The article makes a number of interesting observations, particularly about hardware manufacturers and suppliers. It also makes mention of a number of upcoming hardware designs and the features they will bring. I’d recommend reading the piece, even if just for the factual knowledge it contains.

I’m afraid however, that I have to disagree with the author. In my opinion, I don’t believe that 2010 is the year of the Linux tablet. As a matter of fact, I don’t think that any Linux device will ever out-iPad the iPad. Linux aficionados have been proclaiming the ‘year of Linux’ on desktops for as far back as I can remember. Every year, every distribution, Linux fans rejoice and proclaim that the end is nigh for Microsoft and Apple domination, and that Linux is going to take over the world. Why? Because they believe that ‘free’ will triumph over commercial.

The author summarizes my perspective exactly (though completely unintended) in a later paragraph, where he says ‘In my opinion, Linux won’t offer this kind of magic. To bring magic like Apple does, Linux and the companies bringing Linux have to act like Apple. That means secrecy, a closed development model, a one-size-fits-all solution and one and only one manufacturer / organization which oversees hardware, software, marketing and the developer community. Not going to happen for free software and Linux!’ If we break down this statement meaningfully, we see that that in order to bring an almost perfect user experience, one needs to have a closed development model, and a single manufacturer designing both the hardware AND software. He continually pushes Android, an flavor of Linux being driven by a company (Google) with a lot of money behind it, and a development structure (management) that is not available in a community driven environment.

The author highlights another perspective I share (again, unintentionally I’m sure), when he states that ‘Android is much more popular, and the magic comes from Google, Google marketing Android at big device manufacturers and the platform being ‘pretty open’. Also, in contrary to my limited view, Google understood the issue about marketing and education. That’s why, in advent of the ballot screen, they ran huge adds outside on busstops, along highways and buildings at least in NL and UK and they even bought their own front page add on free newspapers read by millions of Dutch readers.’ It’s funny how advertising is so important even for something free. He realizes that the idealistic nature of Linux (free) is not merely enough to make people want it. Money (and lots of it) must be spent in order for something to be adopted. Nothing in life is free, and unfortunately, the majority of the Linux community seem to miss that fact.

The author concludes with a short(sighted) paragraph, stating that ‘Android on the tablet will be what Windows was on the desktop. But it will be easier for other Linux to co-exist with Android than with Windows, so for those who like to tinker the feature is pretty bright.’ But I thought that Linux by its very nature was supposed to be open, so that it can coexist easily with everything? Therefore, it shouldn’t be easier to code for Linux rather than Windows. Unfortunately, developers tend to code more for the platforms that make them money (but hey, everything in life should be free right? ), and the majority of developers will tend to code for the Windows desktop OS. Also, I think it is very short-sighted to conclude that Microsoft will not be targeting the tablet market as well.

This post may come across a little bit harsh toward Linux. However, the fact remains that without proper guidance/direction in the development of a Linux tablet OS, and proper marketing, Linux will never succeed. For this ‘free’ operating system to succeed, money, and lots of it, must be spent. The only problem is that it is not the general Linux community who will pay for it. Rather, it will be (is) big corporations (see Google) who fork out tons of money. It just seems that the Linux community does not get this fact, or, if they do, do not care about freeloading the money to support their dream of a ‘free’ OS.

Related posts:

1. Microsoft vs. iPad
2. Apple iPad
3. Thoughts on the iPad

Let me start off by laying out what I believe are the three tiers of cloud computing. I believe that cloud computing consists of hosted services (IBM), hosted applications (VMWare, Citrix), and hosted storage/data. This contrasts with internal services (SharePoint, Exchange), internal applications (MS Office, Adobe Acrobat), and internal data (File server). The internal computing may be run on virtualized servers, or on their dedicated boxes. In my opinion, businesses are concerned firstly with security regarding hosted documents/storage layer, secondly web services, and thirdly, most open to hosted web applications.

We are seeing a shift away from applications run on local machines to run on a server and/or virtualized (Citrix, VMWare). These applications tie into the internal services and storage. We are also seeing a shift away from local and/or virtualized applications to web applications. While not all applications can be run as hosted applications (Multimedia applications, lab machines, etc), most of the basic productivity apps are able to be run online or on a VPN server. Web applications (whether hosted or run internally) tie into the company’s services. These services in turn create mountains of data to be stored. Where does the data get stored? Should companies use hosted storage or should they use internal storage? If they want internal storage, they are going to have to create a framework infrastructure to dump this data internally, whether it be from web services or from hosted/web applications. There is no competing with the onslaught of hosted applications. Some are transitioning to web applications, but most (if not all) will be transitioning from local to being hosted.

Here’s a brief synopsis of what companies are offering what (in my model of a three tier system):

• Vmware vCloud – virtualized hosted apps, tie into internal infrastructure, thinapps
• Microsoft Azure- hosted services, storage, web applications
• Cisco VN- virtualized apps, network
• Citrix – hosted apps
• IBM – hosted services

Let’s move to the next tier, the web services layer. This layer provides services such as email or forums (Microsoft Exchange Online, Drupal, Joomla, IBM services). I would argue that it also includes web serving services as well. The problem with this layer is that this is where more and more malicious apps are being targeted. Microsoft recently did a study that showed that malicious apps are targeted more and more at the browser or specific apps. They target the authentication component of the web services. If compromised, an attacker can use the information gathered to gain access to the data contained (emails, documents in the document management system). However, with enough security measures, this risk can be mitigated for the most part. 

The other negative to having hosted web services is that your emails and forums are being hosted on someone else’s server. How much this affects your organization is something you have to decide. 

The benefit of hosted services is that the cost to run them is miniscule. Organizations no longer need to employ internal staff to maintain these, and pay a lot less on implementation costs. It also provides arguably better failover services. The benefits are very attractive for organizations. I would argue that competing with hosted web services is a waste of time for the most part.

The third layer is the data storage layer. This is where all your documents are stored. This would include Microsoft SharePoint Online, Live Mesh, or other web storge services. This is critical. Are you willing to have your documents hosted elsewhere? Do you have thousands of employee SSN’s or financial data stored? This is a weighty matter to consider. What about if somehow an employee at the company hosting your data manages to break in. How big is this risk? Are you willing to take it? 

Here is where I see things going:
Government & Financial institutions will likely graduate to hosted applications or web apps, while moving to virtualized services and internal data. VMWare/Cisco will be the big players. Security is paramount, so services will all be virtualized internally.

Medium to Large organizations will move to hosted services, hosted AND virtualized applications, while maintaining data internally. Big players include Microsoft (Azure) and VMWare. Cisco will also play a fairly large role. The employees will be working from home/remotely more frequently, as well as have intermittent (flights, dialup, etc) internet outages, so offline virtualization is more important.

Small to Medium organizations will graduate to hosted or virtualized applications, hosted services, and hosted data. Big player: Microsoft. The cost outweighs the benefit, so being heavily internet based will be more attractive than maintaining ability to work offline.

Related posts:

1. Merits of Windows Vista
2. Update re: ESXi & ZFS Storage
3. The Cloud as a Load Balancer

Microsoft obviously is not going to take the iPad challenge lying down, and will be touting Windows 7 as a more complete experience (Flash anyone?) than the iPad OS. Unfortunately however, I don’t see Windows 7, good as it may be, to be a worthwhile competitor to the iPad, due to the reason outlined above. So what should Microsoft do?

I firmly believe that if Microsoft wants to take on the iPad, it needs to build a tablet from the ground up. They’ve got some great software and hardware engineers¹, and should leverage that talent to build a complete Microsoft tablet experience. Integrate it with Zune and Xbox. They’ve got the Zune app store and Xbox download on demand. Utilize the existing frameworks and build a custom, performance tuned device that can compete with the iPad. Microsoft has proven it has both the hardware and software talent… now they need to be combined.

Related posts:

1. Linux Alternatives to the iPad
2. Apple iPad
3. Thoughts on the iPad

There are no 128 bit capable processors available. Microsoft is building for a market that hasn’t even started yet. They’ve barely transitioned to 64 bit! Windows 7 is the first Windows OS that has a truly viable 64 bit market. Manufacturers have had a few years to develop 64 bit drivers, and consequently, it is far more likely that you can install Windows 7 x64 now than you could install Windows XP x64. Add to that that almost every new computer ships with a 64 bit processor, and you have yourself one viable market. Software developers also now have mature SDK’s, and have had a few years to transition to 64 bit computing.

Microsoft has finally shipped Windows 7, with a much shorter timeframe than Windows Vista did. I suspect that they are going to try to maintain such an active pace, shipping software every 18-24 months or so, rather than the 5 years it took for Vista. There is no way that either the hardware market or the software market will be remotely ready for 128 bit computing in 2 years. Yes, they may make it ‘functional’, like XP x64 was ‘functional’, but it will not truly be 128 bit. I suspect that Windows 9 will be as 128 bit mature as Windows Vista was 64 bit mature. Don’t expect true 128 bit computing till Windows 10.

Related posts:

1. The Future of Windows
2. Windows Vista Deployment Resources
3. Merits of Windows Vista

The other thing I found interesting was that Google Chrome does not even run on Linux yet (at least, no public builds). There is an alpha version for Mac, and a full version on Windows, but no public Linux builds. They have a long way to go on this project.

Another interesting facet that the concept of the web browser as the user interface brings to the game, is that of localized storage. If the only accessible UI is that of the web browser, then what happens when the user does not have access to the internet? Fortunately, HTML 5 brings localized database storage to the web browser. Unfortunately, Internet Explorer 6 & 7 do not support this. Internet Explorer 8 supports it somewhat, and most other web browsers (Opera, Firefox, Chrome, Safari) support it to varying greater extents. This is a boon for web developers. It will help shift the web experience to more standards compliant browsers.

The other option for localized storage is Google Gears, which Google will no doubt push developers to use. I think however, that the majority of developers will choose to go the open standards route, rather than Google’s technology.

That’s my perspective on the ‘web OS’ news this week. Feel free to leave yours in the comments.

Related posts:

1. Chrome Frame
2. Response to John Nack & The Flash Blog
3. Linux Alternatives to the iPad

A lot of the requests were fairly basic. Things like being able to go in and update their own content, announcements, training manuals, etc. The ability to create job postings, a section for members to ‘buy/sell’ home items internally (forum). The ability to create quizzes/tests for their workers. An image gallery, and the ability to create blogs for people like the CEO.

All these requests have one thing in common: dynamic. They want this intranet to become a dynamic, up-to-date source of information for employees, many of whom rarely touch a computer in their jobs. Very few people will be responsible for updating it, and they aren’t all tech-savvy.

With these things in mind, it became clear that what they need is a CMS, not the straight code HTML pages currently being used. It also has to be user-friendly, easy for non-technical people to use, and attractive, something that the average dock worker will be able to use, and would look forward to viewing as a source of company information. It also does not need to be complex. Very few people will be contributing content. Most of the users will be there strictly as viewers, not contributors. With this in mind, a full-fledged solution like Microsoft Office SharePoint is way overkill.

I began looking at cheap, reliable CMS’s. My top four were ExpressionEngine (my first choice), MovableType, Drupal, and Joomla. These are all AMP (Apache, MySQL, PHP) based solutions, and relatively cheap to implement. I’m also very fluent in these type of systems, so it was my personal orientation as well. However, when I met with the network admin, I realized that it wasn’t about what I’m comfortable with. Their needs and current infrastructure won’t adapt so easily to AMP based solutions. We also need to think about the people required to maintain these. While I may be comfortable with them, their people aren’t necessarily comfortable with it.

I went back to the drawing board. I recalled that Microsoft offers a pared down version of SharePoint, called Windows SharePoint Services. I took a look at what it offers/doesn’t offer. It meets all their needs. The main difference between WSS and MOSS is the social network aspect. It isn’t as attractive to large groups of users. However, considering that there will be perhaps 5-10 people actually contributing to the site, WSS seems like a perfect solution.

I’ll post another update regarding this project in a few weeks. Hopefully it will be a positive experience!

Related posts:

1. Update on OHA Rollout Project
2. The real buzz about Google Buzz
3. Cloud Computing & IT

Update: I’ve gotten an insane amount of hits for “you do not have sufficient access to your computer to connect to the selected printer”, “windows cannot connect to the printer 000006be”, and “hp printer You do not have sufficient access”. (start reading at the 3rd paragraph if you want to jump straight to the details of my incident) If you want to jump straight to what the solution was for my issue, please see this Microsoft bulletin. I highly recommend reading this (PDF) HP document for a more detailed technical explanation. Also, if you could do me the courtesy of letting me know if this resolved your issue, whether via comment or email, I would greatly appreciate it.

Today’s post will be an exercise in troubleshooting. It addresses a problem I believe I’ve solved regarding our printer issues at work, as well as what was actually implemented.

So, two weeks ago we rolled out new network printers to our organization (I was not present at the time, I attend school fulltime). All the printers were the same make and model as the ones they were replacing, with the exception of a small P3005 (All our network printers are HP). Since the network printers were replaced, there have been a number of issues. Some people randomly can’t print to printers. Others can’t add printers to their local machine, receiving an error message ‘You do not have sufficient access to your computer to connect to this printer’. Initially we tried adding the users to the local power users and then local administrators group. This did not solve the issue. According to an employee from our finance department, the problems she had seemed to start she said the problems she had seemed to start when the printer near her was replaced. Interesting coincidence.

Our second level support tech told me that it was a problem with the local machines, and that they all were using the same standard image from June 2008 that I’d created. Interestingly enough, NOT ALL computers using that image were having the permissions issue. I then asked him if he’d updated any drivers on the server. He replied that he hadn’t updated any, except the driver for the P3005, the little printer, and that it was impossible for it to affect the other network printers. So I decided to do some more digging.

I found this Microsoft KB, KB954367. Microsoft’s bulletin describes a problem with an older HP driver, and an error message with:

Windows cannot connect to the printer. 
Operation could not be completed (error 0x000006be). 
You do not have sufficient access to your computer to connect to the selected printer.

Microsoft also says that “You may experience one or more of the following symptoms on a Windows Vista-based or a Windows Server 2003-based computer”. I tried to connect to one of the ‘affected’ printers using Windows Vista, and the spooler promptly crashed on the server, another symptom described in the bulletin. Microsoft suggests that the problem is due to a driver using HPBmini.dll of earlier than 1.0.0.19, or HPcdMC32.dll version less than 1.0.2.35. I went and checked the version of the driver on the server. The HPBmini.dll file is 1.0.0.19, but the HPcdMC32.dll file is 1.0.1.17, quite a bit earlier than the max threshold set by the Microsoft KB. Armed with this knowledge, I felt that it was very likely the driver that caused the issue. I then went and checked out the HP bulletin linked to from Microsoft’s KB, and found that among the affected products, the driver shipping with P3005 is one of the affected.

I brought this information to my manager, and he instructed me to talk to the second level tech before I updated the driver on the server. The second level tech refused to allow me to update the driver on the server, saying that it was impossible for the driver to cause the issue, since P3005 is only a small printer and the driver shouldn’t affect any other printer drivers. I tried to explain the fact that it updated files common to all the HP printers, but this was rejected. He ended up installing a new image on the client machines, and the problem seemed to go away. The driver on the server was not updated.

Note: To be perfectly fair, the knowledge bulletin specifies that the issue occurs on a Windows Server 2003 or Windows Vista installation with an HP printer connected. However, in my opinion this does not mean that the same issue won’t occur on Windows XP. In fact, it seems to me even more likely, since Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP use very similar driver mechanisms.

Unfortunately however, it seems the problem might NOT have gone away. Apparently this morning (I’m not in on Mondays) the printspl.exe process on the print server refused to start, and no one on the network was able to print to any printers. Now, (calling any and all people with any IT experience) what’s the common cause of the print spooler not working? A corrupted driver? You guessed right! I did some browsing on HP’s forums, and it seems like their printer drivers or the HP Inject service (which is installed along side the driver frequently) often mess up the print spooler.

Note: There are other causes for a print spooler to fail, but since it’s been functioning fine for the last several years, and the only real change was an updated driver, that the driver is what was causing havoc.

I found out that the way they tried to resolve the issue was by uninstalling every driver till the last modified. Unfortunately however, if the information I’d submitted had been read completely, it would have been understood that the whole reason for the issue in the first place was because the files are timestamped incorrectly. Windows Server 2003 does not look at the file version when updating. Rather, it looks at the time stamp of the file to determine whether it should be updated or not. Uninstalling won’t help. HP says that the only way to rectify this problem is to manually copy over the new dll’s. Uninstalling and rolling back the drivers won’t work. This would have been known had the ‘More information’ been read.

After getting an update from my manager this evening, I found that they’re (IT) is setting up a new print server on one of our other servers. At least it will get the organization printing again. Our main job is to get keep the organization functioning. I’m just disappointed that we had to experience downtime, and that what I suspect was the real cause wasn’t fixed. I’m trying to understand what the big resistance was to following my recommendation to update the driver per HP’s suggestion. I still firmly believe that if we were to fix the ‘updated’ driver on the old print server, things would be up and functional. However, I haven’t been given that liberty, so we’re stuck with our new print server. This means everyone has to re-add their printers, whether they’re having issues or not.

Feel free to leave your comments and/or troubleshooting suggestions. I can’t really implement them now that we have a new print server, but I’d love to hear suggestions for alternative solutions.

Related posts:

1. Update Re: Print Issues
2. Imaging Issues
3. Interesting Outlook 2007 Client Issue

We ran into a few issues this past week while applying our Windows XP image to the new T400 laptops. When the computers were turned on, all the USB ports worked except one. And Windows kept complaining about a PCI driver not being installed, even though on the reference machine it worked fine. There were no yellow warning signs in device manager about devices missing drivers.
We traced the problem back to the BIOS. It seems that someone had made changes to the BIOS on the reference machine before it was handed off to me to create an image. They had disabled the Fingerprint reader without disabling the ‘Pre-Desktop Authentication’, and set the USB sleep mode to something different than the defaults. We now have to change the BIOS settings to match the reference machine on every laptop out of the box. Somewhat frustrating. We’re now two full days behind schedule.

Another issue that I personally had this week was related to the workstation component of the rollout. I was informed that the rollout schedule has been cut practically in half. That works… we just need to push a little more. Two days later I got another shocker… We had decided on the DC7800′s to be our standard workstation. After two weeks of testing the image created for the demo machine, the decision was made to change (the day before the new DC7800′s were to be coming in) to the DC7900′s, as DC7800′s were in short supply, and we’d get the $400 more DC7900′s for the same price. This means we need to create a brand new image for the 7900′s, literally days before they come in, as well as proceeding as close to deployment schedule as possible. I foresee a lot of problems stemming from lack of testing.

Tomorrow I’m off to school (it’s reading week). Someone made off with my school hard drive, so my Windows Server 2003 Administration coursework is all lost. I now have to recreate most of it, as it’s required for the second half of the semester.

On a positive note, the Windows Deployment Services server (my baby and setup) is performing quite well. We can freshly image computers from start to finish in about 45 minutes. I’m quite proud of my work to be honest. Even better, although I’m the only one familiar with creating/capturing images to it, and managing it, it was very easy for the others on the IT team to use it after a cursory reading of my documentation. A product is functioning the way it should when others can use it with a cursory reading of documentation.

Anyways, I’m off to sleep. Time for some mental relaxation.

Related posts:

1. Printer Issues
2. Update on OHA Rollout Project
3. Windows 8 Won’t be 128 bit

When we run Sysprep on our images, we have it set to default to Canada (English) locale settings. This changes the long date format to MMMM dd, yyyy. The Outlook Calendar Details view uses the long date format for the daily headers. If we change the date format manually afterward to dddd, MMMM dd, yyyy, then Outlook prints properly. I have not been able to get this format to stay after setting the locale in the Sysprep inf file. What we will likely end up doing in the immediate future is changing the long date format settings on the local machines, and after our AD restructure is complete, using GPP to set it for everyone across the organization.

Related posts:

1. Printer Issues
2. More on Client Platform Security

After my post this morning about the new Windows Vista Deployment & Administration guide, I thought perhaps I should post a list of some of the resources I’ve used over the past year in my own experience with the Vista Deployment. Beside each name and link, I’ve written a brief summary of what I used it for.

• Group Policy Team Blog: I used this extensively for learning about the new features and benefits of Windows Vista GP. Useful resource on GPP, RSAT, and GPMC. Also used for learning about the new ADMX templates.
• GuillaumeD’s Blog: I used this for learning about some Microsoft Deployment Toolbench database and task sequence customizations and deployments. Also contains some news about virtualization (HyperVisor).
• JaLaBlog: I used this extensively while in the early stages of learning MDT. An invaluable resource for people new to MDT.
• Rob’s Blog: Useful general information about Windows Vista and Server 2008.
• The GPO Guy: Invaluable resource on Group Policy in Windows Vista.
• Todd’s Blog: A few interesting posts on general administration tips.
• Windows Server 2008 Blog – Kurt Roggen: Very interesting resource if you’re looking for information on Server 2008.
• Realtime Community – Vista: Lots of interesting tips and tricks on customizing/fixing Vista.
• WindowsVistaPlace: I used this for information mostly about SP1.

So… a few useful sites and resources if you’re doing anything similar. Enjoy.

Related posts:

1. Merits of Windows Vista
2. Windows Deployment Services Boot Process
3. The Future of Windows