well on its way to becoming a larger presence on the web than the Linux PC or mobile device.

Pretty sure he was referring to Microsoft's new advertising slogan actually.

Besides, what does it matter which platform your software layer resides on? If you think it's absurd to build OSS on proprietary software, then I suppose you only write software and packages for the most free distro, depending on your definition of free?

I write software for open platforms for the same reason I never wrote anything in Visual Basic 6, never bought an mp3 player that "Played for Sure", and will never submit an app to the "App Store".

Common sense, man. Grow some.

This incident underscores the importance of fighting monopolies and ensuring the availability of competitive choices. If Microsoft had succeeded in driving all other browsers out of the market in 2000, then today, we would not have any other choice and would be forced to use a browser with a dangerous security risk.

We should applaud the recent work by the European Commission in demanding that Microsoft design their European version of Windows to allow users to choose the browser that they want -- thus, allowing them to never install Internet Explorer. The European Commission has been better advocate of free-market competition than the American Federal Trade Commission.

Therein lies a bit of irony. Washington often claims that the USA is a freer free market than the European Union. Yet, the Union is the political body which hit -- hard -- Microsoft's anticompetitive behavior.

Hell No! Microsoft is an American company - AMERICAN!

WE are the only ones that can pick on them - not those cigarette smoking - wine sipping - half-assed socialist - high tax - cowardly - freedom hating - Europeans!

It's one thing for us to bitch and moan about MS -we're Americans - but the Europeans!? Hell no! MS brings MONEY into the US! They provide jobs to Americans!

Wait a tic, I think I'll change my mind.

Ah, fuck'em.

http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/web_services_browser/daddy_did_you_break_the_web.html

Dean Hachamovitch here retells the tale, though I first read it in an article 3 years ago about the IE 7 launch.

You wouldn't happen to log in and post under you real name, would you?

No, you're an AC troll.

It wouldn't be that way if MS said "64-bit only" when they started talking about Windows 7.

Announced as 64-bit only restriction originally? That would not have been very smart considering they had even less say in the netbook market then, compared to now. Besides, as I already said in my other post, if they had done that, OEMs would be installing XP and Linux on cheap netbooks, not Windows 7, which is definitely not what MS wants, as they reportedly only make $15 per XP license on a netbook and not shoving their new product into the market.

XP licensing for netbooks only?
WTF is this bullshit. I've heard this FUD for almost a year now.

WTF bullshit - because that's when the shit was announced - just over a year ago. WTF - you couldn't find shit in the shittank? Here is your "bullshit" served on the shitplate just for the shitseekers who don't know WTF they are talking about. Shit!

I can STILL go to Dell's site and get XP on a regular desktop.

The XP downgrade program? Yes, you need to buy Vista "BONUS" system, meaning you are paying for a Vista license, then for the license to downgrade to XP on top of that - Dell does all that for you right here. I believe you can also get XP if you have volume licensing program from MS, mostly for large organizations who refused to use Vista. Besides these and netbooks, MS is finished w/selling XP licenses to OEMs.

Check your facts. Those numbers are large but not so much compared to their revenue streams.

Microsoft earned a lot of money last year, almost 16 billion in the fourth quarter alone. The 20 billion it has in cash then represents just over one fiscal quarter of revenues.

That's not exactly "weathering a recession" kind of money.

The biggest change from Vista, is that Microsoft has stripped most of the bloated DRM and security features from the installation version.

Anyone remember Palladium ?

Well, it never actually went anywhere, Microsoft just changed the name to "Secure Computing Base", this was the cause for most of the slowdown in Vista. Like checking the integrity of the running display drivers 100 times per second while watching a DVD.

So, of course Windows 7 will be faster that Vista, out-of-the-box, but just try to install a flat-scren monitor with HDMI connector, a printer, scanner, a BluRay drive and watch a BluRay movie and, ** blam !!**, you will get a good bit of the crap back on your desktop,

MS is swimming in money

That's relative. Their stock value, currently around $20, never again reached their peak of $60 after 2000.

Their cash reserves aren't what they used to be, they spent two thirds of it trying to shore up the stock price, without result.

Their revenues are dropping through the floor.

It's a huge company that won't disappear so soon, but if you pay $40 billion in dividends and still have so much problem to get the stock price back to 30% of the peak...

You missed the point. Let us put ourselves in MSFT's shoes. We have a product (Vista) that we actually thought was going to sell big. After all, our previous product (WinXP) sold like mad through both the retail and OEM channels, and so we made a whole warehouse full of retail and system builder boxes and pump up the spin. They way we talk about this thing it is the second coming of Win95....

Ooops......we got a problem. Suddenly we got site after site saying Vista should be avoided and is in fact a flop. The OEMs seem to be agreeing with that as they want to sell WinXP and some start even selling Linux boxes. Now we got some sites saying that Win7 won't be much better. And we STILL have retail shelves and warehouses filled with Vista copies that we thought were going to sell like gangbusters AND our numbers are down. What do we do?

Seems pretty obvious to me, you gotta push out those Vista discs before Win7 hits and makes them as worthless as AOL CDs. But how?By doing what they are doing now with the OEMs. By saying ALL copies of Vista sold after X date gets the free upgrade to Win7, you remove the two biggest hurdles to getting folks to buy your product: That they are going to be stuck with an obsolete OS when you come out with Win7 in the fall and the fact that they hate Vista now. Instead by pushing the Win7 upgrade to the OEMs and ONLY the OEMs, you have just made that warehouse and all those retail shelves full of Vista copies even MORE worthless. Does that make ANY sense? It isn't like they only print Vista discs on demand here. Do they think that ANYBODY is going to buy those discs NOW with 7 coming out in the fall causing the Osborne effect to come into play?

This is just one MORE reason why Ballmer should be fired. Instead of moving as many copies of Vista out of those warehouses in preparation for Win7, and getting more users on the new OS driver design to light a fire under the hardware manufacturers, he instead has virtually guaranteed that the boutique builders, the mom & pop shops, the DIY crowd, the gamer box builders, etc will NOT buy a single copy of Vista. Instead they will stick with the less expensive copies of XP to keep from dumping their clients in a dead end OS. At least with XP they will be supported until 2014, whereas with Vista I have no doubt at all it will be swept under the rug like Winme before it.

I myself just got done building 2 more new XP boxes this evening. If I could have given my customers the free Win7 upgrade in the fall they most likely would have gotten the more expensive Vista Home Premium, as this would have given them the longest support path. Instead all the boxes I build between now and Win7 will ONLY come with the lower priced XP. Frankly boneheaded moves like this is why Ballmer is running the corp into the ground. Mark my words, when Win7 comes out they will be some landfill in New Mexico that will be getting a whole buttload of Vista discs. Because without the free upgrade path they are worth as much as ET carts were back in the day, a big fat $0.00.

Apple is a hardware company that also makes software. Microsoft is a software company that also makes hardware. The MS hardware I can think of is their keyboards and mice, the Zune and Xbox 360. Considering that the entertainment division of microsoft that builds the zune and xbox lost 31 million dollars last quarter, I wouldn't hold Microsoft up as the paragon of what is possible to do in hardware.

"Citing figures from market research firm NPD, Microsoft says Windows' share of the US netbook market has ballooned from less than 10% in the first half of 2008 to 96% as of February"

'Windows Is Not on 96% of Netbooks .. Brandon stated a number that may be true for U.S. retail for one month of sales '

Your post seems to be just pulling data out of thin air and pushing it as fact. Could you link your sources? I'm unable to find anything close to the figure you give

See When Will Microsoft Own Up to the XBox Bomb As of the 1st quarter of 2007 they'd invested over $21 billion and had chalked up over $5 billion in operating losses on their "Home Entertainment" (read XBox) division since 2001.

the suggestion that Microsoft is still losing money on consoles, again this is outright false and hasn't been true since about Q3 2006

Microsoft's HE division turned a small profit starting a year or two ago - I don't know if they've recorded a consistent profit each quarter since - but according to this analysis they still aren't making any money on the consoles themselves (articles back in 2005 indicated MS might have been losing a staggering $500 a console). I guess the hope is they'll make the money back on games, but they'd have to move billions of titles to make up for the $30 billion or so they've dumped into the gaming business. (Don't forget, the "red ring of death" is going to cost them between another $1 to $5 billion, according to published reports. Ouch!)

Regarding the suggestion that Microsoft is possibly a bigger loser than the PS3, I'm trying to figure out how you can calculate that one.

Because Sony successfully used the PS3 to push Blu-Ray as a new standard. Even if they're never able to make much money off the consoles themselves, between the games and Blu-Ray licensing fees, Sony will probably eke out a tiny profit off of the PS3. With its more sophisticated hardware and its ability to be used as a Blu-Ray player (among other things), the PS3 will probably have a longer shelflife than either the 360 or the Wii, giving them more time to recoup their investment.

In contrast, the piddling earnings Microsoft's getting from its Home Entertainment division - a paltry $151 million for the most recent quarter - can't even hope to fill the $30 billion chasm that division has dug for itself over the past decade fighting the console wars. Worse, those reduced HE earnings came on increased HE revenues. What happens if the economy continues to slump and sales actually decline? Looks to me like their Home Entertainment division will promptly plunge back into the red again. Whoops.

Comparing to the likes of the iPhone and the Wii is rather ignorant of the long term goal here. Microsoft wanted to break into the home entertainment area because it believes having a box under the TV is important because that box will be called upon to play games, movies and offer countless other entertainment services within a few years.

If Microsoft does manage to get a box under every TV how do you think that's going to boost their profits?

You might as well ask what's gonna happen if Microsoft discovers a way to turn lead into gold, because they have as much of a chance at that as they do at getting a "box under every TV". Which, when you think about it, is a pretty useless strategy to begin with since that box is a worthless hunk of plastic and silicon without content. And Microsoft doesn't make content.

Does anyone in their right mind think Hollywood is gonna sit back and let the likes of Microsoft control a single point of access to the home (the only way Microsoft's massive investment in consoles could ever hope to pay off)? Good luck with that strategy, Redmond. Heck, even the game developers are smart enough to realize they're better off with two (or more) players competing against one another for dominance in the home.

Beyond that, as time passes it's only going to get easier - and cheaper - to create and market devices that

If you're an investor, owning shares in a company that has almost all of, but a shrinking share of a shrinking market isn't a happy place to be, especially if they have no room for growth and are trimming their failed attempts to find new markets. Add that their flagship product is running in the single digits, their Marketing efforts are the not only the butt of much comedy but may cost more than the GDP of Haiti and you have the perfect storm.

It's more fun to be holding a company that's growing share, sales and profits too. A company that only holds 10% of its target markets. A company that can report record profits in a bloodbath holiday quarter in the middle of a dire recession? A company whose advertising is so enjoyable that it's viral. A company that's innovating and inventing new markets. That's more fun. That's a winner.

And that winner isn't MSFT. Their stock is where it was 10 years ago. Over the same period Apple is up 1000%. Unlike Microsoft they have 90% of the established market to get yet, and the prospect of undiscovered country.

/14 links? That's informative. Pretty sure you regret posting that now. Let's go again.

"Even if I WANTED to use tree structured semantic filenames I couldn't due to Filesystem path / name limits e.g. things like the following quickly get you beyond the 128 character limit:"

Couldn't agree more, whatever happened to the database file system they were going to introduce in Longhorn in 2004, something similar to what was in BeOS since 1996 ..

MS Office 2007 has been doing quite well in the real world:

The Microsoft business division, which includes the Office suite of software, grew 20% to $4.95 billion. Microsoft's Profit Rises, But Outlook Is Damped [October 24]

20% growth in one quarter. If the tech sector as a whole is in the ICU with double pneumonia, Microsoft has a case of the sniffles.

Microsoft Office 2007/8 holds 4 of top 25 slots in software sales at Amazon.com.

In the retail market, Microsoft Office is bigger than games.

It is bigger than anything.

"Here's the really interesting statistic," said Chris Swenson, NPD's director of Software Industry Analysis. "Over two-thirds of the dollar volume growth in the U.S. retail PC software market in 2007 can be attributed to Microsoft Office. The ratio of Office dollar growth to total PC software growth is 67 percent." The Year of Office 2007

The geek tends to quote the max price for the retail box that he can find - and it can be useful to insert a correction.

Office Home & Student is about $100 at Amazon.com, with a three seat license.

The price of four ink jet cartridges - and if you can't afford the consumables, you can't afford the office suite, at any price.

The direct sale academic price for Office Ultimate is $60. The Ultimate Steal If your employer has a volume licensing agreement with Microsoft, Office for home use is the price of the media plus S&H. Home Use Program

Here's another article with some survey data on Vista adoption vs XP. It has a few interesting bits, one being The really bad news for Microsoft: the number of business PCs running Windows XP increased from 2007 to 2008â"three times the increase in the percentage of PCs running Vista. and the other the comparison of Vista to the high school slut. Pretty, but no substance. http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/vista/vista_doa_in_the_enterprise.html?kc=MWRSS02129TX1K0000535

they've enough PAYING customers,

for a corporation thats more important than "friends" and they are still churning out healthy profits http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/corporate/microsoft_q3_2008_by_the_numbers.html

This should clear up any queries - http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/corporate/microsoft_q1_2008_by_the_numbers.html

In conclusion: More PCs were shipped, anti-piracy was more effective, and like you point out, online services we're "barely significant", but being such a small input into gross profit so far, barely registers either - so worry not, MS jobs are secure for quite some time to come.

I hear this mantra repeated endlessly on Slashdot.

Then I look at numbers like these:

Over two-thirds of the dollar volume growth in the U.S. retail PC software market in 2007 can be attributed to Microsoft Office. In other words, the ratio of Office dollar growth to total PC software growth is 67 percent. The Year of Office 2007.

The July 3 Amazon.com Software Best Sellers:

1. MS Office Home and Student 2007
3. MS Office Home and Student 2008 - OSX
7. MS Outlook 2007
21. Apple iWork 08
28. MS Office Standard - Full Version $315
29. MS Office Pro 2003 $170 [10 AM ET Updated Hourly]

In Windows Office Suites, the Spanish MS Office Home & Student 2007 [at #13] outsells OpenOffice.org 2.4 on CD for $2.

OLPC couldn't hold the line against Windows XP and Word.

SharePoint - which is part of the MS Office eco-system - rockets to a billion dollars in sales.

Microsoft does very well in markets where piracy is not a factor and the geek has no excuse.

Sun's investment in Star Office is worth a ranking of 3,600 in Amazon software sales, a ranking of 65 in Amazon office suite sales for Windows, and 9 in business and office software sales for Linux.

The general consensus seems to be that Star Office sucks rocks.

Tell me why OpenOffice,org should be ranked any higher.

"the real reason they are exposing source is so that developers of products that compete with MS products like Word or Excel aren't at a competitive disadvantage that could result in expensive lawsuits"

Microsoft was scared of 'Open Source' a long time before the EU ruling. And it's 'shared source' but only under the Microsoft platform.

"OSS projects have been able to gain a foothold in many server applications because of the wide utility of highly commoditized, simple protocols. By extending these protocols and developing new protocols, we can deny OSS projects entry into the market"

"Microsoft today announced a partnership with open source solution vendor SpikeSource to eventually certify all of SpikeSource's SpikeIgnited solutions on the Microsoft Windows platform"

"what Microsoft really wants is to prevent defections--customers replacing some of their software with open-source alternatives"

For thirty years, give or take, the PC has been marketed as a plug and play home appliance or office machine.

When you upgrade to a new PC you upgrade to the latest iteration of the Windows OS. Hardware and software at the OEM price. Installed and tested. Sales of the retail box are simply a bonus.

The desktop problems are much more difficult to solve and the payoff in dollars is worth maybe a nice dinner.

The client division has paid off handsomely for Microsoft in fiscal 2008. $4.34 billion in the second quarter. Up 68% from fiscal 2007. Microsoft Q2 2008 by the Numbers

Repetition becomes tedious.

But the Slashdot Geek seems to live within a bubble that no outside force can penetrate - without, of course, being modded down into oblivion.

"But, frankly, Scarlet, I don't give a damn."

Here are the links again, whether you like them or not:

MS Office

The Year of Office 2007
Microsoft SharePoint taking business by storm

"The "magnitude of Office sales relative to the rest of the PC software market" is phenomenal. It's the massively huge tail wagging the dog."

"The talk [around SharePoint] is getting strategic now, and people are talking about it as a middleware decision. MOSS (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server) 2007 is the fastest growing product in the company's history."

MS Financial

Microsoft Q2 2008 by the Numbers

"Just four years ago, the majority of revenue came from North America. Now, 60 percent of sales are outside the United States. For the quarter, Microsoft sales increased 30 percent in emerging markets, 20 percent in established markets like Europe and 15 percent in the United States."

OS Market Share [Net Applications]

March 2008
OS Share Trend May 2007 - March 2008
OS Share Trend By Versions May 2007-March 2008

MS Vista 14% Up 10% from May 07
Win XP 82% Down 9%
OSX 8% Up 1%
Linux 0.6% Up 0.2%

In the familiar W3Schools stats it took Vista six months to grow from a 2% to 4% market share.
Linux five years.

Repetition becomes tedious.

But the Slashdot Geek seems to live within a bubble that no outside force can penetrate - without, of course, being modded down into oblivion.

"But, frankly, Scarlet, I don't give a damn."

Here are the links again, whether you like them or not:

MS Office

The Year of Office 2007
Microsoft SharePoint taking business by storm

"The "magnitude of Office sales relative to the rest of the PC software market" is phenomenal. It's the massively huge tail wagging the dog."

"The talk [around SharePoint] is getting strategic now, and people are talking about it as a middleware decision. MOSS (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server) 2007 is the fastest growing product in the company's history."

MS Financial

Microsoft Q2 2008 by the Numbers

"Just four years ago, the majority of revenue came from North America. Now, 60 percent of sales are outside the United States. For the quarter, Microsoft sales increased 30 percent in emerging markets, 20 percent in established markets like Europe and 15 percent in the United States."

OS Market Share [Net Applications]

March 2008
OS Share Trend May 2007 - March 2008
OS Share Trend By Versions May 2007-March 2008

MS Vista 14% Up 10% from May 07
Win XP 82% Down 9%
OSX 8% Up 1%
Linux 0.6% Up 0.2%

In the familiar W3Schools stats it took Vista six months to grow from a 2% to 4% market share.
Linux five years.

No, I just like keeping my systems free of any possible "patent issues" or other FUD avenues.

Unlike samba, which, by licensing Microsoft's IP, is actually helping to maintain Microsoft's dominance.

Expect to see the "same shit, different day" with MS-OOXML. the KDE team has it right - they will just ignore OOXML. Why waste time and energy, and further Mr. Softie's ends?

The surveys that Microsoft cares about tend to look more like these:

The Year of Office 2007
Microsoft SharePoint taking business by storm
Microsoft Q2 2008 by the Numbers
Top Operating System Versions Share Trend for May, 2007 to March, 2008, Top Operating System Share Trend for May, 2007 to March, 2008 , Operating System Market Share for March, 2008

In the Net Applications stats you'll find Vista winning a healthy 14% share of the market and Linux neatly sandwiched between Win NT and Win 98 with a 0.61% share.

The surveys that Microsoft cares about tend to look more like these:

The Year of Office 2007
Microsoft SharePoint taking business by storm
Microsoft Q2 2008 by the Numbers
Top Operating System Versions Share Trend for May, 2007 to March, 2008, Top Operating System Share Trend for May, 2007 to March, 2008 , Operating System Market Share for March, 2008

In the Net Applications stats you'll find Vista winning a healthy 14% share of the market and Linux neatly sandwiched between Win NT and Win 98 with a 0.61% share.

How do you explain these numbers?

Over two-thirds of the dollar volume growth in the U.S. retail PC software market in 2007 can be attributed to Microsoft Office. In other words, the ratio of Office dollar growth to total PC software growth is 67 percent. Office sales are so big, they make calculating broader PC software retail sales difficult. The "magnitude of Office sales relative to the rest of the PC software market" is phenomenal, "It's the massively huge tail wagging the dog. The Year of Office 2007

Vista is showing healthy growth in OS platform stats, while the *NIX platform has stagnated.

Top Operating System Share Trend for April, 2007 to February, 2008, Operating System Market Share for February, 2008
OS Platform Statistics February 2008

60% of Microsoft's revenues come from outside the U.S. It is seeing 30% growth - each quarter - in Asia and Africa, 20% in Europe, and 15% in the states. Microsoft Q2 2008 by the Numbers

Microsoft's client business, on sales of Windows Vista, was especially strong in the quarter, with $4.34 billion in revenue compared to $2.59 billion in revenue a year ago. According to Microsoft, its client business has grown 20 percent on average since Windows Vista was made available nearly a year ago... Microsoft beats forecasts for Q2

How do you explain these numbers?

Over two-thirds of the dollar volume growth in the U.S. retail PC software market in 2007 can be attributed to Microsoft Office. In other words, the ratio of Office dollar growth to total PC software growth is 67 percent. Office sales are so big, they make calculating broader PC software retail sales difficult. The "magnitude of Office sales relative to the rest of the PC software market" is phenomenal, "It's the massively huge tail wagging the dog. The Year of Office 2007

Vista is showing healthy growth in OS platform stats, while the *NIX platform has stagnated.

Top Operating System Share Trend for April, 2007 to February, 2008, Operating System Market Share for February, 2008
OS Platform Statistics February 2008

60% of Microsoft's revenues come from outside the U.S. It is seeing 30% growth - each quarter - in Asia and Africa, 20% in Europe, and 15% in the states. Microsoft Q2 2008 by the Numbers

Microsoft's client business, on sales of Windows Vista, was especially strong in the quarter, with $4.34 billion in revenue compared to $2.59 billion in revenue a year ago. According to Microsoft, its client business has grown 20 percent on average since Windows Vista was made available nearly a year ago... Microsoft beats forecasts for Q2

60% of Microsoft's revenues come from outside the US.

Microsoft is seeing 30% growth in sales in countries like China. 20% growth in the EU, 15% in the US - each quarter.

If you think the EU bureaucracy has been in Microsoft's pocket. I'll take some of whatever it is you have been smoking. Microsoft Q2 2008 by the Numbers

Hmmm, could be...

Top Operating System Share Trend for April 2007 to February 2008

The Bet Applications stats show Vista poised to claim 20% of the market world-wide. Five times that of the MacIntel platform. Twenty times that of Linux.

Microsoft revenues are up 68% in the client division over Fiscal 2007.

60% of Microsoft's sales are outside the U.S. MS is seeing 30% increases in sales in markets like China, 20% in Europe, 15% in the states.

Microsoft Q2 2008 By The Numbers

http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/web_services_browser/what_3_million_buys_silverlight.html

Silverlight does not work with Linux, and offers only limited support for Mac. But the US Library of Congress took a $3 bribe from msft to force the US to only use msft products. If you want access to public documents, you have to use microsoft - nothing else will work.

Clearly msft will force this standard on everybody, just like msft will force OOXML on everybody. Once Silverlight is deployed everywhere, developers will start supporting it.

This is to be expected when too much of the talent moves on to more interesting places to work, like Google, Yahoo, or IBM. It becomes increasingly difficult to do acceptable work when the number of staff who understand the core parts of the problems approaches zero.

These articles are still timely: About Microsoft brain drain from 22 months ago, Similar, from 19 months ago, or yet another, from 10 months ago. Or google "Microsoft brain drain" and browse through the 134,000 results: you'll see a long histor of MS being accused of kneecapping competitors by targetted headhunting of key staff, but that toward the end of the Vista development cycle, there have been a growing number of questions about whether the exodus of talent from Redmond would leave MS with enough brains to deliver on their promises.

It was the Intel exec that gave Linux 0.8% of the desktop.

In the January W3 Schools OS Platfrorm Stats Vista is poised to overtake OSX and Linux combined in a month or two.

Not a bad showing for an OS whose greatest strength in 2007 was in the high end of the OEM consumer market, where the Vista Premium and Ultimate PC competes directly against the Mac system bundle.

the rise of the low end markets where they simply can't compete

Microsoft's $3 "Student Innovation Suite" bundles Learning Essentials for MS Office, Microsoft Math, Office Home and Student 2007, Windows Live Mail, and XP Starter Edition.

The Vista Starter Edition will arrive somewhere down the road.

At first glance, the pricing is shockingly low considering the broader value of the software. For example, in the United States, Office Home and Student 2007 retails for about $150. But further examination reveals pricing not so out of line with what college students might see in the United States. It's fairly typical for universities to provide students with Microsoft software for as little as $5 or $10 a copy under a Microsoft Campus License. It's a bit out-of-box thinking. It is very clever," said Clive Longbottom, service director of Business Process Analysis for Quocirca. "We wouldn't see millions of licenses sold through educational institutions in established markets. You will see thousands."

But in markets like China, "you will see millions."

What is Microsoft's Unlimited Potential?

Perhaps you can't forgive the pun. But...

There seems to be nothing that can pull the Geek out of denial.

Microsoft posted breathtaking results in its first and second quarters. 15-20% growth in Windows. In Office. In servers. In home entertainment.

That kind of growth isn't fueled by massive "upgrades" to Win XP.

67 cents of every new retail dollar spent on PC software goes to Microsoft Office.

Microsoft gambled on "the ribbon" and won.

For the quarter, Microsoft sales increased 30 percent in emerging markets, 20 percent in established markets like Europe and 15 percent in the United States. Microsoft has become very well insulated from a recession in the states.

Online services are still posting a loss, but ad revenues are up damn near 40% from fiscal 2007 to $623 million.

There are 427 million Windows Live IDs.

Which suggests that estimates of one billion Windows users world-wide are on the money.

Microsoft has been paying dividends, buying back stock. It holds $20 billion in liquid reserves and doesn't owe a dime to anyone.

Microsoft Q2 2008 By The Numbers

67 cents of every new retail dollar spent on PC software goes to MS Office.

Through end of November, U.S. retail PC software sales are up 10.3 percent year over year as measured in dollar volume, according to NPD. By comparison, Office sales are up 50.7 percent, by the same measure and in the same time frame. Office sales are so big, they make calculating broader PC software retail sales difficult. The "magnitude of Office sales relative to the rest of the PC software market is phenomenal. It's the massively huge tail wagging the dog." Retail Black Friday sales of Mac Office were up 215.8 percent year over year. While Mac Office generated blowout sales on Black Friday, Office 2007 sales growth was exceptionally good, too. Year-over-year U.S. retail Black Friday sales of Office were up 65.8 percent, as measured in dollars. The Year of Office 2007

Microsoft's profits are up 79%:

For the quarter that ended Dec. 31, profit rose to $4.71 billion, or 50 cents per share, from $2.63 billion, or 26 cents per share the previous year. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial had forecast a profit of 46 cents per share. Revenue rose 31 percent to $16.37 billion from $12.5 billion in the year-ago quarter, ahead of the analysts' prediction of $15.95 billion in sales.

{and, in what must be the understatement of the year]

"It looks like a very nice report," said Sarah Friar, an analyst for Goldman Sachs. Microsoft Corp. earnings leap 79 percent

I was sorely tempted to give my response a flamebait title like "The Geek Turns Delusional."

I won't disguise my opinion here that the Geek's increasingly frantic retreat from reality has been the Slashdot story since the posting of Microsoft's second quarter results.

The CDW poll points to a softening of enterprise IT negative attitudes toward Vista. Familiarity, it seems, has bred content: IT departments are happier with Vista's features, particularly in the area of security, and less concerned about the hardware costs of Vista than they were a year ago. Another year will bring further declines in the relative cost of PC hardware -- and make a lot of corporate desktop hardware look even more antique. Only a major economic downturn would be likely to derail current estimates of another strong year for PC sales, so even if Vista remains tied to hardware sales it would do well, and corporate upgrades could finally kick in as old hardware is upgraded. This has been a year when Vista has had its rough edges knocked off, and the marketplace has adjusted its expectations. By Vista's next birthday it should be more differentiated and acceptable for both its consumer and business marketplaces. Assessing Windows Vista On Its First Anniversary

• Exhibit A
• Exhibit B
• Exhibit C

MS Office 2007 has been insanely successful at retail.

The runaway best seller in PC software. Bigger than games. Bigger than anything.

Through end of November, U.S. retail PC software sales are up 10.3 percent year over year as measured in dollar volume, according to NPD. By comparison, Office sales are up 50.7 percent, by the same measure and in the same time frame.

"Here's the really interesting statistic," said Chris Swenson, NPD's director of Software Industry Analysis. "Over two-thirds of the dollar volume growth in the U.S. retail PC software market in 2007 can be attributed to Microsoft Office. In other words, the ratio of Office dollar growth to total PC software growth is 67 percent."

Office sales are so big, they make calculating broader PC software retail sales difficult.

Apple has had a great year selling Macs, which has helped boost Office 2004 sales. Version 2004 is doing so well that, ahead of the holiday sales period, Mac Office accounted for about 20 percent of all U.S. retail Office sales, according to NPD.

For Black Friday, Microsoft offered a surprising deal: for about 56 bucks, after rebates, Office 2004 Student and Teacher Edition and the forthcoming Office 2008 Special Media Edition. The new, top-of-the-line Mac Office version would otherwise sell for about $500. The Year of Office 2007

MS Office Home is $120 at Amazon. Retail boxed. Free shipping. Three seat license.

Replacement ink jet cartridges typically list for around $60 the pair. You do the math. If you can afford the consumables, you can afford MS Office. The added expense is trivial.

If his employer has a volume licensing agreement with Microsoft, your neighbor may qualify for a full version of Office for the price of shipping and handling.

What truth?

Microsoft has done spectacularly well in its first and second quarters

This is a thirty year old company showing 15% growth in a mature market.

Debt free and with $20 billion in cash.

In these OS Platform Stats, Vista is approaching the desktop market share of OSX and Linux combined.

Microsoft is engaged in projects as diverse and ambitious as designing and launching a comsat for Africa. Cameroon: Microsoft Partners With Schools for IT Development

MS Office 2007 is a runaway best seller at retail:

"Over two-thirds of the dollar volume growth in the U.S. retail PC software market in 2007 can be attributed to Microsoft Office. In other words, the ratio of Office dollar growth to total PC software growth is 67 percent." The Year of Office 2007

Or, at least, it's going to be such a huge amount of work to bring it natively to Intel that it's not worth it to MS.

At one time in the past, Microsoft considered it worthwhile to port VBA from Intel and Win32 to PowerPC and the Classic Mac Toolbox.

Today, it's too much effort to either 1) update the existing VBA engine or 2. Replicate the previous clean-sheet effort. Despite the fact that the Mac is growing in market share, and Office sales are very healthy--something that could hardly be said back in the late '90s when VBA was brought over.

I assure you, moving VBA from Win32+x86 to Classic Toolbox + PPC was a much bigger technical challenge than it would be to do the same on the modern Mac architecture. There is only one reason why Microsoft is no longer willing to do so. VBA is established and is ready to serve its purpose as a mechanism of lock-in.

The zealot never considers the possibility the proprietary alternative may simply be best-of-breed. He inflates the cost by quoting retail list for the most expensive version on the market.

If your employer has a volume licensing agreement with Microsoft, you may be able to get a full version of Office for the price of S&H. Home Use Program

MS Office Home 2007, with a three seat license, sells retail boxed for around $125.

The price of five replacement inkjet cartridges.

The software is essentially a one-time purchase, it's the price of consumables and services that will eat you alive. It is calculations like these that help programs like Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop Elements to compete against the GIMP.

Microsoft Office Home is a handsome and accessible site that consolidates resources for both amateur and professional users. OpenOffice.org plain text, pure Geek, circa 1992.

This is inexcusable for a marquee open source project backed by powerhouses like IBM and Sun.

It does not invite users to dig any deeper into FOSS. Rather it will have them running - not walking - in the opposite direction.

____ God help you if a problem with a FOSS app leads your potential convert to Slashdot and an encounter with the GNAA.

In a year when Linux showed no growth on the desktop whatever. OS Platform Stats

It was January 31st before Vista entered the consumer market.

Late spring or early summer before the first mid-line DX10 cards appeared.

OEM system sales have been strongest for Vista Premium and Ultimate. TouchSmart, the media PC, the high-end laptop. The product doesn't look like the generic XP box and it sure as hell isn't running on generic XP hardware.

Joe's new 17" widescreen laptop has a dual core CPU.

2 GB RAM, 320 GB HDD, a Light-Scribe DVD burner, surround sound, a fingerprint reader, integrated WiFi, EVDO, a webcam and pretty much everything else that be shoehorned into the case - and all of it with working Vista drivers.

Joe isn't coming into your shop to "upgrade" to XP - or Linux. He's checking out of Best Buy with Office 2007 retail boxed. The Year of Office 2007

Then you would be wrong - and MS Office stands as proof:

Through end of November, U.S. retail PC software sales are up 10.3 percent year over year as measured in dollar volume, according to NPD. By comparison, Office sales are up 50.7 percent, by the same measure and in the same time frame.

"Here's the really interesting statistic," said...NPD's director of Software Industry Analysis. "Over two-thirds of the dollar volume growth in the U.S. retail PC software market in 2007 can be attributed to Microsoft Office. In other words, the ratio of Office dollar growth to total PC software growth is 67 percent.

The "magnitude of Office sales relative to the rest of the PC software market" is phenomenal, Swenson said. "It's the massively huge tail wagging the dog. If the senior execs at Best Buy, Office Depot, etc. don't buy Jeff Raikes [president of Microsoft's Business division] a beer the next time he's in town, something is seriously wrong."

Office U.S. Black Friday Sales

Unit Growth - All 65.8%
Mac Only - 215.8%

Dollar Growth - All 63.5%
Mac Only - 235.3% The Year of Office 2007

The Dell Inspiron Desktop with 19 inch LCD monitor, Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core CPU, 2 GB RAM, 320 GB HDD, DVD burner and Vista Premium is $648.

It is safe to assume you will walk out of the store with support for both dial-up and broadband. Which matters if you live in the outland suburbs or rural areas as many Walmart customers do.

2 GB ReadyBoost Flash on a key chain is $30.

The HP multifunction printer-scanner with drivers for Vista and the Mac starts at $50.

The el cheapo Linux PC is unlikely to sell with either a matching printer or monitor - leaving the newcomer quite literally in the dark about what to do next.

Microsoft had a stand-out first quarter.

Each of the company's five business divisions showed double-digit revenue growth.

That was particularly important in the Client Div., the group where Microsoft counts Windows sales. There, revenue jumped 25%, to $4.1 billion, an astonishing gain for a mature market Microsoft Results Turn Heads

Retail sales of Office 2007 have been breathtaking, numbers so big that they are difficult to grasp:

Through end of November, U.S. retail PC software sales are up 10.3 percent year over year as measured in dollar volume...By comparison, Office sales are up 50.7 percent, by the same measure and in the same time frame.

"Here's the really interesting statistic," said...NPD's director of Software Industry Analysis. "Over two-thirds of the dollar volume growth in the U.S. retail PC software market in 2007 can be attributed to Microsoft Office. In other words, the ratio of Office dollar growth to total PC software growth is 67 percent."

The "magnitude of Office sales relative to the rest of the PC software market" is phenomenal, "It's the massively huge tail wagging the dog. If the senior execs at Best Buy, Office Depot, etc. don't buy Jeff Raikes [president of Microsoft's Business division] a beer the next time he's in town, something is seriously wrong." The Year of Office 2007

Microsoft hasn't forgotten the Mac. From the same story:

For Black Friday, Microsoft offered a surprising deal: for about 56 bucks, after rebates, Office 2004 Student and Teacher Edition and the forthcoming Office 2008 Special Media Edition. The new, top-of-the-line Mac Office version would otherwise sell for about $500.

As measured in dollars, U.S. retail Black Friday sales of Mac Office were up 215.8 percent.