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Saturday, November 21, 2009
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Winners and losers in Microsoft open API move

The 451 Group analysts Matthew Aslett, John Abbott, Nick Selby, and Vishwanath Venugopalan listed the potential winners and losers as part of their analysis of Microsoft's API and protocol announcement Thursday.

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Google Chrome OS on the PC World Podcast
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In this week's special (and slightly long) episode of the PC World podcast, editors Robert Strohmeyer, Tim Moynihan, Melissa Perenson, and Nick Mediati discuss the just-announced Google Chrome OS.

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LG's N4B1 NAS box is neither a comprehensive media server nor a particularly fast performer, but as a network-attached storage device, it's quick enough for home/small-business file serving. The unit--available at this writing for around $700--is also the sturdiest and quite possibly the best-looking such box I've had my hands on. You also can't beat it's HTML configuration interface for looks or ease of learning and use. But none of that compares to the N4B1's most outstanding feature: an integrated Blu-ray burner, unique among NAS products in the SMB/SOHO market.

Ruby shining on Java, Windows, and Mac OS
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Implementations of the dynamic language leverage popular platforms to broaden its appeal

Winners…

WINE (open source implementation of Windows APIs) - If you know all the Windows APIs, you should be able to get any Windows application running on Linux quite nicely

SAMBA - Proper interoperability with Windows File and Print services without having to guess the APIs. (Note: Samba struck a paid interoperability deal with Microsoft in December).

Vendors wanting to get their client software interoperable with Exchange

Exchange alternatives – Zimbra, etc. Enables them to develop proper interoperability with Exchange servers and the ability to act as a replacement for Exchange.

Calendar and Workflow clients - Vendors will be able to build proper hooks into Exchange.

Vendors and end-users looking to implement Web services and software-as-a service architectures, who require deeper and more consistent access than has sometimes been available from Microsoft.

Losers…

Google – as an open platform advocate – and Linux-focused vendors such as Red Hat and Novell may find themselves less able to play the "proprietary" card against Microsoft in the future.

Any company attempting to sell hub workflow servers that competes directly with Exchange and SharePoint. They might have to implement Microsoft protocols, but on the other hand, they can still offer interoperability.

Any companies whose secret sauce involved reverse engineering MS APIs.

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