Tuesday, January 13, 2009 4:34 PM/EST

Forking Windows

For those who disagree with the case I've made for open-sourcing Windows, one of the more common points of contention involves a fear of forking--the idea that an open-source Windows would be too fragmented.

If Microsoft open-sourced its operating system, would the Windows world lose its center of gravity and go flying apart in all directions, tearing apart the PC ecosystem on which so many of us depend?

Monday, January 12, 2009 5:03 PM/EST

Open-Source Windows

Microsoft isn't getting knocked off its computing platform perch any time soon, but there's no question that Microsoft faces some very real challenges to its platform throne, the most daunting of which is the Web, where a seemingly omnipresent Google is working on relocating computing's center of gravity toward the browser and away from Windows or any other particular operating system platform.

Though it may sound crazy, I contend that the best move Microsoft could make to broaden the reach and strengthen the core of the Windows platform would be to release the operating system as open source...

Monday, December 15, 2008 1:12 PM/EST

Resolutions for an Open Source-Minded Microsoft

For now, Microsoft is operating, tentatively, at the margins of open source, with an agenda marked more by toleration than adoption of open source. I contend that if Microsoft approached open source aggressively, the company could solidify its prominence in computing potentially for decades to come.

Friday, December 12, 2008 6:42 PM/EST

eWEEK Labs in Review: Stupid Tech Tricks of 2008

It's roughly mid-December, which means it's time eWEEK Labs to name our 2008 Stupid Tech Tricks. You can read the list in the pages of eWEEK print on Monday, or head right over to our Stupid Tech Tricks slideshow...

Friday, December 12, 2008 6:35 PM/EST

A New Deal for the Desktop

"Do more with less" has been the official mandate for IT departments every where for some time now, and considering our economic climate, that refrain will ring more loudly than ever in the year to come.

However, before we return from the holiday break and set ourselves to work busily doing more of the same, I think it's worth examining the areas in which we can accomplish more by doing less...

Wednesday, December 10, 2008 3:19 PM/EST

eWEEK Labs in Review: Ubuntu and Internet Criminals

Last week's Labs coverage was lead by a great column by Jim Rapoza about the results of the MySpace bullying trial, which ended in a criminal conviction based on a terms of service violation.

As Jim points out, if violations of Web site terms of service equate to hacking crimes, then many of us are clicking our way to the big house.

Elsewhere in Labs, I wrote a review of Ubuntu Linux 8.10 (also known as the Intrepid Ibex) in which I once again crowned Ubuntu the King of Desktop Linux. Not surprisingly, the coronation drew some healthy debate...

Friday, November 28, 2008 7:59 PM/EST

eWEEK Labs in Review: Thanksgiving Grab Bag

The past two weeks have been busy ones here at eWEEK Labs, with reviews, analysis and commentary on topics ranging from virtualization to fixed-mobile convergence, with an IT gadget roundup thrown in for good measure.

Cameron led the virtualization charge with a review and slideshow of VMware's Workstation 6.5 (which once again earned an eWEEK Labs Analyst's Choice nod), followed by a feature on cross-platform tools for managing virtual infrastructure:

• VMware Workstation 6.5 Is a Top Virtualization Tool
• eWEEK Labs Walk-Through: VMware Workstation 6.5
• Cross-Platform Tools Needed to Combat Virtualization Sprawl
• Microsoft Virtualization Goes Cross-Platform with VMware Support
• eWEEK Labs Walk-Through: Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager Corrals VMware ESX
• VKernel Capacity Analyzer a Strong Tool in VMware Environments

Finally, Cameron weighed in with a bit of commentary on the state of IT in these (now officially) recessionary times.

Along similar lines, Jim wrote about planning for cutbacks in your IT organization. On a lighter note, Jim reviewed a pair of emerging tech Web products, including a brain-transplantable Web browser, and a new take on bringing presentations online.

For my part, I wrote about the speculation regarding Microsoft and Webkit, which, while rather flimsy, point toward what would be a promising new direction for the Redmond giant. I also called out traditional anti-virus products, the value of which I question when compared to proper system lockdown strategies.

Finally, I reviewed the flashy new touch screen BlackBerry Storm (and prepared a slideshow). I found that the device, for now, at least, falls a bit short of its iPhone slaying-mandate.

From Andrew, we ran a major feature on fixed mobile convergence--where cellular and landline phone systems merge to conserve your (relatively) pricey talk time minutes.

• FMC a Key Device for the Mobile Enterprise
• Agito RoamAnywhere Solution Ties Mobile Phones, Corporate Systems
• Agito Eases Central Control with RoamAnywhere
• DiVitas Offers a Solid Unified Communications Option

Also, Andrew took Google's new voice-enabled iPhone app for a spin, and prepared a slideshow to document journey.

Matt Sarrel reviewed (complete with illustrations) HP's ProLiant DL185 G5 storage server, and also reviewed MetaGeek's Wi-Spy DBx, with a slideshow to match.

Finally, over at Channel Insider, Frank Ohlhorst offered up a little bit of everything with a product analysis four-pack:

• HTC Touch Pro Sprints into Mobile Smartphone Market
• Netvanta Switch Line Goes Green with Energy Saving Features
• SpectorSoft Spector 360 6.2 Offers New Features to Monitor Employee Internet Use
• Managing Paper Chaos with a Xerox Travel Scanner

If you have a burning IT question that only eWEEK Labs can answer, drop me or another Labs analyst a line, or have your say in the comments section below. Have a great weekend, everyone.

Friday, November 21, 2008 1:21 PM/EST

What Is Anti-virus Worth?

Microsoft recently announced plans to discontinue OneCare, the company's consumer-oriented, subscription-based anti-malware product. Instead, Microsoft will offer a free-of-charge anti-malware offering called Morro.

I know that conventional wisdom, certain government and industry regulations, and Windows' "Danger, Will Robinson" Security Center alert shield all disagree with me, but I'm not convinced that anti-virus products (as we know them) are even worth what Microsoft plans to charge for Morro.

That's because no matter how much you pay (or don't pay) in anti-virus licensing fees, these products carry considerable costs.

First, as anyone who's regularly used anti-virus software has experienced, the scanning, updating and heuristics functions of these products add up to significant system overhead. Who among us has never stepped out to grab a cup of coffee or chat idly by the water cooler while Windows cranks through some ill-timed system scan?

Second, anti-virus products add considerable update and maintenance overhead to the systems on which they're used. The blacklisting approach employed by traditional anti-virus, which checks files against constantly changing (and yet totally comprehensive) signature databases, requires frequent updates to operate.

What's more, the anti-virus software itself must be updated, lest it become a vector for attack itself. I know of one company in particular at which unpatched anti-virus software was subverted in just this way.

And while there are freely available anti-virus products out there, a huge amount of licensing dollars are spent each year on these products, and management of these licenses by administrators with plenty of other CALs and seats and entitlements to wrangle doesn't come for free, either.

Finally, the costliest characteristics of traditional anti-virus products—which purport to follow helpfully behind users cleaning up any messes that occur along the way—is a false sense of security and the poor administrative practices they enable.

Anti-virus products are an integral part of the admin-rights-by-default assumptions around which the Windows ecosystem has long been organized. The fact is that as long as users are willing and able to run software that they have no reason to trust, we'll continue to have malware problems.

The solution to the malware problem is tighter lockdown, beginning with a clearer division between user and administrator roles than what we're currently accustomed to. Microsoft has begun to promote this division with User Account Control in Vista. However, UAC must be paired with whitelisting policies that prevent regular users from running arbitrary, untrusted applications.

Rather than persist in the Sysiphisian struggle to spot and quarantine bad applications, user organizations must take control of the applications they allow onto their end points, and security vendors must build out the products and services that facilitate this control.

If you think I'm undervaluing anti-virus, I'd love to hear you tell me why.

Friday, November 21, 2008 1:12 PM/EST

Microsoft, Webkit and Cashing In on Open Source

Earlier this month, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made blogosphere headlines by mentioning that Microsoft might look at embracing Webkit, the open-source Web browser rendering engine that powers Apple's Safari and Google's Chrome.

I think that a Microsoft move to Webkit—not only for the company's mobile platforms but for the full-size version of Internet Explorer—makes great sense and would yield dividends for users, for developers and for Microsoft itself.

Rendering Web pages properly is the No. 1 job of a Web browser, and inconsistencies among different browsers can mean bad experiences for users and major hassles for Web developers and designers—who get the treat of papering over these wrinkles.

If Microsoft joined Apple and Google in building its browsers around Webkit, we'd see more consistent rendering among popular browsers and, therefore, happier users and developers.

Now, rendering inconsistencies can be (and, in many cases, certainly have been) viewed as opportunities for user and developer lock-in: Use and develop for Internet Explorer, or we'll break your tables and send you off to sleep with the phishes.

However, I believe that Microsoft has come to understand that pursuing competitive differentiation through standards chicanery is no way to win customers and partners—especially not on the Web.

Microsoft's decision to ship IE 8 in a standards-compliant-by-default mode, with the option of switching over to "old IE" mode as a second option, is a good sign, as is the thoroughly HTTP- and XML-based make-up of the company's new Azure cloud platform.

Now, if a browser engine that "renders different" is a clear liability instead of a competitive advantage, then what's the point of Microsoft paying to develop and maintain one?

Microsoft can devote its IE rendering engine resources toward improving and extending the up-stack, differentiation-bearing parts of IE.

Yes, Webkit is open-source software, but the project's LGPL license permits its use in proprietary applications, so using Webkit won't force Microsoft to open source anything.

Microsoft would get to allocate its resources more efficiently, demonstrate that its open-source talk is in earnest, help assure greater rendering consistency for users and make life easier for developers.

And Webkit should only be the beginning. There are a lot of open-source component resources out there, and such pieces that can take care of business for Microsoft while enabling the company to maintain healthy differentiation deserve a hard look.

Friday, November 14, 2008 1:50 PM/EST

eWEEK Labs in Review: Cracking WPA

Andrew Garcia started us off this week with an examination of the WPA cracking talk that Erik Tews and Martin Beck were set to give at the PacSec conference in Tokyo: Cracking the WPA Security Standard.

Meanwhile, I took the new LinkedIn Apps Platform for a spin, grabbing many screen shots along the way, and Cameron talked about talking about his soon-to-come Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager review with members of eWEEK's Corporate Partner board.

Jim Rapoza figured out a way to see the Web the way that people in China see it (that is, firewalled), using a nifty Firefox browser extension. Jim also took the new HD version of the Flip video camera for a spin, and documented his journey with pictures.

Jeff Cogswell tells us all about Creating Windows Mobile Databases with SQL Anywhere, in words, as well as in pictures.

Finally, Frank Ohlhorst has the channel low down on products from AMD, Buffalo, SIMTone, and Fortinet.

• Can AMD Shanghi Intel Nehalem Users?
• Buffalo Technology Offers Easy-to-Expand iSCSI to the Channel
• SIMTone Puts the Silver Lining on Cloud Computing
• Fortinet Pushes UTM Performance with FortiGate 620B

If you have a burning IT question that only eWEEK Labs can answer, drop me or another Labs analyst a line, or have your say in the comments section below. Have a great weekend, everyone.