Microsoft News Tracker

Today, Microsoft announced a private beta of a subscription service codenamed “Albany” which apparently is intended to reduce the complexity of consumer setup and maintenance of home PCs.

“Albany” is the codename for a new all-in-one subscription service of essential software and services consumers told us were most important to them. We’ve pulled together the productivity tools people need to organize their lives, security to help keep their personal information safe and online services that make it easy for them to keep in touch with friends and family, and folded them all into a single service that also ensures the user’s PC is running the latest security and productivity software.

With just a few clicks, “Albany” subscribers will be able install the whole package, which includes Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007, giving them the latest versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote for their personal and school projects; Windows Live OneCare to help keep viruses at bay and their computer fast and healthy; and Windows Live Mail, Messenger and Photo Gallery so they can connect and share with others. Albany also installs the Microsoft Office Live Workspace connector on the Microsoft Office toolbar, so users can save documents to their own dedicated online workspace and invite friends and classmates to collaborate and share.

Additionally, with “Albany” consumers get the latest versions of Microsoft Office Home and Student and Windows Live OneCare as they’re released. Combined with ongoing security updates, consumers can have the peace of mind that they have protection from the most recent security threats and that their PC is running at its peak.

It sounds like the load of crapware that comes on a new PC, doesn’t it?  And I’m sure that will be the favored marketing method. Buy a new PC and break out your credit card again when you get it home. I also think the provision of the newest versions of Office when and if one arrives during the subscriber’s “lease” is fraught with peril. Particularly if Microsoft does another huge user interface overhaul like they did with Office 2007.

Still, it’s all about the price and if the subscription is cheap enough it might be a good deal for consumers and help stave off free Office competitors like Google Docs. No prices were announced since it is a beta, so we’ll have to defer judgment.

Finally, Mary Jo Foley is apparently the only reporter who asked what happens if a subscriber stops paying. Microsoft says that he’ll have to purchase a full price copy of Office to access his data, but a little thought would suggest that there are other, cheaper alternatives although they may not be apparent to the average consumer.

The official results won’t be released until tomorrow, but Microsoft today claimed victory in their prolonged effort to get their Office Open XML document format declared an ISO standard:

After more than 14 months of intensive review, a Joint Technical Committee of the International Standardization Organization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) has concluded its formal process to evaluate Ecma International’s submission of the Draft International Standard (DIS) 29500: Office Open XML (Open XML).

While the final vote has not yet been announced formally, publicly available information appears to indicate the proposed Open XML standard received extremely broad support. According to documents available on the Internet, 86 percent of all voting national body members support ISO/IEC standardization, well above the 75 percent requirement for formal acceptance under ISO and IEC rules. In addition, 75 percent of the voting Participating national body members (known as P-members) support standardization, also well above the 66.7 percent requirement for this group. Open XML now joins HTML, PDF and ODF as ISO- and IEC-recognized open document format standards.

It’s not over until the fat lady sings, but a variety of leaks from the national standards bodies who got the results today indicate that the long nasty battle is over. Except for Neelie Kroes and the EU Competition Cops of course.

Microsoft is predictably ecstatic that they won’t get beat out of government and other contracts where office software is required to save documents in formats defined by “open standards,” but the continued bad vibes associated with the way this 6,000 page standards monstrosity was jammed through the “fast track” process will continue to rankle. Microsoft promises to implement the standard now known as IS 29500 (which differs and will differ further from the Open XML implemented in Office 2007) in the next version of Microsoft Office. It will be interesting to see if anyone else attempts it.

Update (April 2, 2008): The official announcement.

Fast Search & Transfer sounds like a generic attribute but in fact it is the name of Norwegian-based provider of enterprise search solutions and Microsoft wants it:

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It hasn’t been a good few days for Goggle Apps. First there was an ostensible puff piece in the New York Times that damned Google’s free Web 2.0 office applications (and Google itself) with faint praise.

This week’s Day Late Dollar Short Award goes to the New York Times for this gasping story from yesterday’s paper informing us that Google and Microsoft are … wait for it … going to war! Gist of the story is that Google is betting the farm on cloud computing and if cloud computing catches on then Microsoft is dead. Problem with planting stories like this one (and yeah, Google clearly pitched this and prepped it and tied it up with a bow like an early Christmas present for the Times) is that they have a tendency to backfire on you and make you look worse. Which is what happens here. Google set out to place a big unpaid advertisement for Google cloud applications; what it got was a big story telling the whole world that nobody is actually using these things. Worse yet is the way Google gets portrayed in the article.

Then today, Joe Wilcox piles on (R.I.P.: The Web 2.0 Office Suite) with data from an NPD survey that shows that 73% of consumers have never heard of “online, browser-based office productivity applications” and that only 4.4% sometimes or often use such applications with only 0.5% exclusively online. As is often the case with surveys, the results raise more questions including how many of the consumers surveyed had high speed Internet connections and actually have full fledged office applications like Office, but Wilcox’s net is:

As for Web-based alternatives to Office, the channel strategies aren’t working. Awareness is poor and very few consumers use the services. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer can sleep easy tonight.

Not every clever idea works out of course, but it’s mostly clear that Google and the other Web 2.0 office vendors have some marketing work to do among consumers. When everyone has heard of online office apps and no one is using them is when you dig the grave.

Finally, the Times article (aside from showing a high reading on the hubris meter at Google) observes that Google just started last year to push hard for business adoption where not only are the online apps not free, but the stakes are much higher than the home market. I would suggest that the online office applications game has just started and that the fans keep their seats for a while.

The delivery of the Hyper-V beta wasn’t the only work Microsoft developers wrapped up last week just in time for the holidays:

Microsoft Office 2007 System Service Pack 1

Actually multiple service packs, this is a fit and finish release for both client and server Office 2007 software that provides “stability, performance and security enhancements.” Downloads are available now and coming soon to automatic update. There’s also a whitepaper that describes the changes. Also available was SP1 for kissing cousin Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.

Windows Vista SP1 RC 

We’re making available today the RC release of Windows Vista SP1, found here on MSDN and here on TechNet, with an FAQ here.  I invite you to download, install and use the SP1 RC and let us know about your experience by providing your feedback here.

Public downloads are now also available. It may throw a crimp into the “now business can take Vista seriously” stories, but Microsoft is highlighting the obvious in warning that SP1 most likely won’t solve Vista software compatibility problems.

Windows XP SP3 RC1

Microsoft snuck this one out and I still haven’t found a direct Microsoft download link, but the folks at BetaNews have made it available. What Microsoft is providing is a new overview of what’s in SP3 and not unexpectedly, it’s mostly a roll-up of individual fixes, but there are some minor new features and feature enhancements.