I’ve been playing with Google’s shiny new browser, named Chrome, for a week or more. Initial impressions are excellent, despite the obvious fact that we’ve only got a small part of its capability at this stage.

Chrome has the same elegant, simple design that Google is famous for, and it’s much faster than Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and even Firefox. Indeed, it renders Syntagma sites better than Firefox does — one of the reasons I stopped using it a year ago. By contrast, Chrome delivers a seamlessly fluid performance over a range of functions.

Syntagma in Google’s Chrome browser

Like most Google products its browser comes with a broader philosophy, or masterplan, than the functionality suggests. While any browser will render internet objects for viewing and manipulation, Chrome is much more ambitious.

Ultimately it’s intended to replace many features of the operating systems on computers with what has become known as “cloud” computing — using applications and services already web-side, not embedded on a local hard drive.

Google says, “We realized that the web had evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive applications and that we needed to completely rethink the browser. What we really needed was not just a browser, but also a modern platform for web pages and applications, and that’s what we set out to build.”

Significantly, Microsoft has huge vested interests in boxed software and desktop products in general, from which the bulk of its income derives. It’s finding it all but impossible to substitute browser versions of them and still make money. A clash with the new Google worldview — which aims to strip the Microsofties of their dominance — is about to break out in earnest.

Google believes Microsoft may fire its first broadband broadside by switching off adverts in IE8 sometime soon. Internet Explorer Version 8 is still in Alpha mode and is, reportedly, hopelessly mired in problems — shades of Windows Vista — but when it comes it could contain a bombshell for Google.

Since Google is still a monoculture based on search and its accompanying advertising, that would hit them where it hurts most. The share value of the company would drop overnight and the sense of invincibility that Google has enjoyed on Wall Street and everywhere else would be shattered, maybe for good.

Hence the company has got its retaliation in first by bringing out its own browser — which has been hinted at for years. It has also encouraged Mozilla, an open-source firm that produces Firefox (the geeks browser of choice), while promising a new cloud environment based on Chrome and its web-based apps: Google docs, spreadsheets and presentations, directly challenging Microsoft Office. And there are many other new experiences under development in Google’s locker.

A lot of us in web publishing still haven’t forgiven the Californian crew for their treatment of small-to-medium internet publishers last year, many of whom were driven out of business by crashes in PageRank. But Google’s sense of adventure and all-embracing strategic coherence means you can’t hate them for long.

Chrome should be on everyone’s computer, simply because much of what the Googlers are doing will only be viewable in their rapidly developing cloud browser.

Sooner than we think, businesses will be eliminating their expensive data centres and embracing cloud computing. Internet sage Bob Cringely of PBS believes that “relatively few organizations really ought to have their own data centers”.

Chrome is the future. It’s not fully with us yet, but will be in the next decade, which, astonishingly, is only a little more that a year away.

There I’ve said it.

No point in beating about the bush. This is a great product.

It may have its imperfections, of course — which one of us hasn’t — but as a piece of monumentally complex software, it surely stands supreme.

I know of all the complaints that portmanteau products like Microsoft Office are much too big, too complex, and contain hundreds of features that most people don’t need and never will use. But that’s the nature of the beast. Just try using Google Documents and Spreadsheets for anything other than simple projects. And you need to be online to use them.

I’ve had Office 2007 for a couple of months now, and while I haven’t yet got round to trying out every program bundled in there, I have to say I’m very impressed. I came to it directly from Office 2000, so missed the intermediate experience of the 2003 version.

At first, the so-called Ribbon feature was a bit baffling, like all supposedly intuitive controls are. But once I found my way around the different groupings of features and learned what all the icons stood for, I began to revel in its clean simplicity and ease of use — I’m usually wary of geeks being “intuitive”, because more often than not, they’re not.

However, Office 2007 is a triumph of design and utility (my favourite word). Nowadays, we expect software to be over-engineered simply to get ahead of the competition. And, yes, it is. Features aren’t everything, naturally, although in today’s world of cheap memory, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t have them, especially in a productivity suite that is expected to meet all criteria in a fully-functioning business environment.

I believe Word 2007 to be the best word processor around now, and Excel 2007 to be irreplaceable. Smaller features stand out too. Like most folk I don’t need the massive clout — and expense — of Adobe’s Photoshop for my image handling. But I do want something better than the cheaper programs out there. One surprise in Office 2007 is the Microsoft Office Picture Handler which comes bundled in with the suite. It really is a doddle to use and has all the functionality I need (in combination with my non-Microsoft DTP program), without the heart-stopping overload of some other applications.

So, well done Microsoft. It’s not often you hear that, is it?

We’ve had Windows Vista for a month now on brand new kit intended to replace our XP boxes here in the Syntagma office. Previous posts (here and here) described our initial experiences, so I won’t trawl through them again.

Although we still have our XP machines running alongside the new Vista boxes, the proportion of usage by time has swung massively in favour of Vista. We’re now using the V-machines for 90 percent of the time.

The exceptions are still jobs which require the printers, like accounts, stats and letters for Post Office delivery. None of our printers will work with Vista, so we’ll be replacing them very soon.

Everything else is now happily done on the much faster, number-crunching, new computers. Of course, we’d switched a lot of stuff online before moving over : all email is now done on Gmail — a huge relief on new computers — and much else too. I’ve even taken to using Google Documents for smaller jobs, but can’t quite get myself to use the spreadsheets, especially as we now have Office 2007 Excel working on Vista.

Thankfully, our desk-top-publishing program works seamlessly on Vista, but not the image-handling one. As a temporary measure I’ve been using the Office image software bundled with Windows itself. It works so well, I’ll probably stick with it for the duration.

Apart from that, the increase in performance is so good, we stifle a groan every time we have to use the XP machines.

I know a number of our readers are looking for new computers with XP pre-installed, as they don’t trust Vista yet. Let me tell you, put your doubts aside. Get as much as you can online — Google is a blessing here, buy new printers, tweak your internet connection, and you won’t look back.

Be aware, though, that the “Protection Mode”, which is the default setting for Vista, may have to be temporarily shut down while you add new stuff or get your broadband connectivity working. Thereafter, it’s surprising how quickly you will adapt to the loss af admin powers, which is what it effectively does.

Syntagma’s Advice? Go for Windows Vista now. There’s nothing to keep you on XP but your fear of the unknown.

It’s not easy to confuse Microsoft with Google at the best of times, but you may be excused for doing so with a new MS offering.

When I started Syntagma Media, bookkeeping and accountancy were real problems. We bought a couple of expensive packages — Quickbooks and Sage — but both were far too complex for a simple content business selling only ad space online.

Nowadays we rely on professional services, but for bootstrapping startups a quick, easy and FREE startup accountancy package would be a blessing.

So who’s going to provide this yummy piece of kit, Google? Maybe, but Microsoft got there first and it’s part of its Office suite. Wonders never cease.

Thanks to Rick Segal for the hat tip. Download Microsoft Office Accounting 2007 here.

Rick, of course, has form when it comes to free business offerings. See Syntagma’s piece here from November 2005.

With news that Microsoft will no longer ship Windows XP by the end of the year, the pressure is on to get Windows Vista on an even keel.

Yesterday we replaced all our XP-based computers with brand new Vista ones. So, how’s the “experience” going?

Like all software projects it’s a bit of a curate’s egg. The good bits are very, very good, the bad bits, horrible.

First off, it’s over-engineered, as I knew it would be after writing about it for two years. I’ve long made my peace with XP, even its dodgy bits, like USB handling — there seem to be two conflicting systems at work as soon as you add new hardware through USB ports. On XP, I’ve arranged for all files and folders to be available from the desktop through shortcuts and know where to find anything I want.

In Vista they’ve tried to make it fashionably intuitive, so nothing can be found — unless, of course, you have an abundance of intuition (guesswork), and even then I doubt it’s that easy. Jim Allchin was dead right back in 2004 to scrap the Vista project as it stood, put aside the new file handling system, and rewrite the basic code around a kernel, a bit like Linux.

However, to my mind, it’s still too darned clever by half. It’s the product of geeks coding for geeks, but trying to make it easy for the hoi-polloi, like me.

I should point out that I’ve only been at it for around three hours, and we’re currently running the XP systems alongside the Vista boxes.

Worryingly, BT broadband has no new software discs for Vista, which is odd, especially as it took me six hours to get XP working on their new 8Mbs service. By the time I’d cleared off all the childish Yahoo material they showered onto our office computers — fuming with murderous intent — I’d damaged the registers and had to start again.

Unbelievably, I now have to do the same all over for Vista, even using the old disc. Why don’t these prize boobies realize that usability is more important than features?

I also had to turn off the main protection feature of Windows Vista, the User Account system, in order to get the broadband disc even to begin. The disc couldn’t see any admin powers with which to set the thing up. This, of course, is deliberately intended to stop enemy attacks — preventing intruders from scooping up admin powers. Trouble is, it also stops you doing the things that computers are meant to do, like making changes, improving settings etc. Each time I attempt to do anything beyond clicking on programs, the defence system asks me to override the defence. Crazy, or what? By turning off User Account protection, I can now do anything I want, but have dumped Vista’s main line of defence.

I expect I’ll turn it on again once I’ve wrestled the BT software into submission, opened up the computer to an avalanche of malicious grungeware, and become a nervous wreck. Come to think of it, I may have succeeded in that already.

Now some plus points : the computer manufacturer (MESH) has added some extra USB ports on the front of the box, and they work brilliantly. Both my flash memory pod and my digicam card reader worked so smoothly they might have been soaked in baby oil.

I might just get used to this — when I’ve gone through the learning curve, got online and remembered all my passwords for the Web-as-computer stuff.

Update : My query to British Telecom (BT) about the old broadband disc has resulted in a phone call informing me that there is no disc currently available for setting up their broadband service for Windows Vista computers. Inexplicable.

The call came from a foreign call centre and was delivered in an impenetrable accent so that the woman caller had to spell out each word out using a system of pronunciation completely unknown to me. By using a great deal of imagination I finally got the gist of my username and new password. I am soon to receive an email explaining how to get the software for Vista connection to BT’s broadband service — some sort of hasty workaround, I think. It just gets better and better.

Update : I take it all back. While I was waiting for the clunky BT software to take effect, Vista had done it all for me. I was online all the time without knowing it. Ah well, I was never cut out to be a geek.

I’m now enjoying the Vista experience enormously. OFFICIAL.

A-lister and former Microsoftie uber-blogger, Robert Scoble, asks on his now indie-blog, Scobleizer, “What if I sold ads here?”

Most of his readers are urging him to have a go, including yours truly :

“… I’d avoid the likes of Federated Media, though, as they take 40pc of revenues. Take a little advice from an ad pro on pricing and throw out some feelers to that encyclopedic list of tech contacts you have. I reckon once you’ve tried it, you’ll never look back. Getting paid for something is not just about the money, it’s about knowing the worth of what you’re doing.”

Scoble is a typical example of someone blogging for reputation and attention. Being an “influential” delivers a lot of leverage in the tech world, and leads to many career opportunities that might not have come otherwise.

Advertising, or monetizing your site, is not just about squeezing extra juice out of the lemon — or stone, as the case may be — but marks the moment when you turn from amateur scribbler to media pro. You’re still self-publishing, of course, but if the public is prepared to pay reasonably well for it, you are well beyond the vanity press stage.

Scoble gets a lot of quality traffic, including a large loyal readership, it would be very interesting to see what the results are.

Might he be planning to go down the PaidContent.org route? Is Scobleizer Inc just over the horizon? It will be fascinating to watch.

Ye Gods! Have you read the latest public relations excercise for IE7 (Internet Explorer) on Microsoft’s IE blog?

You would think we were being asked to prepare for the second coming of Jesus Christ. When I finished reading it I was almost shaking in my boots.

What is this phenomenon rapidly approaching our shores? Hurricane Browser?

The list of Things-To-Do to prepare for the deluge include downloading a previous “release candidate” to make sure it doesn’t zap your system (too late if it does, no doubt) and downloading a special “Readiness Toolkit” to ensure you have no lurking enemies of IE hanging around.

But it doesn’t end there. These guys are really motoring now. “Download and use the Application Compatibility Toolkit”. When you’ve finished messing about with that : “Visit the Microsoft Internet Explorer Developer Center”.

There’s more : “Use the Information Index for Internet Explorer7″ and : “Read the IE Team Blog”.

Worse, you’re going to get it whether you like it or not — if you’re on automatic Windows update.

I can’t recall jumping through so many hoops when I downloaded Firefox.

This is a good example of what I call The Leviticus Strategy, after the Old Testament book. Reduce your punters to submission with an list of instructions so long they naturally assume you’re a great authority on the subject.

C’mon Microsoft, you may be paranoid, but why should you infect your customers as well?

And what on earth is it going to be like when Windows Vista, the greatest juggernaut of them all, hoves into view next year?

I think I’ll book one of Richard Branson’s flights to the moon. The vista may be calmer there.

Mary Jo Foley, the doyenne of Microsoft Watchers, has left Ziff Davis Media to pursue her own interests, namely writing about Microsoft as a blogger at ZDNet.

In a farewell interview, she says : “Blogging is the future of journalism, in my opinion. More and more bloggers are not just reacting to — but actually breaking — news. I wanted to try my hand at running a business that was blog-centric from the get-go. So I decided to take my show on the road.”

She’s right, of course, all the top newspaper titles have realized they can’t beat the online journalists for speed of reporting. That’s why they are increasingly taking a more expansive line on news through op-ed columns and magazine-type features.

But I think she should style herself a little differently, as a Web-based journalist and analyst.

Mary Jo is a serious journalist who’s broken many a MySoft story in the few years I wrote about them. Together with Robert Scoble, Ed Bott and less than a handful of other sources, she was the one you turned to when the big cataclysms struck Redmond.

[Original source]

We’ve written a lot in Syntagma about Windows Vista and what it will mean for Microsoft as a business and as an increasingly monolithic company.

Now John Naughton of the UK’s Observer Sunday newspaper has spelt out the future with some clarity. First, though, you have to bear in mind that The Observer is a “left wing” paper, so has a natural affinity with the open-source software model. With desk-top Linux as it is, however, it’s not at all clear that the future lies there. But let’s keep an open mind about that.

Naughton describes the slow agony of the Vista development process very well. “Never again”, is his sensible conclusion. The fault, he rightly says, is the perceived need for “backward compatibility” (using old files and processes) which stifles innovation, plus Vista’s monolithic architecture which had to be scrapped in 2004 and completely reworked.

Naughton then zeros-in on Virtualization — “a key technology that enables a single machine to run several operating systems (or modules thereof) in parallel — to deal with the backwards compatibility problem.”

“Virtualization is the Next Big Thing in computing, and the lesson of Vista is that Microsoft will have to embrace it to survive in the operating system market.”

The problem for Microsoft is that the leader in the technology is Xensource, a company that began life in Cambridge University’s Computer Laboratory. Ironically, not only is the lab housed in the William Gates Building, but Xen’s core technology is open source. Eventually, when a deal is done with Microsoft, Xensource could become the most sought-after company on the planet.

Isn’t this a good investment opportunity then? Not so fast. “If you were thinking of investing, however, I’m afraid you’ve missed the boat. John Doerr, the world’s greatest venture capitalist (Sun Microsystems, Compaq, Lotus, Intuit, Genentech, Millennium, Netscape, Amazon and Google, inter alia), got there before you.”

So the “Syntagma Solution” is probably on the cards after all?