Will Microsoft Surfaces change everything?

Okay so the video looks cool, the feedback on the device looks good.  As best I can tell it looks like an iPad running Windows 8.  I have been testing Windows 8 for a few weeks now and it is a smooth, clean OS which solidly puts Windows in the table touch space.

Surface is an important step for Microsoft.  The development of the slate market has been obvious since I posted this diagram over 2 years ago.  The tablet (called slate in the diagram) is a natural technology for the cloud.  The tablet clearly fits between the space of Mobile Phone and Lap Top.

To date the tablet has been dominated by Android and iOS.  So tablets remain kind of big phones.  But even hard core tablet users like myself have to sit down all the time to get key work done.  It would seem that current iPads and Android Tablets are limited by restrictions of mobile phones.

So far Microsoft has not been able to get in to this space.  Its domination of the PC market has not extended to tablets.  But it is also fair to say that Android and Apple tablets don't pose to serious a threat to PCs, yet. I can't really imagine giving up my PCs to use an iPad alone.  Can you?

Surfaces looks to be the first tablet which might replace a laptop.  So far my testing of Windows 8 has convinced me that it is finally the real thing.

My prediction in 2010 was that Apple would be the first owner of this space, and that Google would be limited by lack of hardware expertise.  So I predicted that as of 2011 the tablet space (which I called the slate at the time) would be owned by Apple, but by 2015 Microsoft Windows 9 tablet would take over.

Lets see.

You can restore a site collection to the same web application it was made

Well you can, but first you have to remove the site collection you backed up. This code will do it 

Backup-Backup-SPSite –Identity http://sharepoint.abc.com/sites/testsite -Path “c:\site collection backups\testsite.bak” 

Remove-SPSite –Identity http://sharepoint.abc.com/sites/testsite 

Restore-SPSite –Identity http://sharepoint.abc.com/sites/testsite2 -Path “c:\site collection backups\testsite.bak”

http://sharepoint.stackexchange.com/questions/31048/restore-spsite-reports-no-content-databases-are-available-for-this-operation

Now the reason for this is a bit tricky.  Remember that everything in the same site collection sits in the same database instance.  SharePoint puts a lot of GUIDs in to a database.  So if you try to take a backup of a site collection and restore it to another site collection in the same app you get the error:

 Restore-SPSite : No content databases are available for this operation

Even if you delete the site collection from the Web Application it will not work.  You need to run the remove-SPSite command to remove the GUIDs from the site collection.

This is covered in Microsoft support post

Error message when you try to restore a Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 site collection by using a different name: "No content databases are available for this operation" http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926321

This post is for SharePoint 2007 but the same issue remains in 2010.  Just had it.

MSDN Video, installing SharePoint 2010

Check out this great MSN video: Installing SharePoint Server 2010

Good introduction overview of building SharePoint 2010.

How to configure an RSS feed on a Sharepoint 2010 list

Rant on Windows Changes!

Creating the Windows 8 user experience - Building Windows 8 - Site Home - MSDN Blogs

Update: I have been testing Windows 9 for a week now.  So though the issues I bring up bellow are still valid, I can see how it will make a solid tablet OS.  The key thing to think about is that Windows 8 is MS first real post PC OS.  I can't see any solid reason to move desktop from Windows 7, but for the future of tablets perhaps Windows 8 will carry the ball where Android failed: providing a solid tablet OS.

Just to let this off my chest: Why is Start page this necessary!

How to begin, well if you made a Start pages for my issues with Windows 8 it would contain boxes like this:

1. I know who I am and what I look like, why put this information in the corner of my OS!  And what does it mean that something as root as my OS is tailored to me?  What information can Microsoft harvest about me via the OS now!
2. I don't need boxes that give me links to all the Microsoft Cloud products because most of them are not very good.

   

   What is the secret to Mac OS X success?
   

   

   It looks and feels and acts like a good version of Windows XP

   

   Mac OS X is not trying to change the way we interact with the OS because Apple can leave good enough alone and concentrate on what counts: making the link between software we like and hardware better!  

3. Didn't I tell you I didn't like the layout when I got an iPhone or Android over a Windows Mobile phone?  
4. How many Macs do I need to buy before you listen?
5. Ever notice what the Mac OS X interface looks like?  It looks like XP!  Its an XP that works and is stable.  

Microsoft Office For Android and iPhone! Yes!

Our dreams to be answered?

"The mobile Office apps are very much in demand and are among the top paid apps in the iTunes App Store. Although we have Apple's Pages, Keynote and Number apps, which are consistently in the top ten bestsellers list after iWork for iPad's launch in 2010 but they don't serve the purpose perfectly.

"The market for Windows Phone has not been favourable, though tablet-friendly Windows 8 is in the pipeline but the market giant iPad would not let it go that easy. In such a scenario, releasing a mobile version of Office suite may augment the survival of Windows Phone in the market. "

Microsoft Office For Android To Arrive This Fall

Microsoft has one major mantra: fight them until you beat them at their own game.  But like all good companies, and few governments it seems, Microsoft also has a standard Plan B: if you can't beat them join them.

Recently I have seen a major change in Microsoft open source.  In 2007 I felt like I dropped a bomb when I even brought up open sourced to a group of Microsoft sales people on Biztalk.  I got the impression that they were not supposed to talk the subject.  Since Microsoft has become the main open source cloud hosting platform.  The company was able to see the writing on the wall and come alone.  So will they do the same thing with Android and iPhone?

Salesforce pushes collaboration

 "Salesforce.com has updated its Chatter social enterprise tool to add instant messaging and screensharing. The move puts Chatter in competition with Citrix’s GoToMeeting, Cisco’s WebEx and other collaboration tools. 

"The company, which has 150,000 Chatter networks, is continually adding features to its primary social enterprise tool."

Salesforce pushes collaboration with Chatter update | Networking | ZDNet UK

Its good to see Facebook coming in to this space, but it is also hopeful that the market will develop open standards so these different providers can all interact.

Pirate Pay torrent 'blocker' backed by Microsoft

 "A Russian company has developed software it says can disrupt and prevent people from downloading pirated content. 

"Pirate Pay has been backed by Microsoft and has so far worked with Walt Disney Studios and Sony Pictures to stop "thousands" of downloads. 

"The tool poses as real bit torrent users but then "confuses" peer-to-peer networks, causing disconnections. 

"Critics argue that the method will be ineffective in the long term"

BBC News - Pirate Pay torrent 'blocker' backed by Microsoft

This is simply wrong.  What ever the threat of IP lose to massive companies is, the solution is not Microsoft spending millions to create 'punking' technology.  Already many regimes in the world disrupt social networks to prevent things they don't like.  In Bahrain and Russia regime forces have often flooded Twitter in an effort to disrupt discourse around democracy.  What Microsoft is adding here in an industrial component that will punk social networks as a feature, converting what is now and unethical practice in to an business.

I call this kind of conduct 'Troll Bombing'

If you can't beat them: Microsoft buying its way in to tablets?

 "(Reuters) - Microsoft Corp will invest $300 million in Barnes & Noble Inc's digital and college businesses, valuing them at $1.7 billion. Shares of Barnes & Noble jumped 79 percent. 

"Microsoft will get a 17.6 percent stake in the new unit, while Barnes & Noble will own about 82.4 percent, the companies said in a statement on Monday. 

"The business, whose name has not yet been decided, will have an ongoing relationship with Barnes & Noble's retail stores."

Microsoft's Nook Investment Totals $300 Million; Barnes & Noble's Weighing Spinoff Of Digital Business

So is Microsoft hedging its bets on tablets, getting in on the growing tablet/e-reader market via a partner.

It makes sense, but Microsoft has done a lot of these deals that make sense but don't seem to go anywhere.  The Nokia deal made sense, and in the last year I have seen 2 people on the entire planet (from China to America) using Windows Mobile on a Nokia device.

This graphic shows how the rise of Android and Apple has taken a big piece out of Microsoft's former ownership of the computing space.

The Facebook deal made sense, but it is hard to see how this got Microsoft anything.  Sure Microsoft allows you to connect Office and even Windows to Facebook but it is so annoying I was personally able to keep it going for maybe a day.

Microsoft has had the leverage to buy in to Web 2.0, tablet e-readers and mobile, but it has not had the internal skill to leverage this in to anything for Microsoft.

But its not all doom and gloom, as Microsoft start has set on the hand held and desktop it has grown on the back end. As Microsoft lost home user it has gained the Enterprise back end.

 

Looking specifically at SharePoint is a dramatic picture, in the Enterprise Content Management Space Microsoft has been going from strength to strength. 

Yahoo Layoffs Set to Begin Next Week, Followed by Restructuring - Kara Swisher - News - AllThingsD

Yahoo Layoffs Set to Begin Next Week, Followed by Restructuring - Kara Swisher - News - AllThingsD: "First the layoffs: Sources said the cuts will be deep and mostly aimed at the product, research and marketing units of Yahoo. The ultimate goal, said multiple sources, is to cut many thousands from Yahoo’s staff of close to 14,000 employees, which is actually much larger, due to contract workers not officially in its roster."

'via Blog this'

Is there any money in Web 2.0?

"Daily voucher company Groupon has reported an unexpected loss.

In its first set of results since listing on Nasdaq stock exchange in November, Groupon reported a net loss of $42.7m (£27.0m), when a small profit had been expected.

The loss for the last three months of 2011 compares with a loss of $378.6m in the same period of 2010."

BBC News - Groupon reports unexpected loss

A year ago the hot world was 'social', from conferences to the hunt for VC social was everywhere. Suddenly young good looking people nothing like Mark Zuckerburg were trying to make a career of social.

It was all like the dot bomb all over again maybe.

Recent filling by Facebook shocked us to see that the giant with almost a billion users earns less than $5.00 per user per year!

If you try to think of the entire social media pie you have to imagine right now Facebook has a large piece of that pie. And yet it only earns about $4,40 per user per year. Foursquare and Twitter along with YouTube will be taking most of what is left of the pie.

What does this mean? It means that maybe there is not much of a pie. Facebook and Twitter had explosive growth because of the massive population with web tool that needed something to do with them, but the fact remains the web seems better at free stuff than pay stuff.

There simply may not be any business online.

But wait, didn't we go through all of this before? Didn't dot coms collapse because of the market pulled out only to have the industry return with even more power.

Well yes, the web came back with Web 2.0, dot coms funded by IPOs collapsed to be replaced by new social firms funded by VC, but still the large sustainable ecosystem is not there. So far the companies to make money off the web are Apple and Google.

But that is not the full story, thousands of smaller companies make more money because of the web, people make more at their jobs because of the web, the web reduces the costs of many firms.

Maybe we have a new kind of economic model coming up. One that has a few massive web companies that take up what little profit can me made, a lot of non-profit projects like Wikipedia and Debian and a huge network of smaller firms that make smaller revenues doing specific work.

Android Faces Windows 8 Tablets

"The platform will be bigger threat for Android as compared to iPad because Android is already facing a tough time against Apple's tablet. The sheer survival of any single Android tablet is difficult when it comes to facing iPad. Amazon's Kindle Fire has come for its rescue and has contributed majorly to the Android's market share but that's pretty less as compared to iPad's lion's share. "

Why Android Should Fear Windows 8 Tablets?

We see three key factors that are going to make Windows hard to beat:

• They have lots of money and resources to fight it out.
• Windows and Office are still familiar productivity tools, and the tablet's main application will be as an office tool opposed to the smartphone which is more of a toy.
• Windows 8 will give a single experiences from PC to laptop to Tablet to Phone, that will be powerful. Mac is struggling to get the set of iOS and OSX working for people and Android has no presence outside of the PC Chrome browser.

But there are major problems Windows has to overcome:

• No history of mobile presence with consumer.
• A very crowded tablet space with Amazon, Google, Apple and now Microsoft fighting in a battle which is turning out to be much larger than we had anticipated.
• iPad and Android ecosystems.