Microsoft Archive

Microsoft Offered States a Fee Deal

Guest post by Kevin Adams 2002-12-14 Microsoft 35 Comments

"...if the nine states and the District of Columbia decided against an appeal, Microsoft would cover the states' expenses and provide an additional pot of funds for the states to help enforce the settlement deal, the sources said." Read the full article at the Washington Post.

Microsoft Loses .NET Ally Rational to IBM

Eugenia Loli 2002-12-09 Microsoft 16 Comments

Rational Software Corp is joining Big Blue's stable of industry leaders-turned-business units after IBM announced its $2.1bn acquisition of the application modeling and design specialist. The news is a blow to Microsoft Corp, which on Friday conceded executives had "talked internally" about an acquisition of Rational. Rational's XDE software modeling tool, launched in February, sat inside Microsoft' Visual Studio.NET integrated development environment (IDE) in addition to IBM's WebSphere. Read the article at ComputerWire.

Is Microsoft Truly ‘Trustworthy’?

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-25 Microsoft 20 Comments

"Be afraid. Microsoft thinks it knows what's best for you. Microsoft Senior Vice President Craig Mundie recently suggested that in the name of security, it may be appropriate to force you to install Microsoft patches or updates, and if that breaks your existing applications, well, it's for your own good." Read the editorial at Wired.

Microsoft Talking Big for Servers

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-22 Microsoft 8 Comments

"For years, Microsoft has argued that servers containing only a handful of processors are good enough for most of the world. But now, with the advent of huge Intel machines and the approaching release of a new version of Windows that will run on them, the company is changing its tune. For heavyweight business computing jobs such as housing a large company's sales transaction database, Microsoft's preferred philosophy has been to share the load among lower-end servers grouped into a "cluster". It's been a tough sell, however, with large corporations sticking with mainframes or Unix servers." Read the report at News.com.

Interview: Ballmer Speaks Out

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-19 Microsoft 20 Comments

Under the leadership of CEO Steve Ballmer, Microsoft is free to turn its attention to such initiatives as acquisitions, .Net, shared source code and a more componentized Windows. Ballmer addressed these issues and others, including why Office 11 requires Windows XP, in an interview at Microsoft headquarters, in Redmond, Wash., with eWeek. Read the interview at eWeek.

Ballmer: ‘Tablets Will Displace Laptops’ and Gates: ‘PCs are the Past’

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-18 Microsoft 43 Comments

Although tablet PCs represent just a sliver of the PC market today, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer says the new category could eventually account for one-third of all computers--by supplanting the laptop. However, Microsoft is to shift focus from PCs to other computer gizmos: Software giant Microsoft will emphasize devices other than the personal computer in the coming year, Chairman Bill Gates said Sunday. Microsoft's attention is on Internet services, multimedia devices, handheld computers and tiny chips to make everyday objects computer-powered, Gates said.

Here’s the Plan for Software

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-17 Microsoft 11 Comments

"If there's one thing an effective empire builder needs, it's a good map. Microsoft's map for reshaping and reviving the world of business software can be found on floor two of Building Four on the company's campus, in the office of a technology strategist named Norm Judah. The map itself doesn't look like much. If anything, it resembles a microchip design or possibly an org chart gone mad. But this poster-sized piece of cardboard is nothing less than a schematic of how business works. Not how Microsoft works. How business works." Read the article at Fortune.

Microsoft’s New Open Source Mess

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-08 Microsoft 35 Comments

"What a mess. Less than a week after a court-approved deal ends the antitrust case, Microsoft's back in the spotlight. The latest Halloween memo portrays your company as utterly obsessed with the open-source software movement but utterly confused about how best to proceed. I can only imagine the state of confusion. Microsoft has tried to persuade developers and users for the last four years that there's no there there--and to no avail." Read the editorial at ZDNet. In the meantime, Business 2.0 posted a story called "Fighting Microsoft the Open-Source Way": Apple, IBM, and Sun have opened up their software code to the public in their battle against Redmond. It just might work. And here is another, interesting, editorial about the DOJ settlement. Update: Another one at PCWorld.com.

Microsoft a Problem for Software Rivals

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-07 Microsoft 11 Comments

"The software industry has two problems as it looks to jump-start Web services -- expected to be the next big thing in business computing -- the economy is weak and Microsoft is strong. So, when executives and chief technology officers gathered in Monterey, California on Wednesday for Merrill Lynch's Shaping Software 2002 conference, conversation centered on Microsoft Corp. -- the industry's 800-pound gorilla -- and still-slumping corporate spending." Read it at Reuters.

Microsoft Officially Launches the TabletPC

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-06 Microsoft 41 Comments

Microsoft has high hopes for its new specialized operating system for pen-based computing. But a crop of new gadgets based on the OS may have trouble attracting buyers. Read reports at C|Net and eWeek.

Halloween VII: Survey Says…

Submitted by Joseph Childrose 2002-11-06 Microsoft 7 Comments

"The document reproduced below was presented at a Microsoft internal Linux Strategic Review held at the Microsoft offices in Berlin during Sept. 2002. I received it on 5 November 2002." ESR's review for OpenSource.org.

Microsoft Rivals Vow More Battles

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-04 Microsoft 23 Comments

"Microsoft's rivals said they would seek tighter limits on the world's largest software company after a US federal judge approved most of its antitrust settlement with the Justice Department. Sun, one of Microsoft's harshest critics, said the states should appeal. " Read the article at News.com.au.

Microsoft Cuts the Cord

Eugenia Loli 2002-10-23 Microsoft 26 Comments

"Redmond has a new line of equipment designed to help turn your home into a wireless network. In the short term, at least, that's good news for the industry." Read the article at Business 2.0.

Microsoft to Open Up Office File Formats?

David Adams 2002-10-22 Microsoft 30 Comments

A ZDNet article discusses Microsoft's upcoming version 11 of Office, that will use XML to make Office files more interoperable with "Web Services." Analysts quoted in the article note that this is a risky strategy for Microsoft since it will chip away at the file format stranglehold that Microsoft has had for many years. The more open and interoperable Microsoft makes Office, they say, the more likely that alternatives to Office will be able to co-exist, or even replace it in the corporate sphere.

Microsoft to Offer Passport Server for Linux and UNIX

Guest post by Ken Crandall 2002-10-17 Microsoft 21 Comments

Microsoft has struck a deal with Ready-to-Run Software to port their Passport server to Linux and UNIX. This would allow websites running Apache to utilize the single-sign-on feature that Passport offers.

Critics Say Microsoft Is Up to Old Tricks

Eugenia Loli 2002-10-16 Microsoft 67 Comments

As Microsoft awaits court approval of its landmark antitrust settlement with the government, the company has angered some competitors by tightly limiting the technical data it promised to release. Microsoft says the restrictions are normal for the software industry and do not violate the terms of the settlement. But competitors contend that Microsoft's actions are reminiscent of the behavior that led to the antitrust case and reinforce their claim that the entire settlement is inadequate.

Ballmer on Linux, Licensing and .Net

Eugenia Loli 2002-10-14 Microsoft 92 Comments

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer knows what it's like to be in the hot seat. The company he leads has been under fire for a controversial new licensing programme that raised prices considerably for some customers. A high-profile initiative to deliver web services is on the rocks. And the threat from the open-source Linux operating system is stronger than ever. Read the interview at Silicon.com.

The Persistence Principle: An Inside Look at Microsoft’s Strategy

Eugenia Loli 2002-09-27 Microsoft 81 Comments

It can be argued that Microsoft has changed the way everyone does business in the last 20 years. What you may be surprised to learn is that the company’s success is as much about perseverance and endurance as it is vision and talent. Yes, Microsoft has been blessed with the brilliant minds of leaders like Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer.

Can Microsoft Read Chicken Scratch?

Eugenia Loli 2002-09-26 Microsoft 7 Comments

The Tablet PC operating system matches people's scrawls against the company's own database of handwriting samples. But there's some debate as to whether to tailor it to the individual. Read the report.

Ballmer: United, We’ll Stomp on Linux

Eugenia Loli 2002-09-24 Microsoft 93 Comments

Linux is the only serious threat to Microsoft's increasing dominance of the market for server operating systems, according to new research from IDC. Although Microsoft cannot compete against Linux on price, the company will use its community of professionals to outsmart the open-source movement, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer told an audience of Microsoft Most Valued Professionals (MVPs) in London on Monday.