Thursday, January 4. 2007
All organizations and companies produce reams of documents, whether they are internal files, order forms, invoices, letters, manuals, memos and so on. Once these documents were paper–based, but now documentation within an organization can take many forms, whether they are Web-based, email-based or print-based. Document management is therefore concerned with the storage, retrieval and dissemination f such material. The past 40 years have seen a larger number of innovations in writing than perhaps in the entire history of writing. Over the long run paragraph not has much of a future in technical writing. The information block will be the idea that survives. Writers need to write so people can scan and skip. That means that a writer needs to write so people don’t have to read everything. This is something of a paradox. It will be convenient for people not to read everything and that people must have the freedom no to read everything and probably always have read in a non-linear way. But with hypertext they skip all over the place. There is also the “writing code� activity domain: coding. Many developers don’t consider JavaScript or HTML coding, so they rarely document such code. Thoroughly documenting the JavaScript code either through written documents or code comments not only help the author, but also provides future guidance for developers working with the code. So every coder must document his code with comments. Written documentation is good, but it is useful to include documentation in the actual code – just in case the written documents cannot be found. Documenting the code is also good practice and it s easy to do on-the-fly as the programmer is coding. Some languages like Java and C# provide special documentation features. JavaScript does not include such features, but it is easily possible to include documentation with comments. Developing readable code is a continual process that any coder should follow on a daily basis. After all, documentation is abhorred by most developers, so going back and documenting code after a project is complete is not on anybody’s wish list. The programmer can include comments and consistently format the code to assist future developers charged with maintenance or changes. Now let’s consider some major fact about reading and writing. A very controversial thesis is that the revolution in information and communication technology may soon turn writing into a relic of the past: it will be replaced by the automatic transcription of speech, whereas reading is here to stay. Can we reflect on the future with the help of tools developed within the cognitive and social sciences? Some people are convinced that writing and reading will soon be things of the past, a cumbersome pair of prosthetic practices that, in retrospect, will come to be regarded as a mere parenthesis in human history. This has been argued in particular by William Crossman: “By enabling us to access stored information orally – aurally, talking computers will finally make it possible for us to replace all written language with spoken language. We will able to store and retrieve information simply by talking, listening, and looking at graphics, not at text. With this giant step forward into the past, we’re about to create oral culture on a more efficient and reliable technological foundations� (“The Coming Age of talking Computers�). If speech to text conversion technology proves effective and congenial people may end up giving up writing altogether without ever deciding to do so or even noticing that they have done so (just as many of us have, in fact, ceased to write by hand). The cumulative effect of such individual decisions at a cultural level is hard to predict, but it is likely to be considerable. The fact that readers can see a whole page and readily access any other part of the text provides writes with opportunities not shared by speakers. Writers can use more complex sentences. They can highlight the organization of their text with paragraphs, titles, and subtitles. They can depart from a strict linear organization of the text by adding footers, cross-references, or appendixes. They can produce new kinds of objects that are at once linguistic and graphic, such as structured lists and tables. Even in oral presentations, most teachers and lecturers have found it useful or even necessary to provide written text and other graphic documents for the audience to read or examine, in the form of writing on the blackboard, handouts, or, by now, screen projections. Many of the current forms and functions of writing take advantage of the short-term memory effects of a visual presentation. Possibly, some of these functions could be fulfilled by talking machines, but not all of them. For instance, it might be easier just to ask the machine to read a short dictionary entry than to look it up using the alphabetic order. On the other hand, browsing is, and is likely to remain, more effective when done visually than acoustically. From a practical point of view, listening to a text is much slower than reading. It is also noisier. Possibly the stronger obstacle to the abandonment of reading is the role it lays, not in accessing texts, but in producing them. What we value most in the activity of writing is not the hand movements (or else typing would not have replaced handwriting to this extent) but the fact that we can read what we write as we write it. All this considered it is quite implausible that the cumulative effect of individual decisions to use text-to-speech conversion will result in the replacement, at a societal level, of the activity of reading by the systematic use of text-to-speech technology. Still, the generalization of the oral production of written texts is likely to have significant effects on the texts themselves. These effects might be on the subtle rather than on the dramatic side, and be therefore comparable to the effects of the progressive replacement of handwriting by typing, and then of simple typing by word processing. This move has favorable emergence of the development of new genres in a way that has not yet been systematically studied. The composition of written texts by means of the voice might have deeper effects. Various forms of writing have resulted in some degree of divergence (varying from tongue to tongue) between oral and written dialects. Will a return to the natural organ of linguistic expression put an end to this divergence, or will it cause the emergence of new dialects? The very symbols used in the different writing systems result from a compromise between the needs of the hand and those of the eye. Printing, and now the computer, has made possible the development f new characters, which, however, must still remain similar enough to handwritten ones. This constraint could altogether disappear; a new evolution of writing systems could emerge, exclusively guided by considerations of visual ergonomics and esthetics. One can imagine anything. On the other hand, to speculate in a manner that is both informed and reasoned is difficult. Difficult nut not altogether impossible…
The future of Solaris looks vibrant and dynamic, for all branches and leaves of the same tree, including BSD and Linux. Solaris looks forward to a strong community build to help out with the development. They have to meet the objective that Jonathan Schwartz has set, which is to open source all the software that Sun produces. It is a big challenge because Sun has such an extensive software portfolio; a great operating system, server software that business depends on, a portal server, software that does identity management and helps manage security. Sun Microsystems will make additions to Solaris 10 as part of work on the 7-month-old Open Solaris project as well as through internal development. Already, 71 proposed additions have been generated via the Open Solaris initiative. They include a wireless driver for x86 platforms. “We’ll use the same rigorous test process as always� with the open source additions, says executive VP John Loiacono. Sun developers also are working on ZFS, a 128-bit file system with increased error-detection and correction capabilities for the next Solaris 10 release, due within six months. A self-correcting file system simplifies management of large storage systems. In addition, Solaris’ ability to host virtual machines will be enhanced to include Red Hat Linux VMs under Solaris 10.
No matter what application, whether as a desktop system, or installed as an Internet server, FreeBSD has the power and the flexibility required to meet even the most demanding situations. FreeBSD, however, requires more of an administrative approach than most over-the-counter operating systems. FreeBSD requires less administration per functionality than several operating systems. Given the correct approach, managing a FreeBSD system is simple and can be quite fun. FreeBSD is a multi-user system: several people can access the same computer at the same time. This includes more than “File Serving� capabilities of other operating systems. The users connected to the FreeBSD machine have access all their normal functionality as though they were actually at the server console. Users can even interact if they chose. FreeBSD® is an advanced operating system for X86 compatible (including Pentium ® and Athlon™ AMD64 compatible (including Opteron™, Athlon ™ 64 and EM64T) architectures. It is deriving from BSD, the version of UNIX® developed at the University of California, Berkeley. In a sense, UNIX is the touchstone of the Internet. There is now a string emphasis on the standard protocols of the Internet (TCP/IP, DNS, HTTP, FT, SMTP, POP3, and IMAP) and most of those standards were developed or refined on the UNIX operating system. FreeBSD addresses both issues: it is based on one of the standards of the UNIX world, BSD 4.4, optimized for common, inexpensive Intel-based hardware and (as the name implies) it is free. Free BSD offers advanced networking, performance, security and compatibility features today, which are still missing in other operating systems, even some of the most known commercial ones. FreeBSD makes an ideal Internet or Intranet server. It provides robust network services under the heaviest loads and uses memory efficiently to maintain good response times for thousands of simultaneous user processes. The quality of FreeBSD combined with today’s low-cost, high-speed PC hardware makes FreeBSD a very economical alternative to commercial UNIX workstations. It is well suited for a great number of both desktop and server applications. FreeBSD is rapidly developing operating system. Keeping up on the latest developments can be really difficult. The following projects are always in actuality: -        GNOME on FreeBSD -        Java on FreeBSD -        KDE on FreeBSD November, 17, 2006� the first release candidate of FreeBSD 6.2 is available. ISO images for Tier-1 architectures are available on most of the FreeBSD mirror sites. FreeBSD has many practical applications: -        Server applications o      Run a turnkey www server o      Handle Internet email o      Domain Name Service o      Allow dial-up access to the Internet through PPP o      Allow Windows users to map network drives and share server resources o      Act as a network router o      Network file sharing o      Translate network address, allowing to conserve the registered IP address o      Be an Internet firewall or gateway o      An affordable UNIX WINDOWS Workstation o      Run a wide range of FreeBSD Desktop applications §        Word Processing §        Spreadsheets §        Database processing §        Personal finance §        Multi-media §        Video conferencing Run applications from other platforms: -        Linux -        BSDi -        SCO -        Windows Provide also security control for a single user and run other company specific applications. The first point packages have been included with the test builds and a few minor nits have been noticed already. In particular these are known problems, which will be addresses before RC2. Its future is formed by additional platforms that are in various stages of development. It is no difficult to contribute to FreeBSD. The main development direction is coming from the large amount of programmers that can add or improve its features.
UNIX is a computer operating system originally developed in the 1960s and 1970s by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs including Dennis Ritchie, Ken Thompson, and Douglas McIlroy. Today’s UNIX systems are split into various branches, developed over time by AT & T, as well as various commercial vendors and non-profit organizations. The actual owner of the trademark UNIX is The Open Group, and industry standard consortium. Only systems fully compliant with and certified to the Single UNIX specification qualify as “UNIX� (others are called “UNIX system-like) or “UNIX-like�). UNIX’s influence in academic circles led to large-scale adoption (particularly of the BSD variant, originating from the University of California, Berkeley) of UNIX by commercial startups, the most notable of which is SUN Microsystems. UNIX-like operating systems such as Linux and Mac OS X are commonly encountered. Traditional UNIX may be used, sometimes, to describe a UNIX or an operating system that has the characteristics of either UNIX System V or Version seven. The Common API Specification project started when several vendors (Sun Microsystems, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Novell/USL and OSF) organized together to provide a single unified specification of the UNIX system services. By implementing a single common definition of the UNIX system services, third-party independent software vendors (ISVs) would be able to more easily deliver strategic applications on all of these vendor’s platforms at once. The focus of this initiative is to deliver the core application used by current programs. The economic driver that initiated the project is the ease the porting of existing successful applications. While the work is led by a central group of vendors, it receives widespread support within the industry. UNIX operating systems are widely used in both servers and workstations. The UNIX environment and the client-server program model were essential elements in the development of the Internet and the reshaping of computing as centered in networks rather that in individual computers. UNIX was designed to be portable, multi-tasking and multi-user in a time-sharing configuration. UNIX systems are characterized by various concepts: the use of plain text for storing data; treating devices and certain types of inter-process communication (IPC) as files; a hierarchical file system; and the use of a large number of small programs that can be strung together through a command line interpreter using pipes, as opposed to using a single monolithic program that includes all of the same functionality. These concepts are known as the UNIX philosophy. The operating system consists of many of these utilities along with the master control program, the kernel. Its provides services to start and stop programs, handle the file system and other common high level tasks that most programs share, and, perhaps most importantly, schedules access to hardware to avoid conflicts if two programs attempt to simultaneously access to the same resource or device. In order to mediate such access, the kernel was given with special rights on the same system and led to the division between user space and kernel space. The microkernel tried to reverse the growing size of kernels and return to a system in which most tasks would be completed by smaller utilities. In an era when normal computer consisted of a hard disk for storage and a data terminal for input and output the UNIX file model worked quite well as most Input / Output was linear. However, modern systems include networking and other new devices. Describing a graphical user interface driven by mouse control in an “even driven� fashion didn’t work well under the old model. Work on systems supporting these new devices led to facilities for non-blocking I/ O, forms of inter-process communications other that just pipes, as well as moving functionality such as network protocols out of the kernel. In 2000, SCO sold its entire UNIX business and assets to Caldera Systems, which later on changed its name in the SCO Group. The new player started legal action against users and vendors of Linux. Linux contains copyrighted UNIX code now owned by The SCO Group. Other allegations include trade-secret violations by IBM, or contract violations by former Santa Cruz customers who have converted to Linux. There is a dispute with Novel, resulted in the SCO v. Novell lawsuit. In 2005, Sun Microsystems released the bulk of its Solaris system code (based on UNIX System V release 4) into an open source project called Open Solaris. New Sun OS technologies such as the ZFS file system are now first released as open source code via Open Solaris project; as of 2006 it has spawned several non-Sun distributions such as Schilli X, Belenix, Nexenta and Martu X. IBM admits that, just a few years ago, it held a weaker share of the UNIX market. Now IBM holds more than 25% share. It hope to grow that considerably with the POWERS line, relying on the fact that UNIX market represents more than $21 billion opportunity. It looks like while system upgrades are important for any server vendor, harnessing the added horsepower is the key and should help separate IBM from the rest of the pack. POWER chips are extending to anything from running a consumer’s games and Apple’s computers to its own servers and supercomputers, such as IBM’s. IBM believes the evolution of the POWER architecture will ultimately yield servers that drive a true on-demand business environment for customers. IBM is at work on AIX version 5.4, due sometime next year. While UNIX generally is good at balancing workloads across multi-CPU servers and server clusters, AIX 5.4 will take that a step further by balancing processing workloads across virtual machines. The release will include workload management technology that came with IBM’s 2005 acquisition of Meiosys Inc. and high availability and security improvements. Customers are expected to have access to some new features. So will IBM create an open-source version of AIX along the lines of what Sun Microsystems has done with Solaris? Hewlett-Packard updates HP-UX every two or three years, and the next release, HP-UX 11i version 3, is scheduled for the end of this year. Like IBM, HP is emphasizing improved security and high availability. HP-UX 11i v3 will offer extended virtual-view and partition management capabilities and improved support for storage area networks. HP also is migrating third party applications that ran on VMS and Tru64 UNIX-platforms it acquired in its merger with Compaq, to its HP-UX on Itanium Integrity servers, but users of those systems have dragged their feet on converting to HP-UX; about 20% of them have moved to Linux. New capabilities are added incrementally, too. HP just added identity management to HP-UX for user authentication. The Dot-com crash had led to significant consolidation of UNIX users as well. Of the many commercial flavors of UNIX that were born, only Solaris, HP-UX and AIX are still relatively well in the market. Of these, Solaris has the most market share, and may be becoming more popular now that it is Open Source.
Context awareness will result in software that can better simulate the "common sense" that humans use to recognize what information is helpful and relevant, so that search results are more targeted and disruptive background activities do not interrupt people while they are focused on other tasks, he said. The present is already showing how advances in machine learning and pattern recognition will further automate the implementation of business rules and preferences, while software will be able to use pattern-recognition and machine-learning algorithms to dynamically sort and personalize environmental variables, as well as search results and information based on user needs and behaviors. “On the search front, emerging technologies use metadata, data assigned to each object within an information environment, to make searches more relevant and responsive, while data that carries tags with metadata that are static—like a document author or date of creation--as well as dynamic--such as rights management status and embedded applications--help solve some of the problems associated with versioning and access�, professor William Gruver said at Certified Internet Web Professional Centre (CIW). Users may also in the future get the ability to cache search queries and receive notifications when relevant results—even results beyond the scope of the original query—have been added or updated. In addition, implicit queries will provide users with proactive links to people, content and data as they relate to the task at hand. Among the prototype technologies on view at the CIW during the tour is the data lens technology, which allows the user to view large pieces of information and documents on smaller screens; and Microsoft RoundTable, a collaboration and communication tool with a 360-degree camera that promises to deliver an immersive conferencing experience that extends the meeting room across multiple locations. “Microsoft's Unified Communications Group, which is focused on simplifying communication and giving people more control over how, where and when they communicate, will continue to develop RoundTable and is scheduled to bring the technology to market in 2007," Gruver said. “Automating the archival and retention of all collaboration activities, from team sites and discussion threads to instant messages, meeting activities and application-sharing sessions, in a single logical repository, also helped facilitate compliance and enable knowledge management. To help our customers boost their individual and corporate productivity, we must continually increase our understanding of the demands facing information workers today as well as the trends shaping the new world of work.� Gruver said.
In 2007 release, Microsoft is including server side capabilities for MS Excel that make it easier to secure, manage and collaborate with others on spreadsheets, effectively making Excel a more secure and manageable data analysis and presentation tool. Also in MS Office 2007, Share Point products and technologies become a comprehensive portal for all of the BI content and end-user capabilities in SQL Server Reporting Services and Microsoft Office, providing secure access to business information in one place. The 2007 release of the Microsoft Office system introduces custom task panes that give the tool to put the features and information the customers need when and where they want them. It will be easier too to create document templates programmatically for Microsoft Office Word 2007, including information about using the new content controls, document building blocks, and XML mapping.
The firms selling browser-based AJAX clients running against Linux backend, which offer lower ownership costs and optimized browser-based clients and, in some cases, open-source options. There are no chances to see these vendors compete head-to-head against Microsoft. They are more probably to be installed for clients that have les sophisticated messaging needs. Another possible threat to be established order is the movement of public portal sites, as Google, into commercial mail services. It is a messaging and collaborative software product, part of the Windows Server System line of server products and widely used by enterprises using MS infrastructure solution. It is positioned as rival to the Lotus Notes/ Domino server from IBM and competes with a number of competitors; EGroupWare, exchange Linux, Novell GroupWise, Kerio Mail Server, Kolab, Open-Xchance, Oracle Collaboration Suite, PhpgroupWare, Scalix, Zarafa, and Zimbra. The news version is named Exchange 2007. It is o include voice mail integration, better search and support for Web services The company also announced that the new version would run on 64-bit version of Windows only. Microsoft Exchange has more than one half of the market for corporate email seats. The future is presenting a very good perspective, share expected to grow steadily through the end of the decade. This product has the potential to set de direction for the email market. The new release, called Exchange 2007, improves management, adds security elements, and bumps scalability. Microsoft Exchange will change the core notion f what services and email system provides. Microsoft has the next areas of incursion into the third party market: -        Compliance and archiving capabilities, which challenge offerings vendors. -        Voice-mail services challenging services from vendors such as Siemens, and Cisco Systems. -        On-premises and hosted spam and virus blocking services, which challenge those from on-premises vendors such as Symantec, Trend Micro, and Secure Computing. -        Wireless mobile email services, improved in 2007, are a direct challenge to the offerings of the Blackberry franchise, and other services such as those from Nokia Intellisync. In 2006, Microsoft merged his Exchange unit with its real-time communications team, responsible for VoIP, Web conferencing and instant messaging. This maneuver is effectively setting the stage for moving into converged communications. This great-converged communications push Exchange’s voice-interfaces and voice-mail services. Voice messages are attached in a .wma file and routed to a user’s inbox. Users click on the message and have it played on his PC. They can also route the message directly to an alternative device (cell phone). Integrating voice mail with email created business efficiencies via common access command services, and that will become a cornerstone of the unified communication and collaboration movement. Microsoft exchange 2007 will also enable users to interact with email and calendar services over the phone. Users can dial into the Microsoft Exchange server and request that their messages or calendar appointments be read to them via a conversion unit. Some new and spectacular features include: -        Enabling Exchange to answer calls for Office Communication Server (OCS) users who are not available or do not answer. -        Allowing Office Communicators users to access Exchange 2007 voice messages. -        Having Office Communication Server route inbound calls to an Office Communication Server- controlled endpoint. -        Creating set-up and administration efficiencies for the Live Communication Server / Exchange 2007 deployments. Maybe it will take several years to Microsoft’s voice services to be deployed but Exchange/ Outlook will replace incumbent voice-mail suppliers in at least 25% of the Exchange shops (over 5,000 users). The predictions are optimistic: the volume adoption of Microsoft Exchange 2007 will begin earnest in 2008. The installed base will reach 40% in 2010. Via Exchange and MSN/Hotmail Microsoft has more influence on the market than any other vendor. The main advantages are: -        Unified communications. Voice mail and fax capabilities, as well as integration with the voice components of Office Communications Server (OCS) Exchange 2007 moves from email only services to support for a large scale of communication technologies. -        Hosted messaging services. The use of Microsoft hosted, Internet-based spam and virus filtering are included in some licenses of Microsoft exchange 2007. There are also services such as archiving, continuity and encryption. -        Expansion of access mechanisms. Direct Push mobile email services are presenting an improved browser access, and voice interfaces to email and calendar services. This feature will expand the availability of rich email services in a spectacular manner. -        Message control. The more aggressive record management programs, the email abuse are a present and future danger. Exchange 2007 will add facilities for greater control of email by allowing all messages (outbound and inbound) to be interrogated prior to delivery. Some more significant Microsoft Exchange 2007 features and changes are: -        Push email. Microsoft Exchange added push email services for mobile devices in Exchange 2007, and other features such as device and server-based search, improved meeting request handling, support for HTML messages, message flagging and self-service remote device wipe. This is a good option for large deployment across an organization. Microsoft will broadly expand the percentage of employees using the service and will, finally, challenge the established mobile suppliers. -        Recoverability/reliability. Exchange 2007 simplifies cluster set-up and adds support for shared-nothing clusters via a log shipping facility (available in SQL Server). This feature will enable geo-clustering, online continuous backup and off-site disaster recovery services. More organization will have the opportunity to build comprehensive redundancy into email systems, resulting in higher levels of system up time. -        System management. Microsoft Exchange Management Console which runs on the Microsoft Management Console has been rebuilt to improve management efficiencies. Exchange 2007 has a spectacular command line scripting shell, built on Windows PowerShell, which all allow custom management tasks to be automated. Microsoft says that PowerShell will become the model for command-line experience for all Microsoft server products. Exchange 2007 adds more granular administration privileges, such as server set-up only, message flow only, and mailbox features. Everything is done for greater security and control. The result of these features should be an easing of the management burden and reduced risk of employee-induces system errors. -        Message control. Microsoft introduces a new server role called the Hub Transport server (actual an expansion of the current sever role), which allows messages, sent and received, to be reviewed for content and other custom characteristics*size and number of recipients, destination) prior to delivery. Messages that trigger the filter can then are manipulated according to scripted business rules (names transport rules) such as bounce, copy, append, block, and send to archive or quarantine. This service will help meet increasing demands for greater message control and provide a rich opportunity for value-added services from third parties. -        Security. Exchange 2007 adds automatic support for Transport Layer Security –server to server encryption standard, whereby the Exchange gateway severs will make Transport Layer Security connections with receiving message transfer agents where possible. Exchange 2007 servers will also now automatically have Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates and the intranet messages path across all Exchange servers will be encrypted, thereby meting enterprise demands for additional email security. Transport Layer Security services alone; however, are unlikely to meet specific encryption requirements mandated by regulations such as Accountability Act (HIPAA), Gramm Leach Bliley (GBL) and U.S. health Insurance Portability. -        Outlook 2007. Concomitant with the release of Exchange 2007 will be a new version of Outlook, which, while less innovative than the new Exchange version, has some interesting new elements. Interface changes mostly relate to the “compose� and “reply� functions, and a “to do� pane integrates with tasks and calendar items. A new feature is the bidirectional synchronization, with WSS for lists, tasks, calendar appointments, contacts and documents, as well as the ability to archive data to WSS. Calendaring is improved in a spectacular manner, with schedule overlays, team calendars, subscription to Internet calendars and snapshot emailing of calendars. Microsoft Exchange data can be protected 24x7x365 using disaster recovery and high availability solutions. Some of the key features include: -        Wizard-driven creation of new Microsoft Exchange high availability scenarios -        Automated failover and failback capabilities -        Testing and validation of the replica environment -        Built-in rewind technology There are some valuable solutions, cost effective and relatively easy to use. Finally, the new Microsoft Exchange 2007 includes expanded search services, a computational proof algorithm, an RSS reader, and an auto discovery of server functions. All these features help determine when a message needs to be sent to the junk folder. The Exchange franchise is a part of Microsoft’s email portfolio. Its public consumer oriented Hotmail service has one of the largest subscriber bases with 230 million users. Microsoft is the most influential email vendor in the word. Organization must pay attention to its consumer email activities, given the longer term push that Microsoft and, most recently, Google will make toward providing email as a software as a service (SaaS) model. Microsoft has been building an alternative mail infrastructure to Hotmail (which runs on UNIX servers). Called Windows Live Mail. This will offer some spectacular and user friendly features such as a rich AJAX client – drag and drop, right clicking, multi select and rich text editing, and a Windows based back end. Microsoft is offering a no-fee, hosted email service to any legitimate university constituency, including students, alumni, faculty, parents, staff, and applicants. The university keeps its own domain name (or names) by pointing the Mail Exchange records of its Domain Name System to Hotmail / Windows Live mail. Microsoft and other public portals are expected to expand no-fee email services to new constituencies, such as local, state and federal government; nonprofit organizations; primary and secondary schools in the U.S. and Canada. It is possible the see Microsoft expanding the range of offerings to include instant messaging, Internet telephony, Web conferencing, community services, video / audio conferencing, and office personal productivity services (such as word processing). Google and Yahoo have a massive Internet presence and, to keep its own Internet presence viable, Microsoft has to offer rich Web-based functionality to commercial organizations, forcing it to elevate the capabilities of Live, thereby ultimately blurring the line between Live and traditional Office. Given the great ambitions of MSN (in the guise of Live) to expand email services to multiple constituencies, the conclusion is that the biggest competitive threat to Exchange email franchise is MSN itself.
Microsoft’s seemingly ubiquitous operating system, Windows comes in many flavors on both the client and server side. Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith said, in a speech hosted by the New America Foundation at the National Pres Club in Washington, D.C. that Microsoft’s goal is to be principle and transparent as the new Windows’ versions are developed. These principles are intended to provide the industry and consumers with the benefits of ongoing innovation, while creating and presenting robust opportunities for competition. The principles, which consist of 12 tenets, are divided into the following three general categories: -        Choice for computer manufacturer and customers. Microsoft is committed to designing Windows and licensing it on contractual terms so as to make it easy to install non Microsoft programs an to configure Windows-based PCs to use non-Microsoft programs instead of r in addition to Windows features. -        Opportunity for developers. Microsoft is committed to designing and licensing Windows (and the parts of the Windows platform) on terms that create and preserve opportunities for applications developers and Web site creators to build innovative products on the Windows platform, including products that directly compete with Microsoft’s own products. -        Interoperability for users. Microsoft is committed to meeting customer interoperability needs and will do so in ways that enable customers to control their data and exchange information securely and reliably across diverse computer systems and applications. The newest products, Windows Vista, Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 R2, and System Center Reporting Manager are available, as well as IE7. After five long years, Microsoft will release Windows Vista in January 2007 to consumers. They’re re important upcoming technologies, as described by Paul Thurrott. As the product has been in development for over five years, that means that Vista had one of the longest development cycles in the 20-year history of Windows. Vista is, in the same time, evolutionary and revolutionary. It includes modern OS features, such as a new hardware - based graphical user interface. Vista will look familiar to anyone that’s already familiar with Windows XP. Mac fans can claim that many of Vista’s best features appeared first on MAC OS X, some year ago. It is true. Microsoft’s Windows Vista is the future today. It is really hard to put Windows Vista in perspective; on the one hand, it is like XP with a pit-shine, but it is easy t get lost in the seemingly never ending lists of new features. It is a spectacular major Windows version all right. And now it is complete. In reality, Windows Vista is quite different from its predecessors, despite the surface similarities. It is to Microsoft’s credit that hundreds of millions of Windows users will be able to upgrade o move to Windows Vista, install and run almost all of their existing applications, hook up and access almost all of their hardware peripherals, and access all of heir critical data files and other documents, all without any understanding at all of the major changes that Microsoft has wrought. Microsoft described Windows Vista as the platform for the next decade, and it was not a hyperbole. It is a big and very complex product. There are lots of new functionality and many new features. It is also the first Windows release to provide developers with a major new programming model in a decade. Now Microsoft and its partners can build off for years to come… it is, as promised, the biggest new version of Windows since Windows 95. By this time next year, over 100 million people around the word will be using Vista. It is easy to get lost in the never-ending lists of new features; it is a major version all right. This major new Windows version is very important and, ultimately, so desirable. Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates signaled a dramatic shift in the company’s strategy, making a secure, private and reliable computing experience the company’s highest priority. In an increasingly interconnected world of PCs, devices and services, this commitment to Trustworthy Computing is more important than ever. Microsoft is delivering innovations that help business and consumers maintain control over their computers in a world of constantly evolving security threats, to help users become more secure and protect the privacy of their information. Huge efforts were made to offer IT administrators’ new ways to make their companies’ networks more resistant to attacks. Data confidentiality can be preserve, as their integrity and availability as well. Windows Vista brings a new level of confidence to computing through improved security, reliability and management. Building on these advances, Microsoft can work to make computing even more reliable and secure. This is the way they follow: - Building a trust ecosystem in which people, device-makers, organizations and programmers can be properly identified and held accountable for their actions, while still protecting the privacy of end users. - Simplifying security for consumers and IT professionals, through a combination of industry standards, common development tools, and unified practices across platforms, products and services. - Engineering for security by establishing, publishing and sharing best practices, security diagnostic tools and security specific testing methods. Windows Vista has so many compelling technologies, that I never really paid attention to its PDF-like creation technology, called XML Paper Specification (XPS). It is a printer option in all of the Print dialog boxes in Windows Vista. XPS is more than a future competitor for PDF. The Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is the new graphical subsystem in Windows Vista that replaces the old GDI graphical subsystem and makes many of the cool UI features possible; in addition, WPF provides the foundation for a new print subsystem that includes, among other things, support for better color management to allow high fidelity color printing. One of the biggest features of having XPS as a native operating system feature is that it can better tie together what you see on the screen with what you see on the printed output. In other words, since the document can remain in the same format from the time it is created to the time it is printed, convention errors are eliminated and there will be a more consistent format for both screen and print output as far as layout and color. Scheduled for release later this year, the Microsoft® Windows Vista product lineup will bring clarity to customers’ digital world by helping them easily accomplish everyday tasks, instantly find what they want, enjoy the latest in entertainment, improve the safety of their personal information, stay connected at home or on the go, and help ensure PCs are up-to-date, more secure and running smoothly. The Windows Vista product lineup consists of six versions, two for businesses, three for consumers, and one for emerging markets: Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Enterprise, Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Ultimate and Windows Vista Starter. The number of offerings is the same as the number of offerings currently available for Windows® XP. More important, the lineup is designed to deliver clear value to a broad range of customers, each product tailored to meet specific needs of various segments of customers — home PC users, small and medium-sized businesses and the largest enterprises — and is aimed at bringing 64-bit, Media Center and Tablet PC functionality into the mainstream. “We live in a digital world that is filled with more information, more things to do and more ways to communicate with others than ever,� said Mike Sievert, corporate vice president of Windows Product Management and Marketing at Microsoft. “The PC needs to give people the clarity and confidence to handle this ‘world of more’ so they can focus on what’s most important to them. With our Windows Vista product line, we’ve streamlined and tailored our product lineup to provide what our customers want for today’s computing needs.� Windows Vista is designed for businesses of all sizes. Business customers can choose from two versions that are designed to meet their needs, based on the size and scale of their organizations: Windows Vista Business is the operating system designed for organizations of all sizes. For small businesses, Windows Vista Business will help keep PCs running smoothly and more securely so they are less reliant on dedicated IT support. For larger organizations, Windows Vista Business will provide dramatic new infrastructure improvements that will enable IT staff to spend less time focused on day-to-day maintenance of PCs and more time on adding strategic value to the organization. These are some of the specific features of Windows Vista Business: -        A new user interface, named Windows Aero™, is designed to deliver the most productive, highest-performing desktop experience possible. Windows Aero will provide a professional-looking, transparent glass design, with subtle effects such as dynamic reflections and smooth animations, along with Windows Flip and Flip 3D desktop navigation features. -        In addition to these navigation improvements, Windows Vista Business makes it easier than ever to manage huge volumes of business documents. By integrating search throughout the operating system and providing new ways to organize files, Windows Vista Business helps business users quickly find exactly what they are looking for. Windows Tablet PC technology provides built-in handwriting recognition and enables interaction with the PC with a digital pen or fingertip instead of a keyboard. Windows Vista Enterprise: to better address the needs of large global organizations and those with highly complex IT infrastructures, Windows Vista Enterprise are designed to significantly lower IT costs and risk. In addition to all the features available in Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Enterprise is designed to provide higher levels of data protection using hardware-based encryption technology. It will also include tools to improve application compatibility and will enable organizations to standardize on a single worldwide deployment image with the inclusion of all Windows user-interface languages. Windows Vista Enterprise will be available only to customers who have PCs covered by Microsoft Software Assurance or a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement. These are some of the specific Windows Vista Enterprise features: -        Windows BitLocker™ Drive Encryption helps prevent sensitive data and intellectual property from falling into the wrong hands if a computer is lost or stolen. -        Virtual PC Express is one of several built-in tools that improve application compatibility with previous versions of Microsoft operating systems. Virtual PC Express enables a legacy application to run unchanged on a legacy Windows operating system in a virtual environment on top of Windows Vista Enterprise. -        Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications enables users to run UNIX applications unchanged on a Windows Vista Enterprise-based PC. The new user interface Windows Aero is also available in this edition of Windows Vista. Windows Vista is an incredible new experiences and choices for the home PC user. Consumers can choose from three versions that deliver exciting new experiences for the home PC user: Windows Vista Home Basic: Windows Vista Home Basic is a great choice for homes with basic computing needs. For consumers who want to simply use the PC to browse the Internet, correspond with friends and family through e-mail or perform basic document creation and editing tasks, Windows Vista Home Basic will deliver a safer, more reliable and more productive computing environment. It will provide new tools and technologies for making the PC more secure and enjoyable, including features such as a new Search Explorer, Sidebar and Parental Controls. Windows Vista Home Premium: Windows Vista Home Premium will help consumers use mobile or desktop PC functionality more effectively while enabling the enjoyment of new, exciting digital entertainment experiences. Windows Vista Home Premium improves every aspect of digital entertainment experiences, including photos, video, TV, movies, music and games. Windows Vista Home Premium includes everything in Windows Vista Home Basic, along with additional features and enhancements such as the following: the new user interface Windows Aero is also available in this edition of Windows Vista. Windows Vista Home Premium integrates search throughout the operating system, helping customers easily organize and quickly find large collections of documents, pictures, movies, videos and music. Windows Media Center capabilities turn the PC into an all-in-one home entertainment center. Consumers can use Media Center to record and watch TV shows (even high-definition TV) and access new kinds of online entertainment content. It also provides the ability to connect Windows Vista Home Premium to Xbox 360™, extending the Media Center experience to multiple rooms in the home. Windows Tablet PC technology, which enables interaction with the PC with a digital pen or fingertip instead of a keyboard, is also available in this edition of Windows Vista. Integrated DVD burning and authoring allows users to seamlessly burn personal videos photos and files to video or data DVDs, and easily create professional-looking DVDs from home movies that can be shared with family and friends. Windows Vista Ultimate: Windows Vista Ultimate is the edition of Windows Vista that has it all. It is the first operating system that brings together all the entertainment features, mobility features and business-oriented features available in Windows Vista. All new versions are available for either 32-bit or 64-bit systems, depending on the needs of the customer. Windows Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Ultimate and Business will be available as a full-packaged product at retail and on new PCs. Windows Vista Enterprise will be offered only to business customers participating in Microsoft’s Software Assurance program. Microsoft also will offer Windows Vista Starter in emerging markets. Windows Vista Starter is designed to empower families and entry-level PC users in these markets to experience the world of social and educational benefits that personal computer technology and the Internet makes possible. A 32-bit operating system designed specifically for lower-cost computers, Windows Vista Starter enables popular beginner PC activities and provides an easy-to-use and more affordable entry point to the Windows Vista family of products. “Windows Vista is going to be a significant release for all Windows customers — including enterprises, small and medium-sized businesses as well as consumers,� said Al Gillen, research director for System Software at IDC. “Microsoft’s strategy to address different customer segments with versions of Windows Vista optimized for their needs should be well received by these diverse user segments.� All versions of Windows Vista are available.
Mac OS X is the “client� release of Mac OS X Server, targeted at any Mac that Apple shied with Power G3 processor or better. Some Linux users say Mac OS X has future over Linux, because there is a lot more to a desktop platform than just the OS; it is the entire infrastructure that matters. A solid desktop OS needs all manner of support from front foundries, file conversion utilities, installers and an ability to open and work with documents across all other platforms in friendly fashion. Mac OS X is a uniquely powerful development platform, supporting multiple development technologies including UNIX, Java, and a host of open source, Web, scripting, database, and development technologies. At the center of Apple Computer’s OS X as a BSD Unix kernel and other BSD components, together called Darwin. Additional open-source components sit on top of Darwin, as well as applications written by Apple. Any changes Apple makes become available to the open-source community, and many find their way to FreeBSD. When it comes to UNIX on the laptop, Apple is ahead of the game. For years, it has had OS X running on its PowerBooks. Apple’s unified operating system strategy means OS X a small desktop is the same as on a G5 server. New releases extend across Apple’s product line. The company likes to take advantage of existing components with open-source licenses. For example, rather than write a Web server from scratch, Apple has innovated o top of Apache. The development directions are pointing to make Mac OS X an amazing multifaceted platform. The current release brings developers revolutionary new technologies like Spotlight, Dashboard, Autotamor, Core Data, and Core Image. These powerful additions to the modern, UNIX-based foundation make Mac OS X Tiger the most advanced operating system available. Just like Apple’s transition from Mac OS9 to Mac OS X requires new versions of the applications we use every day, the transition to Intel-based Macs is forcing developers to update their code once again. Apple is doing its best to make that transition as painless as possible for developers and end-users alike through a new type of application type called Universal Binary (UB). A UB application contains the necessary code to run natively on a PowerPC-based Mac as well as an Intel-Based Mac, like the new iMac or MacBook Pro. The good news is that users can get faster, more powerful Macs in their hands far earlier than expected. The bad news is that many developers weren’t ready for the quick release, and don’t have their applications ready to go. Microsoft publicly committed to a five-year agreement with Apple to continue developing and supporting Office for the Macintosh. The downside is that it did not explicitly state when Universal Binary versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and entourage will be available. Based on early reports, however, that shouldn’t be a big problem. The Office applications seem to be running just fine in Rosetta. In theory, Java-based applications should run without a hitch on the Intel-based Macs. In reality, there may be some problems. A PowerPC-based application that relies on Java that includes the JNI Libraries, the application most likely won’t even launch. The entire Mac community, both developers and users, have entered into a multi-years transition. Apple is currently selling PowerPC and Intel-based Macs, which is forcing developers to support two hardware platforms with their applications. Until the transition is complete, expect to see slower release cycles, since essentially two versions of an application need to be developed and tested before they are delivered to users. Once Apple finishes its transition, however, there will still be several years where users have a mixed PowerPC and Intel environment, thanks to the resilience of the Mac. Unlike the Windows world, Mac users can continue to use a machine for five years, seven years, or even longer. But don’t expect to see developers writing Universal Binary applications ten years from now. Odds are that they will be writing Intel only versions by that point. Although we may go though some rough patches now, things will smooth out once we all have shiny, new, faster and more powerful Intel -based Macs sitting on our desks. Mac OS Tiger was already over its time in 2005, but this was not a reason to stop its evolution. The Apple’s engineers are continuing to go on … Let’s raise the curtain on the immediate future: there is Mac OS X Leopard. It offers functionalities, which simplify the research and the access to all that is on a computer to benefit from it truly. Leopard presents a new functionality: the “Time Machine�. It is much more powerful than a simple function of safeguard. Time Machine gives the possibility to restore the system, activating its navigator. It gives the possibility to seek files lost or removed, navigate between various versions of the same project or examine the whole system as from the first day of its installation. What about more flexible parental controls of the Leopard? It enables the user to impose restrictions on the use of Internet. He can, for example, define a moment of the day and a duration when his child can play War craft. Thanks to the new remote control, the user can also parameterize the parental control of anywhere. The new version of Builder Interface makes possible to carry out operations of refactorisation and to add animation effects to any applications. X-ray compares the user events and measurements of performances in order to provide invaluable information to optimize any application. “Spotlight� from Leopard can now activate a research in the network’s files, which makes possible to carry out researches on several Macs. Thanks to the research options, even more powerful and flexible, Spotlight gives the means of locating any file on the computer and beyond. All this functionalities and much more will be available in a universal operating system, completely accessible, on 64 bits, available in 2007.
It looks like Apple has a good chance of succeeding with its digital hub strategy. He has the imagination, savvy and guts necessary to become the 21st century digital media mogul. More than ever, Apple is going to transition the iPod to an increasingly Mac OS X-like software architecture. The long rumored iPhone will be introduced in a short timeframe, and as predicted, will follow the 6G iPod in being a standardized, OS-X-like Apple device that will bring revolutionary integration between the Mac and non-Mac products which Apple offers. Dan Farber written about Apple and the Macintosh in the future: “I would give Apple a good chance of succeeding with its digital hub strategy. He has the imagination, savvy and guts necessary become a 21st century digital media mogul�. How Microsoft sees the Macintosh future? Not surprisingly, MS doesn’t see much change with the Mac moving to Intel. They’re in the process of creating the next version of Office for the Mac, and it’ll run on both PC and Intel Macs. For Windows development, Apple suddenly creates PCs, too. Phil Schiller said: “We’ve heard that Apple won’t keep people from installing Windows on Macs.� The slow move to the PC side did scare them? Obviously, it doesn’t. “We’re not in the business of selling PCs ourselves. We sell software licenses. A Mac user who buys Virtual PC with a Windows license or buys a Windows license for an Intel Mac or buys a Windows license for a no name PC: Same thing for us-we sell a Windows license� said Phil Schiller. Interesting years ahead… Dan Smith, an Apple Principal Software Engineer, said, “The only thing I can really say is that it is been looking down the line five years o so, with respect to what hardware will be available. A lot of the ideas people have had require a significant amount of hardware. Some of those ideas are probably going to see the light of day in the not too distant future, as the hardware developers catch up the minds of the software developers. Eric Wilfrid from the Microsoft Macintosh Business Unit explained what Microsoft’s .NET means to MacBU. Microsoft .NET is a platform for something we call XML Web services, which are intended to address the integration problems. It spans many different platforms. First, the client platform, where there is a number of different devices, the PowerBook right there in the center, it indicates the readiness, the willingness to make this a part of the .NET platform. The edge of the network is rich with computing power, and it’s tremendously underused today. Microsoft .NET also defines a set of tools, Visual Studio.NET, the .NET frameworks, the XML, the .NET My Services API. These tools span in a single, consistent programming model across client, server, and service to provide very high productivity experiences for developers to set up these Web services, or the clients that access them. Microsoft .NET is built on open, broadly ported protocols and standards, simple, for iniquitous communications, really HTTP and the Internet, the universal data format for .NET is going to be XML, a self-describing kind of package of data. Simple Object access Protocol (SOAP) is the protocol were going to use to allow services to talk to services, or devices to talk to services, and it will make the service do things. How does Microsoft.Net relate to the Mac? The Mac is a great client platform for connecting to .NET Microsoft Mac Business Unit, will create connections between the client software, Office, Internet explorer, other things, and these back end services that provide the next level of services that can be provided, so that the computing platform becomes that much more compelling. There will be high quality XML Web services support, well build integration that is necessary with Passport and .NET My Services, well build all the features on top of that will allow the next great version of Office to exist, and to be attractive to the user. In a few short years, a rather small group of very talented and dedicated people at Apple built a computer system designed to be used by ordinary people. What specific circumstances created this conjunction of technical talent is beyond our knowledge. However, it did happen and for a brief time there was an unparalleled flash of brilliance that is now fading image. Hopefully this fading flash will be rekindled in the future. Having the Lisa legacy without learning from it would be worse than not having a legacy at all.
Domino comes from IM division Lotus and is its sophisticated server-side messaging and groupware. Lotus uses the Domino name to refer to a set of Notes server applications that allow for collaborative work and development across an organization. IBM will not abandon Lotus notes/Domino clients, but by 2009 the vendor plans to use a future version of Workplace of Lotus notes/Domino. Upcoming changes will mark the first significant steps in Notes’ evolution from the premier client experience among IBM Lotus software offering to the premier client experience in IBM workplace, the client side of IBM’s next generation software portfolio. Lotus has looked into its crystal ball, and the IBM software division sees nothing but blue skies over its Lotus Notes/Domino collaboration and e-mail software. In reality, Lotus has several future versions in the planning stages; everyone will run independently as long as that is what customers’ desire. At first glance, it looks like the new product will force another choice: migrate or switch. But as far as Lotus can see into the future, Lotus Notes/Domino has a secure position in its portfolio – one that will be invested in, improved upon, and marketed. Going forward, Notes will support not only IMAP and LDAP and other establishes standards, but also an expanded programming model that supports Java and J2EE and emerging standards like Eclipse and SyncML. The goal is to grow the use base of IBM/Lotus collaboration customers to 200 million, from the current 118 million users the company claims to have on Notes/Domino. It is clear that IBM Workplace will be the future of Lotus Notes/Domino. Lotus software is security-rich, enables businesses to communicate, collaborate and increase productivity, helping the users to solve today’s challenges and prepare them for continued success in the future. IBM plans to enhance the next important version of Lotus domino with composite applications, activity-centric computing, service-oriented architecture, and support for server-managed clients. Designed to work with the next major release of Lotus Notes, the version of Lotus Domino will provide some spectacular new functions and features, like team space. The next version of Lotus Notes and Lotus domino will be available in 2007. There seem to be two main themes in this future world of Lotus Notes. First, there is the idea that WebShere Application Server is a rival to Lotus Domino and may eventually swallow it. Second, there is the idea that Java and J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition) is a rational direction in which to take the development aspects of the Lotus products. WebSphere is a server that runs programs written in the Java language, not a replacement for Domino, it is a replacement for a bit f Domino that runs agents known as the Agent Master, only a replacement for the bit that runs Java agents because the Agent Manager cal also run Lotuscript, Simple Action, and Formula language agents too. The truth is there is no logic in merging the two products; they simply do not serve the same purpose. Is Java and J2EE the right direction for lotus Domino because Lotus Domino is and all-in-one solution, a rapid application development environment. It does everything quite well; it’s a quick fix. The people who need Lotus Notes and Domino are not patient people; they want results now, and they don’t want to see lots of system flow charts and non-functional prototypes. The lack of true application development and over-complexity are weaknesses of servers like WebSphere and Weblogic, and it looks like Domino is destined to help solve the problem. For customers of Lotus Domino, the fact that it helps J2EE based servers out of a hole is only a useful feature. Lotus Domino integrates with everything: DB2, Oracle, LDAP, and SAP. Web application servers like Weblogic and WebSphere that implement J2EE are going to be very important in the future, and Domino must work with them. The integration must work smoothly. Lotus’s vision of its software’s future is one of choice. Customers will be able to choose what they want for a collaborative messaging system, whether it is Lotus Notes/Domino, Workplace, or some combination of the two. “To make the story complete, we’re doing a number of things to make sure that people who have Notes and people who have Workplace are fundamentally buying the same product family�, says Art Fontaine, an IBM Lotus senior offering manager. Customers can use Lotus Notes as is or extend it with Workplace client technology that provides a more portal-like appearance and a more integrated collaboration suite. Customers will be soon able to plug the Notes client into Workplace for e-mail. In Notes versions beyond 7.5, users will be able to take advantage of server deployment capabilities available in Workplace, including no-touch deployment and ongoing administration. Lotus Notes/Domino is doing well now. Lotus reports having a Notes customer base of more than 118 million users. David Ferris, president of Ferris Research, says: “Lotus’s share of the messaging market is holding at about 25 percent of the business seats in e-mail systems and about $300 million revenue�. “Messaging and collaboration software has moved into the mission-critical category for many businesses, and IBM’s Lotus Notes and Do | |