I plan to live forever. So far, so good.

After my MVP title renewal earlier this month, I’ve just received news that I’ve also been selected to become a member of the Springboard Technical Expert Program (STEP). What is STEP? Well, here’s a short overview:

The STEP program was launched in 2009 as an effort to not only drive global awareness and value of Windows products, but to help influencers build community and advocacy around these key technologies. The goal has always been to make our launch efforts a true, “for the community, by the community” effort. Since that time, the program has expanded to support Windows, Office, MDOP (Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack), Desktop Virtualization, Windows Intune and Internet Explorer to help support the growing needs of the IT-Pros.

This program helps to expand reach beyond typically-attended Microsoft events like TechEd to more local efforts. The nexus of the program lies in the IT pro-ready content on The Springboard Series on TechNet. This “how-to” content helps IT pros to Discover and Explore, Pilot and Deploy, and Manage Windows, MDOP, Office, and IE. Content is currently available in 10 languages and the site receives over 3.5 million visitors each month.

Some benefits of the STEP program include:

• Since 2010 STEP members presented 350 events to over 130,000 IT Pros in 39 countries on 15 languages.
• STEP members were invite to participate at MMS, TechEd US, TechEd EMEA, on Talking About Windows, the Springboard Series Tours (US and EMEA) tour,  as well as on the Springboard Series Virtual Roundtables.
• STEP members are regularly featured on the Springboard Series on TechNet, the TechNet homepage and community pages and in the Springboard Series Insider Newsletter.
• STEP members are sought after for many speaking opportunities.
• STEP members have access to members of the Windows product team for troubleshooting and questions.
• STEP members have regular opportunities to participate in product panels and focus groups.
• STEP members presented at MVP summit alongside Microsoft SMEs.

I’d like to publicly thank everyone at Microsoft who had a say in this for the amazing opportunity I’ve received, and of course to everyone who has ever attended my events/seminars – this wouldn’t have been possible without the people out there who I got to share my knowledge with over the years! I’m sure the STEP membership will empower me to keep doing what I was doing up to now anyway, but this time on a whole new level.

You can check out the Springboard page on TechNet, the Springboard Series blog and the official Springboard twitter feed for more information.

An official announcement confirmed yesterday that the SP1 for Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2 has reached RTM. Quoting from the Windows Team blog:

On February 16th Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 will be available for MSDN and TechNet Subscribers as well as Volume License customers. On February 22nd, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 will become generally available for folks to download via the Microsoft Download Center and available on Windows Update.

I believe this is actually the first Service Pack that’s highly anticipated for the new features it brings, and not for the fixes. What features is that you ask? SP1 brings RemoteFX and Dynamic Memory to Hyper-V on Windows Server 2008 R2 (and client-side support for those on Windows 7).

Dynamic Memory lets you increase virtual machine density with the resources you already have—without sacrificing performance or scalability, while RemoteFX is an exciting technology that lets you virtualize the Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) on the server side and deliver next-generation rich media and 3D user experiences for VDI. RemoteFX is also enabling new low cost ultra-thin client devices to enter the market.

More details on this in the Windows Server Division Weblog.

Microsoft has recently announced the end of support for Windows XP SP2 (which means it won’t be receiving any more updates).

Vista RTM is also scheduled to enter end-of-support in April 2010. More details on the Microsoft website.

Following an article in the Financial Times where Google states they’re dropping Windows all across the company, out comes the response of the Windows Team, on their official blog. In short, Google are blaming Windows for the China attacks in January, and they’re ditching it in favor of Linux and MacOS. But is really blaming a 9-year-old browser the way to go?

To be honest, I find that the biggest security problem with Windows is actually it’s popularity: in the long run, using Linux or MacOS might in fact be less secure if attacked directly, even if there really are more known attacks/viruses/worms/trojans built  for Windows than there are for MacOS or Linux. After all, the security of a computer system depends very much on it being up to date and properly configured, while also running latest versions of any software being used. Having an outdated and/or badly configured version of any OS is a dangerous thing to do, no matter which OS it is. And switching to another OS simply because you can’t properly and securely configure the previous one is a really dumb move.

In any case, both links above are worth a read.

Later edit: Google have also announced that ChromeOS will be out “later this fall” -  do you really think this is just a coincidence?