0xFF, Lies and Virtual Apps

From the Read-Between-The-Lines Department. Okay, so I got your undivided attention by tweaking an old movie title, didn’t I? Amazing. It seems a strategic lie here and there is all it takes to get peoples attention these days and maybe also their money – I figure I’d give the attention part a try with the headline! :-) The irony is that Lies and Virtual Applications is exactly what’s at the heart of today’s article. Interested?

Recently my colleague Sean Donahue shared a trip down the memory lane of RES and App-V collaboration. In his article, he covers the time he worked at a company up in Boston, known as Softricity – later a part of Microsoft. At that same time I had a software distribution company in the Nordics, where RES and Softricity were the two vendors I represented. It was – and still is – a great combination of technologies, as they are what I referred to as ‘Tri-Platform’ back then: Supporting both workstations, laptops and server-based computing.

There is an interesting conundrum between the lines of Sean’s story, which may not be visible to the naked eye. So without further adoo, I hereby declare myself Sean Donahue’s one-time, temporary, completely unsanctioned, and unofficial spokesperson – in a segment we here at RESguru like to call:

What Mr. Donahue really meant to say was…

So what’s between those lines anyway? Well, long story short, it came to our attention that The Usual Suspects have been hard[ly] at work in the fabrication department once again. To cut to the chase, their customer prospects are now allegedly being told that these guys were the first company to supported App-V/Softgrid. Digging around, their first announcements date from late 2004. In case you still feel in the dark, let me break it all down for you:

• RES and Softricity’s CTO’s (Bob and Stuart) worked closely together, way before the boys in Manchester probably even knew what a virtual app was.
• As a result, specific code was written into the RES product to handle injection of context-specific settings into virtual apps and importing .OSD files directly.
• Sean Donahue started all the initial App-V/SoftrGrid partner relationships at Softricity.
• In the old days, my company was a Value Added distributor for RES and Softricity. Check out some of the published slides from back then, on the right. I presented the two vendors together in 2002 (hence the Ancient RES logo!)
• It is very unwise of a competitor to claim they were the first kid on the App-V block, when the two guys who can pop that lie, works at RES.

In summary, there are some valuable takeaways for us all here:

1. Dear customer prospects of Planet Earth. Please do your homework before you buy. Especially software. Don’t just take stuff at face value from the salesguy with the shiny green brochures (or orange for that matter), who bought your lunch. Do your own research or at least ask around.
2. When you catch someone lying straight to your face while taking your money, do the world the favor of kicking them to the curb loud and clear, so others may benefit from the experience.
3. Fellas (you know who I’m talking to) – Amateur’s night is over! Please for the love of all things holy, try and hire some professional help over there in the UK to fabricate some decent stories with more than 5 minutes of shelf life. PS: Get a calendar and sort out your timelines. It seems to be a general problem for you.

So... that was my Christmas Rant folks. But since ‘Tis the Season, let’s put our differences aside, join hands, think of warm fireplaces and candlelight. Let’s end the year with smiles, song and dance. Here’s a apropos Christmas song, from the lovely Ms. Nancy Sinatra, picked especially for our esteemed adversaries. Merry xmas, haha!