back to article IBM hurls defiance at Microsoft after communications pitch flop

IBM suffered through an extremely glitchy demo of its unified communications software at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference today, but it still preserved enough bravado to challenge Microsoft to a throw-down. Live demo goblins nibbled mightily at Big Blue's pitch of its communication tools at their conference keynote today in San …

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  1. Goat Jam
    Paris Hilton

    Good lord

    They tried to do the demo using the main conference link? Mebbe they should have considered this possibility and stumped up for a dedicated feed? Even an appropriately specced 3G connection might have done better.

  2. Nexox Enigma

    Ahhhh, the convention network...

    Last con I went to had a whole lot of vendors demoing wifi-based voice equipment, and none of the demos worked for more than a couple seconds, if they were lucky. If I was going to be in a booth for a couple days, showing off kit that only required a local connection, I'd bring a router with me. Of course, that might be one reason why I'm not a sales guy.

    It does suck when you have to access off-site servers for your presentation though, prolly why Defcon maintains a segregated presenters' network, with wired connections. Then again, Defcon tends to be much more serious about the entire network than most cons... that last one I went to had some dudes who volunteered to set up the wifi, and some how they thought that a 700 person con would be perfectly served by a single /24 subnet, plus all but one AP in repeater mode instead of separate networks, so everyone got to share one theoretical 54mbit AP.

  3. jake Silver badge

    During the meanwhile ...

    People using standard UN*X tools have been doing the exact same things over the 'net for, oh, I don't know, with the exception of voice & video, 35+ years? And 25+ for voice?[1] Probably around 22 years for video?[2]

    This isn't new, people. The only new thing is bandwidth becoming ubiquitous. The fact that IBM wasn't ready to give a presentation is, to me, symptomatic of the extreme lack of RealWorld(tm) experience in the children running current engineering groups.

    [1] Look up how Network Equipment Technologies IDNX (and peripherals) worked, and how easy it was to run VOIP using standard telco equipment between their systems, the telco, & the Internet at large[4], with a little help from Comdesign[3]. In 1984.

    [2] NET was streaming video over the 'net in 1987 ... in real time[4].

    [3] Comdesign itself was NET-spawned.

    [4] While Microsoft wasn't aware of it[5], I *KNOW* that IBM knew about it, because my team at NET built most of IBM's internal world-wide WAN in the mid-late '80s ...

    [5] Microsoft was oblivious to the concept of interconnected WANs until roughly 1997 ...

  4. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

    Wanted ... New Blood and Vital Talent *

    Microsoft and IBM facing off against each other is a bit like, well a lot like going to see an old masters tennis tournament ....... well past their prime but hanging on for the money and perks.

    * Although in their fields of play that would be just as much Viral and Virulent too.

  5. ledmil
    Paris Hilton

    Typical IBM

    Have to say that IBM really have a lot to learn. If your live keynote demo goes wrong you pick another time to start slating the opposition.

    Personally I;m still waiting for the say when I speak to IBM and their first proposal actually meets what I want, not what IBM want to sell me

    /RantOver

    Paris because I bet she'd know how to meet my needs first time of asking...

  6. Leo Davidson
    Flame

    Loltus Nothanks

    Lotus Notes? Fook off!

    I'd rather communicate using smoke signals generated by setting my pubes on fire than use that load of gash, thankyouverymuch.

    "But it's been improved!" -- No it hasn't. Changing the UI colour doesn't improve the program behind it. Or the horrible, non-standard UI, for that matter.

  7. Jason DePriest
    Pint

    Reminds me of OS/2 for some reason

    Here's to hoping IBM doesn't lose interest and forget to push their tech.

    I imagine it will be another awesome, almost completely finished product that has incredible features and unprecedented power that IBM never gets around to polishing and stops evangelizing so they can go back to hardware while at the same time, other software copies their work (poorly) but manages to sell rafts of kit.

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