By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

As I indicated earlier, Microsoft put up a teaser website for Mojave, their new OS - which doesn’t exist. The idea was to do a blind “taste test” for users who had negative views of Windows Vista (and listening to the video, they sure did), tricking them into using Vista, to see how they reacted. In general, the reaction was positive, according to Microsoft. On Tuesday, the video portion of that website went live.

When you initially load the page, it plays one particular video clip (the leftmost “Overview” clip as shown above) automatically. But you can click on any user’s image and see what that particular user had to say once the “gimmick” was revealed.

Some of the blurbs from the “Overview” clip:

So why haven’t you upgraded to Vista yet?

• Just the bad things I’ve heard about it.
• It’s horrible; we have so many problems.
• It crashes.
• I’ve heard nothing but bad things about Vista, really.
• I wouldn’t touch the thing.
• I just heard negative things; I never tried it myself.

Well, I have to confess to you, this is Vista..

• Really?
• Blew my mind.
• Are you serious?
• Son of a gun. You got me.
• It’s totally different that I heard it would be like.
• It represents a lot of things that you could only dream of a few years back.
• I’m getting it.
• I’m impressed.

There was at least one person in the myriad of videos that remained skeptical, but all the others I listened to were impressed.

Interesting stats from the site: of 140 participants, over 90% gave Vista a higher rating after seeing the Mojave demo than prior to it, with none reducing their score. The average pre-Mojave rating for Vista was 4.4, with the average rating after seeing Mojave was 8.5.

However, the experience of a brief demo is certainly not the same as having to deal with UAC, Welcome Screens, finding drivers, etc., etc. Personally, I’ve often said that while Vista is certainly more evolutionary than revolutionary, it’s a decent OS, and has some nice features (UAC not being one of them).

It has, however, because of initial incompatibilities, difficulty finding drivers, etc. etc., been a convenient punching bag. As you may know, Forrest Research has compared Windows Vista to “New Coke,” saying that many corporations may be skipping the OS to wait for Windows 7, which launches in 2010.

Whoever came up with the idea for this trickery ought to win a prize, though, as it’s pretty clever, and might actually make a difference. So when’s this going to hit TV, Microsoft?

By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

I first wrote about Microsoft’s attempts to get Windows XP on the OLPC last December. You may recall that James Utzschneider, the general manager of Microsoft’s emerging market unit, was just about the make at trip to the OLPC Foundation.

Microsoft was having to write a series of drivers and new code to get the OS to boot from the SD card, among other things. They weren’t even clear at the time if they could do it.

Yet Thursday in a post on Microsoft’s Unlimited Potential blog, Utzschneider announced that Windows XP on the XO-1 has RTM’ed.

On another front in this area, Microsoft internally “RTM’ed” (Released to Manufacturing) the Windows XP version we are building for the OLPC XO computer. Windows on the XO looks like it is on track for availability in these types of national educational PC deals in September. We still have no plans to make Windows available for individuals who bought an XO in the Give 1 Get 1 program though.

The addition of XP to versions of the XO-1 will raise the price of the laptop from $188 to slightly over $200, with $3 devoted to the cost of the OS with the rest for hardware adjustments including more RAM. Which of course explains why “Give One, Get One” XO-1’s can’t get the OS: not enough RAM.

By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

Many have said they’re not interested in Windows Vista, that Windows XP is just fine for them. And in fact, you could go so far as to say some of them actually hate the OS. Still, a new OS, Mojave, may just be the key to a new marketing campaign.

Last week Microsoft told a focus group in San Francisco they were being shown a new version of Windows, codenamed Mojave. Feedback was quite positive; more than 90% gave positive feedback. Afterwards they were told that Mojave was actually Windows Vista.

As C|Net reported, the response from one user was “Oh, wow.”

As I’ve said previously, Windows Vista is just fine as an OS, and doesn’t deserve a lot of the flak it takes, but it also is more evolutionary rather than revolutionary, and doesn’t deserve the hype Microsoft gave it either.

Of course, the focus group members didn’t have to look for drivers, struggle with application compatibility, or any of the the other problems that Windows Vista owners have to deal with, but …

At any rate, Microsoft still hasn’t figured out how to use this as a marketing campaign (Vista: it’s not as bad as you think?), but you can bet they’ll use it somehow.

By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

We’ve written about the Windows Home Server (WHS) data corruption bug several times since it first emerged in late December. On Monday Microsoft finally - finally, released WHS Power Pack 1, which contains the fix, as well as a bunch of other stuff no one really cares about.

All right, that’s a bit harsh, but waiting 7 months for a data corruption fix for an OS which was sold as a file server for the home is just way too long. English is available now, with French, Spanish and German available soon. As far as what else it contains besides the bug fix, Microsoft has the info:

As many know, Power Pack 1 provides a range of new enhancements, including support for home computers running Windows Vista x64 editions, backup of home server Shared Folders, improvements to remote access, more efficient power consumption and better performance. And, of course, it delivers a fix for the data corruption bug.

For those who might have been involved in the beta testing, this is build 1800.

Despite the bug, Microsoft said the following (emphasis mine):

We continue to hear fantastic feedback from our customers about how Home Server is helping them protect and organize their digital media, access it away from home, and share it with friends and family.

Well, yeah, at least those not using the affected applications. As I said previously, a NAS such as one of these would be a lot easier than setting up a file server. But, if you went the WHS route, at least you now have your fix.

By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

When I login to Gmail, I always leave the “Remember me on this computer” checkbox unchecked. Why? I don’t want to get into the habit of checking that checkbox, as what would happen if I would make that selection and leave a public computer with myself still logged in. That would be a problem. Until now, anyway.

Gmail is rolling out a new feature. Typical of such roll-outs, it will be gradual and may not be available yet on your account.

If it’s available, you should see something similar to the above at the very bottom of your inbox. You’ll see information about the last activity on your account and whether it’s still open in another location.

Obviously, this is a great way to find out if someone has hacked into your account (as has happened to me previously, though not with Gmail), but it doesn’t give you all that much info. However, click the Details link, all you’ll see a lot more (below). More

By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

Despite numerous assertions from both companies that they’ve “moved on,” and even a statement from Bill Gates indicating a Yahoo! deal is unlikely, it appears Microsoft continues to pursue Yahoo!, somewhat like a spurned suitor pursuing his ex-.

The latest in the continuing soap opera: a report that indicates that Microsoft is in talks with other companies, searching for partners for a new run at Yahoo!.

The Wall Street Journal story (subscription required) says that Microsoft has approached Time-Warner, parent company of AOL, and News Corp. among others. All very ironic, since Yahoo! approached both AOL and News Corp. previously as possible “white knights” after Microsoft’s unsolicited takeover bid.

Yahoo!’s stock was up over 7.5%, to $21.74 in morning trading, just a day after dropping below $20 during intraday trading, approaching pre-Microsoft offer levels.

However, those investors scooping up Yahoo! stock probably didn’t notice this paragraph (emphasis mine) in the WSJ report:

Some of the people familiar with these talks say they are preliminary and unlikely to result in a deal with Yahoo. Indeed, two weeks ago, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer called Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock to suggest they meet to discuss a new idea involving other partners, according to a person familiar with the matter. The meeting, scheduled for Monday, was subsequently canceled by Microsoft, which Yahoo took as a sign that Mr. Ballmer’s efforts to find a partner have so far failed.

They probably haven’t been listening to Gates’ statements, either.

Or maybe they just did; Yahoo! was as high as $21.90 before dropping to its current price.

By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

Until now Flash (.SWF) media files have been pretty, well, opaque: search engines couldn’t index them. For webmasters, this meant extra work, as the old adage was “a search engine likes text.” No longer.

In a press release on Tuesday Adobe announced that it was working with both Yahoo! and Google to enable indexing of Flash files. The project will enable searches on Flash content to return text and links, which can then be indexed. Better still, current Flash content will be immediately searchable by search engines, without alteration.

David Wadhwani, general manager and vice president of the Platform Business Unit at Adobe said:

“Until now it has been extremely challenging to search the millions of RIAs (rich Internet applications) and dynamic content on the Web, so we are leading the charge in improving search of content that runs in Adobe Flash Player. We are initially working with Google and Yahoo! to significantly improve search of this rich content on the Web, and we intend to broaden the availability of this capability to benefit all content publishers, developers and end users.”

Of course, all this assumes that the search engine has the Flash tech working: Google is rolling out Flash search today, but Yahoo! said it was going to enable the feature in a later release of its search engine and that it was “working with Adobe to determine the best possible implementation.” And no, Microsoft wasn’t mentioned at all.

However, Adobe’s statement does indicate Adobe will work with other search engines as well. With Microsoft having its Flash competitor, Silverlight, however, I’m wondering if that will slow things down between the two companies.

By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

Perhaps Bill Gates should have pushed his semi-retirement back a few days, so it could coincide with Windows XP’s. As of today, XP says good-bye, for the most part.

Stores aren’t going to pull inventory, however; if they have copies they will sell them out. Also, you can still get Windows XP on nettops and netbooks (e.g., Asus Eee PC). Additionally, at least through the end of next January, you can get XP using the “Downgrade Rights” available to purchasers of Vista Ultimate and Vista Business. Some OEMs, such as HP and Dell, will even pre-downgrade your PC to XP for you.

Microsoft hasn’t been listening to end users who have said that Windows XP is just fine for them. In fact, the SaveXP.com site has had over 210K signatures for its petition to save XP, but no go.

Since Microsoft says Windows 7 will debut in 2010, and that they will support Windows XP until 2014, many businesses will stick with XP as long as possible. Those with Volume License Agreements (VLAs) can pretty much do as they please. Even Intel has foregone Vista, though it has deployed it to a few departments.

Microsoft shot itself in the foot with Vista, with things such initial hardware incompabilities, and difficulties finding drivers (that worked). That gave Vista a bad reputation from the start, and arguments and lawsuits over “Vista-ready,” and just how much Microsoft knew, haven’t helped.

Will consumers, who don’t have as many of the choices move to Linux or Mac OS? Doubtful that you’ll see a huge move to those OSes, but you might see some defections. After all, part of the reason some posit for a backlash against Vista is the familiarity many have with XP. You can make Vista look and act like XP (except for incompatibilities, of course), but it’s not easy for John Q. Public to do so.

And that’s part of it. Why should an end user struggle to get what he wants, when it’s already there in a package for him?