THIS WEEK: Expert tips -- 2002 top 10 and more

[SearchWin2000.com]

Title: TechTarget

December 16, 2002 >> Receive this email as text  >> About this email   In this Issue >> From the Editor: MS' top 5 challenges in 2003 >> Featured Topic: Top 10 expert Q&As of 2002 >> Site Exclusives: True IT blooper #83: Why Nudger blames McDonut Tech seminar: Coping with Active Directory's shortcomings Out of the Loop: MS versus Java -- let Springer decide >> Site Highlights: SearchWinMan's True IT Blooper Contest New sponsored white paper Webcast on Exchange  From the Editor: by Margie Semilof, Senior News Writer The end of December is fast approaching, which is the time for all kinds of lists. This year, the team at Directions on Microsoft, the independent consulting firm whose energies are focused on following the strategy of you-know-who, have just published their assessment of the top challenges for Microsoft in 2003. Here are the top five. See if you agree. Revive Office. Since sales of Office XP did little to boost the bottom line, Microsoft's next version of Office had better be a hit. Office 11 will ship sometime mid-year in 2003. Deliver Windows .NET Server. It's been in the oven for three years. It had better be more than just a slight improvement to Windows 2003. In fact, the future of .NET depends on the stability of .NET Server 2003, they said. Keep a lid on Linux. How much success will Linux truly find in the enterprise? Are customers that annoyed by Microsoft's new licensing program? Linux has a long way to go before it equals Linux, but the gap is narrowing, they said. Win developers away from Java. Will the .NET Framework software platform win converts? Publish clear product roadmaps. Planning an IT strategy is hard enough, but it's especially tough when your major software vendor keeps shifting its own strategy. This year Longhorn fell away to Blackcomb, Yukon dates slipped, which cast a cloud over future OS releases as well as future Exchange e-mail and SQL Server databases which rely on Yukon's technology. The conclusion? Maybe Microsoft is not as unstoppable as some in the industry might think. Send us your own predictions for Microsoft in 2003. Margie Semilof  Featured Topic: Top 10 expert Q&As of 2002 by Christine Polewarczyk, Associate Editor Our experts' answers to member security and desktop management questions really grabbed your attention this past year. Find out what words of wisdom you clicked the most in this week's featured topic. Read more about this topic  Expert Technical Advice: Featured Expert Tony Northrup, author and consultant Category:Web Administration Tony's ready to tackle any Web administration question you may have. View all of Northrup's answers or ask him a question. Site Exclusives: >> True IT blooper #83: Why Nudger blames McDonut Way back when mainframes ruled, two IT guys sat in a gray room all night under a buzzing and constantly flickering fluorescent light. Their mission: to make sure a major bank's overnight processing batch run ran smoothly. But you know it wouldn't be a blooper if it had. >> Tech seminar: Coping with Active Directory's shortcomings Speakers and IT pros at a technical confab point out Active Directory's numerous management and security problems and ways to handle them. >> Out of the Loop: MS versus Java -- let Springer decide How can we end this whole mess between Microsoft and Sun? Two words: Jerry Springer. Tip of the Week: Because of the differences between various versions of MAPI clients -- Outlook 98 versus Outlook 2000, for instance -- it may become necessary to prevent certain versions of MAPI clients from accessing your Exchange Server. >> E-mail client discrimination  Site Highlights SearchWinMan's True IT Blooper Contest Win a Xircom wireless Ethernet adapter! Well, the weather outside is frightful, but a Xircom Credit Card Wireless Ethernet Adapter is so delightful! You know the drill, people -- submit your true stories of IT woe to enter the SearchWinMan.com Blooper contest. Learn more about this month's prize and submit your tip here. New sponsored white paper: Internet filtering alternatives This paper describes Internet filtering technologies, with a focus on a new generation of appliance-based products. Click here to download the white paper. Webcast on Exchange Pre-register for this webcast here. Listen as Exchange expert Scott Schnoll discusses best practices for planning, designing, implementing and managing Exchange 2000 within a Windows 2000 Advanced Server cluster. This webcast is scheduled for noon EST (17:00 GMT) on Dec. 17. The latest net news Get daily breaking news from the enterprise networking industry -- delivered right to your inbox. Find out about the latest product releases, recent business trends and more. Sign me up. Exchange Management Listen to this webcast for a discussion on intelligent Exchange management solutions for capacity planning, usage analysis, budget justification and E2K migration. Listen now. VS.NET Info Center How do you create a control array in VB.NET? Get the answer from Chris Sells, the new expert in the VS.NET Info Center on SearchVB.com. Visit today! A B O U T   T H I S   N E W S L E T T E R Created by TechTarget TechTarget - The Most Targeted IT Media Copyright 2002, All Rights Reserved. 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