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About 20 Percent of Applications Don't Work Under Windows Server 2003 SP1

About 20 percent of applications have trouble working with Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1, according to tests performed by Microsoft and made public a week ago. Regression testing of various commonly used applications--including some of Microsoft's most popular applications--failed to retain 100 percent of their functionality running under Windows Server 2003 SP with all the default settings. The applications that didn't receive a passing grade include: Citrix Metaframe XPe FR3; NetIQ's AppManager 5.0 and 6.0 and Group Policy Administrator 2.0; Computer Associates' Brightstor ARCserve Backup 11.0; Trend Micro ServerProtect; Kerio Server Firewall 1.0; Hewlett-Packard's Insight Manager 4.0 and Compaq Insight Manager; and Microsoft's Exchange Server 2003, ISA Server 2004, SMS Server 2003, Baseline Security Analyzer 1.2, and Application Center 2000 Service Pack 2 (SP2). The results of Microsoft's tests are shown on its Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 application compatibility" Web page.

Dell Offers a MOM to Help SMB Customers

Dell announced yesterday it is selling a version of Microsoft's systems management and monitoring software that's tailored to the needs of small and medium sized businesses. Dell is selling Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM 2005) Workgroup Edition for $500 along with integrated Dell Management Packs, which will provide a low-cost way for SMBs to monitor their Dell PowerEdge servers; Microsoft offers its own Management Packs for various versions of Windows and applications like SQL Server, Exchange, and IIS. MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition is limited to monitoring a maximum of 10 servers (which can be virtual or physical), and doesn't offer the reporting features found in the full-fledged version of MOM 2005. However, Dell customers can upgrade to the bigger MOM 2005, if need be. Dell's MOM and Management Pack offerings are also integrated with its OpenManage software, which offers automated change management capabilities for updating bios, firmware, and drivers. Dell is also shipping the new version 4.3 release of OpenManage, which enables Dell customers to monitor the hardware and SCSI disk subsystems through the OpenManage Server Administrator.

Microsoft Partners with RIM to Integrate Live Communications Server with BlackBerries

BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion and Microsoft have formed a partnership to enable instant messaging (IM) on BlackBerry devices using Microsoft's Live Communications Server, the companies announced this week. As part of the partnership, the two companies will work to develop a client component for BlackBerry devices that provides secure connectivity between Live Communications Server and mobile BlackBerry users. This client will be based on the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and will include, among other things, IM capabilities and "presence-based information," which will help people identify a worker's location (such as at work, home, or on the go) and how that worker can currently be contacted (such as via IM, e-mail, or SIP-enabled voice-over-IP [VOIP] phone). A trial of the new software is expected to take place this September. More product information will be available at a later date, the companies said.

Intel Reports Profit Up 25 Percent

On the 40th anniversary of Moore's Law--the celebrated axiom of Intel founder Gordon Moore that predicts processors will double in performance every 18 months or so--Intel announced that its net income had jumped 25 percent to $2.15 billion for the first quarter. The better-than-expected financial results from the Santa Clara, California, chip giant helped to stem the tide of bad news from the tech sector, which saw worse-than-expected results from tech giant IBM last week (see "IBM Comes Up Short in Q1 After March Fall Off"). Intel's revenue rose 17 percent to $9.43 billion for the quarter ended March 27, the chip maker announced yesterday. "Led by strong demand for our mobile products, Intel posted double-digit revenue and profit growth versus a year ago," said Intel CEO Craig Barrett. Intel says it benefited from lower-than-expected manufacturing costs.

Microsoft Launches New Global Marketing Campaign to Tout Windows XP

Just as Microsoft executives broke the silence and started to make some noise in defense of "Longhorn" (which they insist will have many new and exciting features when it becomes available in late 2006), the company kicked off a new global marketing campaign--for Windows XP. This week Microsoft unveiled its new "Start Something" campaign, a new marketing and advertising effort designed to get people excited about Windows XP, which is nearing its fourth birthday. "As we enter the third decade of Windows, the Start Something campaign celebrates how people can follow their dreams and pursue what they are passionate about--from creating an in-home music studio to starting a new business or becoming the family photographer," says Will Poole, senior vice president of Microsoft's Windows client program. Over the next 15 months, people in 11 countries around the world can expect to see a total of 51 television ads, 39 print ads, and 250 online ads covering 13 themes." However, when the Start Something campaign ends, people will likely be asked to start it all over again, but this time on Longhorn.

Middleware Market Up Modestly in 2004, Says Gartner

According to research performed by Gartner, the application integration and middleware (AIM) software market accounted for $6.7 billion in sales of products worldwide in 2004, an increase of 5.8 percent over sales levels in 2003. IBM continues to dominate this space, with a 37.2 percent share of the market. And IBM's main rival for mindshare in the application server space, BEA Systems continues to lose ground. As you can see from the table below, Oracle is growing faster than IBM but is starting out pretty small, and Microsoft is seeing explosive growth in the AIM space and looks set to pass Oracle and start vying with Fujitsu for the third position in the market. AIM includes application servers, portals, messaging middleware, and transaction processing monitors, by Gartner's definition.

Analyst Firm Says Mid-Sized Firms Not Interested in Linux

Info-Tech Research Group, a market researcher based in London, Ontario, has just released a report called "IT Priorities 2005," and that report says mid-sized businesses are not really interested in Linux and overwhelmingly prefer the Microsoft Windows platform. Info-Tech surveyed 1,400 midrange shops in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada, to get their viewpoints on a wide range of issues, and released a trickle of its findings to try to drum up sales for the report. About 27 percent of the midrange shops that Info-Tech talked to said they had Linux installed, which doesn't strike me as a lack of interest at all. However, 48 percent of the respondents said they have no interest in Linux whatsoever, and another 15 percent were not sure. Of the remaining 10 percent surveyed who said they will evaluate Linux over the next three years, Info Tech said only a portion of these companies will actually deploy Linux after evaluating it.

"Microsoft still dominates this market and is the clear leader for mid-sized companies," said Frank Koelsch, executive vice president of Info-Tech in a statement accompanying the results. "Linux was initially hot, but interest has substantially declined. Companies are past the hype and taking a much more cautious approach toward Linux. For smaller organizations that already have a trained Windows-based support staff, adding Linux to the mix can add headcount, complexity, and create havoc. Unless there is a compelling business reason to implement a Linux system, IT decision makers in mid-sized enterprises should stick to Microsoft solutions, even though they are not perfect either." If the people behind Unix had taken this attitude, we'd still be using dumb terminals from mainframes, and we wouldn't have the Internet. (Well, the Internet might be SNA with green-screens.) The fact of the matter is that the price disparity between Linux and Windows is nowhere near the order of magnitude that existed between mainframes and Unix servers 10 years ago--a magnitude that the AS/400 managed to hit as well until the late 1990s, when it started looking more costly than Unix boxes. People are installing Linux sometimes to save money, but more times than not for other reasons.