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'Infoworld' loving Windows Vista

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While many commentators are busy burying Microsoft because Google has a better search engine and cooler offices, it's worth keeping in mind that Microsoft still has, uh, a few other other lines of business that bring in a buck or two once in a while. One of those is powering massive enterprise-wide computing networks, the kind of operations that aren't likely to start using Google Spreadsheet and Writely anytime in the next few quarters.

Thus it's interesting to note that this week's Infoworld, a long-time must-read for enterprise IT managers, has several stories under the heading "Longhorn: More than Just Hype," subtitled "For Windows IT managers, Longhorn is a must-have upgrade."  Infoworld is generally not a mouthpiece for Redmond -- the magazine's editors follow and recommend open source solutions very astutely and there's also a regular Mac presence in the magazine (laudable when you consider how small Mac penetration is in the enterprise market.)  And Infoworld writers have been merciless in pounding MSFT over the past few years regarding the Longhorn/Vista delays and spec changes. So I was surprised to find (in fact, I checked to make sure I hadn't picked up the April 1 issue by mistake) that the experts at Infoworld found a great deal to like in Vista, from an enterprise point of view (with the caveat, of course, that they're still looking at a beta).

 

 

This is an interesting early indication that bears watching.  My guess is that the Microsoft share price is going to remain flat to down until it becomes clear whether Vista is a home run or not.  (And it just about has to be a home run after this much delay--and it needs to present some really compelling reasons that it's a more effective enterprise solution than open source.)  That's about the same time we should begin to see how the Live operation will integrate into the package software business.  If the reviews are good, I wouldn't be surprised to see a bounce in MSFT, as the mass of tech investors suddenly remember that having the best search engine isn't the only thing that keeps Mssrs. Gates, Ballmer and Ozzie awake at night. 
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Last updated: November 27, 2009: 09:37 AM

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