links for 2010-12-26: Chrome OS Review; Microsoft wins USDA; Dumping an iPad for a Galaxy Tab

• A Very Chrome-y Christmas - Interesting review, an indication of what we may be using in the future.
• Microsoft Wins Largest Federal Contract for Cloud - But was Google allowed to compete?
  
• Infor offering 15% referral fee for anonymous referrals - Is this move astute or naive?
• 10 reasons to dump an iPad - A bunch of good reasons.

links for 2010-12-15: Microsoft at crossroads; OpenJDK for OS X; Java lawsuits; Oracle Cloud Office

• Microsoft: A big ship at crossroads; What else is new? - I don't think there is any question they'll survive, the titanic references are off, but will they flourish in the new markets?
  
• Oracle and Apple Announce OpenJDK Project for OSX - I missed this when it was announced, but is great news.
  
• Oracle mobile Java licensing suit boomerangs - Can't we all just get along?  This this also.
  
• Oracle Announces Oracle Cloud Office and Oracle Open Office 3.3 - It is great that it is "announced", but they previewed it at Open World.  Where can we actually see it?  Only mention is in the datasheet where it says to call to get a demo account.  Not looking for mass adoption I guess.
  

links for 2010-10-21: Apple deprecates Java; Apple announces OS X Lion ... 11 months off?; NYC adopts Microsoft Cloud; EnterpriseDB Postgres TCO calculator

• Apple deprecates Java - I struggle to see how this makes sense as part of OS X's resurgence was due to developers adopting the platform due to good Java support.  Perhaps Oracle adds support or someone steps forward with a good OpenJDK port, but Steve is clearer trying to cleanse his products of non-native apps.
• Apple's unveiling of updated OS X takes its cues from Microsoft - Apple rarely announces products that won't ship until nearly a year later, but did with OS X Lion.
  
• City of New York adopts Microsoft Cloud services - It will be interesting to watch how the battle goes between Microsoft and Google here.  Google gets Los Angeles, Microsoft gets New York City.
• EnterpriseDB Postgres Plus TCO comparison calculator - No matter how you cut it, EnterpriseDB is less expensive than SQL Server, Sybase, Oracle, and DB2.  Think MySQL is cheaper?  Guess again.

links for 2010-05-12: Apple update for iPad WiFi woes; Flash not a CPU hog?; Microsoft responds regarding HTML5/H.264; Rich Green CTO at Nokia; Oracle Office; Adaptive PaaS

• Apple Plans Software Update For iPad WiFi Woes - Adjust your screen brightness to solve WiFi issues?
  
• Top Flash Misperceptions : Flash is a CPU Hog - Hopefully the performance issues on Mac are addresed with the API access, but a related issue (to me at least) is that Flash is now used in places it isn't needed so its performance compared to HTML5 is accurate at times.
  
• Microsoft responds to questions about stance on HTML5/H.264 - Not that this will end the debate, but interesting to see Microsoft respond as I don't expect Steve Jobs to issue a followup to his remarks.  Read Ed Bott's analysis.
• Rich Green Nokia's new CTO - I was wondering where he might end up.
• Oracle Office on sale - A lot cheaper than Microsoft Office for sure, but now a perpetual license not a subscription like it was under Sun.
• Adaptive PaaS - Interesting thought on what PaaS needs to do to gain momentum.

links for 2010-05-03: Apple/Adobe debate brings in Microsoft; More on HP/Palm; iPhone envy erased by Droid Incredible; iPad reaches 1M sold

• IE9 HTML5 Video Will Be H264 Only - Microsoft supporting H264 (they are part of MPEG LA so that's natural) but don't seem to be quite as opposed to Flash as Apple.
  
• Mobile is the New Desktop: The HP/Palm Q&A - Stephen's take on the acquisition.  Also see Cote's and James' to complete the RedMonk trifecta.
  
• HP: Is it spreading itself too thin in the IT wars? - They do cover a lot of different areas now.  Too much?
  
• Top 10 ways the Droid Incredible killed my iPhone envy - The author has given up waiting for the iPhone on Verizon and it appears for good reason.
  
• Apple sells 1M iPads in 28 days - But there is still ample demand for the iPad it would seem.

links for 2010-04-16: McNealy Speaks; Microsoft and Google on collision course; Cloud printing

• Scott McNealy can still dish - "... in the ‘80s we were preaching that the network is the computer. Shame on us for not summing it up in one word – cloud"
• Microsoft, Google On Office Computing Collision Course - Interesting how they are converging on the same space.  Much like various vendors in the middleware space converged on SOA platforms from EAI, BPM, and app-servers.
• First look: Google Docs gets realtime collaboration - The presence feature sounds very nifty and useful.
• Printer drivers: A thing of the past? Google, HP seem to think so - Isn't a printer driver still required where the printer is attached?
  

links for 2010-04-12: What Microsoft and Apple can learn from Ubuntu; Who will buy Palm?; Greenplum moves data to Cloud; Calculus explained

• One big thing Microsoft, Apple, and all CTOs can learn from Ubuntu - "What Canonical does really well is to methodically produce incremental upgrades to its OS. It is transparent about its goals and plans, and it releases its software on schedule. In fact, this incremental approach is Ubuntu’s most potent competitive weapon against rivals Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X."
  
• Who may buy Palm? - Interesting question.
• Greenplum pushes enterprise data cloud with new releases - Interesting that McNeally is an advisor to Greemplum and they have their sights set on Oracle.
  
• Change We Can Believe In - The next in an excellent series of blog entries explaining math.

links for 2010-04-10: Corporations that don't pay taxes; Site speed affect search results; Microsoft and Cloud apps

• Outrageous: Exxon Mobil Paid No Income Tax in 2009 - I am no tax expert and I'm sure there is some valid reason for it, but it just seems wrong.
• Using site speed in web search ranking - Too bad we don't have such incentives for native apps too!
• 2010 versions of Office, SharePoint pressure Google to respond - But still has a different approach than Google if this is true: "... gaining access to the browser-based versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint will require users to have access to SharePoint 2010 and a license to Microsoft Office 2010".

links for 2010-03-12: Patents and Startups; Economics 101; Strange Maps

• What Apple's and Microsoft's patent threats mean for start-ups - Interesting read spawned from Jonathan's blog on the subject.
• Economics in One Picture - Classic.
• Strange Maps - A bunch of interesting ones.  Did you know that the farthest you can get from a McDonalds in the lower 48 is 145 miles?

links for 2010-2-12: America's Cup; Apple the new Microsoft?

• America's Cup sponsors washed out to sea - I used to love watching this, but it is a pity that Larry and Bertarelli have ruined it this time around.
• Is Apple the new Microsoft? - Interesting comparison of Apple's strategy to Google's.

Browser Market Share; Who is Really #1?

It has been a long held belief, and data has supported it, that Internet Explorer, due in large part to its ties to the dominant desktop operating system, has been the most used browser out there.  Now, the data has shown that things are narrowing which begs the question, what browser is really #1?

Why do I ask this question?  I've been a long time user of StatCounter.com on my blog to track some statistics and focused primarily on page views, but I recently also set up Google Analytics to see what data it provides.  In light of the recent announcement about Chrome OS, I was also curious how the Chrome Browser was being adopted.

In browsing through what it has to offer I came across its browser report where not only was IE not #1, it wasn't even #2 with Safari beating it out.  I also found it interesting that Chrome is at nearly 4%.

But clearly, a handful of hits on my blog is likely not representative of the broader market.  Additionally, I likely have a significant audience from Sun which may help skew the results towards Firefox and Safari.  And the general audience that reads my blog is probably more technical and likely to be using alternative browsers.  So what else can we look at?

The May report from Market Share By Net Applications shows what one might expect with IE at 65.5% followed by Firefox at 22.5%, Safari at 8.4%, and Chrome at only 1.8%.

For another perspective, w3schools.com lists their stats and for the month of June, Firefox is at 47.3%, the sum for IE 40.7%, and Chrome beating out Safari 6.0% to 3.1%.  Again, a more technical audience leads to greater use of Firefox and Chrome.

Last, going back to where I started with my stat gathering, StatCounter.com has global stats for the past year and while the data shows similar results to Market Share above, approximately 60% IE, 30% Firefox, and everything else in the weeds, since it looks at the past year you can see a trend of IE losing about 10% points.



Will this gradual decline continue?  It's hard to say, but I can say that competition and choice is good and in the end the consumer wins.

It is also very interesting to see the platforms StatCounter.com reports.  This shows that 95+% of their traffic is coming from Windows meaning that even where the provided default is IE, approximately a third of those folks make the choice and effort to switch.

So what does all this data show us?  Clearly, IE is still #1 amongst the general population.  But technical audiences, those that both have the knowledge to make a choice and the aptitude and interest to execute on that and install something other than the default, are seemingly beginning to abandon IE in favor of the competition.

I'll continue to look at this in the future and report back!

Thoughts on Google Chrome OS - Not a Microsoft Killer ... Yet

Google dropped two bombs yesterday.  The first, that the beta tag was being removed from Google Apps was interesting but a non-event to me in many ways as everyone has been ignoring the beta tag for a long time anyway, but perhaps some enterprises were scared off by it so maybe this is news for them.  But regardless of what tag is applied, today's user is going to be more affected by the functionality, usability, and quality of the offering than if it has a beta tag on it or not.

But the more interesting and groundbreaking news was the announcement of the forthcoming Chrome OS.  There are some that see this as an all out assault on Microsoft.  When you combine their Google Apps with the Chrome Browser and now Chrome OS, you have a full stack for the end user.  But given that in their announcement they are clearly focused on the netbook market, I would stop well short of calling this an all out assault.  That's not to say that this isn't just the next logical step in a strategy that started with mobile and embedded devices with Android, moves to netbooks with Chrome OS, and someday could target the broader desktop and ultimately enterprise market with another offering.

There are also those that take a more pessimistic view of this complete stack and chances that it will be successful, both because the netbook market isn't that large and enterprises are not going to embrace it any time soon.  All valid points, but one doesn't go from having no OS to competing with everything Microsoft has in the OS arena overnight.  There are also other flaws in Dennis' pessimistic view.  He seems to think that because Google will open-source what they are doing they are washing their hands of maintaining it.  He clearly doesn't understand open-source as code being open-source certainly doesn't stop a vendor from providing full support to customers or OEMs and I'm sure Google would love to generate revenue from doing so.

So is just another variant of Linux on the desktop and should Google should have just joined or put their weight behind an existing Linux distro or just brought their version of Linux used in their infrastructure to the consumer?  The latter is just silly as the Linux they use in their data centers is clearly tuned and equipped for high performance search and serving up web applications, not a consumer's desktop or netbook form factors.  The former is a valid point as there are distros like gOS that have integrated Google gadgets and Google Apps into the desktop and users experience or Damn Small Linux that would serve as a good starting point for Google, but if Google is serious about this they aren't going to take a join an existing small community approach but need to own it and drive the direction themselves.

If one reads between the lines though, I think it is clear that this isn't going to just be another Linux distro and will be much more, and perhaps that systematic next step in the all out assault on Microsoft.  The key quote to me is:

"Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running
Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of
2010."

If this were to be just Google's variant of a Linux distro running on netbooks, they should be able to do that in a few months.  If we aren't going to see netbooks until the second half of 2010 (a full year-plus!), Google has designs on doing much more with the OS to make it truly focused on an easier to use, web-oriented, and faster experience to differentiate it from other Linux distros, Windows XP/Vista/7, and Mac OS X.  This is apparent in another quote (emphasis mine):

"The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel."

Clearly Google does not see Gnome or KDE as options (bloated) or other lighter weight alternatives like XFCE as sufficient so will be creating their own windowing system.  Look for this, and trimming the OS to just what is needed and perhaps some innovation around quicker startup, to be where the investment is made.

In the end, competition and choice is good.  I'll certainly be interested to see what Google does with Chrome OS and and how the competition reacts.