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To elaborate:
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/sysperf/fastboot/default.mspx

An example of an incorrectly granted code-signing certificate.

http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-0104.html#7
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS01-017.mspx

Naw. But I was thinking that 25 and 33 years kind of puts Microsoft's End of Support Policy in perspective.

For instance, the following program compiled with Visual Studio 2008 under release mode performs an illegal operation (I don't really understand why it does, but it does)

Figured it out.

Even under release builds, VS will by default do range checks on []. (This *is* allowed by the C++ standard, even if it's a little outside of the spirit.)

Adding the following to the top of the file:

#define _SECURE_SCL 0

(see here) will cause it to run to completion, with "5" as the output.

What, exactly, does XMLHTTPRequest have to do with MSIE? It's implemented entirely on the server side. Full credit to Microsoft for inventing this, but the fact that they did has exactly nothing to do with Internet Explorer.

What the hell are you talking about?

Trying to explain to my dad how to load MS Paint, and shrink the image, resulted in him writing down the instructions, and then promptly ringing me the first time he had to follow those instructions.

Have him download and install the Image Resizer Power Toy:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/whistler/Install/2/WXP/EN-US/ImageResizerPowertoySetup.exe

One installed, all you have to do is right-click on the image and choose Resize Pictures.

If you mark multiple images before doing so, you can do all of them at one time. It gives you a simple menu to choose the desired size, and can either resize the original file or create a resized copy.

As a matter of fact, they did:

Here's the MS Knowledge Base article.

Right on the mark.

SVG in particular is a sore topic for me. Half a decade ago I had an article in MSDN magazine (I considered the odds slim when I proposed it, and was startled when they ok'd it), yet that gorgeous vector technology still isn't realistically usable on the open web today, which is a bit of a travesty. Adobe's purchase of Macromedia pretty much sealed it as a fringe technology, given that Adobe was the one big proponent of SVG.

[.ShellClassInfo]
Sharing=0

You can also use "NoSharing=1" instead of "Sharing=0"
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc144102(VS.85).aspx

How sad is it that I know very little about the inner workings of filesystems and I found an error in that link in like 2 seconds. It says that only Windows Vista allows for soft links and before that NTFS could only create junctions and only on the same partition and it couldn't create them for files.

Not as sad as the fact that you clearly know more than Microsoft about this, since that info came from a Microsoft Technet article! Link.

A file system feature many have considered missing from NTFS, the symbolic file link (or as it's called in UNIX, the soft link) finally arrives in Windows Vista. The Windows 2000 version of NTFS introduced symbolic directory links, called directory junctions, which allow you to create a directory that points at a different directory, but until the Windows Vista version, NTFS has only supported hard links for files.

Doesn't Microsoft employ "bloggers" to seed pro MS babble to Web sites like Slashdot? Just sayin'...

If you're going to troll, it might be a good idea RTFA beforehand so that you don't make a fool of yourself. Two examples:

- The web service is implemented in Python and currently deployed on two virtual machines at Amazon EC2.
- Like Asirra, we implemented Inkblot in Python.

If they're astroturfing they aren't very good at it.

The article has very little Microsoft-specific details in it. It's basically a short explanation of high-performance content delivery and a few stories about MS Research (link because they have some cool stuff) projects and how they fared with high load traffic surging (aka Slashdotting). They specifically mention getting Slashdotted several times, as well as surviving a DDoS.

Overall I thought it was an interesting article. I didn't realize Amazon's S3 service was so inexpensive or available to "budget" sites.

That's all very informative. However, it's all rather moot when you consider that Microsoft (and Intel) now maintain the PC specification:

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/archive/pcguides.mspx

So, whether or not Microsoft was small before it was big, it went on to become the vanguard of what personal computing would be. So, in essence, it wasn't what PS/2 started so much as what Microsoft and Intel finished.

Furthermore, the idea that Microsoft was once a unix vendor does not detract from the idea that they were proponents of the PC nor that they were aiming for a regular joe market- Xenix was indeed the first "easy" unix. Since their ventures were always aimed at dirt-cheap x86 hardware, and their prices remained accessible, I'd say my point stands.

Linux is derived from Minix not BSD. DOS hackers my a$$. Get your facts straight.

What does Minix have to do with modern linux? Just because Linux started with Linus Torvalds flaming Tannenbaum on usenet doesn't mean that modern Linux is a minix-derivative (but old linux is). Minix was an educational operating system and never meant to be used on production machines in the manner that Linux or BSD (the only other notable free unix) are. My point on BSD was simply that it was the *other* free 386 unix. Minix is for teaching people to write things like Linux- (And it did!) Only recently has Tannenbaum decided that Minix 3 would be end-user capable.

As Linux came about in the late 90's (it hardly existed before that)- I'd say the majority of their development talent probably came from the massive wave of existing DOS and Windows developers. It's a challenge finding linux users who did not at some point use a Microsoft system before using Linux- most linux users are Microsoft runoff. However, I am sure that these people exist- I've met at least one.

Jeez. I can't remember how many times I entered in BillGates@Microsoft.com as an email address on some random site.

Guess that makes me a felon? Or am I only a felon if I get caught?

Too bad his email address really is billg@microsoft.com, really..

Also, god help you if you visit microsoft's website with firefox, violating their terms of use and getting 5 years of prison time for that.

As much as I hate MS, that is just pure lies. From the Microsoft.com ToS link http://www.microsoft.com/info/cpyright.mspx it doesn't even mention Explorer and the only mention of Windows is when referring to Windows Live search.

Disclaimer: I don't administrate Windows machines.

This is exactly why you use a WSUS server. We use one where I work.

I know all about that. WSUS depends on Active Directory (and, if memory serves, an AD domain because you can't easily deploy it except through group policy).

Fortunately my current employer is small enough that I don't really need to do that, but I do resent the Redmond approach of "Now you've bought a whole bunch of workstations you must now buy at least two Windows servers (can't sensibly manage a domain with just one, what if it fails?) to do a job which any other OS could solve with a cron job and a mirror taken with a common tool like rsync". The whole lot is basically set up to force you into going Windows-everything.

This probably isn't too bad if you start with something like Small Business Server and work your way slowly up, but if you've already built a reasonable infrastructure without any Windows products it's astonishingly expensive because you suddenly discover that you've got so many workstations and so many things to manage that you have to dive straight into the "Enterprise with lots of CALs" version.

Disclaimer: I don't administrate Windows machines.

This is exactly why you use a WSUS server. We use one where I work. It installs updates in the middle of the night, when no one is here. The downside is that you need to leave all the computers on.

Oh, and on home Windows XP machines, Windows only installs updates when you shut down provided the user logged in isn't an Administrator. I saw elsewhere in this topic that Vista does the same thing.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/solutionaccelerators/bb892167.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/solutionaccelerators/cits/dsd/acctmgmt/default.mspx

We're adopting the LOCATION-DOMAIN-TYPE-INDEX naming convention outlined in Microsoft's Account Management solution accelerator for all infrastructure systems, including servers and network devices. For the location code, we're using the code name of the nearest airport, so names look something like dca-ex-dc-01.int.example.com (a domain controller). When the interface name is significant - we want it to show up in traceroutes, for instance - we put the interface information in DNS with the server/device name as a subdomain, which gives us FQDNs such as ser-0-0.sfo-ex-rtr-01.int.example.com (a serial interface on a router) or v10.fa-0-1.sfo-ex-rtr-01.int.example.com (VLAN 10 on router interface FastEthernet0/1 - perhaps there are more elegant ways to convey this info).

Where our servers have ILO interfaces, we add "-c" (for "console") to the server host name to come up with the ILO host name. We also set the ILO IP address to be the server's primary management address plus 1, e.g., if the server is 192.0.2.15, then the ILO is 192.0.2.16.

We have received conflicting advice regarding domain names: using a non-existent TLD (such as .local or .lan), creating a private subdomain (e.g., corp.example.com), or registering the domain in an alternate TLD but never using it publicly (e.g., example.net). Using a non-existent TLD seems dangerous, especially with recent activity by ICANN on the topic of alternate global TLDs, but I don't know what the administrative or security implications of using private domains/subdomains are. For my own personal network, I've registered a second domain, but for the businesses we manage, I think we'll create private sub-domains instead (mostly because it doesn't cost any money).

I used to like thematic names (space ships/movie characters/authors/whatever), but I have come to appreciate encoding certain kinds of information in the host name itself (i.e., approximate location, owner/operator, and role), especially when a hardware inventory isn't available. Plus, nothing says "unprofessional dork" like showing your boss's boss network diagrams with tags like "fruitfucker.example.com".

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/solutionaccelerators/bb892167.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/solutionaccelerators/cits/dsd/acctmgmt/default.mspx

We're adopting the LOCATION-DOMAIN-TYPE-INDEX naming convention outlined in Microsoft's Account Management solution accelerator for all infrastructure systems, including servers and network devices. For the location code, we're using the code name of the nearest airport, so names look something like dca-ex-dc-01.int.example.com (a domain controller). When the interface name is significant - we want it to show up in traceroutes, for instance - we put the interface information in DNS with the server/device name as a subdomain, which gives us FQDNs such as ser-0-0.sfo-ex-rtr-01.int.example.com (a serial interface on a router) or v10.fa-0-1.sfo-ex-rtr-01.int.example.com (VLAN 10 on router interface FastEthernet0/1 - perhaps there are more elegant ways to convey this info).

Where our servers have ILO interfaces, we add "-c" (for "console") to the server host name to come up with the ILO host name. We also set the ILO IP address to be the server's primary management address plus 1, e.g., if the server is 192.0.2.15, then the ILO is 192.0.2.16.

We have received conflicting advice regarding domain names: using a non-existent TLD (such as .local or .lan), creating a private subdomain (e.g., corp.example.com), or registering the domain in an alternate TLD but never using it publicly (e.g., example.net). Using a non-existent TLD seems dangerous, especially with recent activity by ICANN on the topic of alternate global TLDs, but I don't know what the administrative or security implications of using private domains/subdomains are. For my own personal network, I've registered a second domain, but for the businesses we manage, I think we'll create private sub-domains instead (mostly because it doesn't cost any money).

I used to like thematic names (space ships/movie characters/authors/whatever), but I have come to appreciate encoding certain kinds of information in the host name itself (i.e., approximate location, owner/operator, and role), especially when a hardware inventory isn't available. Plus, nothing says "unprofessional dork" like showing your boss's boss network diagrams with tags like "fruitfucker.example.com".

Most of you seem to be saying no, but I think you've forgotten about Singularity. Sure, it's a research OS, but rumor has long had it that it's more stable than Windows. All the Windows apps could be run via virtualization -- since they have the original code, they should be able to make it work better than even the Wine project, right? (Cue the MS incompetence jokes....) The only real problem is legacy hardware but a lot of that could be abandoned; some Mac-users were pissed off when old apps and hardware didn't work with OS X, but they got over it. Don't make the mistake of thinking that some of the initial negative reactions would really hurt them in the long run. Lots of people would buy new hardware after a while rather than be left behind (with an appropriate amount of grumbling, of course).

Security? At first glance it well seems that Vista hurt more than it helped, but I think maybe it did help. A lot of Vista users did gain a little awareness of security. What they really need to do is introduce some consistency there, something a lot closer to Unix-style permissions instead of constant pop-ups. Make it a little easier to deal with -- BSD and Linux did. Contrary to popular belief among Vista-users, most forms of Linux and BSD do not nag you constantly for the root password, actually a bit less than Vista. Yes, I have used both Linux and Vista recently. And that brings me to another point: Vista's memory usage, even with SP 1, still sucks in comparison to XP. XP on my other computer is using 619 MB of RAM right now and it has a explorer window open, Jet Audio running, plus a small host of other apps running in the background. The Vista computer I was using Saturday was using 820 MB of RAM while idle! And it was a fresh install. Sure, I expect that memory-usage is going to go up as the OS itself advances, but Vista isn't advanced enough in comparison to XP to justify that. I've heard Server 2008 is better even though it also has Aero. If that's true, MS needs to figure out how to do that with Vista.

I suppose the real problem is that management dictates what is supposed to be done and doesn't make good decisions. Security? Meh, who cares, we want features! We want to continue supporting old, unstable code! We want a shiny new interface! Give users choices? Ha! We're qualified to make the choices, not them! So, if MS were to become a decent company, I think it would have to be not after the departure of Gates, but after the departure of Ballmer and other powerful individuals in management. In short, what MS really needs is for the biggest part of their management to be replaced with people who know about writing software and some from among their "dogfood-eaters" who use the software on a daily basis.

You have to admit that hitting Alt is nowhere near clearly documented

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/quickref.mspx

If someone can't be bothered to spend 30 seconds reading a quick reference guide for a product that they know is about to be rolled out to a sizable percentage of their customers, then they shouldn't be doing tech support, period.

There's a fair amount of information on MS protocols and standards on MSDN - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc216514.aspx

and their source-code is available for review at least @ http://www.microsoft.com/resources/sharedsource/default.mspx ... which 10 years ago would've been unthinkable; but yeah, although it's a far cry from the GPL, is still hugely better than it was.

There's a fair amount of information on MS protocols and standards on MSDN - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc216514.aspx

and their source-code is available for review at least @ http://www.microsoft.com/resources/sharedsource/default.mspx ... which 10 years ago would've been unthinkable; but yeah, although it's a far cry from the GPL, is still hugely better than it was.

That link in the parent re-directs to a fake newspaper made by Microsoft that says Microsoft software is better: The Highly Reliable Times.

Quote: "With the Linux-based platform we would have a system crash at least once a week. Migrating to a Microsoft-based system has virtually eliminated server crashes..."

It's really disgusting when marketing people with no technical experience write advertisements.

I've observed that often Linux is as bad with documentation as Microsoft software, but I've never known Linux to be prone to crashes unless the hardware was unstable.

You're absolutely right, it's the testers fault that these things happen so often.

Yes, they're old. But the best testers in the world would have noticed the mistakes (?) the best coders in the world made.

In more modern operating systems, it's become well known that MSFT hid the facts about how incredible their coders really are.

You're absolutely right, it's the testers fault that these things happen so often.

Yes, they're old. But the best testers in the world would have noticed the mistakes (?) the best coders in the world made.

In more modern operating systems, it's become well known that MSFT hid the facts about how incredible their coders really are.

In IE7 on Vista, those bits (and everything you do, actually) are sandboxed. It's called protected mode and like everything well-written and intelligible in life, there's a MSDN article. ~~

If you can get to a Vista machine, boot up Internet Explorer 7. In the bottom-right hand corner, you'll see a "Internet|Protected Mode: On." Internet Explorer, and everything launched in/from IE, run under a low "Integrity Level", which means they only have access to the "Temporary Internet Files\Low" folder and "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\LowRegistry" key.

Any file access is transparently redirected from these points: An ActiveX control trying to create "virus.dll" in "c:\windows\system32" will have it actually created "Temporary Internet Files\Low\C\Windows\System32". (Nothing in this folder is executable.)

Open up task manager. (CTRL+SHIFT+ESC) You'll notice an "ieuser.exe" process - should something need more privileges, like you saving a file to your downloads directory, this process will grant that one action regular, non-admin user privileges. Anything system changing has to pass through an "IEinstal.exe" process, which will trigger a UAC prompt.

My understanding is limited to some Vista beta-era documentation and the MSDN article I linked, but they pretty much sandboxed the entire browser with sub-guest-account privileges. It's relies on some new parts of the Vista kernel (you won't see the same sandboxing on IE7 in XP) but it's still pretty nifty, I think.

Why do these terrorists (people who employ "the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion" - see wikipedia article on Terrorism) still abuse the term piracy? Neither the United Nations, nor the International Maritime Bureau define piracy as the downloading of files (see wikipedia article on Piracy).

The legality/illegality aside, the way they are handling physical piracy sure makes me confident they'll succeed in removing internet "piracy" in no time (here, here, here and here - I bet you didn't even hear that is a problem in other businesses, maybe with the exception of fashion and software).

Here's something to think about, dear G8. All of these products being copied have artificially high prices. Could it be that those prices should be adjusted down to make it non-profitable to copy them instead of using lots of taxpayers' money (who do you think will fund these new action programs against "piracy"? You thought it was the businesses involved? Wrong!) to fight an uphill battle (War On Drugs anyone?).

Automatic Updates downloads patches in the background.

Automatic Updates downloads service packs in the background

"We'll get there when we get there." The service works just fine whether you have dial-up or broadband.

This is not headline news.

If you have the patience of a ten year old, you can order Windows XP Service Pack 3 on CD-ROM from Microsoft for $3.99. The CD-ROM is currently available in nineteen languages and dialects.

I would imagine this is aimed firmly at corporate customers.

No, because MS already has something similar in place for corporate customers. It's called Software Assurance

This is clearly aimed at personal and small business users.

You should look at getting eOpen volume licenses - only one key to have to track.

https://eopen.microsoft.com/EN/default.asp

Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats

Try this site if you're using XP.

I didn't even know you could tune ClearType - but you can, and it makes ALL the DIFF uh rence... intheWORLD. Just like the right man in the wrong place...

It seems to insist on applying such aggressive hinting to the fonts that they show up far too spindly and with distorted shapes. ...does anyone know how to do this on Windows?

I highly recommend the ClearType Tuner. There's a web version, but the control panel applet is nicer I think because changes are immediately shown.

I don't care for ClearType when on normal strength, but after fiddling with that tool I prefer it over having ClearType off. If you do use ClearType, you should also grab Consolas, a great monospaced font designed explicitly for ClearType.

It seems to insist on applying such aggressive hinting to the fonts that they show up far too spindly and with distorted shapes. ...does anyone know how to do this on Windows?

I highly recommend the ClearType Tuner. There's a web version, but the control panel applet is nicer I think because changes are immediately shown.

I don't care for ClearType when on normal strength, but after fiddling with that tool I prefer it over having ClearType off. If you do use ClearType, you should also grab Consolas, a great monospaced font designed explicitly for ClearType.

Actually I always disable Browser Helper Objects in Internet Explorer, since I've never seen a BHO that I actually wanted.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=298931

Are you counting Microsoft Office Home and Student?

I'd missed that one--and it probably tips the percentage up, considering that Microsoft is offering "Try before you buy" demos on most new big-box computers.

What about copies installed on home PCs of telecommuters, provided by their employers?

No, I'd tend to think of that as "Business," even if a lot of them get used for personal stuff as much (or more) than for business.

I've tried saving my resume in MSWord 97 format but when I bring it up in the real MSWord it doesn't look as it did in OO.

Are employers concerned about the look of the resume or the content? In what way did the document's look change? Either way, if you do have a working copy of Windows or Wine, you can use the Word Viewer to preview saved .doc files.

I'd be surprised if [legitimate] home installs of MS Office equals 10% of the market.

Are you counting Microsoft Office Home and Student? What about copies installed on home PCs of telecommuters, provided by their employers?

Don't know if you saw this. Office 2007 has a "Save as PDF" plugin that you can download for free of Microsoft's Office website. Check it out here: Save as PDF

Microsoft has been selling this to application service providers for a long time now under the Service Provider License Agreement (SPLA). It's designed to let ASPs host office apps for clients in a variety of ways (i.e. locally installed, via Citrix, via RDP, via web app, etc). They recognized that traditional retail licenses were not going to work, and volume licensing wasn't going to be quite right either, since ASPs tout turning initial capital expenditures into recurring operational costs as a big plus.

So, they started the SPLA nearly a decade ago I think, which is a rental model just like the one listed in the article. You get to run the most current version (or an old one if you need to), you get support and the like, all for a monthly fee. It makes a lot of sense for certain business models where upgrades are a requirement to an extent.

Now as a consumer, I don't know that I would follow suit. I think I'd be happy to purchase it outright and use the same version since the savings are really on the upgrade front. If you plan on using the same version for more than ~3 years, it makes more sense to buy it.

BTW - The cost of Office Standard via SPLA is about $125 a year. However, there are more rights available than the one they are mass marketing.

{Begin Troll} No I don't work for Microsoft, but I do spend an inordinate amount of time dealing with their horrific license programs. Any company that has to develop a certification program around how to buy their own products has serious problems. {/ Troll}

Microsoft has been selling this to application service providers for a long time now under the Service Provider License Agreement (SPLA). It's designed to let ASPs host office apps for clients in a variety of ways (i.e. locally installed, via Citrix, via RDP, via web app, etc). They recognized that traditional retail licenses were not going to work, and volume licensing wasn't going to be quite right either, since ASPs tout turning initial capital expenditures into recurring operational costs as a big plus.

So, they started the SPLA nearly a decade ago I think, which is a rental model just like the one listed in the article. You get to run the most current version (or an old one if you need to), you get support and the like, all for a monthly fee. It makes a lot of sense for certain business models where upgrades are a requirement to an extent.

Now as a consumer, I don't know that I would follow suit. I think I'd be happy to purchase it outright and use the same version since the savings are really on the upgrade front. If you plan on using the same version for more than ~3 years, it makes more sense to buy it.

BTW - The cost of Office Standard via SPLA is about $125 a year. However, there are more rights available than the one they are mass marketing.

{Begin Troll} No I don't work for Microsoft, but I do spend an inordinate amount of time dealing with their horrific license programs. Any company that has to develop a certification program around how to buy their own products has serious problems. {/ Troll}

It's astonishing how tripe like this continues to get modded up on Slashdot. First, modern 32-bit preemptive OSs don't do "TSRs". Secondly, Office hasn't had a startup helper since Office 2003. (OSA.EXE is still there but individual Office apps run it when they need to).

Also, it's pretty pathetic to see the TSR excuse trotted out to defend OO.o's slowness -- it's pretty much the same excuses we heard when Seamonkey came out, i.e., ooh, Microsoft uses "s3kr3t" tricks to make IE faster. Today, Firefox starts pretty fast, thanks to extensive tuning and optimisation and no-one needs that excuse any more. What the OO.o guys should do is take a page from Mozilla.com's book and improve their own engineering.

> It's still not fancy but it's a great workhorse, gets the
> job done, and is free.

When I need something that's not fancy and is free, I'll use Google Docs, thank you very much. Or (for offline) Abiword. Simply saying "try OO.o because it's not MSO" isn't helpful. Note that this is exactly like Seamonkey/Firefox: Seamonkey didn't get wide adoption because it was slow and unwieldly. Firefox gave users the same engine in a slimmer browser, and surprise surprise, it became very popular.

Sun is somewhat more quiet, but you can still tell by the fact that Java is getting full-fledged closures soon, and Fortress is built for parallel architectures from ground up (so much so that "for" loop defaults to parallelizing, unspecified-order version).

Sun is somewhat more quiet, but you can still tell by the fact that Java is getting full-fledged closures soon, and Fortress is built for parallel architectures from ground up (so much so that "for" loop defaults to parallelizing, unspecified-order version).

Or, if you use only memory-safe languages, you can eliminate the need for (and overhead of) hardware memory protection altogether...

Have you considered becoming a program manager at Microsoft? It's a core technical position, with salary and career path roughly equivalent to developers and testers. Depending on the area of the company, you can be super deep in the technical (Windows Core) all the way up to almost-no-CS-needed (much of Office) and everything in between. Most PM positions require no coding; instead you work on requirements gathering, system design, a bit of project management, and pretty much everything related to software engineering outside of the bits themselves.

Gasp, a slashdotter admitting to working at Microsoft!

Linspire had a marketing department.

Which is why the OEM Linspire PC could be purchased off the shelf at Walmart - and why the Lindows-Windows dust-up was worth a few thousand posts to Slashdot.

AOL reached about thirty million U.S. households at its peak.

In nine million homes it is still there. AOL rate increase maybe not as dumb as it look [June 30]

AOL's legacy includes the MMORPG. Neverwinter Nights. Instant Messaging. The complexities of the BBS, IRC and USENET client disappear.

In time, an entire geek-oriented culture of the "Net" begins to disappear:

Internet Evolution: Things Change

In the realm of the OS, Linspire dared to say that this was not a bad thing.

In mid-2008 Linux has 0.68% of the desktop market - and growth is barely perceptible. The Vista Premium laptop at Walmart.com starts at $500. The Duo Core AMD with 3 GB RAM at $600.

OLPC couldn't hold the line against Windows on the XO.

Windows on the Netbook is a reality.

This has to sting the geek when the story comes out as a Microsoft press release:

"The Asus Eee PC has been and continues to be a very successful product for Cellnet," said Julian Phua, general manager of Cellnet Group Ltd. "The feedback from our customers in retail and the reseller channel is that they overwhelmingly prefer to sell the Eee PC running with Windows. To move our existing Linux inventory, we are now offering our channel the option of purchasing Windows XP with their Eee units so they can provide a compelling offering for customers."

Following Success of Windows on Netbooks, Microsoft Extends Windows Offering to Nettop Devices [June 3]

.... Provisioning and employee lifecycle? They're the only major software company in the world with no solution there.....

What do you think Microsoft Identity Integration Server (MIIS) 2003 and Identity Lifecycle Manager (ILM) 2007 are for? http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/ida-identity-lifecycle-management.aspx has details. Yes its not ideal that some MS apps and roles require the server to be rebooted. The installer for some 3rd party developed apps force a reboot so they dont qualify. But when its an MS app I agree with you that its not ideal.

If you are getting what you need from alternate software vendors, then great. Good for you. But whats with the generalising that you cant do complex solutions using MS technology. Tell MS where they failed and give feedback. Or better yet, why dont you give an example to benefit others where MS failed you?

#1 Base Windows 7.0 on the Singularity OS project.

#2 Work with the WINE team to get 100% of the Vista and XP API calls supported under WINE, and port WINE to Singularity OS aka Windows 7.0 for legacy support.

#3 Profit.

Microsoft make sure to make royalty checks made out to Orion Blastar via Paypal to my email address for this idea. :)

Yeah but once WINE has 100% of the Vista and XP API calls support, why would we need Windows 7?

The Word format document is interesting. Much of this has previously been reverse engineered, but it's good to see the documentation. First, there are several layers of packaging and encapsulation before you get to the actual content (the "WordDocument stream"). The actual content is an indexed collection of "characters", but they're not stored in sequence. Section 2.4.1 (page 37) describes the algorithm for retrieving character N. It's clearly essential to do some caching to read the document efficiently. This seems to be a mechanism to allow "fast save", where only parts of the document file are updated.

Within Word files, there are lists of properties which apply to a range of characters. This is the basic structure of formatting information. It's not, though, the only form of formatting information. Some info, like paragraph boundaries, table cell boundaries, and section boundaries, are stored as character values in the character stream.

This should be a big help to Open Office's import filter, which has trouble getting correct positioning info from Word documents.