POW WOW, Jumping jack Flash, Ashlee. ......Sounds like Out of this World stuff from Microsoft. I wonder what Programming and Source Drivers they are Following and/or are going to Energise with their $Stash to return IT to Top Deputy Dog ......A Devilish Tool and AIMan's Best Friend. :-)

And it is as well to Share that, for that is what is ahead?

They are a bit slow to jump into the NEUKlearer HyperRadioProActive Vista/Virtualised Environment, Ashlee, which would suggest that they have lost Control of both ITs Direction and Production ....... which in either Reality or Virtual Reality is always just a Simple Matter of Beta More Highly Enriched Triggering Content for Chain Reaction Potential and Current Flow ........ Wow, POWer. And that is kind enough to presuppose that they considered Controlling IT in the first place, albeit underhandedly via back door trojans and the logging of cracker codes and hacker keys, if that be their Modus Operandi and/or Modus Vivendi. And that makes the whole Windows MacroStructure easily subject to Virtual TakeOver/MakeOver from Private Group Proxies Feeding them Crack Cranky CodeXXXX.

In the Great Game for Consenting Adults, XSSXXXX, Designer Drugs and Rock and Roll all have no Minor Part to Play in the NetScape Operas .... and/or MSCoRed Vistas ....... Magical Mystery Turing Trips ......... dDay Trading Joint AddVentures Boldly Going ......

Does US all a Big Favour, Ashlee, and awake the Junked Up Sleeping Giant to Stir ITself into Rehab. and Virtual Therapy .......via ITs NeuReal, QuITe SurReal, NEUKlearer OnLine Guidance Systems........ [such as are C42 Quantum Control Systems in the Virtuous Meme Circles of NIRobotIQs.}

I presume they will use servers that reboot really, really fast?

:-)

So what does a Data Center blue screen look like?

I no longer believe that Microsoft can accomplish any large scale project.

Take "Vista" for example.

But even if they were to actually accomplish this...

I would not trust my data to be in their hands, ever.

I don't believe that Microsoft is to be entrusted with anything of value.

Perhaps they could be honest with a name for these proposed Data Centers...

Something like the Eye of Sauron information absorption centers.

In all seriousness though... This is very scary mono culture that is to be watched relentlessly.

Microsoft has money but not soul. Spending up big on huge data centers to serve out to their forever diminishing online market share. Hint: No-one cares!

or does all the constant anti-microsoft carping really grate on other peoples nerves too. iWanabbes, tux-fux, Sun Worshippers and Googlers. Somebody please take them out and beat them till they can winge about something else instead.

Apple - stick some twin thunderbolts on Steve's Black iPoloneck and have done with it.

Linux - Not an operating system that the average, normal, non-geek person is EVER going to use on their PC.

Sun - blah.

Google- A search engine and email - is it worth them knowing every last detail about your life.

I to don’t really care what anyone wants to use, I use Vista, it works for me, I did use Ubuntu but when I wanted an answer to a seemingly simple question I was shot down in flames on the forum by all the Uber geeks telling me that I wasn’t fit to own a PC never mind use their beloved system.

As for the do no evil philosophy of Google, people seem to be buying into this and believing it so good luck to them but in time maybe people will see that having your every move tracked and analysed, all your data stored in one place might not be the least evil of all the options you could have chosen.

People, get a life, if your view is that Microsoft are evil for bringing these data centres on-line and Google are good for doing the same thing then surely you are a little blinkered?

Given Microsoft's unenviable record for getting things wrong, missing the point, confusing their hallucinations with the customers' real requirements, and general unreliability, they'll be fighting an uphill battle for market position.

Google, whatever its faults, generally gets things right, and in general seems to be a much more nimble, flexible organization that actually provides useful functions. Maybe no more trustworthy than Microsoft, but at least their stuff works pretty much without a hiccup. I'm always in awe that Google Maps works flawlessly on my dirty ol' Win98 box running Netscape 7.2.

[I'm tempted to go back and apply ManFromMars capitalization but will refrain.]

Oh Damn, it was waaay to early in my morning to read something written by amanfromMars...

Holy shit i think that did permanent brain damage...

@Is it just me... & No, Not just you

I couldnt agree more, people think its a social badge of honor to bash microsoft and its users, like they are something superior...

its all the same shit, when Ubuntu released its latest version, there were story after story about this and that not working, no drivers for...

when apple released the latest Mac OS, the web was wallpapered with stories about all the problems, BSOD's during install, people losing all their data and so on, lets not forget the increasingly more common stories about iViruses that you smug jackasses think your glorious systems are immune to...

its like its high school all over again...

The vista bashing especially grinds my nerves, all you people that think its so cool to harp about how shitty vista is, you sound like a bunch of desperate housewives, sitting around gossiping about who's fucking who and who's getting fat.

so many times i've posted comments on these articles calling you people to the mat, challenging to put your money where your mouth is and show some actual proof of concept that vista is such a piece of shit, actual first hand proof of concept, not just repeating something you read on some forum or written by a bash for cash columnist who has never actually used vista, not one time has anyone ever responded to my challenge...

here is your free pass to the "get a clue club"...

i can tell you this, i run vista ultimate on a new HP dv9700 with an AMD 2.4ghz Turion x2 with 4gb of ram, it fucking kicks ass. my girlfriend runs it on an HP dv9500 with an AMD 2.3ghz Turion x2 with 4gb of ram, she loves it, she runs a Mac at work, she hates it, she cant do half the shit she needs to, because her Mac lacks the software or it cant open documents, she constantly emails me documents to convert for her so that her Mac can open them.

all you Mac-o-lites prove is that you're weak minded and easily brainwashed, and for all the tux-fux (i like that one, its a keeper) get a clue, your community is so fragmented, youre worse than Microsoft, so many flavors of linux, none that do much of anything or are easy to setup and use, someone needs to hit you folks upside the head with a clue bat, then maybe instead of having so many cliques, you might come together and start working working as a community, on one single unified linux distro, then maybe you'll get taken seriously but the IT world as a whole...

The reason that Microsoft is bashed so relentlessly is that they are selfish, ignorant, arrogant, greedy, incompetent criminals - CONVICTED criminals - who make mediocre at best and generally crap resource hogging bloatware and self-destructing game consoles.

Micro$oft deserve every kick in the arse they get, and then some.

@ Walter Brown

I seriously doubt your girlfriend uses a Mac at work or that you have a girlfriend at all (blow ups don't count). If this mythical creature can't figure out how to open a document on a Mac, then god knows how she could master any flavour of Windows.

And there is not a single virus for OS X of any flavour, regardless of all the wishful thinking of the brain-dead Windows drones. Most of the OS X Leopard installation problems existed between the computer and the chair. Follow the recommended advice - back-up, permissions repair, remove kernel hacks - and it's clear sailing.

The weak minded are those who are blind to Micro$oft's faults and Apple's virtues.

ahh typical behavior of an immature iZealot, little child, you are right problems existed between the computer and the chair, point in case, your computer...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/25/mac_malware_menace/

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/10/31/in_the_wild_osx_trojan/

you sir need to go see a psychiatrist and should be put in a rubber room for your own safety...

Paris because even shes not that stupid...

for one reason only. I think they're not technically cabable of doing it unless they hired a call center in India to phone people and ask them where they are.

Stuart, you just described Mr. jobs to a tee, i'll give you the incompetent remark, but the rest of your little remark applies in more in Steve's direction.

although a little digging on the internet turns up no evidence of any criminal convictions of any of the top brass at microsoft, it does, however, appear that one Steve Jobs is currently under investigation by the Securities Exchange Commission for fraud and stock options back dating, felony allegations... you see the anti-trust case against Microsoft is civil, not criminal, therefore your little convicted criminals statement is wholly inaccurate, however, the charges laid against the steve and other members of apples board of directors are in fact criminal, and they carry some pretty stiff penalties...

the problem here is, none of these corporations are any better than the next, your statement about apples virtue is fucking hilarious though...

They will be at a competitive disadvantage on electricity alone.

Give the windows user's a break! <JAB >They really get upset when they can't see the forest from the trees. </JAB>

I always get a kick when the zealots in any camp loose their cool. :)

I digress,

Can Microsoft succeed in a web 2.0/SAAS world? No matter what my opinion is of MS i think they will make great in roads. Exchange and Sharepoint hosted services regardless of what you think is a great idea. In the SMB world with emphasis on the "S", people who can't afford Exchange and and accompanying support will eat it up. If MS doesn't screw it up they can nab a lot of clients who have Outlook but no Exchange.

I hope they fall flat on their face but just like everything they do the uninitiated will eat it up solely on brand recognition. What a sad sad world we live in. The "Coke" of the IT world will always win despite how much better tasting "Pepsi" is.

A new one for El Reg to stir... Coke VS Pepsi.

Let the jihad begin

I chose Paris because she has had both but only drinks one :-p

joe,

In the IT world ...at least that of InterNetional Dominion and Domain, Command and Control ..... Coke VS Pepsi is much more likely to be Morphed into the Losers Endgame of Crack VS Crank, although of course, those HiFlying Flunky Junkies would only be Heroes in their own Heads and in nobody else's........ XXXXtraOrdinarily Rendering them QuITe Delusional and Easy Prey to Carrion Feeders/Hoovers of the Landscape......

And if that doesn't shake them alive to the danger then IT can and probably will always stir the pot some more ....... with ITs Commend 42 Control Command and Control Systems .....which is an Altogether Much More Sophisticated Advanced Programming for Virtually Dumb Machines/Drones which go about their work in ways exposed, or as is more sadly and badly the case, not exposed to Oversight and Mentored Monitoring, here ...... http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/

And that is a flame which is burning bright on the fuse to the charge they are handling. Deny it if you will, but the Truth stares you in the face. And if you don't see it, It is because it is not shared with you such is its perversive and pervasive and subversive hold ...... and its Abiding Weakness.

It is of course, an Abiding Weakness which allows for Proxy Network Analogous Control of PNAC. ........... for another Bite at the Apple without the Hicksville Oily Bush Fires?

Yeah I see them sayaing If you want a server on the internet pay licence.. get lost we were here first.

...Yahoo!, Google and Amazon?

Microsoft is a software company.

William Slater III will test Nicholas Carr's theory to it's limits