Some days ago , I outlined why I believe that Mac OS X is no match for Windows 7 when it comes to the decision which OS is the best choice for the corporate network. Today, I want to tell you the main reason why I also wouldn’t use a Mac privately. I just have to let this out publicly at least once. My aversion against Macs has nothing to do with OS features, overpriced hardware, or the ecosystem. You won’t believe it, but it is this “I am a Mac” adverts that I find quite repulsive. Their main message is that if you want to look like a cool, stylish surfer and not like a dumpy business guy, you really need to be a Mac. That is, using a Mac is not enough, you have to show everyone that you are a Mac.

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“Snow Leopard goes head to head with Windows 7” This is the title of an article published at eWEEK some days ago. It is a classic example of a review comparing Windows and Mac OS X. I usually find OS comparisons a bit childish because they remind me of sandbox discussions of who has the coolest tricycle. However, I can’t keep myself from commenting on this article. I know that many IT decision makers were influenced by this type of analysis when the Vista bashing flu was spreading fast. Journalists whose brains were infected by this virus tended to recommend giving up on Windows entirely and switching to a really cool operating system, which is usually presented by a cool CEO with stylish sports shoes, stylish jeans and a stylish black shirt.

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Putting on a show as big as Microsoft Tech.Ed is no mean feat. Preparing a convention venue for a few thousand demanding and IT-savvy delegates, not to mention three days’ worth of technically-intense presentations, sessions and labs, involves months of preparation and the combined efforts of many teams.

The focus of the 2009 round of Tech.Ed events is centred strongly around Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 – Microsoft’s major product releases this year. Microsoft Australia were looking for way to give Tech.Ed delegates as good an experience with Windows 7 as possible, so early this year an idea was floated to give each attendee a netbook (to have, not just to borrow) with Windows 7 preloaded. As if staging the event was not difficult enough, now the infrastructure had to accommodate an additional 2500 machines, using software which was not yet available in its final form.

A project of this scale would challenge any IT team, so how have Microsoft achieved it? I chatted with three of the main organisers and technical managers with Microsoft Australia responsible for making sure that this year’s Tech.Ed Australia netbook extravaganza will go off without a hitch.

Andrew Coates is a Developer Evangelist with Microsoft Australia and is the content owner for Tech.Ed Australia 2009.

Nick Hodge is an evangelist with Microsoft Australia and is responsible for bringing many aspects of Tech.Ed Australia 2009 together

Jorke Odolphi is an Infrastructure Architect Evangelist with Microsoft Australia, and is responsible for the technical infrastructure behind Tech.Ed.

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I didn’t really believe anymore that those two companies would find themselves together. The press release is quite clear about the deal:

Microsoft will now power Yahoo! search while Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers.

In other words: Bing gets Yahoo’s search requests and Yahoo! sells the ads.

I am not sure if I like this deal or not. On the one hand it is good that there will be more competition in the search business, but on the other hand, I am afraid that Microsoft will neglect its core business.

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A BBC reporter asked Ray Ozzie, Microsoft’s chief software architect, this question. Google’s announcement of Chrome OS wasn’t mentioned in this interview, but it obviously was behind the question. I was fascinated how calm Ray Ozzie answered. I wonder what happened if she asked Steve Ballmer this question. If she asked me, I probably would have answered with another question. I would have asked if the next BBC World News edition will be the last dedicated version and if from then on they will just link to YouTube. Well, good that I am not Microsoft’s chief software architect. Ray Ozzie’s answer is definitely better. Watch it yourself.

Usually, I ignore the battles between the European Commission (EC) and Microsoft because I can’t take this struggle for “more competition” seriously anymore. But the latest developments are just too bizarre, so I can’t resist sharing my opinion.

You’ve probably heard that the EC believes that bundling Internet Explorer with Windows 7 is against European law. I don’t know this law, and I am not really interested in it. However, if it is really true that it is against the law for a company to decide what kind of features a software product can have, then there is obviously something wrong with this law. To escape insane fines, Microsoft has decided to ship Windows 7 in Europe without Internet Explorer. Manufacturers and customers will have the option to install Internet Explorer. All Windows 7 editions sold in the European Union will have an “E” at the end of the product name.

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Mary Joe Foley and Ed Bott blogged about Midori, which is supposed to be the code name of a new operating system, Microsoft is working on. As I understand their articles, we are not talking about Windows 8 or 9 here, but about something completely new, i.e., an OS built from scratch. Even though both journalists are known to have good connections to Microsoft insiders, they have little information on what Midori is all about:

• Midori is related to Singularity, a Microsoft research project that aims to build an operating system which is mostly written in managed code (C#). Only the lowest-level code is written in assembly language and C, and the hardware abstraction layer is programmed in C++. Singularity is easier to analyze and is supposed to have better performance.
• There is some speculation that Midori could be a revival of Cairo, a research project (1991–1996) into a new distributed and truly object-oriented operating system. To be honest, I have no idea what “distributed” and “object-oriented” could mean here. Perhaps this is just referring to the managed code I mentioned above.
• Midori might also have something to do with WinFS, which was the code name for a new file system based on relational databases. WinFS was one of the new features originally planned for Windows Vista. Maybe the reason why Microsoft had to drop this feature is because too many changes to the core OS would have been necessary.

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According to Net Applications, the market share of Windows dropped from 93.34% in June 2007 to 90.89% in June 2008, representing a difference of 2.45%. Mac gained 1.91% in the same time period and now has a market share of 7.94%. Linux’s market share is 0.8%, which corresponds to a difference of 0.37%. Net Applications obtained this data by monitoring access to websites, thus we are specifically talking about market shares on desktops. According to the headlines of some news sites, the situation seems to be much more dramatic. Apple’s improvement corresponds to a growth of 32%, certainly a respectable success for Apple.

However, contrary to other commentators I am quite surprised that Windows did not lose more of its market share. There are two factors to consider here: first, Vista’s extremely bad image, and second, the hype regarding the iPod and the iPhone. In my opinion, one major reason for Apple’s advances with its operating system is related to the fact that many iPod and iPhone users learned about the existence of Apple in this way. If you love your white iPod, buying a white MacBook seems to be a natural decision.

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The city of Munich (where I live) wanted to move 14,000 computers to Linux. Vienna, which is just a stone’s throw away from Munich, has 30,000 PCs. They never planned to move all their computers to Linux though. Their departments are free to choose which OS they want. There was a lot of stir in the media when these cities announced the move to Linux some years ago. Now Vienna has just decided to install Vista on 750 machines. As far as I understand from the news (German) I have read about it, these machines were already running Linux. The reason for the change is that the city needs a language test program for kindergartens which isn’t available for Linux.

Vienna just moved 1,000 PCs to Linux. Munich was a bit more ambitious, but they also have only managed to roll out 1,000 Linux machines so far. Considering that they made this decision five years ago, this is kind of disappointing in my view. If you only count the working days, then this corresponds to about 1 Linux installation per day. If they continue at this pace, they will be able to finish the project in 65 years. Okay, maybe they won’t, but their grandchildren might have a fair chance of finishing it.

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Some days ago, I was rumbling against the confusion regarding the availability of Service Pack 3 for Windows XP. After that, the confusion continued. One of our admins mailed me an article about Microsoft’s decision to pull SP3. He wanted to tell me that this service pack might not be ready for prime time and that we’d better wait some time before we start deploying it. What I found interesting is that he didn’t notice the reason why Microsoft stopped delivering XP SP3. There is an incompatibility with Microsoft Dynamics RMS. Well, we don’t use this software and that certainly also applies to 99.99% of all Windows XP customers.

I think, my colleague was not the only one who perceived Microsoft’s back-and-forth behavior this way. It just makes an unprofessional impression if a company has to withdraw a new product because of technical issues. Some commentators wondered if Microsoft doesn’t test Windows service packs with their own products.

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A few days ago, I blogged about a Neowin article that published a “secret” time table for the release of Windows XP SP3. I was a bit skeptical because I learned from the past that such information is usually not very reliable. On Monday, many news sites reported that XP SP3 indeed RTMed. I was quite surprised to read that volume licensing customers have access to the pack, but Technet and MSDN subscribers don’t. So I logged on to Microsoft’s volume licensing site to see if SP3 is really there.

Well, it wasn’t. Then I read that Microsoft’s release date acrobats changed their mind again and published XP SP3 for Technet and MSDN customers. So I logged on with our MSDN account. Guess what? No Windows XP SP3 far and wide. And now I read in this Computerworld article that it will only be available in June for volume licensing customers. So what now? Please, let me know if you were able to spot SP3 on MSDN or Technet.

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Neowin.net claims to “have managed to get hands on the internal schedule for the release” of Windows XP SP3. According to their information, Service Pack 3 will be available for volume license customers and on TechNet and MSDN on April 21. After the usual respectful time gap of a week, SP3 will show up at the Download Center and Windows Update so ordinary people can get it, too.

Neowin doesn’t say anything about its source. Usually, such information comes from employees who don’t belong to the HRDC (Holy Release Date Circle). I didn’t count the number of release dates that were published for Vistas SP1 this way. So I am not yet convinced that this information about XP SP3 is really correct.

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There is no doubt that ultra low-cost PCs (ULCPCs) are on the rise. UMPCs (ultra mobile PCs) are already available for a while, but they were much too expensive to become mainstream. Asus proved that it is possible to combine ultra mobility with low costs. But why not Vista? RAM is cheap. Shouldn’t Vista run as well on a ULCPC?

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So so, Windows Server 2008 is being launched today. I wonder, what exactly could be meant by this? I mean, I have been working with Server 2008 RTM already for some days now and I downloaded it from an official Microsoft website. Note that I don’t belong to those privileged Microsoft customers who have access to their products before the common people. So again, what is Microsoft launching today?

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At first, I thought, it is some kind of joke. But then I read it on several sites and even on a Microsoft blog. Windows Server 2008 SP1 is released. Yeah right, it was released together with Windows Server 2008 RTM. The good thing is we don’t have to wait so long for this SP as we waited for Vista SP1. The bad thing is I am deeply confused as to what is going on at Microsoft at the moment.

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