Target: Microsoft

By James Gaskin, NetworkWorld.com, 05/20/06

While Microsoft continues to be Microsoft, blasting everyone it believes might be a competitor, other companies now seem less afraid of their power emanating from Redmond. Some companies seem to delight in calling Microsoft up short lately, and fighting back when Microsoft trumpets unflattering statements or downright lies.

Take note of Notes, for example. Microsoft claimed Lotus (IBM) was going to stop supporting earlier versions of Notes. I can see why Microsoft said that, because Microsoft uses the lack of support on older products to push users to upgrade. So the headline reads Lotus fires back at Microsoft's Notes rhetoric. In poker terms, Lotus just called Microsoft. In dueling terms, Lotus just called out Microsoft.

Adding a little flavor on top, Lotus Adds ODF Support to Notes slaps directly at Microsoft's typical standards bait and switch (Microsoft says we love Open Document Format, wait, we have created our own better standard). Lotus isn't a strong enough market player to push Microsoft to change their stance, but many big companies still rely heavily on Notes and may demand their other vendors support the same standards used inside Notes. Any push for a standard document format helps all the players, especially the smaller ones looking for ways to reduce their expenditures on proprietary software applications.

When big companies seem to have holes in either their product line or customer support efforts, venture capital firms start funding possible competitors. That's what's happening now as a variety of . The fact that Microsoft Exchange servers and e-mail database files require kid glove handling to stay running and maintain file integrity after all these years now really aggravates users. Exchange complexity and fragility (and the security problems) is why I recommend small companies avoid running their own Exchange servers if at all possible. At least some help may be on the way soon.

Of course, the biggest headline font and story most likely to pay for more summer homes for lawyers is Symantec sues Microsoft; requests halt to Vista development. Small and even medium sized businesses can't dance with these elephants, but we can certainly be squashed by prancing pachyderms if not careful.

This latest attack on Microsoft Vista points out two serious current trends. First, software patents, rights, license terms, and copyrights have become a near perfect block to future software development. Second, any of you counting on Microsoft Vista to ship in January 2007, as Microsoft promised most recently, will almost certainly be disappointed. If you've been crossing your fingers for that release date, erase the "7" in 2007 and replace it with an "8" and that will give you the timeframe for the safe time to roll out a full and well-tested version of Vista.

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