Recent Articles
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No Lazy Summer for Enterprise Tech
As I walked into the lobby of the San Francisco Hilton last Wednesday, it certainly didn’t feel like the dog days of IT’s summer. The hotel was hosting the Shared Insights conference on Customer Self Service technology and practice, where I gave an afternoon session on security issues for customer- and partner-facing sites—which I summarized…
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E-Tailers Listen Better with People, Worse with Servers
Two new reports show that retailers are getting better at answer customers’ e-mail, but this summer’s load handling statistics predict a very crashy Christmas. If these two new surveys are correct, top retailers have figured out how to communicate better with customers, but their servers are getting a lot worse at talking with other servers.…
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Vendors Team Up for Linux Cause
A handful of IT vendors are stepping up marketing and support efforts for Linux solution providers with an eye to increasing business opportunities around the open-source operating system. While solution providers already working with Linux report that it is a profitable business, some misconceptions remain about the open-source operating system among users and channel companies.…
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Dell Customers: Battery Recall No Big Deal?
Dell this week recalled 4.1 million laptop PC batteries, considered the biggest product-safety recall ever in the computer industry, because they presented a risk of catching on fire. Some Dell customers say the company did a good job of handling the recall, and that they expect to be only minimally inconvenienced. “I was very impressed…
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As Dell Earnings Dive, Channel Beckons
Dell reported the week of Aug. 14 that second-quarter earnings were down more than $500 million from a year ago, prompting analysts and resellers to blame part of the slump on Dell’s direct-only model, especially in Asia and consumer markets. The company has held its ground relative to competitors in the North American enterprise and…
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The State of the 2006 Linux Desktop
Analysis—Were you to walk around LinuxWorld in San Francisco this week, for almost every person you’d see sitting, you’d see a laptop in front of them. And, if you’re a snoopy person, like me, you’d also see that about half of those laptops were running Linux. That doesn’t sound like that much? Think again. Even…
