Developers Balk at VS2010 Price Points

In the wake of the VS2010 beta 2 release last week, Microsoft announced a simplified packaging and pricing scheme for professional developers.

In response to my Deal or No Deal on VS2010 Pricing blog posting last week, all of the readers who weighed in—except one who suggested the free Express options-- had issues with the new packaging scheme. Your verdict: No deal.

Posted by Kathleen Richards on 10/27/200964 comments

Microsoft Goofs on Code7 Tie-ins

Guest blogger David Ramel discovers 7 blunders by Microsoft's marketing team.

Is the Microsoft marketing department slipping?

Take a look at the Code 7 contest for programmers developing Windows 7 applications.

So far, so good – the name definitely ties into Windows 7.

Posted by David Ramel on 10/23/20092 comments

Touching Developers Key to Windows 7

A beautiful day in New York City marked Microsoft's retail launch of Windows 7. Five-year-old Kylie, star of the "I'm a PC" commercials welcomed Steve Ballmer onstage at the Skylight Studios.

Most of the Windows 7 features demonstrated today were similar to those first shown last year at the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles, reports Jeff Schwartz, RDN news editor, who attended the event. An interesting twist was the emphasis on Windows 7 multitouch capabilities. In addition to a surprise partnership with Amazon to support its Kindle e-reader platform on touched-based devices, OEMs such as Acer, Fujitsu and others plan to ship tablet-based laptops that support capacitive-based touch functionality.

Posted by Kathleen Richards on 10/22/20091 comments

Deal or No Deal on New VS2010 Pricing

Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 and .NET 4 Beta 2 are generally available on Wednesday. MSDN subscribers got access to the downloads on Monday, Oct. 19. With the latest release comes news from Microsoft about a simplified packaging scheme for VS2010, updates to MSDN, and promotions to facilitate upgrades at the March 22, 2010 launch.

The simplified SKU lineup is down to four: Visual Studio 2010 Professional with or without MSDN, Visual Studio 2010 Premium with MSDN, and Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN.

Posted by Kathleen Richards on 10/20/200935 comments

Deal or No Deal on New VS2010 Pricing

Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 and .NET 4 Beta 2 are generally available on Wednesday. MSDN subscribers got access to the downloads on Monday, Oct. 19. With the latest release comes news from Microsoft about a simplified packaging scheme for VS2010, updates to MSDN, and promotions to facilitate upgrades at the March 22, 2010 launch.

The simplified SKU lineup is down to four: Visual Studio 2010 Professional with or without MSDN, Visual Studio 2010 Premium with MSDN, and Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN.

Posted by Kathleen Richards on 10/20/200935 comments

SQL Azure Is PDC Ready in CTP 2

The features in the SQL Azure October preview, launched on Wednesday, mirror what is expected in the commercial launch of the cloud database service at PDC next month. This is the second CTP of SQL Azure, the SQL Server component of Microsoft's cloud that was radically changed after it was first announced as part of the Azure Services Platform's SQL Services data technologies in October 2008.

SQL Server Data Services was renamed SQL Data Services, which was under the umbrella of SQL Services. SQL Data Services used a schema-less data model that consisted of geo-located units called authorities housed in Microsoft's data centers. The authorities held containers, which consisted of queryable entities that were made up of properties.

Posted by Kathleen Richards on 10/15/200910 comments

Betting the Server Farm

Less than a week after a new generation of Windows Phones reached retailers' shelves, Microsoft is making the nightly news as the company whose servers crashed and irretrievably lost all of T-Mobile Sidekick customers' address and calendar data. The popular Sidekick cell phones were wiped out if customers turned them off or tried to reboot during a week or longer service outage that started on Oct. 2nd.

The timing couldn't have been worse. The Windows Phone launch on Oct. 6th marked the debut of Windows Mobile 6.5, which includes Windows Marketplace for Mobile, home to about 250 applications. Ironically, Windows Mobile 6.5 users have the option of using the free My Phone service for backing up contacts, messages, videos and other data on a pass protected Web site "in the event of a lost phone."

Posted by Kathleen Richards on 10/13/20091 comments

Windows 7: Let's Get It Started

If you are interested in exercising your mind next month, Microsoft is offering a FREE developer bootcamp for Windows 7.

Windows 7 general availability (retail) starts on Oct. 22, with an official launch hosted by Steve Ballmer in New York City. The Windows Vista launch took place in the big apple in January 2007. Can anything match the "Start Me Up" success of Windows 95?

Deep dives into the latest client operating system will be a heavy focus of PDC 09, which starts Nov. 17 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Posted by Kathleen Richards on 10/08/20092 comments

Will SourceSafe Users Trade Up?

Kathleen Richards is on assignment putting the wraps on Visual Studio Magazine's cover story so I am filling in for her today.

Down at the Fall VSLive! conference in Orlando, Microsoft kicked off the event by previewing a scaled-down version of its forthcoming Team Foundation Server 2010. The company's new TFS Basic Profile is aimed at answering some key reasons many have not traded up -- they either can't afford the full-blown TFS or they feel it is much more complex than what they are now using (see Microsoft Plans Scaled-Down Team Foundation Server).

Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on 10/06/20091 comments

Open Source Strategist Finds Security in the Cloud

Microsoft's open source strategist Sam Ramji finished up his tenure in Redmond last Friday. He spent his last weeks at the company working to establish the CodePlex Foundation, a Microsoft-sponsored, non-profit organization that seeks to facilitate software vendors' participation in open source communities. Ramji is serving as interim president.

In addition to his work for the foundation, Ramji started a job at cloud computing analytics and governance provider Sonoa Systems on Monday, where he will head product strategy and business development. Founded in 2004, Sonoa offers API and cloud management through on-premise software, ServiceNet appliances, or a service hosted on Amazon EC2. Currently, Sonoa Systems is not associated with Windows Azure, or any open source initiatives.

Posted by Kathleen Richards on 10/01/20091 comments

Cloudy Battle in Los Angeles: Microturf vs. Googzilla

An epic battle is brewing out West with much more than a lucrative technology contract at stake: Microsoft Office or Google's cloud?

As the Los Angeles Times reported yesterday, Microsoft and Google are bidding for a $7.25 million contract to replace the city of Los Angeles' outdated email system. Los Angeles put out a call for bids in 2008. "Google Apps got the nod because city administrators believed it would be cheaper and less labor-intensive," writes LA Times reporter David Sarno.

Posted by Kathleen Richards on 09/29/200913 comments

WebsiteSpark Targets Open Source

Microsoft launched another 'Spark' program today to help build the developer base for its Web products.

The WebsiteSpark program, which follows DreamSpark for full-time students and BizSpark for software startups, offers free licenses for tools and server applications, along with technical and marketing support from Microsoft and its partner network.

Posted by Kathleen Richards on 09/24/20091 comments