Yesterday, I received an email from SilverStripe Co-Founder, Sigurd Magnusson. For all the years I have been corresponding with Sigurd, I don't think I've ever seen him as excited as he was this time in breaking the news. SilverStripe, a web development company delivering open source content management systems (CMS) has achieved Certification for Windows Server 2008 R2 for version 2.4.0 of their flagship product, SilverStripe CMS. This is a world first, as the software is the only truly open source web application to achieve certification on the Windows platform.

What is a little different about this story is that it is not only SilverStripe's press relations people making a big deal about this story. Microsoft is making a big deal about the accomplishments of SilverStripe. Andrew Gordan, Microsoft's New Zealand’s Platform Strategy Manager writes:

A large amount of the innovation in the software world is happening on the web and in the cloud, and in addition to that, we are seeing increased awareness and acceptance of open source software on the Microsoft Windows platforms.

Microsoft's Certified for Windows programs are well known for indicating software and hardware products that have been thoroughly tested to work well on Microsoft Windows and as of today, SilverStripe CMS is the first Open Source web application to complete the comprehensive testing necessary to achieve "Certified for Windows Server 2008 R2" status.

In his own blog post, Sigurd mentions that the certification for SilverStripe has been a long but rewarding road. A large proportion of the SilverStirpe's  community and clients use Microsoft servers, databases, and other technology. Over the past three years there an effort has been made for the SilverStripe CMS to work with Microsoft's operating system, web servers, and SQL Server database product.

A few days ago, I read Mary Jo Foley's article titled Microsoft: Our strategy with Silverlight has shifted. According to an interview with the President of the Server and Tools Division at Microsoft, the company will be shifting support for Silverlight away from the PC and Mac desktop and toward the phone market.

So what’s a developer to make of Microsoft’s messaging (or lack thereof) about Silverlight at its premiere developer conference?

I asked Bob Muglia, the Microsoft President in charge of the company’s server and tools business, that very question and got what I consider to be the clearest answer yet about how Microsoft is evolving its Silverlight strategy.

“Silverlight is our development platform for Windows Phone,” he said. Silverlight also has some “sweet spots” in media and line-of-business applications, he said.

But when it comes to touting Silverlight as Microsoft’s vehicle for delivering a cross-platform runtime, “our strategy has shifted,” Muglia told me.

Microsoft plans to be using HTML 5 to replace the functions currently being provided by Silverlight 5.

It is not the point of this post to debate the merits of HTML 5, Silverlight and even Flash. What is my point though, is that Microsoft appears to me to be desperate. Desperate to come up with a strategic plan that will carry them beyond the day of Windows PCs. Microsoft is desperate to become innovative for the sake of innovation that they're really confusing a lot of their developers. If only after a few years of support, Microsoft is shifting focus of it's Silverlight platform...what potential developer in his or her right mind would support another future Microsoft endeavor? Just take a look at the comments to Bob Muglia's blog post discussing this topic and I think you'll see my point.

A couple days ago, I posted CMS Report's Top Ten Stories of 2009. The articles listed were ranked by popularity based by how many times viewed and the rate that they were viewed through the year. Popular stories do not always signify well written articles or are always an indication of personal favorites. Each year, I write a number of content management or IT related articles that I love but for various reasons you the people didn't have interest in reading and sharing.

Below are some of my favorite articles written in 2009 that were not a part of the previously posted Top Ten list. If I had a Top 20 Stories list the articles in both of these listings would be included.

• Looking forward to Microsoft's Windows 7
• Reviewing Barrie North's Joomla! 1.5 book and video
• The problem is bigger than SharePoint
• Testing the water with Acquia Search for Drupal
• Shortcomings of Enterprise Wiki Deployments
• Two CMS Worlds on Twitter
• Charging for online news doomed to fail
• Theme development and the GPL
• Judging Five Overall Best Content Management Systems
• Quoting IT: Addison Berry
  

Here is something I haven't seen since Windows 95 was lauched...massive consumer excitement for a Microsoft product. One of the few benifits to Windows Vista is that it forced Microsoft to reconnect with its customers and improve the Windows development process. Microsoft just didn't need to work harder to improve relationships with home and business customers but also with PC manufacturers.

Natali Del Conte's CNET video below spotlights not just the Windows 7 software, but what PC manufacturers and service providers are planning to do with the new operating system. The products from Dell, HP, Acer, and Amazon's Kindle reader all look very cool.

I don't plan on posting any new reviews of Windows 7 since I already blogged about the operating system a few months ago. In November, I do plan on upgrading my home Windows 7 RC 32 Bit machine to Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. Since the upgrade requires a fresh install I think it will be an interesting experience to write about.

It is Day 2 for the Microsoft SharePoint Conference 2009 and like many of you, I'm not at the conference. That's alright though because there are plenty of smart people at the conference more than willing to talk about what they are seeing there. It's a good idea to follow some of these people around and let them be our eyes and ears.

Probably one of the most vocal SharePoint evangelists I've come across is Michael  Gannotti. I've been following him on Twitter for some time. He's recently posted his take on SharePoint 2010 on the SharePoint Expert Blog. 

SharePoint 2010 is absolutely the biggest most important release of SharePoint to date and in the opinion of this techie the single most important product release since Windows 95! Think I have drank a little too much of the Kool-Aid? Well consider how this rev of SharePoint addresses connecting and empowering people, cutting costs through a unified infrastructure, as well as providing a platform that facilitates a rapid response to business needs. Need more convincing after reading this post? Then be sure to check out "What makes Microsoft SharePoint tick?" by Mary Jo Foley. After that if you are still wondering what all the fuss is about why not check out these three videos by the SharePoint team that provide an overview of SharePoint 2010, as well as focuses for the IT Pro and Developer. Once you are sufficiently salivating then be sure to pre-register for the SharePoint 2010 beta here!!

Mike has a lot more to say about SharePoint 2010 and I encourage you read the rest of his post.  SharePoint 2010 sound like an exciting package and finally taking Web content management a little more seriously. However, I suppose I'll personally have to wait as my organization is only now deploying SharePoint 2007. I have to wonder, if companies are slow in upgrading their Windows operating systems...are they any faster in upgrading their SharePoint platform?

Those that have followed my blogs over the years know full well that I'm operating system neutral. At work I use Windows and Linux right next to each other. At home my family uses a mix of Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux PCs. I have my likes and dislikes with each operating system. I don't drink the kool aid with any of the systems as I'm not easily impressed with what I see.

During the past couple years, I've been extremely disappointed in Windows Vista and consider the experience delivered by the operating system to be just as bad as Windows ME. It has long been my view that if Microsoft screwed up Windows 7 we could kiss the Windows line goodbye and for evermore be just as happy with both OS X and Linux (with Ubuntu as my favorite Linux client). However, it looks like Microsoft's developers have responded well to the criticism and Windows 7 is going to deliver the goods consumers and enterprises need in their operating system.

I've been testing Windows 7 since Beta 2 and currently have the Release Candidate version on my desktop. It is a great operating system and delivers on the performance and stability improvements Microsoft promised but didn't keep in Vista. Surprisingly, my favorite feature in Windows 7 is the task bar. The task bar is a delight to work with and in my opinion outshines the outdated Dock in OS X. Windows 7 is such an improvement that I just don't see myself complaining about this operating system in the same way I did with Vista. Those days are coming to an end.

One would think it should not be so difficult to find information about the upcoming SharePoint 2010 and the features it will include. I have been especially interested in SharePoint and its inclusion of CMIS (Content Management Interoperability Services). CMIS is an interoperability specification that will allow for compliant clients (such as Joomla! and Drupal) and repositories (such as SharePoint and Alfresco) to interoperate and share content across information silos. For the past few months, I've been keeping my eyes and ears open for any details on the status of Microsoft Sharepoint incorporating CMIS. Sadly, there is little information to be found.

Although Microsoft announced their support for CMIS in September 2008, there has been little word from Microsoft on when we'll see CMIS available for SharePoint users and whether CMIS will be incorporated into SharePoint 2010. Arbindo Chattopadhyay on his MSDN blog recently discussed the benefits of CMIS, but he was very tight lipped whether we'll be seeing CMIS in SharePoint 2010. In fact he doesn't think we'll be hearing much about CMIS in SharePoint until CMIS is out of draft form.