XP Just Will Not Die.

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Say what you will about Microsoft Windows - there is one version that just refuses to go away: Windows XP.  Last year MS tried to kill support for it and made it unavailable for new PCs.

Then netbooks came out.  $250-300 lightweight laptops that ran Linux.  Vista would not fit.  So what does Microsoft do?  Allow manufacturers to install XP.

Corporate customers never have been enthralled with Vista. It's not an issue of how good it is, it just costs a lot to support a new operating system as you have to test every last application before your roll out 500 new Pcs. So, MS has let companies downgrade. 

With Windows 7 on the horizon, MS still cant kill XP, in fact, under pressure from corporate customers, MS will allow downgrades into 2011. 

So what's the moral of the story?  Microsoft is still in search of a compelling reason for customers to kick XP to the curb. What's it going to take? In short revolutionary new capabilities you can't do with XP. Evolution just isn't good enough.

Android is the game changer

2009 is not the year of the Linux Desktop. It is shaping up to be the year of the Linux powered smartphone as Palm re-enters the game with the Palm Pre and most importantly Google's Android is positioning itself to be the de facto standard in smartphone operating systems. With companies like HTC, Sony Ericson, Asus, Acer, Lenovo, Archos, Motorola and Yuhua all announcing phone and netbook products based on Android (there are a total of 18 promised Android products heading to market), Android is going to be an instant player and rapidly pass up the iPhone in sales. Incidentally, both Google's Android and Palm's Pre run Linux.

Android Strategy Parallels Microsoft in the 80s
Google has pulled off a coup: while others were focused on creating walled gardens and vendor lock in, Google has quietly built the modern equivelent to the DOS/Windows value proposition of the 1980s. Back then it was, "you make the hardware, and we'll provide the software." DOS and Windows weren't as nice as Xenix or later the Mac, but hardware manufacturers cranked out the PC clones because the R&D costs were much lower than trying to sell a proprietary OS. Users like the fact there was choice, and that choice led to competitive differentiation between PC manufacturers. Google's Android is uniquely positioned to deliver the same benefit MS delivered back in the 1980s that led to it's current monopoly of the PC market. Ironically, Android is positioned to take off where

Good Enough is Good Enough
One surprise is that Android is very, very good. It's easy to use, has lots of eye candy and most importantly is very reliable. More importantly, the developer's tools are strong and a vibrant community of application developers have emereged cranking out thousands of add on applications for Android. While Android comes just short of the level of eye candy on the iPhone and Palm Pre, it comes close enough to get people excited.

Best Bet for Developers
Software developers should give Android a long hard look as it has a promising future with a user base that is set to explode as the new Android devices hit the market though the fall and winter. Google has taken the time to provide a strong development environment and there are lots of open source applications to play with to learn. Because Android supports persistent processes and multitasks smoothly, you can create applications that are always on and always working (this is a particularly big problem with the iPhone)

The Andorid Market makes selling and distributing applications to users easy, and you are not solely dependent on Google's Market to sell your application - most Android phones can download applications directly from your website.

android, iphone, smartphone, palmpre

Wost Practices: Vendor Lock In is Your Fault

Wonder why people think IT people are from another planet? Take this complaint about Google's Android Operating system from a discussion on Slashdot:

"The OS is still missing native MS Exchange support. Our company currently utilizes T-Mobile as a wireless provider and this is the single biggest hangup from us deploying the G1 handsets. I do realize that there are 3rd party apps that provide this functionality, but that gets expensive when you roll out 100+ devices."

First, MS Exchange support is not a feature of an operating system, second, choosing MS Exhcange is what is limiting your choices on phone handsets. 

IT pros need to get something through their heads:

Vendor lock in is caused by selecting vendors who use lock in to retain customers and protect profits.  It is not caused by the company that just came out with an incredibly useful and impressive new product that is not compatible with your locked up proprietary solution.

It's time for IT pros to stop blaming the new products for not being compatible with your software that "features" vendor lock in.

lockin, microsoft, it

Shared Hosting is Still a Good Option

Cloud computing is getting all the attention right now, and rightfully so as it has great promise. Problem is, the cloud just isn't the answer for small websites with less than 200,000 visits.  Even when you cross 200,000 visits, a dedicated server may be a better answer.

Clouds come in thee flavors:

• Systems that can't do parallel execution and rely on simple starting processes on different CPUs, much like Linux or Windows do today on a multicore CPU. That means the system can't really accelerate complex tasks, but can run a lot of little tasks quickly.  This gives you scalability for most web applications, but does not help with that

• Systems that can do parallel execution if you use their software development kit and toolset. These tools, like Amazon S3, give you pretty amazing capabilities at the price of near ultimate vendor lock in. You will not likely be able to move out of the cloud today, or possible ever. While today's cloud solutions are cheap, it's not clear that will remain the case forever.

Here's why control panel based shared hosting is still very much relevant: a modern Linux server is pretty damn fast. And cheap. And requires no changes to code when you move. cPanel servers are a great way to get started . With a solution like cPanel, even fairly large companies can get almost everything they need.  Why?

• Web server needs scale with traffic, not with company size.
• Server features are pretty comprehensive and pretty standard.
• So, if you have less than about 200,000 visits, shared hosting can be a great deal.
• Most shared hosts are actually very good, even at $5-$10 per month.

Great Sources for Shared Hosting
There are lots of great hosting companies out there, but for the money these are the two that I use:

Incredible Hosting Deal - Linux based hosting, choose US or Europe data centers. Great support.
Lunar Pages - Linux, Windows, VPS and Dedicated servers.

hosting, cpanel, website