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Post by sordello on Aug 26, 2013 22:30:04 GMT -5
I agree that Microsoft needs to take more risks. Apple has the cash stored away to take risks; MS needs to build up cash. They won't do it by charging $600 for Office when folks can get LibreOffice or Open Office for Free (or the OfficePro Android app for $14). Open source and Android will cut deep into MS's cash flows. Microsoft needs to team up against Apple or lose. The model used by Ubuntu is ideal: lock all your corporate customers into long or medium-term support contracts, create stability and legacy and eventually no corporation will dare take the risk of abandoning all that legacy, and knowledge and staff-wide training to move over to another platform. Make the software free or near-free and charge like bulls for support and business-specific software tweaking. Make sure that the OS and Office are near free for the plebians on the street, so when businesses hire staff, they are hiring people 'pre-trained' in their in-house business software. That's alot of money saved not having to train your newbie staff who has been using MS Office since s/he was 10 years old! I'd even suggest MS buy up Wikipedia, keep it free for end users, and then spend a fortune in the development of a solid, consistent, international education-knowledge delivery model. Develop and contract 'learning-delivery' to governments and universities. The old MS dinosaur should have been developing this stuff 5 years ago! I'm not sure you know Microsoft all that well or the extent they're an enterprise products firm. $76.21 billion is a fair amount of cash. finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=MSFT+Key+StatisticsCanonical Ltd. might not have as many employees as Microsoft might have janitors. The support, administration and consultancy Canonical does around Linux is really the old school model others had before both Canonical Ltd and Microsoft as an enterprise player. Apple may have more to lose than Microsoft? Apple's mostly a consumer products firm by comparison. Consumer fashion and trends change more than foundations. Still, Microsoft has a lot of revenue from Office. The Office 365 product certainly is a good step if we're talking about consumers or cheaper products. $100 for 5 anything seats and 50 GB of storage is a better value than old MS Office sales. Watching kids look at Linux, Apple products and new Microsoft products has been interesting. Mine would take a Surface as first choice if their favored apps where there. It was a big surprised when my daughter said it was better than the iPad. P.S. For any insult Balmer may have had in the stock going up, he's got to be laughing to the bank too. He's been there so long that the jump in share price has to be a jump in net worth. Well, I'd click down a little further on that link for the Balance Sheet. Microsoft has, effectively, $95billion short term cash(ables) - $76B cash $19B receivables. The other asset items are to be written off/down and not cash able. Look at liabilities (not including implied dividend liability - that is the dough the shareholders expect and "better get or else"!!): $63Billion. Net it out: $32Billion to spend and there are still dividends to fund. With what is going on in the news, I wonder about the 365 Cloud strategy. If, down the road, it may come with unbreakable encryption that is in-house and unavailable to hackers, then maybe. But I suspect we all suspect if the NSA can eavesdrop, then competitors in China might eavesdrop eventually as well. What good is Office 365 when a copy of all your files goes to China? The NSA certainly aren't doing Microsoft any favours here!
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Post by Holy Schist on Aug 27, 2013 7:57:37 GMT -5
With what is going on in the news, I wonder about the 365 Cloud strategy. If, down the road, it may come with unbreakable encryption that is in-house and unavailable to hackers, then maybe. But I suspect we all suspect if the NSA can eavesdrop, then competitors in China might eavesdrop eventually as well. What good is Office 365 when a copy of all your files goes to China? The NSA certainly aren't doing Microsoft any favours here! The Office 365 doesn't have to be or is not much more than any other version. You have to have a key and Microsoft account to get and use any version now. There's a lot of misunderstanding because people spread rumors or think "cloud" means it works like Google's web-based suite. The popular 5 pack of Office 365 is a great value for many because of the 5 seats you get per year. The delivery model is hardly a Microsoft exclusive. Adobe and Apple are certainly there. You could say it's same for Linux distributions if you use a key to verify your download. You have to be using "TNO" (trust no one) solutions to insure no eavesdropping and a little reading seems to say your random blobs of encrypted data can by themselves make you suspect. I use a few TNO solutions, and would bore the authorities if they looked inside to find basic things you should keep private. I'm not a fan of Google's or Microsoft's cloud solutions in the way I like Amazon's web services and LastPass because the latter let me choose the client side I want or have to have. Back to topic. Microsoft could easily have an act 2 somewhat like IBM because they are much more of an enterprise player than many realize and also have good customer support and service. I'm not talking about calling and asking for free help, but what you get when you're paying for support or assurance, or their web-based self help. A friend who is characterized by his rooted phones, Linux PC and more probably typifies the potential Microsoft has when he builds his day job web applications with Microsoft tools. His reasons are the tools to do it well, fast and more help to do it in a more secure manner. Much the same, I'm looking at new accounting for the grocery stores. Dynamics products and partners look like the best way to tie a whole operation together without hiring your own development staff and waiting 3.5 years. Then comes the frequent blessing and curse from Microsoft supporting old technology. Blessing for me because I have less stuff to replace.
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Post by sordello on Aug 27, 2013 9:58:03 GMT -5
With what is going on in the news, I wonder about the 365 Cloud strategy. If, down the road, it may come with unbreakable encryption that is in-house and unavailable to hackers, then maybe. But I suspect we all suspect if the NSA can eavesdrop, then competitors in China might eavesdrop eventually as well. What good is Office 365 when a copy of all your files goes to China? The NSA certainly aren't doing Microsoft any favours here! The Office 365 doesn't have to be or is not much more than any other version. You have to have a key and Microsoft account to get and use any version now. There's a lot of misunderstanding because people spread rumors or think "cloud" means it works like Google's web-based suite. The popular 5 pack of Office 365 is a great value for many because of the 5 seats you get per year. The delivery model is hardly a Microsoft exclusive. Adobe and Apple are certainly there. You could say it's same for Linux distributions if you use a key to verify your download. You have to be using "TNO" (trust no one) solutions to insure no eavesdropping and a little reading seems to say your random blobs of encrypted data can by themselves make you suspect. I use a few TNO solutions, and would bore the authorities if they looked inside to find basic things you should keep private. I'm not a fan of Google's or Microsoft's cloud solutions in the way I like Amazon's web services and LastPass because the latter let me choose the client side I want or have to have. Back to topic. Microsoft could easily have an act 2 somewhat like IBM because they are much more of an enterprise player than many realize and also have good customer support and service. I'm not talking about calling and asking for free help, but what you get when you're paying for support or assurance, or their web-based self help. A friend who is characterized by his rooted phones, Linux PC and more probably typifies the potential Microsoft has when he builds his day job web applications with Microsoft tools. His reasons are the tools to do it well, fast and more help to do it in a more secure manner. Much the same, I'm looking at new accounting for the grocery stores. Dynamics products and partners look like the best way to tie a whole operation together without hiring your own development staff and waiting 3.5 years. Then comes the frequent blessing and curse from Microsoft supporting old technology. Blessing for me because I have less stuff to replace. Well, realistically, I think now 'cloud' means absolutely everyone except Abdul, the goat shepherd in Somalia has just read the really really private, encrypted, email you just sent to your mistress! (Every post I send up to the (USA based?) Wharf I naturally presume has been scanned by two dozen security agency algorithms!) That's life nowadays. Yes, MS is enterprise oriented; I just believe they should blast that up into the stratosphere to make it their main cash source. I used to use MYOB accounting, but they are moving to Cloud-based data storage, so I have flipped them the finger. I am trialling Sage 50 accounting from Canada. I want my clients' data on MY PC ONLY with no access by ASIO or the NSA or Chinese hackers! Seriously, if I were ever forced to move to Cloud accounting I would incorporate in my general disclaimer an addition that "because my software provider insists I use Cloud technology, I cannot ensure that your information has not been accessed by government agencies or hacked into by other corporate entities."
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Post by Holy Schist on Aug 27, 2013 11:13:00 GMT -5
Well, realistically, I think now 'cloud' means absolutely everyone except Abdul, the goat shepherd in Somalia has just read the really really private, encrypted, email you just sent to your mistress! (Every post I send up to the (USA based?) Wharf I naturally presume has been scanned by two dozen security agency algorithms!) That's life nowadays. Yes, MS is enterprise oriented; I just believe they should blast that up into the stratosphere to make it their main cash source. I used to use MYOB accounting, but they are moving to Cloud-based data storage, so I have flipped them the finger. I am trialling Sage 50 accounting from Canada. I want my clients' data on MY PC ONLY with no access by ASIO or the NSA or Chinese hackers! Seriously, if I were ever forced to move to Cloud accounting I would incorporate in my general disclaimer an addition that "because my software provider insists I use Cloud technology, I cannot ensure that your information has not been accessed by government agencies or hacked into by other corporate entities." I didn't think you were a big fan of Bain (MYOB). Most don't understand what "cloud" is. That can be yours and private, some one else and private or very public. If you use the public network (about everybody does) and hold private data you should be holding it in a secure container no matter what. You can put that secure container in your lap or a computer instance where Amazon or Rack Space are taking are keeping it running. You should use an encrypted connection to private data regardless. It's an interesting challenge to look at accounting software now because a few players have most of the market share just like other product choices we make. IIRC, Sage 50 was Simply Accounting much like ARP was (is Accpac). For your security fears, I also thought all the Sage branded stuff (HR and accounting) is owned by the British. I think it's Sage Group Plc. who bought all the accounting and HR products over the years. Keeping your data your own has been a problem long before computers. Computing can make that more possible but web forum, Facebook and Twitter culture don't help societies think about being more private as much as they encourage blabbing it all.
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Post by Holy Schist on Aug 27, 2013 14:11:02 GMT -5
You can spin it however you'd like but I can tell you that in the next three months I'm going to be responsible for my school purchasing almost 100 new computers, and they won't be running Windows 8. That's my decision, but it's also the wishes of my boss, who does have a personal computer running 8. It's just not a popular OS. Confirmed: blogs.windows.com/windows/b/bloggingwindows/archive/2013/08/27/readying-windows-8-1-for-release.aspxDon't forget there are licenses and purchases that give you 8.x and 7, as well as don't forget the Windows 7 you want could also be called a Vista Service Pack.
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Post by sordello on Aug 29, 2013 0:13:58 GMT -5
Well, realistically, I think now 'cloud' means absolutely everyone except Abdul, the goat shepherd in Somalia has just read the really really private, encrypted, email you just sent to your mistress! (Every post I send up to the (USA based?) Wharf I naturally presume has been scanned by two dozen security agency algorithms!) That's life nowadays. Yes, MS is enterprise oriented; I just believe they should blast that up into the stratosphere to make it their main cash source. I used to use MYOB accounting, but they are moving to Cloud-based data storage, so I have flipped them the finger. I am trialling Sage 50 accounting from Canada. I want my clients' data on MY PC ONLY with no access by ASIO or the NSA or Chinese hackers! Seriously, if I were ever forced to move to Cloud accounting I would incorporate in my general disclaimer an addition that "because my software provider insists I use Cloud technology, I cannot ensure that your information has not been accessed by government agencies or hacked into by other corporate entities." I didn't think you were a big fan of Bain (MYOB). Most don't understand what "cloud" is. That can be yours and private, some one else and private or very public. If you use the public network (about everybody does) and hold private data you should be holding it in a secure container no matter what. You can put that secure container in your lap or a computer instance where Amazon or Rack Space are taking are keeping it running. You should use an encrypted connection to private data regardless. It's an interesting challenge to look at accounting software now because a few players have most of the market share just like other product choices we make. IIRC, Sage 50 was Simply Accounting much like ARP was (is Accpac). For your security fears, I also thought all the Sage branded stuff (HR and accounting) is owned by the British. I think it's Sage Group Plc. who bought all the accounting and HR products over the years. Keeping your data your own has been a problem long before computers. Computing can make that more possible but web forum, Facebook and Twitter culture don't help societies think about being more private as much as they encourage blabbing it all. Well, I use an older version of MYOB (pre Bain) and pre move to Clouding. I do realize that in the cloud the data is still just kept on a physical hard drive, physical memory, but my concern, - post Snowden/Prism - is that very real loss of control when your data sits on another company's hardware. That company can easily get a security order to turn it over but most vitally, they will be ordered NOT to let me know this has happened. I prefer the good old days when, if the feds wanted your info, they had to knock on your door and come and get it. You would know all about it. I still prefer encrypted info on my own hardware - no sharing - and secured with an off-system, arbitrary key that changes daily, (i.e. you've got until midnight to crack it). People can steal my files all they want (what I still call it as it is 'taking' without permission, or my knowledge even) but without the off-site, perpetually modifying, key, they (hopefully) can't crack. I've tuned out long ago with the blabbing overload. I suspect this generation's propensity for blabbing has been conditioned into them by the last generation's obsession with Oprah, Phil Donahue, et al...
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Post by Holy Schist on Aug 29, 2013 12:09:04 GMT -5
I've tuned out long ago with the blabbing overload. I suspect this generation's propensity for blabbing has been conditioned into them by the last generation's obsession with Oprah, Phil Donahue, et al... I blame genes for some blabbing, but not the era of selfies... My encrypted volumes are probably no more or less secure because I use the Internet, laptops, and mobile devices.
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Post by donalgdon on Aug 29, 2013 12:13:54 GMT -5
8.1 RTM has already leaked online.
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Post by sordello on Aug 29, 2013 19:48:05 GMT -5
8.1 RTM has already leaked online. RTM? I always thought it was RTFM? ;D
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Post by Holy Schist on Aug 30, 2013 7:05:29 GMT -5
8.1 RTM has already leaked online. RTM? I always thought it was RTFM? ;D Release to manufacturers and also known as gold copy - the end of beta releases and first build consumers will get. The release to manufacturers and approx 6 week date for release to all are why I considered Windows 8 irrelevant for upcoming purchases. The first tier PCs have been available with dual license, and I'm guessing they will be available for a while.
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Post by Holy Schist on Sept 3, 2013 9:29:23 GMT -5
Well, Nokia and Stephen Elop under the roof are a start.
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Post by sordello on Sept 4, 2013 21:45:39 GMT -5
A sound move for both MS and Nokia. Now, while everyone else is fooling around with do-little Android wristwatches, MS/Nokia can start to work on the really big toys, getting the 'internet of things' customized and developing mere passive GPS technology into active traffic control technology. Turn your car into a PC! Trade the steering wheel in for a keyboard. GPS controlled - no more car crashes - no such thing anymore as drunk driving: your car drives you home.
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Post by songwriterfan on Oct 18, 2015 22:12:14 GMT -5
Okay. So it's just a hypothetical, but if you were the new CEO of Microsoft, what would you do?
Take my golden parachute and retire.
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