It’s been mentioned several times on several different blogs, including here, that one of Google’s attempts to thwart - or responses to - Facebook’s open platform was to out open Facebook. More and more information about the platform continues to trickle out, but a fairly in-depth report was released yesterday on Techcrunch. I’ve adopted a kind of mantra: ‘If Michael Arrington said it, it must be true.’

One of the important points was made in the final paragraph:

It’s clear that the developers who arrived early to the Facebook Platform party won easy customers. Those that came later had to fight much harder. Developers found their new gold strike, and they will soon all be there, mining away.

Makes sense to get in early on this one.

There are all sorts of reasons that a company may need to move to a dedicated server. Companies focussed on web development, or web applications will of course need to have full control of their online environment, but there are advantages for small and medium enterprises to take advantage of these upgrades, too. As a company starts expanding, streamlining file storage, communications, and access to important files and folders becomes more important. Several different employees may need to access the same information, provide updates on numbers or appointments, and there may be remote workers or the need to continue to work from home. A server can also help reduce the requirements of individual computer systems as the work can be facilitated by the server, instead of the system’s processor. A post was recently made on Superb’s blog about making the choice to upgrade to a dedicated server, and there’s also a good article on Microsoft’s website that talks about making the decision. While there are definite advantages, make sure you are prepared for the maintenance and upkeep of the server (ie. patches, updates), or look into a company that can manage these aspects of your server for you.

Following up on the recently announced Facebook investment announcement - which doesn’t necessarily make Facebook worth $15 billion, Microsoft has now released that they’ve reached the 88 million units sold for their Vista operating system and posted their strongest Q1 in eight years. Despite being skeptical about Microsoft’s ability to monetize the Facebook deal, Paul Kedrosky had an interesting article on the great quarter Microsoft had and why Microsoft is a ‘buy.’

One idea that has become increasingly interesting is the ability of Microsoft to somehow parlay their Facebook partnership into a platform to push Silverlight. While I’ve discussed the release previously and been quite positive, the ability to convince users to adopt/install the plug-in and developers to create masterpieces on the platform will ultimately determine the fate of the release. An interesting Facebook app sponsored or supported by Facebook may be the perfect tool.

In recent years, Apple could almost be described by two things: turtlenecks and iPods. This year, the iPhone was added to the mix, and we saw another addition to their family of felines, Mac OS X 10.5, better known as Leopard. The family of Apple felines has now reached six, starting with Cheetah, moving to Puma, Jaguar, Panther, and Tiger before this latest release. The OS X operating system started the resurgence of Apple, and while it has been over 2 years since a release has been made, many of the over 300 changes will surely go unnoticed by the average user. Touting one of the most impressive interfaces, the latest release has a refined look, revamped apps and new options. While the release doesn’t seem to have the fanfare of Microsoft’s Vista, which recently hit the 88 million unit mark, it should have an impact on Apple through hardware upgrades as well as OS upgrades. For an in-depth look at the new OS, see this article on Computerworld. 

Check out these other articles for more information:

FAQ: Getting ready for the leap to Leopard

Five reasons not to make the jump to Leopard - yet

Image Gallery: First look at Leopard

NOTE: Originally posted here.

An an added bit of fun, two more links:

How the Gates Stole Leopard

Leopard: Four Web 2.0 features we love

I’m not saying that Facebook isn’t a valuable property, and given the interest that rivals of the software giant had in Facebook, it would make sense to take an ‘at all costs’ approach to the recently announced round of investment, but giving the prince of social networks (yes, MySpace still reigns king of the jungle) a valuation of $15B seems a bit lofty. Given the rumours surrounding Google’s fear of Facebook and looking to become more open than Facebook, I would almost have to believe that their intentions weren’t that serious, but more likely to push Microsoft’s investment price up.

Microsoft isn’t completely stupid, and I don’t imagine this partnership will be, either (despite the price tag). With Facebook looking to become a web-based OS, it could simply be a case of Microsoft keeping it’s friends close and enemies closer. Another idea is ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend,’ and a unified or co-operative battle against Google is probably more attractive to both companies than trying to battle each other at the same time. Check out these posts for more perspective:

Paul Kedrosky

Techcrunch

Mashable