The "start-up challenge" is emerging as the new platform marketing initiative.  Amazon has just launched the AWS Start-Up Challenge.  If you are into Amazon Web Services, think you might be, or just want to be part of a contest, go check it out and sign up.  $50k of cash and $50k of AWS credits are on the line.… Read more

One of my favorite quotes of all times was Ted Leonsis’s statement in the mid-1990’s that "MSN will be Microsoft’s Vietnam."  Ted said this around the time that MSN launched (on a proprietary platform – pre-Internet) to compete directly with AOL.  15 years later this seems like such a prescient statement.

I have no idea if Android will be Google’s Vietnam.  We’ll have to look back 15 years from now to really know.  But as I watched the T-Mobile G1 Video and read through some of the Android early criticism (and praise), I kept asking myself "why?"  I have my own guesses as to the answer, and I know the public answers, but when I sit on the outside looking in, I have way more questions than answers.

If… Read more

I’ve been keeping my eyes out for one of these.  I hope my friends at Microsoft have been also.  Apparently the New South Wales Department of Education and Training (that would be Australia) just dumped Microsoft Outlook/Exchange in favor of Gmail.

Before you say "ho hum – it’s only Australia" or "it’s not enterprise – it’s only academia", let’s look at the numbers.

• 1.3m seats
• Previous cost to implement Outlook/Exchange: $33m ($AU) over three years
• New cost to implement Gmail: $9m ($AU) over three years
• Outlook/Exchange storage/mailbox: 35MB
• Gmail storage/mailbox: 6GB
• Weekly emails sent: over 300k

That’s a non-trivial install.  (via TechCrunch)… Read more

Some great images are coming in already in response to my Request For Images For A Presentation post.  I couldn’t resist putting this one up on the heals of the Microsoft / Yahoo! drama.

If you don’t get it – well – I can’t help you.  (Thanks Ray)… Read more

I love a good rant.  Especially about software.  Joel is one of the best ranters out there – when he gets going there is no stopping him.  Last week’s rant was titled Architecture astronauts take over.  He takes Microsoft Live Mesh to task and reminds us of the legacy of Hailstorm, Groove, Lotus Notes, and – well – the past.  And he explains why synchronization is not the killer app.  Well – it sort of it – as long as we don’t realize it’s happening.  But then again, the real problem is that there just aren’t enough programmers in the US anymore.

Joel – nice rant.… Read more

Perfect.… Read more

My title is tongue in check.  As Marc Andreessen said in his outstanding analysis of the situation in If Microsoft goes fully hostile on Yahoo – "So this may yet come to remind you of the Democratic presidential primary season — it may last a while."… Read more

There’s a rumor going around that Salesforce.com is switching all of its 4000 employees over to Macs.  If so, this will be the first high profile complete Windows to Mac enterprise defection that I’ve heard of recently (I’m sure there are others, but they haven’t been high profile or big enough to catch my attention.)

For several months, I’ve been suggesting that when larger (great than 2,500 employee) companies start defecting en masse (e.g. the entire company) to Macs, it will signal another potential tectonic shift (and opportunity) in the software business.

Unless you are a browser centric company, it’s still really challenging to fully integrate Windows and Macs in one environment.  It can be done (we do it – even at a 12 person company) but it’s grody… Read more

Last week was Google App Engine announcement and brouhaha.  This week is deeper analysis and understanding of Google App Engine. I spent some time last week trying to understand this better, read a bunch of stuff, and spent some time having a top secret special meeting that I can’t talk about with some of my friends at Microsoft where this was discussed.

Following are three interesting things for you this morning (all courtesy of my friend Scott Moody) if you are interested in learning more:

1. The Google App Engine Q&A – an in-depth blogger-created FAQ that provides great links to other blog posts on the topic and summarizes various opinions and known facts.

2. Google App Engine for developers – Nial Kennedy’s overview from his meeting… Read more

As I was reading through my RSS feeds this morning, I came across Graeme Thickins reposting of the Google 2007 Annual Letter (this year written by Larry Page.)  It a good one – written in plain, straightforward English.  Worth a careful read for anyone that interacts with The Google.… Read more

On Google Blogoscoped, I ran into a post titled The Tools Google Uses Internally that is a short overview of a web seminar that walks through the tools a typical Googler works with daily.  This led me to the actual presentation (59 slides – many of them screenshots) which I found fascinatingly detailed.  If you’ve heard of MOMA, Snippet, and Ideas but never seen screenshots, now you can join the magic special club.… Read more

I must have Microsoft / Yahoo / Google on my mind this morning.  Micah Baldwin has written a delicious scorpion / frog parable about M/Y/G.  Until four minutes ago, I thought The Scorpion and the Frog was an Aesop fable, but now due to the beautifulness and truthfulness of all things wikipedia, I now know that it’s the basis of the plot for the Star Trek: Voyager: Scorpion.  You – dear reader – might remember it from Natural Born Killers or The Crying Game.… Read more

I’ve been chewing on what to say about the Microsoft / Yahoo merger and its impact on entrepreneurship and – more specifically – Silicon Valley entrepreneurship.  I was finally gearing up to splat out some of my thoughts on paper, but after reading Marc Andreessen’s brilliant post titled Silicon Valley after a Microsoft / Yahoo merger: a contrarian view, I don’t have to.  While I don’t agree with 100% of the things Marc says, he covers all the ground I would have an just saved me 30 minutes of writing.… Read more

Zimbra just released v5.0.  For those of you that don’t know Zimbra, it’s a Microsoft Exchange / Outlook competitor that Yahoo bought last year for $350m.  While v5.0 looks nifty, I was thinking about the release notice to Zimbra customers for Zimbra v6.0, which I assume will be released after Microsoft completes their conquest acquisition of Yahoo (for those of you that live under a rock in a cave, Microsoft made an offer to acquire Yahoo last Friday for $45b.)

Following is an approximation of what I expect a Zimbra customer to receive regarding an upgrade.

Some date, 2010

Dear Microsoft Zimbra Customer:

The latest release of Zimbra (Zimbra 6.0) has been released to manufacturing today and will be available within 60 days.  As part of this release

I have been a hardcore Outlook user for a long time.  I grimaced with empathy as I read through Stan James 67 Reasons That Outlook Sucks.  If you are having a frustrating Outlook day, Stan’s rant will make you feel better.… Read more