Microsoft has identified the minimum operating requirements for PC’s that might run Microsoft’s future Operating system ‘Windows Vista’ due out next January (2007).

“A ‘Vista Capable’ PC will require at least an 800MHz processor, 512MB of system memory, a DirectX 9 capable graphics card, a 40GB hard drive with at least 15GB of free space, a DVD drive, and audio and internet capabilities.
The only extra requirements for a ‘Vista Premium Ready’ PC are a 1GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor, 1GB of Ram and a graphics card with 128MB of onboard memory capable of supporting Windows Aero2.”
Several beta testers have indicated that these requirements for even the Premium Ready levels are currently not enough to prevent the OS from operating ’sluggishly’.

If history is a lesson, it will probably be necessary to read between the lines of these guidelines. Typically the minimum levels Microsoft has recommended in the past, would work with a stripped down machine and system, and were more useful for technology enthusiasts that were interested in trying it as an experiment, ‘just to see if it could be done.’ Therefore, these minimum recommendations will probably not be for everyone.
For the higher end recommendations, it has been typical for users to at least consider doubling up on memory and processor per the MS recommendations.
So if MS is recommending 512MB, users probably will need at least 1GB, If MS is recommending at least 1.32Ghz, then shoot for 2.6GHz. If the video card needs 128mb of on board memory, better bet that you’ll need and want 256 or better.

don’t get me wrong, people get lucky and sometimes can cram something into an old machine. I ran office 2000 on a 6 year old laptop with 16mb of ram, running a 1994 version of Windows. Strange things can be done, but don’t bet your job, business, education or career on it. Better safe than sorry, and from what I’ve seen of the new OS, you’ll probably be much happier if you upgrade when the time comes.

Side Note. Vista is due out in January 2007. Preloaded machines from Xmas won’t have the new OS unless a MS Christmas miracle occurs. Therefore, many of the retailers are probably going to go thin on PC/laptop inventory through Christmas expecting a big reset in the spring of 2007. I wouldn’t expect to many bundling options in January or February that make good bargains. However, once all those unsold and returned machines from Christmas get refurbed and put back on the market in February and March of 2007, there could be some interesting hard ware options that will show up.

Microsoft surprises with Vista hardware specs - vnunet.com

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Microsoft is working hard to catch up with Google. We have to wonder if they will be able to succeed. After all, Microsoft has a terrible track record of throwing money at a problem in an attempt to grab the number 1 or number 2 position. Everyone has witnessed how poorly Microsoft’s efforts paid off when they attempted to bump IBM’s OS2 and Apple’s OS out of the market, not to mention poor showings in forays with Netscape navigator, and Real Player. Microsoft obviously tanked in all those matchups. . . .Well actually they didn’t, they took market leads in all areas. They have been much less successful with web design tools as Frontpage has faired miserably against Dreamweaver, but MS has a solution to that as well with Microsoft Expression, which is even offered Free through the end of the year!

Currently Microsoft is number 3 for ad revenues behind Google and Yahoo!. They would like to catch up in advertising and in search. They are hoping to leverage their presence in mobile phones, gaming systems, and Digital television to help take share by creating a bigger market. Google may hold a lead in web browsing alone, but expand that out to advertising in gaming consoles and Microsoft has an obvious advantage with Xbox 360 (Oh and they are trying to beat Sony and Nintendo in that market too.)

Microsoft is often lauded as being slow to develop and poor at creating great new applications, however they are great at playing catch up! They are also very good at waging a multi-front assault on many different competitors at one time.

Microsoft is rapidly turning itself into the General Electric of Software and Internet technology, building out many very broad and increasingly very deep markets.

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Let’s face it, Microsoft is going on a rampage.

They kicked the year off by launching Xbox 360 and going after Sony’s lead in the gaming business. Microsoft followed this up by pushing Samsung and two other manufacturers to design build and field a new handheld device codenamed Origami.

They have been pushing hard to make headway in mobile phones and smart phone technologies.

However, there is pride on the line now. Microsoft has felt a bit of MicroInsecurity in the Online arena. They have been working overtime to beef up their MSN search capability to fight back against Google. They ran a beta pay per click advertising program that went fully live today with stage one working to plant advertisements on Microsoft controlled sites - displacing ads from Yahoo and Google on their own sites. Future phases will likely see the rollout of ads offered on other publisher website. The new service in this arena will be called AdCenter, a slight variation on Google’s AdWords for advertisers and AdSense for publishers.

Microsoft’s AdCenter will boast the ability to deliver ads to viewers by location and by user profile. So if a Mazda dealership in Savannah, Georgia wants to target ads to twenty something college kids for one car and target other ads to twenty something GI’s for a different car, Microsoft can sort the users out and deliver the ad. All this for a premium advertising fee compared to a fee strictly based on the importance of Keyword bidding as has been the standard in Google bidding arenas.

Microsoft hasn’t stopped there, they have also made several purchases lately and seems to be shopping hard.

It purchased Proclarity not long ago in an effort to boost the look and feel and user interface for SQL 2005. Proclarity is an OLAP data warehouse /datacube tool. Then Microsoft announced efforts to extend links of its SQL 2005 product into closed box Hyperion.

Rounding up the purchases this week, Microsoft purchased Massive a company that focuses on placing advertisements within online video games. Plus, there is talk that Microsoft is looking for an advertising analytics tool to work with possibly both its Adcenter ad campaigns as well as potentially in the online gaming advertisement arena.

Its only May 5th, and Microsoft is tacking hard into the wind going against many different areas. They have delayed the launch of Windows vista and pushed back Office 2007. However, this is a very different segment of the business, that has always pushed back launches since if not before Windows 3.0.

The online world, hardware world, entertainment world and even the old stoggy software world, need to consider where and how hard Microsoft is going to hit next!

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One of the messages out of Hyperion’s recent Las Vegas trade show was the anouncement that Hyperion and Microsoft would be working to integrate their Business Intelligence solutions more closely.

Hyperion, Microsoft To Integrate BI Solutions: “Hyperion - a business performance management (BPM) solutions leader, and Microsoft will integrate their respective BI solutions. This collaboration will enable broader deployment of complementary BI solutions from Hyperion and Microsoft to customers that have adopted components of each.

For example, Hyperion customers will be able to use SQL Server Reporting Services to access Hyperion System 9 BI+ Essbase Analytics, and also display Microsoft reports in the Hyperion System 9 Workspace environment.

Microsoft customers will be able to access SQL Server Analysis Services data using Hyperion System 9 BI+. Also, Hyperion System 9 will leverage SQL Server Integration Services for data access.

Users will thus benefit by combining reports and data from both Hyperion and Microsoft data sources into a unified enterprise view.

‘Microsoft is committed to its expansive partner network building on the Microsoft platform and to continuing to form strong relationships with our global independent software vendors (ISVs) to benefit our mutual customers,’ said Robert Bernard, GM - global ISV group, Microsoft.

‘By integrating our leading BPM technology with Microsoft technology, we accelerate our ability to help our customers achieve information democracy - a state in which actionable insight is in the hands of all - across their enterprises,’ said Howard Dresner, Chief Strategy Officer, Hyperion. “

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It should be a slam dunk press event.

The Cast: Heavy weight partners Samsung, Microsoft and Intel all on stage together.

The Plan: Show off the latest and greatest gadget to full effect doing it what its designed to do.

The Audience: News and technology vendors from all walks in one of the most advanced technology cities in the world, Seoul Korea.

The Product: Samsung Q1 Ultra Mobile PC alias Microsoft Origami.

The Problem: Either the executives from each of the big 3 can’t work the product or the product doesn’t work or some combination of the two!

The Korea Times details a presentation Snafu during a press conference designed to show off the Samsung Origami device named Q1.

Executives from the three partnering companies gathered together to provide a presentation on the new Origami unit from Samsung named the Q1.

Three Strikes and their out!

Strike 1
Samsung’s Vice President of the PC Division attempted to make his presentation using the Samsung Q1, but could not get the device to toggle to the 2nd page of the presentation (the device has no keyboard).

Strike 2
After getting help from his staff, the VP made it several pages into the presentation only to be stomped on when the batteries ran out(the device has a 3 hour battery life as projected)

Foul Ball
Microsoft Korean unit President was next up to pinch hit, but couldn’t get started without assistance from the Samsung staff, and then watched as the device rapidly scrolled through the entire presentation in just a few seconds.

Strike 3
Confidently rising to the podium Intel’s Exec claimed he could avoid the problem by “‘do it my own way as my predecessors have had a difficult time.’” Unfortunately, he received the third strike for the group as he also required help from the Samsung team to make the device function appropriately.

Samsung is hoping to sell 100,000 units in the first 12 months, but will need to practice their presentation and consider improving battery life and increasing the availability of user training, especially within their own ranks.

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AMD has requested a subpoena Microsoft to support AMD’s anti-trust lawsuit against Intel.

(see Kristen Kennedy’s article AMD subpoenas Microsoft in Intel Antitrust Case)
“Specifically, the subpoena requests documents reflecting the following:
Microsoft’s decision to develop software for AMD’s 64-bit CPUs, and the timing and schedule for development of that software.
Microsoft’s discussions concerning desktop, development and implementation of standards, specification protocol or software for secure input interfaces, and AMD or Intel’s inclusion in such discussions. An AMD spokesman said this issue largely refers to the Trusted Computing initiatives that have been worked on by Intel and Microsoft.
Discussions pertaining to actual or perceived collaboration or support of AMD’s advertising and promotion, AMD processors, support of AMD product launches, and Intel’s reaction to that support.
Discussions internally and with third parties concerning AMD’s financing, valuation or financial viability.
Discussions and reports comparing Intel and AMD products from a price, quality and performance standpoint.”

Bill Gates expressed how he used Share Point to find information in his corporation these days. Therefore, we should probably expect an press push by Microsoft as it touts a cost saving example by using its own server to track down the subpoena information. It was just a few years ago when Larry Ellis of Oracle proclaimed that his company had saved $1b by installing Oracle.

So how much will bill save in legal fees and research using Sharepoint?

Many companies spend a large fortune attempting to track information so that they can document for legal proceedings Sorbanes Oxley requirements, SEC requirements, Accounting documentation and tax returns.

Can Microsoft turn this into a an advertising play?

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At a press conference in Korea intended to promote the new Samsung Origami unit called Q1, the presenters ran into technical issues. They were attempting to run the presentation with an actual Q1 (Samsung Origami unit) and technical glitches seemed to steel the show.

The presenter from Samsung had difficulty toggling pages & then before his presentation ended the battery on his Q1 died.

The presenter from Microsoft didn’t fair much better, requiring assistance and then a technical glitch fast forwarded through his slides in just a few seconds.

The third and final presenter from Intel tried to make a brave show of it, but also required assistance from a staff member to get the unit to function.

The unit has already been criticized for having a short battery life (3 hours normal use/ 2 hours DVD), and to have one die in the middle of a presentation by the makers does not help ease the situation.

It would appear that all three groups are going to have to push for an upgrade option for a better battery. Training programs might not hurt either.

The Korea Times : ‘Origami’ Stumps CEOs in Jobs-Style Presentation

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A day in the life of Bill Gates, seems pretty much like anyone else, minus the short plugs for his own products that he uses himself all day long.

Hey wait a second so do most of us, except I only use two monitors not three, and don’t have a share point server.

Anyway, there’s just a little bit of introspection in this article by Bill about Bill on how he works. There’s nothing new in this articles not published elsewhere, but it probably does make for a nice quick footnote or update to the Road Ahead. Especially the part where he talks about using an old fashioned white board and gathering up information for his think week using info gathered off of share point server.

Special Edition: The 2006 FORTUNE 500 - Yahoo! Finance

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ShadowRam of CRN trade magazine from March 13, 2006, made a short comment about the lackluster of the Origami device.

ChannelWeb: “Origami is nothing more than a device from Samsung and other vendors running Windows XP Tablet PC Edition version 2.0 with enhanced touch screen and better navigation. In other words: yawn. ”

It would appear the comment is negative, however, its a bit of a forehanded criticism. Talking about how there is nothing special about the Origami unit by describing what is special. It would seem to be Anti-Microsoft code for, you cand hand it to Microsoft for doing something right because they are Microsoft.

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