WinInsider

Vertical Computer Systems is suing Microsoft for patent infringement related to Microsoft's .Net framework for building Windows-based software.

Vertical filed suit April 18 in a U.S. District Court in Texas alleging that Microsoft has infringed on its Patent No. 6,826,744 for a "system and method for generating Web sites in an arbitrary object framework." The patent is for Vertical's SiteFlash technology, which utilizes XML to create a component-based structure to build and efficiently operate Web sites, according to the company's Web site. A Vertical spokesman could not be reached for comment.

Apple's soon-to-be-launched iPhone will be irrelevant to business users because it is a "closed device" and does not support Microsoft Office, a senior executive with the software giant said this week.

"It's a great music phone, and I'm sure it will be fantastic and have an interesting user interface," Chris Sorenson, Microsoft's Asia-Pacific head of smart-phone strategy, told press during a recent visit to Australia.

"However, it's a closed device that you cannot install applications on, and there's no support for Office documents. If you're an enterprise and want to roll out a line of business applications, it's just not an option. Even using it as a heavy messaging device will be a challenge," the executive added.

Microsoft this week released an updated test version of its new home server software, as it aims to get the software on devices later this year. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates announced plans for Windows Home Server at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, touting the promise that such devices hold for helping households manage their collections of digital media, such as photos and videos. Gates said that HP had already signed on to incorporate the new software into a MediaSmart Server due out this fall.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates launched an initiative in Beijing Thursday aimed at bridging the digital divide between technologically advanced and developing countries.

The initiative, an expansion of Microsoft's "Unlimited Potential" strategy, involves offering governments a US$3 software package called the Student Innovation Suite. It includes Windows XP Starter Edition, Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007, Microsoft Math 3.0, Learning Essentials 2.0 for Microsoft Office, and Windows Live Mail desktop.

Microsoft has released the first beta version for the next major release of its Visual Studio developer tools and of the .Net framework, the company said Thursday. Visual Studio "Orcas" is designed to allow developers to write programs that can run on top of Windows Vista, Longhorn Server, Office 2007 and the Web. Version 3.5 of the .Net framework is designed to offer better support for Web 2.0 and AJAX applications.

The software maker has been aiming to release Orcas this year, but corporate VP Soma Somasegar told ZDNet blogger Mary Jo Foley recently that the release may or may not happen this calendar year.

Microsoft has partnered with Unisys to offer a free trial of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 that enables enterprise customers to evaluate the software's e-mail, calendaring, and unified-messaging features.

Customers can sign up for the trial service or obtain more information about it on this Web site.

Unisys will implement and manage the trial, which will be offered on a hosted basis to customers.

By signing up online for the trial, customers can create a temporary account so they can send and receive email, schedule meetings, and access their accounts via Microsoft Outlook Web Access, Microsoft Office Outlook, or applications compatible with Exchange ActiveSync, which lets users synchronize devices with information stored in Exchange. They also can download a free trial version of Microsoft Office Professional 2007 from the Web site.

Microsoft won't pin a timetable on the first major update for Windows Vista, but one of its most important partners, Intel, doesn't have a problem naming dates.

During the Q&A portion of an earnings conference call Tuesday, Intel CEO Paul Otellini was asked how Vista sales would impact his company's 2007 sales projections. Otellini began his answer with the by-now-standard explanation that enterprises haven't jumped to the new operating system.

"Most companies will act like Intel," he said. "They're doing some pilots and testing today." But as he continued, he named a rough release date for Vista Service Pack 1. "But the [Vista] deployment [in enterprises] will actually happen when the Service Pack gets released in the fourth quarter time frame, probably the October-November time frame," said Otellini.

Microsoft announced today that it has entered into a broad cross-licensing agreement with South Korean electronics maker Samsung. The deal, which Microsoft said is patterned after the agreement it struck with Linux vendor Novell last November, may pave the way for greater interoperability between open source and patented software in the future, the company said.

Under terms of the agreement, Microsoft will gain access to Samsung's patent portfolio relating to digital media and computer-related inventions; Samsung, for its part, will have the right to use Microsoft's patents in its products -- both those that use proprietary software, as well as those using Linux-based products.

Microsoft has a message for corporate America: loosen up and embrace the tools of the under-30 crowd. Empowerment doesn't mean relinquishing control over data, Jeff Teper, head of the SharePoint Server Group at Microsoft, said in a keynote speech Tuesday at the AIIM Expo, a conference here focusing on information and content management.

As Teper spoke, Arpan Shah, group product manager of SharePoint, illustrated Teper's points through a blog site showcasing SharePoint technology and a demonstration of Office SharePoint Server 2007.

Fast, cheap and all over the place. That's how technology experts behind Microsoft's fast-growing Live offerings envision the future of the enterprise data center in a Web 2.0 driven world. Faced with a shortage of datacenter space and demand for datacenter space that is more than doubling every 24 months, Microsoft is eyeing alternatives to traditional datacenter design, including the use of mobile shipping-containers spread all over the globe to facilitate growth and deal with user demand, according to James Hamilton, architect of Microsoft's Windows Live, during a presentation yesterday on datacenter design at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco.