Vlad Mazek – Vladville Blog

This should be a relatively slow week coming up considering most of us will be attending the SMB Nation conference in Redmond, WA. I’ll make it a point to bring a ton of “stuff” back for the group and we will reserve about 15-20 minutes to go over everything that was discussed.

I will also have meetings with several important Microsoft staffers that have expressed interest in working with our IT Professional communities in Florida and will do my best to represent all our interests and concerns. If you’ve ever attended an IT Pro or SBS group meeting you already know what the issues are and I hope a lot of positive momentum comes from my discussion with the interested parties in Microsoft. Whether as employees or IT business workers we all have a vested interest in working with Microsoft as partners and I think they are starting to realize it as such. To this day, however, our support comes overwhelmingly from the local Microsoft employees who believe in the development of their community as much as we do and go out of their way to help us when it really is not their job. Those guys are Greg Boyd, Rene Alamo, Blain Barton and Orlando’s own J.J. Antequino. I hope this trip adds more support to our efforts as it is really a net benefit to everyone involved.

Have a wonderful week and we’ll get back to business on Monday.

-Vlad

One of my buddies, and a close friend of our Orlando IT Pro group, always opened his seminars with a story about how one of his friends never bothered upgrading his Office 97 because it was “just good enough”. His response was: “Of course it is good enough, because you use it the same way” reinforcing the message that the new features of Office 2003 lead to greater productivity, security and accessibility.

That is quite clearly Microsoft’s direction – you need more features! With the exception of Microsoft Outlook 2003, I on the other hand use about 5% of the features of Office 2003 and could quite easily get by with Office 2000. So could nearly all of my customers and partners and if it were not for the fear of security threats that a discontinued product presents, I’d be writing this text in Word 2000.

I am not alone. Earlier this week the Massachusetts state government dumped Microsoft Office for a less functional but free, open and working alternative. People go against Microsoft solutions every day, but the news here is that customer(s) are starting to accept the feature-price tradeoff if the alternative is “good enough” while also being free and secure.

What is even more important is how will your business change if more businesses go with the minimal solution that just gets the job done. Significant part of the IT VAR revenues comes from platform upgrades, and if the next release upgrade cannot be justified, where will you make money? Just something to ponder…

It was nice to see a handful of our members made the trek to Tampa last Wednesday to see what’s new with the SQL Server 2005. Thank you for stopping by and saying hello and I hope you had the time to chat with Greg Boyd and Mike Powell, two of the former Microsoft Connections presenters that have been a huge asset to our IT community. They both seemed much happier and happened to regain some of their hair. In case you didn’t get the chance to go here are some of the notes I think you’ll find interesting. If you’d like to know more, or if you have any questions, Blain Barton will be presenting SQL 2005 during our meeting. Please RSVP.

Here is what you missed:

• Price for SQL Server 2005 will be higher than for SQL Server 2000. If you have been holding off SQL 2005 projects until the release, obtaining SQL Server 2000 with Software Assurance will run you less than SQL Server 2005 with Software Assurance.
  SQL Server 2005 is set to launch on November 7th, 2005 at the same time as Visual Studio 2005 and BizTalk 2006.

• There will be a local Orlando Launch of SQL Server 2005 scheduled for December 8, 2005. This is a free, all-day event with two tracks: developer or system administrator (ITPRO). It will be held at the Orange County Convention Center (OCCC) on International Drive so this will be a big event.
• Keynote address was delivered by Francois Ajenstat, Microsoft GPM for SQL Server Core BI Engine. He claimed SQL 2005 was the most successful beta product ever with over 785,000 copies distributed. Hope this gives you an idea of the potential demand you will see shortly.
• SQL Server 2005 will feature 10-12 second failover, online re-index operation without shutdown (reindex without dropping clients), snapshot isolation, reduced surface area services (only SQL Server Engine is installed by default), storing encrypted data in the database and the channel encryption using PKI, included Best Practices Analyzer to give you idea of which settings to tweak, Upgrade Advisor to let you know what might go wrong with SQL Server 2005 deployment, SQL Server Migration Assistant, integration with Business Score Card Manager 2005, CLR support (meaning stored procedures and scripts can be written in any .NET language) and most things are now database objects (queue’s for example).
• Most relevant to most IT Pro’s still reading this horribly mangled run-on list: You can have SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005 running on the same system, side-by-side, with all tools and support software at the same time. SQL Server 2005 installs in a separate directory as a separate instance, so your migration from SQL 2000 to SQL 2005 can happen with little-to-no downtime.

Douglas Crumpler, member of our South Florida sister group, has been working with the Florida EOC and FEMA to render assistance to the IT Professionals affected by the catastrophic effects of Hurricane Katrina. Doug has sent out invitations to IT Professionals in Florida that may be willing to help with the recovery and rebuilding process of the IT infrastructure in the affected areas. Orlando, to one degree or another, was struck by three hurricanes last year and I know you all remember trying to make it without power, broadband or perhaps even a few roof tiles. People in the gulf states have it much worse, most having lost their houses, businesses or even worse.

If you have the means and willingness to help in the enormous task of rebuilding the IT infrastructure please get in touch with Doug and offer your assistance.

We’ll be at the Windows IT PRO (SQL Server Magazine) SQL 2005 roadshow in Tampa today. I know a lot of our members will be out there so take a minute and stop by. Culminis was kind enough to provide us with a table thanks to the efforts we made to get the word out so hope you have fun.

I know our old buddy Greg Boyd will be out there from 10AM – 1PM so see if you can find him. If you can’t see him, you need new glasses.

There are many (many, many, many) rumors that the Vista Beta2 will be feature-complete in a few weeks and Microsoft has already put the Beta 1 in front of enough eyes to get some feedback. If you weren’t part of any Partner Technight’s, IT Pro group install-fests or such here is your opportunity to throw in your two cents.

Kevin’s Blog Entry asking for Vista feedback

Kevin is an IT Pro evangelist, not a product developer but he is in the chain of people that provide user feedback to product groups. If you have a concern, especially a business concern on how to sell Vista, you need to speak now while they are still listening.

In a true “as seen on TV” move, Microsoft has purchased Teleo, the startup provider of VoIP services common in nearly every VoIP provider, IM and even cable package. I know I’m not alone in asking this but have you ever turned on the TV on a Sunday morning and just questioned the sanity of people buying some of the crap people are advertising? It slices, it dices, it cuts tomatos and hammers!

So what kind of a hammer or tomato will Teleo help cut for Microsoft? The VoIP functionality is already provided in MSN and Windows Messenger. The SIP for corporate use is already provided in Office Communicator through Live Communication Server. The click-to-call is already part of PocketPC Windows Mobile 2003 SE. Voice, even video chat is available through just about every connected presence app out there.

So what is Microsoft up to? Is this just going to beef up the Messenger to help it fight Google Talk or is Microsoft entering the VoIP market? Looking at the Microsoft product portfolio though I hope they got the Carlton Sheet’s 30 day unconditional money-back waranty if they are not completely thrilled by the product 🙂

Update: Apparently BBC knows something that I don’t. Article goes on to talk about IM->Phone line chat which was available in MSN IM years ago. I remember using it. Then they restricted it to 5 minutes of free time so I find the story a little humorous.

Windows Server R2 RC0 has been released. Talk about a cryptic title! The R2 is an upgrade to Windows Server 2003 SP1 that adds a ton of enterprise features (thus the “rev 2” title) and the first CTP has been put on the web.

You can register to download it here but please keep in mind that this is a CTP, RC0, alpha, beta… pick your word for broken and there you are. Do not roll this onto a production system.

Why R2? Well it includes improved branch office server solutions, identity and access management and storage management and the thing I’ve been raving about: SharePoint TrustBridge technology that allows different companies to share parts of their SharePoint sites with other SharePoint sites. You could syndicate your content to your business partners SharePoint web and integrate your information. Very cool.

These come from Paul Thurrott who has many connections with Microsoft so they may be more than rumors but I feel a need to disclose that to any of you that might be making purchasing decisions based on complete strangers blog…. and if you are, I demand consulting fees from you! Make checks payable to Vlad…

Windows Vista

….Microsoft is planning to ship Windows Vista Beta 2 in late 2005, not in early 2006.

According to internal documentation, Vista Beta 2 is scheduled to be “feature complete” by September 29, 2005. Then, Vista Beta 2 will enter lockdown mode between October and November 9, 2005. After that date, Vista Beta 2 will be in escrow and will ship on December 7, 2005, about 3 weeks later.

What about post-Beta 2? According to a second set of documentation viewed yesterday, Microsoft will ship Vista Release Candidate 0 (RC0) on April 19, 2006, and Windows Vista RC1 on June 28, 2006. Microsoft currently plans to release Vista to manufacturing on August 9, 2006, and make the product broadly available by November 15, 2006.

Longhorn Server

Except for the release to manufacturing (RTM) date, all the Vista dates apply to Longhorn Server as well. But once we reach summer 2006, Longhorn Server will fork from the Vista client release schedule. We’ll see an RC2 release of Longhorn Server on October 18, 2006, and the RTM release on January 10, 2007, according to the latest documentation.

That’s a much earlier release date than previously anticipated.

WinFS

Microsoft surprised a lot of people by shipping WinFS Beta 1 yesterday (see more at source), and as it turns out, the project is suddenly well ahead of schedule. In the more recent schedule, WinFS Beta 1 will be followed by at least one Community Technology Preview (CTP) release, which is currently due February 15, 2006. Then, on May 1, 2006, Microsoft will release WinFS Beta 2. Beta 3 is currently scheduled for November 15, 2006, with a Beta 3 Refresh release expected in April 2007. WinFS is currently scheduled for RTM in third quarter 2007, well after Longhorn Server.

SQL Server 2005

SQL Server 2005 will ship within months. On September 13, 2005, the first day of the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) 2005, Microsoft will announce that SQL Server 2005 has hit the RC1 milestone, and the company will place the code into escrow in anticipation of the final release. The English language version of SQL Server 2005 is currently expected to RTM on October 14, 2005, about 3 weeks before its public launch. Other language versions will ship in December 2006 and January 2007.

Are there even any of you guys left out there? A friend of mine from South Florida posted this on a mailing list so I guess there still are people capable of competing with Dell on price so here are the changes:

Beginning in August 2005, you will be able to acquire Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Office 2003 in packs of one instead of the previous 3-pack minimum. That means you can get whatever quantity you want.

The 1-pack will come in a padded envelope, and will have the OEM system builder break-the-seal license agreement affixed to the front of the envelope. Inside, you will find just one individual software license (which includes the Certificate of Authenticity label, hologram media, and documentation).

The email I received a little earlier today also had the following:

1. Beginning in September 2005, new 1-packs will be available for Windows XP and Microsoft Office 2003 (instead of the previous 3-pack minimums).*

2. There will also be a new simplified license for OEM system builder software and hardware. If you distribute a system builder pack unopened, you are no longer required to sell it with any non-peripheral piece of hardware.

3. Plus, there will be a new system builder-specific Certificate of Authenticity (COA) label to help differentiate system builder software from other OEM license types.

Attend our webcast and get an updated Windows Licensing Kit.*

Attend Microsoft’s free Licensing & Packaging Update webcast and find out everything you need to know about how the changes will affect your business. You’ll learn about the new 1-packs, simplified licensing, COA label changes and more. Don’t miss this invaluable webcast. Register now!

Date: September 7, 2005
Time: 9 AM – 10 AM

Click here to review changes to System builder OEM licensing