First Look at Shared View

Currently Microsoft's Shared View is free. So if you use Webex or a similar desktop sharing software you should consider Shared View.

But it is not cost that will drive Shared Views success, rather it is the simple and viral way it works and spreads.

Starting with a user with a Microsoft Live account, the user can do a click once install from the web:
http://www.connect.microsoft.com/content/content.aspx?SiteID=94&ContentID=6415

Then after logging in with their Live account they can create a sharing session. A simple way is provided to invite other users. Your email client is invoked with the invitation text, including link to session, already populated. You simply type in the email address.

When the invited party clicks on the link, the shared view comes up if they have it installed. Or if they do not have the Shared View installed, the web page for the click once install is brought up. Microsoft has really nailed the quick once install, it is quick and simple. After the install the shared session is launched.

At this point the original user approve the invitee and the session continues. The controls are both simple and intuitive.

What is interesting is the viral nature of Shared View. The only requirement is the coordinator of a sharing session must have a Microsoft Live ID. All other users will download the software, which is similiar to the Webex experience. This then puts them in the postion of hosting Shared View sessions. Simple, Easy, Viral.

First Look At Cuil

Taking a quick First Look at the new search engine Cuil.

On the surface it would appear to return more results but when looking at quoted phrases it does something unexpected. Quite often Cuil fails to find the quoted phrase. This is disappointing because it is often the way I track down what some obscure cryptic error message means and how I should resolve it.

The increase in research results also does not hold up in searching for obscure terms. In fact for the obscure "Corpen Source" Cuil currently finds nothing. Google on the other hand finds plenty.

Quality of results is a little bit subjective but Cuil appears to have the edge here. Although it may just be the way Cuil presents the results in a panel fashion together with an image that may be the advantage. Either way, Cuil has marginally better results or a much improved layout.

Microsoft Virtualization 360

Surely 2007 was the Virtual Year.

Although Virtualization has been kicking around for some time, 2007 saw some easy to use and free versions. Add to that the time is ripe in terms of hardware. Virtualization has one OS often running on top of another. That can be quite the performance hit. The result was virtualization went from a power user or guru trick to the buzz of 2007.

So while 2007 kicked open the door in terms of price, availability, ease of use and widespread acceptance. The winter of 2007-2008 saw an ever increasing number of offerings and counter offerings. The offerings have gone beyond price and performance. Microsoft enumerates 6 uses or promises:

1. Virtual Presentation

2. Virtual Application

3. Desktop Virtualization

4. Server Virtualization

5. Virtual Storage

6. Virtual Network


Microsoft is marketing these under "Virtualization 360". Which is reassuring since so much is going on in this space, it is nice to know Microsoft is trying to gather it's offerings in one place. Judging from the presentation there is a total of 5 offerings:


1. Microsoft Virtual PC

This is listed as the Desktop Virtualization solution but it can run server OSes. Chances are good this version (and multiple copies at that) is already running in your company. The reason is simple, it is free, it is easy to use and it will run legacy OSes as well as Server OSes.



2. Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-VTM

Currently if you want to host a virtual OS directly on the machine without the host OS getting in the way you will need to use the Server Version. If you need to use 64 bit OSes you will also need the Server Version.

3. Windows Terminal Services


Terminal Services have been around for quite a while now. Microsoft wants us to think of this as Presentation Virtualization. The application will be run on one machine but the presentation of the application can be presented on many machines.

4. Microsoft Application Virtualization
This is similar to the Windows Terminal Services. Here the application is run over the network without being installed. The key here is that the configuration layer that the application uses is separated from the OS. The intent here is to reduce the conflicts created when different applications attempt to configure the platform during their install. Instead this configuration information is kept on the central location. This opens up an added advantage of centralizing the updating and patching of applications.


5. Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager

And one server to store them all, and rule them all.... After working with the Virtual PC 2007 for just a few days, I had so many images of machines that I connected a 1 Terabyte external hard drive to my desktop just to store them all. While this stop gap solution gave me space for a few hundred images, keeping them organized is still quite the challenge. Plus as soon as you start working with one machine you are changing it. So you will need a way to generate new copies of your original machine. Then there is the problem of sharing the images with coworkers. We routinely have dozens of images that illustrate active problems.

So there you have it that is what Microsoft considers the complete circle of virtualization.

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