I’m back from sunny Los Angeles, where I attended Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference 2008 this week. The stars of the show were Windows 7, the follow-on to Microsoft’s little-loved Vista, and Windows Azure, Microsoft’s ambitious new cloud computing service.
I wrote up a brief review of the Windows 7 pre-beta build (Number 6801) that Microsoft handed out to conference attendees, and we put together a slideshow of Windows 7 images.
I’ve been provisioned for my Windows Azure beta account, but I haven’t yet fired up an app for myself on the new service. I have, however, weighed in with a bit of commentary on what Windows Azure means for Microsoft.
Also this week, Jim Rapoza has worked up a package on messaging alternatives to Microsoft Exchange, in which he takes up Gordano Messaging Suite 15.01 and IBM Lotus Notes and Domino 8.02, and takes on the question of whether it’s wise to host your e-mail in the cloud (as I did recently, as well).
For your viewing pleasure, Jim also worked up a video of the two messaging server applications in action, and a pair of slideshows showing off the chief attributes of each offering.
And, as if that wasn’t enough technology review and analysis goodness for one week, Jim has a review and slideshow of the Flock 2.0 social networking Web browser, and a column in which he opines on the blisslessness of security ignorance.
Andrew Garcia has prepared a review of a conferencing solution from Vello with an accompanying slideshow, and he’s blogging about NBA 2.0 troubles with the association’s NBA League Pass Broadband service. On that note, if there are any PR people in the audience, you can pitch your business intelligence products much more successfully if they stand to return Andrew or me to the top of the fantasy basketball league we play in.
Over at his Permit/Deny blog, Cameron Sturdevant is talking about our recent and future Application Whitelisting coverage, which we’ll soon be expanding with a reader-requested story about Microsoft’s Software Restriction Policy (soon to be known, in Windows 7, as AppLocker).
Finally, we have a Channel reviews four-pack this week from Frank Ohlhorst:
- VIZIO Offers a Different Path to Digital Signage
- HP Blends Performance, Aesthetics in Winning Workstation Formula
- Netgear Increases Wi-Fi and Internet Security with the Latest Prosafe Firewall
- Supermicro Does Super Job with Super Server
If you have a burning IT question that only eWEEK Labs can answer, drop me or another Labs analyst a line, or have your say in the comments section below. Have a great weekend, everyone.