'Microsoft cashes in on Mac'
The thing that I didn't get about the rumours that we would pull out of the Mac business is that we make money on it. Today's Seattle Post-Intelligencer includes a mention of it in their Software Notebook: Microsoft cashes in on Mac. We're successful, and we had our strongest year in 2005. Why would anyone think that we're going anywhere? Does anyone really think that we're just going to close up shop on a profitable unit one afternoon?
Okay, it's time to stop being so amused by this. Everyone thinks of Windows software when they think of Microsoft, so I can't really be surprised that people forget that there are other non-Windows parts of the business.
Comments
- Anonymous
January 16, 2006
I suppose it's just a reflection of the bad image Microsoft has in the general public. There's a significant amount of ill will out there and when you combine that with the fact that the company is a convicted monopolist, the idea that MS would arbitrarily abandon the Mac holds some plausibility for many people. Add a speedbump to that -- say, the need to build Universal Binaries -- and the concept crystallizes and people start expecting MS to walk away.
Which is amusing, in a way, since it would require an 'evil, money-grubbing' company to throw away a profitable division purely out of spite. - Anonymous
January 16, 2006
Might be interested in O12 if they used AddressBook.app, iCal and iChat, like proper Mac applications do. Also I liked it when they did features in Office specifically for PowerBook users. - Anonymous
January 16, 2006
As has been announced, one of the pieces of the March update is enabling Sync Services in Entourage. Thus, they'll use Apple's Address Book, iCal, and iSync. - Anonymous
January 16, 2006
Woohooo, one small step for the Mac, one big step for the freedom of individuals to choose. How about making a deal with Apple now so they let hotmail users interact with iChat users :) Then I wouldn't need Fire.app anymore..... - Anonymous
January 16, 2006
Hotmail is totally separate from the MacBU, and the MacBU has a relationship with Apple that isn't shared by the rest of MS. Ignoring that, I'm not sure what you want a web-based email service to do with an IM client.
I am amused that I saw you posting elsewhere (John's blog, I think?) that no-one wants us to update Messenger and we should focus our attention on other stuff, but now you're asking for IM improvements. - Anonymous
January 16, 2006
Sorry for the confusion, what I meant was being able to use MSN messenger protocol in iChat. Just like now I can add all my ICQ contacts to iChat, I'd like to be able to add all the friends and family I have that use MSN messenger. So I don't really want Messenger, but I want to talk to people who use Messenger. - Anonymous
January 16, 2006
Your feedback should probably be sent to the iChat team instead of anyone in MacBU. It's their decision to make iChat work with other IM servers. - Anonymous
January 16, 2006
lol, I can do that as well Nadyne, I write a hand written letter to Steve Jobs at 1 Infinite loop then someone from Cuppertino calls ;) You're not trying to get rid of me now are you ;) - Anonymous
January 16, 2006
It's not trying to get rid of you, it's just that telling me something that you want in iChat isn't going to get you anywhere. Hand-writing a letter and sending it to Steve has a somewhat greater liklihood of something happening in iChat than posting a complaint in the blog of someone who doesn't even work for Apple. It's not as if Steve's gonna call me tomorrow and ask what I think they should add to iChat. - Anonymous
January 16, 2006
The comment has been removed - Anonymous
January 16, 2006
Quark and Firefox are both user-level applications. They certainly don't interact directly with the kernel. Virtual PC is a system-level application. As I've told you repeatedly, we're working with Apple on it. You can harp on it all you want, but it doesn't change the fact that it's not an easy technical problem, and it's one that we require the assistance of Apple to determine whether a solution is feasible. - Anonymous
January 16, 2006
So what exactly is this great technical problem? Apple will help you, but don't use it as an excuse to try and extract Apple's game plan for the future. As a Mac developer, your first in command is Steve Jobs, not Bill Gates, remember that. - Anonymous
January 16, 2006
Anyway, to understand Virtualization, you really should be speaking to Intel engineers, now that thier 1000 + people supporting Apple have done thier job, maybe they can help MS with VPC, they'll also have a better idea then Apple about where they're taking this technology:
(www.intel.com/technology/computing/vptech/) - Anonymous
January 16, 2006
I'm not saying that Apple's not helping. My point is merely that some aspects of the technical questions to be answered are ones that require work on the part of Apple.
I really do wish that you'd stop assuming that we're trying to do something shady, or that we're just dragging our feet for some unfathomable reason. If you don't like MS, that's not something that I can do anything about. But your consistent attacks make me rather unlikely to take the time to answer your questions. - Anonymous
January 16, 2006
I'm sorry if you take my comments as an attack, I've been using MS products on my PowerBooks since 92 as well you know. Back then I had a vision of a cyber-nomadic existance, me, my boots and my PowerBook. Now, when I have to wait for a driver or something from CISCO to connect to an academic VPDN network, it interfers in my choice of cyber-nomaidic lifestyle with my PowerBook. I just don't want those kinds of problems when I get my grubby hands on a MacBook Pro. I'd like to pay MS for a wikked VPC that uses Intel's state of the art Virtualization technology.
Really, what is the technical problem that you are facing with the new platform and VPC. Take your time with this. If I can't help then there is a whole community of Mac developers that share and collaborate with ideas. In all the time I've been on Apple developer lists I've never seen a member of MacBU ask for help.
Tis, night here, so I'm off to bed anyway ;) - Anonymous
January 16, 2006
Have you ever seen someone from Adobe, or any other large Mac development house, posting a question to the developer lists? Anybody who works for a company of any size has to be concerned about non-disclosure agreements and various competition clauses and all sorts of other things.
We're working with Apple on it. I'm going to guess that Apple knows more about the issues here than anyone else in the world. Virtual PC is a unique product, and it doesn't have a lot in common with most user-level applications. I can't imagine how you would assume that I could give a description in my blog and you would magically solve the issue. - Anonymous
January 16, 2006
You can be clever in the way you ask a question that doesn't need to involve disclosure of information but still have an answer to your problem. Metaphor..... - Anonymous
January 16, 2006
The comment has been removed - Anonymous
January 16, 2006
Asam: When you post to a Developer List, please, do everyone subscribed to it a big favour and be as un-clever as possible. In order to get a question answered you need to tell the list: what you want to do, how you tried to do it, what you expected to happen, and what actually happened. If you obfuscate any of those points, or omit them, you will not get a good answer. If you are under NDA, you are contractually required to omit point one. Which just happens to be the most important point. - Anonymous
January 17, 2006
Thanks for the tip on MSN in iChat Paul, I'll try it out. It is important, its less cluter, we don't like clutter on Macs, we like things like the finder menu drop menu's and dock menu's. - Anonymous
January 17, 2006
Ahhhhh, Xen, perfect, emmmm, hope this doesn't have to wait till Napa then, emmmm, need to find a vtx enabled development machine.... - Anonymous
January 17, 2006
The comment has been removed - Anonymous
January 17, 2006
Yah, I see now. Well, they have thier fingers in Xen anyway, so maybe that's the way to go and dump VPC. Now all we need is get VMWare in on the act. - Anonymous
January 18, 2006
I have a Windows desktop and a Powerbook and I am a big fan of Office on both platforms. When it comes to Word and Excel I prefer them on the Mac but I prefer Outlook 2003 over Entourage - it has a better interface and is just an all around neater product.
My biggest day to day issue, and the one thing that you can do to make my life better in running both, is somehow getting information out of Outlook and into Entourage and vise vera. The fact that there isn't some MS support method for syncing my Email, Caldenar and Contacts between the correspoding programs in your suite for both platforms is a glaring omission. Now, I don't know the technical limitations that are keeping this from happening but I can tell you that it is the #1 complaint and #1 irritation that I ahve with the product.
I read that it will Sync with Apple apps and with .Mac and whatnot but my question is when can we expect there to be at least some import/export functionality to Outlook 2003 PST and if not why not? - Anonymous
January 18, 2006
I believe that most users who use both Outlook and Entourage are on an Exchange server, which provides two-way synch for email and calendar.
There's some information on the <a href="http://www.entourage.mvps.org/">Entourage MVP</a> page about <a href="http://www.entourage.mvps.org/cross_platform/">living a cross-platform life with Entourage</a>. You might also find the Entourage newsgroup <a href="news://microsoft.public.mac.office.entourage">microsoft.public.mac.office.entourage</a> useful to see if someone there can offer you some tips. - Anonymous
January 24, 2006
The comment has been removed