Roy Schestowitz wrote:
> __/ [ Doug Mentohl ] on Saturday 23 December 2006 15:14 \__
>
>> "The Vista Study Group Report is a brutally honest assessment of
>> Microsoft's marketing campaign for Windows Vista .. Many say Vista is
>> bloated and unwieldy, has too many lines of code, and that Microsoft
>> should immediately consider a change of product strategy"
>>
http://www.channelweb.com/sections/columns/article.jhtml?articleId=196602971
>
> That's an interesting one... quite the shot in one's own foot... I'm
> surprised I haven't seen it before (although the title seems familiar).
>
> FWIW, The good 'dupe filter' which I use involves pasting the entire
> headline into the Google Groups search bar, then seeing if it already
> exists...
Initial assessment, I cannot say whether report is truth or satire, but I
found it entertaining reading. Below is an example:
| Many say Vista is bloated and unwieldy, has too many lines of code, and
| that Microsoft should immediately consider a change of product strategy.
| We say: Stay the course, don't cut lines of code and run. An abrupt
| about-face now, in favor of thin-client technology and abandoning
| the "rich client" strategy Microsoft has followed for so long, would risk
| chaos. Better to keep adding code through Vista upgrades and prepare an
| exit strategy by acquiring a small open source operating system.
Perhaps that small open source provider is Novell? In the future we may see
Microsoft SuSE or perhaps rebadged as Redmond SuSE (has a nice ring to it).
Vista does seem counter to thin-client technology, which seems to be gaining
momentum. Thin client technology would allow an IT department to
streamline its operations (i.e., lay more staffers off).
A company with 1,200 fat client desktops could be reduced to 120 servers and
boot ROM clients, if each server handles 10 clients. Of course, that could
be greatly reduced if one considers handling faster and more expensive
server hardware or separating out power users versus "run of the mill"
users.
Okay, so we set it to 60 servers. We have just reduced the need
for "gofers" to fix fat client problems. So we have one gofer per 200 PC's
means 6 gofers. With 60 servers, I can cut 5 gofers out and have one to
work the client blades.
(Of course, I would not lay off the 5 until they had installed the 1,200
thin clients and assisted with the 60 server installs, unless I contracted
that work out. According to Dilbert, the only reason why I still have a
soul is I play the saxophone.)
5 gofers at $10 US per hour + 25% in employee fringes = $12.50/hour. 261
days/year x $12.50 x 8 hours/day = $26.1K salary (includes the poor soul's
vacation and sick days). 5 x $26.1K = $130,500 annual savings.
20% of the staff still require proprietary applications. 80% are put on
Open Source solutions. However, those staffers are professionals and
economic conditions are not that great. I can sweeten the deal if I get
buy in from corporate management. Department heads who opt to port their
applications to open source get an additional X% bonus. Employees in those
departments get several more holiday.
Do not think it can work? Bean counters look at lost productivity with
additional days off, but if I encourage my staff, they can make better use
of their existing time at work that makes up for holiday.
With data bases using web based applications, I can create an environment
that is OS independent. In the background, I work on a migratory path to
get those depending on proprietary solutions to go web based. We work on a
game plan to migrate "locked in" data bases to those that are open source
based.
Life gets interesting ....
| According to a survey by Softchoice, a Canadian IT services provider, only
| about half the corporate PCs in North America are able to run Vista. That
| means one of two things: Microsoft will have to be satisfied with a slow,
| steady uptake by corporate users, as they work through current 48- to
| 60-month PC upgrade cycles, or it will have to infect the Windows 95, 98,
| 2000, and ME PCs still out there with a deadly virus. We hesitate to
| recommend a WMD approach, but business is business.
Above indicates message is satire. I gather much of the IT community is
getting tired of Windows overall and is looking for newer and more
maintainable solutions.
Think I am blowing smoke? Think again. We are at the cross roads. There
will be large shifts in the industry over the next couple years, as EU
continues to establish its greater independence as a world centre, China
and India establishes themselves as world production centres and think
tanks, etc. Growth of Linux is a positive indicator.
Any further building on the Redmond based solution will be temporary at
best.
--
HPT
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