Microsoft Archive

Allchin To OEMs: Create Computing Experiences

Eugenia Loli 2004-09-27 Microsoft 6 Comments

Microsoft's Windows platform chief Jim Allchin last week told 50 top-tier OEMs to think more like custom-system builders. During Microsoft's annual OEM executive summit at company headquarters in Redmond, Wash., Allchin, group vice president of platforms, advised the vendors to shift development resources into creating computing "experiences" through which they can differentiate their offerings, rather than beating each other up mainly on price and spewing out product specs.

Q&A: Microsoft’s Linux strategist Martin Taylor, Part 2

Eugenia Loli 2004-09-21 Microsoft 49 Comments

Martin Taylor recently marked his one-year anniversary as Microsoft Corp.'s chief Linux strategist. Taylor, whose official title is general manager of platform strategy, recently spoke with Computerworld about his first year in that job. This is Part 2 of the interview. Part 1 is also available online.

Xbox team joins Virtual PC development

Eugenia Loli 2004-09-21 Microsoft 27 Comments

Microsoft's Xbox team has been assigned to the development of Virtual PC's native graphics card support, sources tell AppleInsider.

Microsoft Research: User Interface Prototypes

Eugenia Loli 2004-09-21 Microsoft 16 Comments

From ActiveWin: Daniel C. Robbins is a 3D User Interface Designer working at Microsoft Research. His current projects include visual presentation of large information spaces and scenarios for intelligent environments. View and experience research prototypes that span back to the 1990s, yet may give a glimpse of what's in store for future Microsoft products.

Longhorn Changes May Affect Microsoft’s Tools Strategy

Submitted by Tudy 2004-09-20 Microsoft 16 Comments

Microsoft officials earlier this month announced the company is cutting some key features, such as the WinFS file system, from Longhorn, the next major version of Windows, to meet its late-2006 deadline. That time frame, however, is also putting in question two significant development efforts: "Orcas," a future version of the Visual Studio tool set, and "Avalon," Longhorn's presentation-layer subsystem.

Microsoft lets governments into Office Source Code

Eugenia Loli 2004-09-20 Microsoft 22 Comments

The software maker plans to announce in Paris on Monday that Office 2003 will be added to its Government Security Program (GSP), launched in early 2003 to address growing security concerns. The program gives government agencies secure access to source code for key Microsoft programs--initially, the current versions of the Windows operating system.

Microsoft: Can we check your software license?

Submitted by robert renling 2004-09-17 Microsoft 62 Comments

The software maker has launched a pilot program in which some visitors to the main Windows download page are being asked to let the software maker check to see whether their copy of the operating system is licensed.

Q&A: Microsoft’s Linux strategist Martin Taylor

Eugenia Loli 2004-09-17 Microsoft 27 Comments

Martin Taylor recently marked his one-year anniversary as Microsoft Corp.'s chief Linux strategist. Taylor, whose official title is general manager of platform strategy, recently spoke with Computerworld about his first year in that job. This is Part 1 of that interview.

Microsoft to take direct shots at Linux rivals

Eugenia Loli 2004-09-16 Microsoft 42 Comments

Microsoft is refining its "Get the Facts" Linux attack, taking specific aim at Red Hat, Novell and IBM rather than the broader movement around the open-source operating system.

Virtual PC 7.0 released under pressure, lacks planned features

Eugenia Loli 2004-09-15 Microsoft 12 Comments

Amidst pressure from several avenues, Microsoft was forced to cut features from its new Windows emulation software in order to deliver G5 compatibility without further delays.

Opinion: Microsoft’s new business plan

Guest post by Nicholas Blachford 2004-09-14 Microsoft 37 Comments

Over the past couple of decades Microsoft have, through fair means or foul taken over the vast majority of the desktop computer business. This business however is no longer subject to the stellar growth rates of the past and Microsoft now need to find a new way to keep their profits up.

Microsoft ‘Palladium’ plans proceed, albeit in modified form

Eugenia Loli 2004-09-10 Microsoft 26 Comments

'Palladium', Microsoft's name for what was also known as the "Next Generation Secure Computing Base" (NGSCB), a new security architecture for Windows, will still be in Longhorn, according to Microsoft, but with a few modifications from its original plan.

Thanks, Linux

Submitted by Danee 2004-09-07 Microsoft 56 Comments

A Forbes article notes that competition from Linux has spurred Microsoft on to improve its product, lower prices, and spend more attention looking at its sales process. All that effort has resulted in healthy sales for Microsoft's products. It seems that, without a rival, Microsoft gets lazy.

Sources provide Microsoft Virtual PC 7.0 screenshots

Eugenia Loli 2004-09-05 Microsoft 30 Comments

With Microsoft's release of Virtual PC 7.0 to manufacturing this week, several sources close to the Redmond-based software giant were able to obtain finalized copies of the product. A collection of screenshots from the soon-to-be released emulation software package are included in an exclusive AppleInsider photo gallery.

Microsoft: Linux may mean Windows price cuts, fewer sales

Submitted by science_monkey 2004-09-03 Microsoft 57 Comments

Microsoft has filed a report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission warning that 2005 could be challenging, as Linux continues to steal business and PC sales remain sluggish. Elsewhere, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer touted his company's vision for a bright future, while casting doubt on alternatives to his company's Windows operating system, in particular Linux when addressing a gathering of software industry leaders.

Microsoft Virtual PC 7 for OS X available now

Submitted by James Kahan 2004-08-31 Microsoft 34 Comments

Microsoft updated it's Virtual PC website today with a flash demo and FAQs about VPC 7 for Mac. On the "How to Buy" page it says that the full package with XP Pro is available for purchase now. All of the other packages are available through pre-order (estimated to be released on October).

Microsoft sings a new tune on Linux

Submitted by JB 2004-08-10 Microsoft 19 Comments

Microsoft executive Martin Taylor's schedule is packed with meetings like the one in June when he met with representatives from French drugmaker Aventis in his Redmond, Wash. office. Aventis has tied together groups of computers running not Microsoft's operating system but the freely available Linux. These high-performance clusters can analyze proteins at blazing speeds. "That's great for Linux," Taylor said cheerily, at the time.

The decline and fall of the Wintel empire

Submitted by Jason Knight 2004-08-05 Microsoft 16 Comments

Waking up rich and confused. That's how one analyst explained the recurring product delays at Microsoft, and the principle can describe similar problems at chip giant Intel. Instead of waking up sick and washed out, employees at these companies are seemingly dawdling a bit because of past successes and a hazy outlook, says C|NET News.

Gates calls for more software research

Eugenia Loli 2004-08-02 Microsoft 34 Comments

Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates on Monday called on the academic community to recruit more students into the software field as the company introduced a $1 million fund for university research.

Gates Wants Patent Power

Eugenia Loli 2004-07-29 Microsoft 32 Comments

Bill Gates wants more credit for Microsoft's inventions. The Microsoft chairman said on Thursday that the company expects to file 3,000 patent applications this year, up from a little over 2,000 last year and 1,000 just a few years ago. Update: Microsoft may already dominate several key markets, but the company says there's still plenty of room for growth.