http://www.osnews.com/ Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2009, David Adams OSNews version 4 donotreply@osnews.com (Adam Scheinberg) donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:37:13 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif http://www.osnews.com/ 120 http://www.osnews.com/story/22454/Microsoft_Shows_Off_Another_Minority_Report_UI_Concept/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22454/Microsoft_Shows_Off_Another_Minority_Report_UI_Concept/ Whether you like Microsoft or not, the Redmond giant does have one thing going for it: the company's research division. Working together with several universities and other institutions, Microsoft Research works on the soft and hardware of the future, ranging from research operating systems to insanely cool things like what Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie showed off during the Microsoft College Tour '09 (more videos). Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:24:45 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Microsoft 15 http://www.osnews.com/topics/23 News http://www.osnews.com/story/22449/Click-to-Run_Streaming_Microsoft_Office_2010_/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22449/Click-to-Run_Streaming_Microsoft_Office_2010_/ Click-to-Run is a new technology Microsoft are introducing to allow you to test out Office 2010 quickly and easily, by literally streaming the app to your computer from the Internet into a virtualised space. Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:30:07 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Kroc Camen) Microsoft 13 http://www.osnews.com/topics/23 News http://www.osnews.com/story/22409/Microsoft_s_Signature_Initiative_Crapware-Free_Computers/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22409/Microsoft_s_Signature_Initiative_Crapware-Free_Computers/ We all know that Microsoft doesn't actually make computers. It makes the software, and then lets an almost infinite amount of manufacturers build computers that can run its software. These manufacturers often make a mess of things, delivering computers filled to the brim with crapware. What would happen if Microsoft made computers? Well, for one, they would be void of crapware. Two, they would help users install the software they want before leaving the store - including software from competitors. Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:51:35 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Microsoft 60 http://www.osnews.com/topics/23 News http://www.osnews.com/story/22394/Microsoft_To_Open_up_Outlook_pst_Format/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22394/Microsoft_To_Open_up_Outlook_pst_Format/ Anyone who has ever dealt with Microsoft Outlook will know the .pst file format - it's the binary, undocumented file in which all data from Outlook is stored - emails, contacts, calendar, you name it, it's in there. Microsoft has announced that it will release detailed technical documentation on the Outlook .pst data format. Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:28:06 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Microsoft 39 http://www.osnews.com/topics/23 News poundsmack http://www.osnews.com/story/22390/MS_Sees_Stronger_Earnings_than_Expected_Revenue_Still_Declined/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22390/MS_Sees_Stronger_Earnings_than_Expected_Revenue_Still_Declined/ "Microsoft announces another quarter of revenue declines, but results were still stronger than expected, thanks to what Microsoft executives referred to as 'cost discipline' and a streamlining of business divisions. With the release of Windows 7 on Oct. 22, consumers and businesses may be in the mood to buy new PCs and Microsoft products." Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:31:45 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Microsoft 14 http://www.osnews.com/topics/23 News http://www.osnews.com/story/22358/Silent_Install_Firefox_Plugin_Backfires_on_Microsoft/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22358/Silent_Install_Firefox_Plugin_Backfires_on_Microsoft/ Whilst it's not okay in Microsoft's eyes for Google to install a plugin into Internet Explorer, increasing the potential surface area of attack, when Microsoft do it to Firefox, it's a different matter. Now a security hole has been found in a plugin that Microsoft have been silently installing into Firefox. Sat, 17 Oct 2009 05:27:27 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Kroc Camen) Microsoft 46 http://www.osnews.com/topics/23 News http://www.osnews.com/story/22339/Microsoft_Sponsors_Family_Guy_Episode/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22339/Microsoft_Sponsors_Family_Guy_Episode/ Those who enjoy the popular television show will be happy to know that November 8, 2009 will feature a variety show from the makers of Family Guy, and it will play for its entire allotted time without any commercial interruption-- courtesy of Microsoft. The company has made a deal with Fox to have Windows 7 propaganda integrated into a special entitled "Family Guy Presents: Seth & Alex's Almost Live Comedy Show," which will include varied live-action Family Guy musical performances, animated shorts, and celebrity guest appearances. Just how the show will be used to advertise Windows 7 is unclear, but the folks at Microsoft say that "you'll see us deeply integrated into the content... you'll hear a lot about how Windows 7 can help you simplify your PC -- it's simple, fast and easy to use." So sit back in the lazy chair on November 8th, take a bite out of your Windows-branded toast, and enjoy. Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:18:02 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Jordan Spencer Cunningham) Microsoft 21 http://www.osnews.com/topics/23 News http://www.osnews.com/story/22312/Microsoft_Axes_Works_Introduces_Office_2010_Starter_with_Ads/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22312/Microsoft_Axes_Works_Introduces_Office_2010_Starter_with_Ads/ Are you familiar with Microsoft Works? It's sort of a My First Office Suite kind of thing which includes support for Microsoft Word and Excel documents. It is usually not sold separately, but instead comes pre-installed on new OEM machines. Well, Microsoft has announced today that it will kill Microsoft Works, and replace it with Microsoft Office 2010 Starter - an ad-supported version of Office 2010. Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:04:54 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Microsoft 62 http://www.osnews.com/topics/23 News http://www.osnews.com/story/22300/EU_Consults_on_Microsoft_Pledges/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22300/EU_Consults_on_Microsoft_Pledges/ The European Union has begun an investigation to determine whether Microsoft is upholding pledges to curb anti-competitive practices. It is consulting PC makers, software firms and consumers on Microsoft's offer to allow users to pick different browsers when they install Windows. Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:57:56 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Microsoft 1 http://www.osnews.com/topics/23 News SReilly http://www.osnews.com/story/22285/Ballmer_Licensing_Problematic_But_Don_t_Expect_Any_Changes/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22285/Ballmer_Licensing_Problematic_But_Don_t_Expect_Any_Changes/ Software licensing. As home users, it's already an incomprehensible mess of legalese that nobody cares one bit about. However - we home users have it easy. The situation for business users and people managing IT departments is even worse (proprietary software, mostly, of course). Microsoft is a major culprit in this regard, and while the company acknowledges that the situation is messy, they claim they can't really do anything about it. Mon, 05 Oct 2009 17:50:30 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Microsoft 14 http://www.osnews.com/topics/23 News http://www.osnews.com/story/22255/Microsoft_Security_Essentials_Released/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22255/Microsoft_Security_Essentials_Released/ Microsoft have released their free anti-virus and anti-malware software (codenamed 'Morro') to the public, under the name of 'Microsoft Security Essentials'. Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:47:55 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Kroc Camen) Microsoft 33 http://www.osnews.com/topics/23 News REM2000 http://www.osnews.com/story/22253/Ballmer_Discusses_Browser_OS_Market/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22253/Ballmer_Discusses_Browser_OS_Market/ In part three of TechCrunch's interview with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, they discuss web browsers. Ballmer calls Chrome and Safari marketshare numbers a "rounding error," and takes note of the fact that Google is going to be calling both its OS and browser "Chrome," pointing out that in this modern era, "the notion of operating systems being independent of internet access and internet ability to render important things in the internet is kind of not a sensible concept." In other words, he thinks it's unfair to persecute Microsoft for tying IE to Windows. He discusses Firefox, and rags on Google's OS strategy, and finished up on an evaluation of the Netbook/MID market and how Microsoft intends to compete there. Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:41:47 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (David Adams) Microsoft 24 http://www.osnews.com/topics/23 News http://www.osnews.com/story/22251/Another_Microsoft_Research_Operating_System_Helios/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22251/Another_Microsoft_Research_Operating_System_Helios/ It seems like Microsoft Research is really busy these days with research operating systems. We had Singularity, a microkernel operating system written in managed code, and late last week we were acquainted with Barrelfish, a "multikernel" system which treats a multicore system as a network of independent cores, using ideas from distributed systems. Now, we have a third contestant, and it's called Helios. Mon, 28 Sep 2009 23:15:45 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Microsoft 31 http://www.osnews.com/topics/23 News poundsmack http://www.osnews.com/story/22241/Microsoft_Releases_Code_for_Multikernel_Research_OS_Barrelfish_/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22241/Microsoft_Releases_Code_for_Multikernel_Research_OS_Barrelfish_/ Most of us are probably aware of Singularity, a research operating system out of Microsoft Research which explored a number of new ideas, which is available as open source software. Singularity isn't the only research OS out of Microsoft; they recently released the first snapshot of a new operating system, called Barrelfish. It introduces the concept of the multikernel, which treats a multicore system as a network of independent cores, using ideas from distributed systems. Fri, 25 Sep 2009 23:12:34 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Microsoft 66 http://www.osnews.com/topics/23 News Still Lynn http://www.osnews.com/story/22236/Arrington_Interviews_Steve_Ballmer/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22236/Arrington_Interviews_Steve_Ballmer/ TechCrunch conducted a lengthy interview with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and discussed "high level thoughts on major Microsoft products and strategies (including Windows, Windows Mobile, Internet Explorer, Bing, Azure, Mesh, Natal and others), competition, the future of search and search marketing, Microsoft's 'three screens and the cloud' strategy, the recent acquisition of Interactive Supercomputing and, yes, even his thoughts on Twitter." Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:45:29 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (David Adams) Microsoft 5 http://www.osnews.com/topics/23 News Moulinneuf