ShadowRAM: July 17, 2006
The secret sauce behind Windows Vista's highly touted multimedia presentation features? Macromedia Flash. At least that's the technology powering Microsoft's promo site at seewindowsvista.com. A quick glance at the site's source code exposes its dirty secret and underscores a complaint developers voice when Microsoft boasts about the revolutionary Windows Presentation Foundation: It enables much of the same functionality Flash already offers.
At its annual partner confab, Microsoft outdid itself on the multiculti front with musical selections from a children's choir, a rapper, an easy-listening rocker and belly dancers. Highlights included MBS SVP Doug Burgum offering partners a Sam Adams lager (or water) to toast their success in the past year. This was truly the best keynote evah.
Also seen: Roving IBM billboards cruising in front of the Boston Convention Center bearing the message "Lotus. Partner Better." This might have been more defensive than offensive: At the show, held just across the river from Lotus' old "LDB" HQ, Microsoft boasted of significant numbers of partner defections from the Lotus Notes camp. Of course, the IBM/Lotus team claims the opposite.
At one point in the show, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer called the company's "CRM Live" news "the single most inevitable announcement in the history of Microsoft," adding that "we're not going to be outhustled by anyone."
Predictably, SaaS competitors revved the spin machines. Salesforce.com's Marc Benioff says Microsoft finally agrees with him that the end of software is here. "The fact is that Microsoft is being outhustled by everyone," he said, referencing an array of Web-based spreadsheets, word processors, CRM apps and so on taking on Microsoft's power base.
Overheard: Avanade has cleaned house at its East Coast offices, ridding itself of some top execs and bringing former Resolute president and COO (and former Microsoftie) Richard Stern on board as general manager.
Former U.S. channel chief Margo Day is following up Boston's four-day partner marathon with a 200-plus- mile Seattle-to-Portland bike ride. That's one way to check out the Western region she's taking over.