It's not every day that you see a Microsoft employee demonstrating Microsoft software running natively on Linux. Yet that's exactly what happened at AJAXWorld here, as Brad Abrams, group program manager at Microsoft for ASP.NET AJAX did today.
During a morning keynote, Abrams declared that Microsoft is not the cathedral and that open source isn't really a bazaar when it comes to AJAX, a claim that undermines one of the core underpinnings of the open source movement.
In 1999, Eric S. Raymond published The Cathedral & the Bazaar, a seminal tome on the open source movement. Among open source's many core tenants the book highlighted is that proprietary vendors such as Microsoft are closed, monolithic structures ? the cathedral -- while open source operates in bazaar fashion where things are all done out in the open and with the community.
Microsoft is taking yet another step toward its vision of a software-plus-services world. Beginning today, online hosting companies will be able to offer their customers features of Microsoft's most recent on-premise collaboration and communication tools, SharePoint Services 3.0 and Exchange Server 2007.
The Redmond, Wash.-based software vendor said that, by updating its two hosting packages, Hosted Messaging and Collaboration and Windows Based Hosting, it is helping software providers improve their offerings to small and medium sized businesses.
Microsoft is shipping an add-in pack for Live Meeting that enables users to perform conferencing tasks directly from within Microsoft Office Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Project and Visio, as well as from Windows Messenger, MSN Messenger and Office Communicator 2005.
The Live Meeting Add-In Pack is comprised of three distinct add-ins. With the Live Meeting Add-in for Outlook, users can schedule a Live Meeting from Outlook, identify individual meeting participants as attendees or presenters, send separate invitations for attendees and for presenters, and specify default meeting options and override those defaults for specific meetings.
Microsoft will open up beta versions of its unified communications server and client software to the public for download on
Monday, a senior company executive said Wednesday.
The release includes Office Communications Server 2007, its VoIP server software, and Office Communicator 2007, an application for mobile devices, said Gurdeep Singh Pall, corporate
vice president for Microsoft's real-time collaboration product group.
The server is Microsoft's entry into the enterprise Internet telephony business, where it hopes to replace traditional PBX systems
as well as displace IP PBX systems from vendors like Cisco and Avaya.
Microsoft is investigating possible fraud on its Xbox Live online gaming service, the company said Tuesday.
The investigation comes after gamers reported having their Xbox Live accounts hijacked and their credit cards used to buy "Microsoft Points," the virtual currency on Xbox Live, which has more than 6 million users.
"Recently, there have been reports of fraudulent activity and account theft taking place on the Xbox Live network," a Microsoft representative said in a statement provided to CNET News.com. "Security is a top priority for Xbox Live, and we are actively investigating all reports of fraudulent behavior and theft."
Microsoft announced late last week it is shipping the first service pack for its Compute Cluster Pack.
The Compute Cluster Pack contains the services, interfaces and supporting software needed to create and configure the cluster nodes in Windows Computer Cluster Server 2003, as well as utilities and management infrastructure, according to Microsoft documents online.
Microsoft Compute Cluster Pack Service Pack 1 provides improved reliability and performance for Windows compute clusters, a statement accompanying the service pack said.
Microsoft has decided to join the OpenAJAX Alliance of vendors working toward furthering the adoption of open and interoperable Asynchronous JavaScript and XML-based Web technologies.
The OpenAJAX Alliance is expected to announce Microsoft's plans to join the group at a session at the AJAX World 2007 conference here on March 20.
Last May, Microsoft said it would consider an invitation from the OpenAJAX Alliance.
"Microsoft is joining the OpenAJAX Alliance to collaborate with other industry leaders to help evolve AJAX-style development by ensuring a high degree of interoperability," said Keith Smith, group product manager of the Core Web Platform & Tools to UX Web/Client Platform & Tools team at Microsoft. "By joining OpenAJAX, Microsoft is continuing its commitment to empower Web developers with technology that works cross-browser and cross-platform."
Taiwanese electronics maker Asustek Computer Inc. plans to release in the months ahead two smartphones based on Microsoft's upcoming Windows Mobile 6 software.
The M530w, which offers a full QWERTY keyboard, and P526, with its built-in GPS, are on display this week at the Cebit trade show in Hanover, Germany. Both handsts are to be released in June, said an Asustek executive manning the company's booth.
Unveiled in February, Windows Mobile 6 is the next release of Microsoft's software for mobile phones. The software includes several improvements, including a revamped interface meant to more closely resemble Windows Vista, and tighter integration with Microsoft's corporate software products, such as Exchange Server 2007.
Facing challenges from free business services offered by Google and, to a lesser extent, online office tools maker Zoho, Microsoft is adding more goodies to its menu of offerings to small business owners.
The Redmond, Wash,-based software vendor is striking deals with leading chain retailers in order to build a more personalized approach to landing small business customers.
Microsoft hopes to give retail sales a boost from certified small business specialists working in conjunction with CompUSA's in-store advisors, the TechPro Business Providers.
Microsoft and Novell's partnership is more than the cosmetic addition of Microsoft as a platinum partner to Novell's annual BrainShare partner conference.
Novell CEO Ron Hovsepian said during his keynote speech that the company's recent partnership with Microsoft represented an "ecosystem change" for Novell.
Hovsepian went on to say that "This deal was done for one reasonthe customer. This was all about driving customers to make their lives easier, and about interoperability. This is a customer-driven move and we will remain customer-focused."