Cloudy with a chance of Licensing
Latest news on Microsoft licensing, Cloud, and AI
This category is for anything Microsoft related-so you’ll probably find that msot posts end up in here!
Could Microsoft be readying an “Instant On” OS? A survey sent to select MS customers and picked up by Engadget seems to indicate that Microsoft are at least thinking about it.
Microsoft are asking if users would like an OS that, within 8 seconds, allowed us access to a “select sub-set of services”, including Web browsing, IM & Media playback but not “Full Windows”. I’d love this, it would make things quicker and easier and I assume, reduce our power bills a little too 🙂
Microsoft OCS 2007 R2 has been officially announced today at VoiceCon over in Amsterdam.
R2 is classed as a “minor” release and will not go to public beta, but should be with us in December 2008 (so only a couple of months to wait).
Stephen Elop, president of the Microsoft Business Division at Microsoft said “This new release puts Microsoft on a rapid path to deliver voice software that does much more than a network private branch exchange (PBX) and with much less cost.”
Key new features of Office Communications Server 2007 R2 include the following:
Next-Generation Collaboration
• Dial-in audioconferencing. Office Communications Server 2007 R2 enables businesses to eliminate costly audioconferencing services with an on-premise audioconferencing bridge that is managed by IT as part of the overall communications infrastructure.
• Desktop sharing. This feature enables users to seamlessly share their desktop, initiate audio communications and collaborate with others outside the organization on PC, Macintosh or Linux platforms through a Web-based interface.
• Persistent group chat. This enables geographically dispersed teams to collaborate with each other by participating in topic-based discussions that persist over time. This application provides users with a list of all available chat rooms and topics, periodically archives discussions in an XML file format that meets compliance regulations, provides tools to search the entire history of discussion on a given topic, and offers filters and alerts to notify someone of new posts or topics on a particular topic.
Enhanced Voice and Mobility
• Attendant console and delegation. This allows receptionists, team secretaries and others to manage calls and conferences on behalf of other users, set up workflows to route calls, and manage higher volumes of incoming communications through a software-based interface.
• Session Initiation Protocol trunking. This feature enables businesses to reduce costs by setting up a direct VoIP connection between an Internet telephony service provider and Office Communicator 2007 without requiring on-premise gateways.
• Response group.A workflow design application manages incoming calls based on user-configured rules (e.g., round-robin, longest idle, simultaneous), providing a simple-to-use basic engine for call treatment, routing and queuing.
• Mobility and single-number reach. This extends Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile functionality to Nokia S40, Motorola RAZR, Blackberry and Windows Mobile platforms, allowing users to communicate using presence, IM and voice as an extension of their PBX from a unified client.*
New Developer Tools for Business Applications
• APIs and Visual Studio integration. This improves the efficiency of everyday business processes by enabling businesses to build communications-enabled applications and embed communications into business applications.
* Blackberry client does not include Single Number Reach.
OCS 2007 R2 has it’s official virtual launch on Feb. 3rd 2009 (03/02/09) and you can register to participate here.
The word is that the OCS team will be sticking to a rough 2 year release cycle, which adds more weight to the Office 2010 release date.
I think that these new features make OCS an even more viable option in the workplace, especially for enterprises..I think the number of companies forgoing traditional PBX’s completely will increase as a result of this.
Mary Jo Foley over at ZDNet has got the full scoop here.
Windows 7 is the official name for Microsoft’s next desktop OS!
Steve Clayton over at his Geek in Disguise blog has confirmed this. I think it’s a great name: simple, clean, easy, popular AND it’s what I’ve had my money on in the office 🙂
More info can be seen over @ the Windows Vista blog here.
“How do I downgrade MS Vista to XP” is a question I hear quite often at work (although less recently so it looks like Vista is gaining ground!), so I thought I’d make a quick post on how it’s done.
Can I downgrade?
In most cases yes. All Microsoft volume licenses include “Downgrade Rights” as do the OEM licences for Vista Business & Vista Ultimate. The Downgrade Chart can be found here. Vista Business & Ultimate can only be downgraded to XP Pro, XP Pro 64-bit or XP Pro Tablet…NOT Windows 2000.
How do I downgrade?
You can use any XP Media and also any previous XP Pro licence key (VLK), even one that has been used before. This prevents you from activating online so you’ll need to call the Product Activation Centre, you can get the number by selecting the “Activate by Phone” option in the installation wizard or call 0800 018 8354 and 0870 2411963 if you’re in the UK. Once they confirm you have a valid XP key, you will get a new Vista key.
Can I re-install Vista later?
Yes you can. You will need to remove the XP installation and use the original OEM Vista media.
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 has got a great page over at the MSDN site. VS 2010 is being worked on in conjunction with the .NET Framework 4 and these together “mark the next generation of developer tools from Microsoft” by delivering key innovations in:
· Democratizing Application Lifecycle Management
· Enabling emerging trends
· Inspiring developer delight
· Riding the next generation platform wave
· Breakthrough Departmental Applications
These are the pillars of Microsoft’s Visual Studio 2010.
Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2010–Democratizing Application Lifecycle Management
Among the great new functionality in VSTS 2010:
· Discover and identify existing code assets and architecture with the new Architecture Explorer.
· Design and share multiple diagram types, including use case, activity and sequence diagrams.
· Improve testing efforts with tooling for better documentation of test scenarios and more thorough collection of test data.
· Identify and run only the tests impacted by a code change easily with the new Test Impact View.
· Enhanced version control capabilities including gated check-in, branch visualization and build workflow.
Visual Studio Team System 2010 includes a new Architecture Explorer for the discovery and exploration of existing code assets and application architectures.
Microsoft are also aiming to make it easier for devlopers to catch and fix bugs, including the great “No repro” bug by “dramatically simplifying the tools required to integrate testing across the lifecycle”.
Licensing change:
In an effort to bring the various aspects of the lifecycle closer together, VS 2010 will feature a unified Development & Database product. From 1st of October 2008 (01/10/08) current Developer or Database edition MSDN subscribers can access both products via MSDN.
I want to say thanks to Brian Randell over at Plural Sight for this find
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 (Codename Hawaii)-here either 2009 or 2010 is having it’s feature list updated regularly by Microsoft.
Visual Studio 2009 is set to focus especially on the needs of the small to medium business (SMB’s) and to help them “ride the latest (2009) platform technologies”.
New features are set to include:
A new Windows Presentation Foundation-based (WPF) text editor
More “modern,” with more of a WPF look and feel throughout the suite
Smaller in size (in code and data) than Visual Studio 2008
More reliable and modular
Microsoft will also be adding support for jQuery Javascript library to VS 2010.
Thanks to Mary Jo Foley for the news..
Microsoft Silverlight will soon be on Mobile Devices..which can only be a good thing for enhancing the mobile experience of both consumers and business users.
More information will be revealed at the PDC 2008 (I seem to be saying that a lot!) as we can see from the session description:
In this demo-filled session learn how to extend your existing Silverlight 2 applications to work on Windows Mobile and how to build rich mobile Silverlight apps that access device peripherals such as camera; GPS or WiFi or the radio stack for location; as well as mobile web services. We also talk about tooling enhancements in Microsoft Visual Studio that support Silverlight app development on Windows Mobile, what to consider when delivering eye-popping UI on mobile, and help you understand the key differences from developing Silverlight apps for the desktop.
I’m excited to see what Microsoft can do with this..particularly as Adobe don’t seem to be taking Flash for Mobile Devices quite seriously..come on MS, make it easier to enjoy rich content on the move!!
As always, I want to give a shout out to Mary Jo Foley @ ZDNet for this.
iPhone features on Windows Mobile? A great idea and one that is pretty much upon us!
The guys over at PocketPC Thoughts have got a great post covering iWindowsMobile. a suite of Apps that give WinMo most of the best iPhone features! They tend to focus around interacting with just a finger so sans stylus.
My favourite addition is:
Winterface
Winterface is the next generation mobile shell that completely changes the standard Windows Mobile UI. Winterface allows users to place icons to applications, settings, files, and contacts on several screens that can be rotated with sliding finger gestures.
This would be really quite useful and save me a whole heap of time finding apps and just generally getting to my stuff 🙂
FunContact is their contact application which makes it easier to navigate with fingers. While I’m not particularly into this as an addition, I do like this sentence..”a swift touch will stop scrolling, not open an accidental contact“…that happens to me quite a lot!
Head over to PocketPC Thoughts to read more here.
Microsoft System Center Ops Manager 2007 is the subject of a Garnter report which can be found here.
It contains some good bits and some bad bits, but over all SCOM 2007 gets a good review, particularly for Windows environments. Gartner point out that it’s heterogeneous capabilities aren’t yet as strong as it’s competitiors which is true, but we’re not far from a new version!
On the subject of Microsoft System Center Ops Manager 2009. the Gartner reports includes information that Microsoft have partnered with EMC which will enable the new version “to have the potential to significantly increase its network management capabilities, including EMC’s network topology discovery and health monitoring capabilities.”
Gartner sign off with “in Microsoft Windows-centric environments, its presence will continue to grow, resulting in an overall gain in ECA market share” which is certainly promising. I’d be interested to see a similar report once SCOM 2009 is out in the wild..
Windows 7 will still contain UAC (User Access Control) but an easier to use, more friendly than the UAC currently in Vista. Over on her “All About Microsoft” blog, Mary Jo Foley has a statement from Ben Fathi, President for Core OS Development in which he states:
“We’ve heard loud and clear that you are frustrated. You find the prompts too frequent, annoying, and confusing. We still want to provide you control over what changes can happen to your system, but we want to provide you a better overall experience. We believe this can be achieved by focusing on two key principles. 1) Broaden the control you have over the UAC notifications. We will continue to give you control over the changes made to your system, but in Windows 7, we will also provide options such that when you use the system as an administrator you can determine the range of notifications that you receive. 2) Provide additional and more relevant information in the user interface. We will improve the dialog UI so that you can better understand and make more informed choices.”
This can only be a good thing 🙂 I do think that the UAC, in principle, is very good idea.
There are a lot of users who aren’t always able to tell that something is potentially dangerous and when the UAC pops up, they tend to cancel the action “just in case”-preventing accidental deletions, virus infections etc.
However, I do agree that the prompts are too frequent and not always clear. As an experienced Windows user, I do get annoyed with the prompts for things such as changing various settings, installing things etc as I know what I’m doing and the UAC just slows me down.
So the ability to alter the scope of the prompts will be good…as long as the settings can be different for each account on the machine…I don’t want the missus to have the same permissions as me..it’d all be on fire within 10 minutes 😉
For an in depth look, head over to the Windows 7 Engineering blog here.
Cloudy with a chance of Licensing 