Ed Bott

I literally laughed out loud this morning when I saw these sponsored ads on a search results page at Bing:

(No, I didn’t bother clicking.)

Meanwhile, back in the real world…

The beta of Windows 8 (officially called the Consumer Preview) will be publicly released in “late February.”

Here are some links that might help you get caught up.

• Looking ahead to Windows 8: five big questions for Microsoft (by me at ZDNet)
• Windows 8: Why the coming beta is likely to be labeled the ‘consumer preview’ (by Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet)
• Windows 8 has a special Bing homepage, Consumer Preview name all but confirmed IMichael Gillett, LiveSide)

I’m also soliciting feedback on whether and how you plan to test the Windows 8 beta … sorry, Consumer Preview. Please take a second to vote in this ZDNet poll. If you have any additional suggestions or comments, feel free to leave them in the comments here.

I don’t write about Linux much, but this story by fellow ZDNet blogger Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols caught my eye today:

Red Hat extends Red Hat Enterprise Linux lifecycle to ten years

I’m a big believer in “It’s not broke, then don’t fix it.” So is leading Linux company, Red Hat. The company has just announced that it is extending the production lifecycle of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5 and 6 from seven to 10 years in response to enterprise customer demand and Red Hat’s hardware original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partners.

A lot of consumers and tech bloggers fail to understand that enterprises prefer stability over shiny new toys. It’s hard to imagine using a 10-year-old mobile phone or MP3 player, but boring corporate apps need stability on the dektop and server sides.

Interestingly, this puts the leading maker of Linux servers on the same support lifecycle as … Microsoft. Consumer versions of Windows are supported for five years, business versions (including servers) get extended support for a total of 10 years.

I’ve got an old but still useful post that explains it all:

How long will Microsoft support XP, Vista, and Windows 7?

The point of having a predictable release cycle—a new Windows version every three years—is to encourage upgrades. That’s especially true for consumers, who can skip one version but not two. Even so, full support will be available until the beginning of 2015. For businesses, anyone considering a Windows 7 migration can take comfort in knowing it will be supported for nearly another decade more—until January 14, 2020.

If you’re curious about how this translates into actual dates, the post also includes a table that breaks support for desktop Windows versions down by version.

Way back in 1999, the first draft of the Open eBook Standard was submitted for final approval. It evolved to become the current open EPUB standard.

Here’s what the man who spearheaded the standards-setting body had to say at the time:

It was critical for the success of the electronic book industry to unite and provide publishers and consumers with a common standard to which all eBooks could be formatted … Without a common standard, publishers would have to format eBook titles separately for each electronic device and the number of titles available for any device would be small. This would be a recipe for disaster.

Guess where that effort started.

Steve Jobs published his Thoughts on Music in February 2007.

I’ve taken the liberty of doing a little search and replace on this section:

Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music books encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player reader can play music display books  purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable books that can be read on all players readers. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat.

It doesn’t seem like anyone is working very hard to make that vision possible. Quite the opposite, in fact.

7 Tutorials reviews Windows 7 Inside Out, Deluxe Edition

Windows 7 Inside Out, Deluxe Edition is an excellent reference and a genuine educational resource. It’s a huge book and has all kinds of information that the reader may not have known before (but can be put to good use immediately). If you buy only one Windows 7 reference book, this definitely should be the one. It’s a keeper!

My co-authors and I are grateful for the many reviews we’ve received like this one.

Just a reminder that this book, like all of my Microsoft Press titles, is available in digital editions without any DRM. You are free to use the content in any program and on any device you own. We (my fellow authors and publishing partners) trust our readers.

Ironically, the best way to get the electronic edition of this book might be to buy the print edition first.

The print edition of Windows 7 Inside Out, Deluxe Edition is currently available at Amazon for $37.79. The Kindle edition is available for $34.01. You might be able to find it for a lower price elsewhere. At Barnes & Noble, the print edition is $41.30, whereas the digital edition for the Nook is $40.31. Those are pretty paltry discounts.

O’Reilly, which distributes Microsoft press titles, offers the book as well, but not at competitive prices. The print edition is $59.99, the ebook is $47.99, and a package of the two is (gulp) $65.99. If you paid those prices, thank you very much for your generous support. (If you own a previous edition, you can qualify for a 40-50% discount, as I explain later.)

So what’s the most cost-effective way to add this book to your library?

The print edition includes a full PDF copy on the disc bound into the back of the book. If all you want is the ability to read the book on your PC and search for specific words or phrases, get the print edition and copy the unprotected PDF copy to your PC, Mac, or other device.

Want the book on an e-reader? You can get a DRM-free copy suitable for use on any e-reader for a mere five bucks.

Here are the details:

• Start by signing up for a free membership at oreilly.com, which distributes Microsoft Press titles. After you create your oreilly.com account and sign in, you can see all of the options available to you (including the option to purchase updated editions for a 40-50% discount) at this page: Exclusive Membership Offers.
• Buy a print edition of the book from any source you like, online or at a brick-and-mortar store. If you already own the book, skip to the next step.
• Register your new book using its title or ISBN number. Sorry, English-language editions only. And no, they don’t care where you bought it.
• Click Your Products and then click the Print Books tab. Order the digital edition of the book you just registered and pay $4.99 for the full e-book package. Here’s what the transaction looks like:
  

That $4.99 upgrade applies to any Microsoft Press or O’Reilly title on your bookshelf, making it a great deal if you want a copy for your Kindle, Nook, iPad, iPhone, or Android device. After you complete the purchase, go to the Ebooks tab to see the download links. Here’s what it looks like for another of my titles:

The digital package you download from oreilly.com contains DRM-free copies in multiple formats. You can download any or all of them. For Android devices, choose ePub. For Kindles (including the Kindle Fire), choose Mobi. If you lost the disk and want a replacement for the PDF file, choose PDF.

If you’re confused by those acronyms, I’ve put together an explainer here: On digital book file formats.

Questions? Please ask away in the comments below.

Microsoft’s Tim O’Brien, General Manager of Developer & Platform Evangelism, confirms what most Microsoft-watchers already suspected:

[W]e have decided to merge MIX, our spring web conference for developers and designers, into our next major developer conference, which we will host sometime in the coming year. I know a number of folks were wondering about MIX, given the time of year, so we wanted to make sure there’s no ambiguity, and be very clear… there will be no MIX 2012.

O’Brien cites good reasons: developer confusion and "event fatigue" on the part of reporters, analysts, and tech bloggers. (Like me.)

"Sometime in the coming year" is a pretty broad timeframe. But there’s a big clue in the end of the post:

And something that was more behind the scenes but very relevant to the time management aspect relates to our engineering teams. If you’ve gone to a Microsoft developer event, you know that a non-trivial percentage of speakers and participants are from engineering. They take time out from shipping to prepare for and travel to these events and connect with developers, and their time is one of the most valuable resources we have in the company.

My takeaway from that is that the event—let’s call it BUILD 2012—will take place after Microsoft has released Windows 8 to manufacturing but before the product has gone on sale to the general public. If we assume release to manufacturing (RTM) in late summer (July/August) and general availability (GA) in late October, that puts this year’s developers conference on track to be exactly one year after last year’s event, in mid-September.

More details and speculation from my ZDNet colleague Mary Jo Foley: Microsoft to replace Mix with a new developer conference