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Vol. 11, #45 - Nov 6, 2006 - Issue #601
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Redmond In Bed With Novell And SUSE Linux!
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- EDITORS CORNER
- Redmond In Bed With Novell And SUSE Linux!
- Microsoft Moves Into Third Party Markets; Good or Bad?
- Exchange 2007 Adoption: How Fast?
- Quote Of The Week
- ADMIN TOOLBOX
- Admin Tools We Think You Shouldn't Be Without
- TECH BRIEFING
- Spam That Delivers A Pink Slip Installs Keylogger
- Getting Started With VMware On Windows
- Top 10 SQL Server Downloads
- Dissecting The AD Architecture: SID Filtering And More
- Phishing Secrets Revealed
- Is Domain Controller Virtualization Really A Good Idea?
- Security Scan Results: Take A Closer Look
- WINDOWS SERVER NEWS
- Vista, Office 2007 Launch Nov. 30 - Pothole Warning
- WINDOWS SERVER THIRD PARTY NEWS
- File-Rescue Plus 4.0 Network Enterprise Edition Released
- WServerNews 'FAVE' LINKS
- This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff.
- WServerNews - PRODUCT OF THE WEEK
- Running Just One Single AV Engine, Company Wide?
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EDITORS CORNER |
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Redmond In Bed With Novell And SUSE Linux!
One week after Oracle throws its support behind Red Hat Linux, the earth
moved and Redmond did something unheard of. Microsoft and Novell
announced a set of agreements to improve the compatibility and
interoperability of Windows and SUSE Linux around virtualization, system
management and document formats. The companies will also work together
on sales and marketing initiatives, which includes Redmond (yup you heard
that right) recommending SUSE Linux to customers. You have to wonder
about the timing of this announcement though, so close after Oracle.
How's this going to work? Microsoft will help sell SUSE Linux along with
Windows, pushing SUSE to mixed environment sites. They will distribute
coupons good for a year of SUSE maintenance and support, and pay Novell
for the coupons. They plan to have Microsoft sales people give away 70,000
coupons every year to get customers on to SUSE, but stay away from physically
shipping Linux bits, those will come from Novell.
The new deal sounds great on paper, but I remain somewhat skeptical if
this really will accelerate enterprise adoption of SUSE Linux. A
healthy measure of suspicion is warranted with these kinds of deals,
Microsoft apparently sees this as an opportunity to drive sales of
more Windows, by continuing the uncertainty around other Linux distros,
particularly around IP infringement by making SUSE Linux the only
"version" of Linux that ships with MSFT patent covenants.
Per the new deal, you will be able to run Office on Linux and Linux apps
on Windows. They are also making noises about ways to improve how Office and
OpenOffice share documents and improve interoperability between OpenXML and
the OpenDocument format. It will be easier to federate Active Directory
with Novell's eDirectory. And to make this "deal with the devil" more
palatable for the open source community, Redmond will actively contribute
to several open source projects. But there is an interesting twist: they've
got Novell paying the main closed-source company a percentage of their
open source revenues. The Press Release is here, and let me know what
you think about this?
http://www.wservernews.com/061106-Novell
Microsoft Moves Into Third Party Markets; Good or Bad?
We're interested in your opinion! The new SunPoll wants to know:
"If Microsoft is increasingly successful in moving into more third
party markets, what will the third party marketplace look like in
3 years? (Select one.)"
- Fewer companies with less choice
- A market that is much more niche oriented and ultimately better for customers
- A market that is much more niche oriented and ultimately worse for customers
- A market where third parties have been forced to innovate, which is good for customers?
Vote here, bottom middle column:
http://www.sunbelt-software.com
Exchange 2007 Adoption: How Fast?
Gartner claimed adoption of Exchange 2007 will only begin in 2008,
with the installed base reaching 40% in 2010. The last SunPoll asked
if that was true. Here are your plans, from 500 votes:
- We plan to adopt right away after release in 2007: 31.5%
- We are going to roll it out in 2008: 28.2%
- We are going to roll it out in 2009: 14.9%
- We are going to roll it out in 2010: 25.3%
So these numbers tell a whole different story from Gartner!
Quote Of The Week
"We are all victims of mythology in one way or another. We are the
inheritors, and many times the propagators, of a desire to believe
what we want to believe, regardless of whether or not it is true."
-- J.V. Stewart
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TECH BRIEFING |
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Spam That Delivers A Pink Slip Installs Keylogger
Targeted spam or "spear phishing" took a vicious twist last week
in Georgia, where a handful of medical center employees received
e-mail claimed they'd been laid off. When they followed a link
in the e-mail for details, they unwittingly downloaded a keylogger
onto the network. ComputerWorld had the story first:
http://www.wservernews.com/061106-Keylogger
Getting Started With VMware On Windows
VMware Server: As with many free products, there is some assembly required.
Expert Andrew Kutz provides you with this new eight-part series on how
to successfully install VMware on Windows. In the first installment, Kutz
sets the stage for the deployment guide and describes how VMware server
works. At SearchServerVirtualization:
http://www.wservernews.com/061106-VMware
Top 10 SQL Server Downloads
From security tools to developer utilities, you'll find a mix of downloads
in this top 10 including: SQLPing, SQL Backup, PromptSQL, and SQL Server
2005 Express Edition. Some are entirely free while others are a limited-time
free trial. (free registration required)
http://www.wservernews.com/061106-Top-10-SQL-Server-Downloads
Dissecting The AD Architecture: SID Filtering And More
Expert Dean Wells continues his analysis of the Active Directory architecture
by breaking down the behaviors and configurations of SID filtering, usage
scenarios and configuration. At SearchWinIT: (free registration required)
http://www.wservernews.com/061106-SID-Filtering
Phishing Secrets Revealed
Get an overview of how phishing threatens Exchange Server from leading authority
on phishing technology, Lance James, and learn what you need to do to protect
your data. At the SearchExchange site:
http://www.wservernews.com/061106-Phishing-Secrets
Is Domain Controller Virtualization Really A Good Idea?
As virtual application servers continue to grow in popularity, many IT managers
are beginning to explore the idea of virtualizing domain controllers as well.
Expert Gary Olsen tackles some of the many unanswered questions involving
DC virtualization. The story is at SearchWinIT:
http://www.wservernews.com/061106-DC-Virtualization
Security Scan Results: Take A Closer Look
Your security scan results may be flagging "issues" that don't need your
immediate attention. Read how you can decipher what's really a threat and
what's not in this tip by Kevin Beaver.
http://www.wservernews.com/061106-Security-Scan
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WINDOWS SERVER NEWS |
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Vista, Office 2007 Launch Nov. 30 - Pothole Warning
After years of patching XP, system admins will finally be able to get
their hands on Vista and O2K7. Redmond sent e-mail invitations to the
New York launch event, called "Microsoft New Day for Business". They will
also release Exchange 2007 that same day. Steve Ballmer will show up
for the event, together with the usual suspects; Microsoft partners
and showcase customers.
There will be more roll-out events in other cities until end Jan 2007.
Microsoft hopes customers will deploy Vista and 2007 together, and is
going to promote the benefits of this. General consumer release of
Vista and Office 2007 are still planned for January 2007.
Some licensing news: relenting under pressure from frequent hardware
upgraders, Microsoft has changed the retail license terms for Vista.
Customers now may uninstall the OS from one machine and install it on
another as many times as they want.
There are some problems though. The upgrade path to Vista seems to
have a few potholes. There are two kinds of OEMs; the big names like
Dell, HP, Lenovo and on the other hand the system integrators that build
no-name boxes or special high-end systems. Microsoft will issue coupons
to the vendors. In turn, the vendors will issue coupons to their
customers. Nothing difficult there.
But here are two nettlesome issues. First, not all XP and "Vista capable"
computers sold between now and the promo expiration date of March 15, 2007
will be eligible. Every vendor will independently determine which of their
machines are eligible for either the free upgrade or the "reduced price"
one. You can bet your boots that cheap machines will not give away Vista
upgrades.
Second, (and pay attention here) the price of the upgrade will be determined
not by Microsoft but by the hardware vendor. You could get it for free,
perhaps only shipping/handling or maybe a discounted upgrade price. And
to make it more complex, the very same physical upgrade could cost more
one vendor compared to another.
Last but not least, the XP flavors do not have a direct "map" to the five
Vista flavors. And from what it looks like you cannot upgrade from anything
to either Vista Home Basic or Vista Ultimate. Looks to me that you guys
are right, and ignore Vista for a while, wait for SP1, and only kick it
in production when you have a killer app that needs Vista right away.
The recent SunPoll on Vista Rollout shows your plans clearly!
http://www.wservernews.com/061106-Vista-Rollout-Poll
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WINDOWS SERVER THIRD PARTY NEWS |
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File-Rescue Plus 4.0 Network Enterprise Edition Released
File-Rescue Plus 4.0 Network Enterprise Edition allows an Administrator
to Remotely scan, view, and undelete files, and folders on other machines,
or attached devices to those machines on the network, directly from their
own workstation. Also allows the Administrator to Clean Free Disk Space
Remotely!
What's New in the Network Enterprise Edition?
- QuickScan Option - Remotely Shows deleted files from the current format
of the partition or media type.
- ClusterScan Option - Remotely Shows all files on the volume whether
deleted or not. Useful for Damaged, Reformatted, or Corrupted Drives.
Allows recovery from CDRW formatted CDs.
- Device Detection - Remotely Detects any drive type such as, any Hard
Drive, Removable Drives, CD Drives, Handhelds, or any Device attached
to the computer.
- Clean Free Disk Space Option - Remotely Allows you to securely wipe
all free disk space on your computer to Department of Defense Spec 5220.22-M.
- Sorting and Search Options - Remotely Allows full search on all files
by keyword. Tab sorting by files types for Documents, Images, Audio, Video,
and the Recycle Bin. Allows modification of file types in the sorting tabs.
- File List Options - These include saving your file list as a Text, CSV,
or an XML file. Allows for printing of your file list and viewing you list
with Details, List, Icons, and all Image files as Thumbnails!
- eUpdate Options - Full electronic updates and upgrades of the product can
be obtained by just clicking the eUpdate option on the interface.
Version 4.0 Highlights:
- Remotely Rescue any File Type
- Remotely Rescue from any Media incl. CDs
- Remotely Rescue Directory Structures
- New Search and Sorting Features
- Remotely Wipe Free Disk Space Option
- Electronic Updates
- Runs on NT/2000/XP/2003
Download the 2 File-limit Full Functional Eval here:
http://www.wservernews.com/061106-FileRescuePlus
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WServerNews - PRODUCT OF THE WEEK |
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Running Just One Single AV Engine, Company Wide?
In that case you need to take five minutes and watch this Flash
presentation. We have come up with all the ammo you need to convince
your boss to get some extra budget allocated to multi-engine AV on
Exchange. It's worth the time. It's on the Ninja page in the left
column, but here is the direct link (Flash):
http://www.wservernews.com/061106-Ninja-Presentation
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