SAP TechEd: Windows is Out. But Windows are In.

Humor October 14th, 2008

My fellow Enterprise Irregulars are at SAP’s TechEd in Berlin, Germany.  David Terrar is apparently in Windows-prison, as he observed:

Here in the Bloggers Room at SAP TechEd 2008, the Windows users (of which I am one) are consigned to one end of the room. We have to take regular abuse from the Mac fanboys. As you can see, the score is Apple Mac 8 Windows based PCs 3. In the blog world we M$ types appear to be a dying breed.

I told him he’d probably get a very different count in the keynote theater, where the real corporate folks are, who don’t have a choice – unless they all work for Citrix. smile_wink

Photo credit: David Terrar

But there’s something else strikingly obvious on this photo. Windows is out.  But Windows are in – I mean the real ones, letting daylight in.  This is something we’ll never get in the US.  I almost forgot the luxury of having windows (not the MS-kind) is quite normal in Europe.

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11 Comments to “SAP TechEd: Windows is Out. But Windows are In.”

  1. David Terrar | October 14th, 2008 at 9:32 am

    Cheers Zoli! The idea of REAL windows being important never even occurred to me -and Berlin’s a great city.

    Getting beaten up by the Mac/iPhone crowd is just something to be endured. Will try and take a proper corporate PC headcount amongst the 4,500 attendees here!

  2. Jan | October 16th, 2008 at 7:15 am

    Sooo sick of Apple zelots :) My windows just works, since 2.9 it just works. Out of two apple products in our office (one minimac one laptop) two have failed.
    the mini after 3 months of use, and the laptop came with a fauly LCD (white spots) that they didn’t want to replace.

  3. Zoli Erdos | October 16th, 2008 at 9:00 am

    Jan, I bet you also have that *other* type of windows in your office :-)

  4. sig | October 20th, 2008 at 1:40 am

    Hi Zoli,

    actually did the “very different count in the keynote theater, where the real corporate folks are”… and the result?

    Pen and paper mostly, nary a laptop in sight except the analysts and bloggers… hang on a sec, nope, the bloggers had their Nokia/Blackberry/iPhones instead, twittering live!

  5. Zoli Erdos | October 20th, 2008 at 7:33 am

    Looks like I’m a perpetual Windows-prisoner: just ordered an Acer Aspire One, one of those tiny netbooks, specifically as a travel/conference “blogging machine”.

  6. Jan | October 20th, 2008 at 10:03 am

    That’s funny, i almost bought one too. Looks like a pretty cool machine, i played with it at a shop a couple of times. The quality of the whole thing seems to be much better than the Eee PC, would appreciate a review :)

  7. Zoli Erdos | October 20th, 2008 at 10:17 am

    Jan, CrunchGear just reported on an even cheaper version: $309. But as I commented there, I am happy with the few extras mine will have @ $399.

  8. Jan | October 21st, 2008 at 12:41 am

    Thanks!

  9. David Terrar | October 21st, 2008 at 5:40 am

    @Sig,
    I’m sure that the lack of power points and the variable wifi contrbuted to a lot of us sticking to the BlackBerry or the iPhone in the sessions.

    @Zoli,
    It’s fascinating how this new Netbook category is developing - I think it’s great… a few years ago a mini notebook was an ultra-premium item only a few could afford!

  10. Zoli Erdos | October 21st, 2008 at 6:35 am

    @David, you may have experienced a lack of power points, but I’m sure there was an abundance of PowerPoints :-)

  11. David Terrar | October 21st, 2008 at 6:58 am

    @Zoli,
    You bet - SAP have a special Powerpoint generator to make sure every slide is filled with words, and at least 2 complex diagrams. They certainly haven’t heard of Guy’s 10/20/30 rule.

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