One of the last remaining consumer class-action antitrust lawsuits filed against Microsoft in a state court is set to go to trial in November, and the company's co-founder and chairman is on the witness list to testify.
That doesn't mean Bill Gates will end up in the witness chair in Polk County District Court defending his company's business plan, but it's a possibility.
The lawsuit against Microsoft has made its way to the Iowa Supreme Court three times and, unlike those in most states, which have been either settled or dismissed, it is scheduled for trial Nov. 13.
Users who have wanted to save Microsoft Office documents in Adobe's PDF were frustrated earlier this year when Redmond announced it would not include the capability as a native function in Office 2007 as it had previously announced.
Now, Microsoft has announced it is shipping the capability as a free downloadable add-in for Office 2007. In fact, the add-in enables users to save in either PDF or in Microsoft's proprietary Office XML Paper Specification.
Microsoft had initially planned to ship the native PDF capability built into Office 2007. However, complaints from Adobe prompted the company to pull back from those plans in June.
Microsoft's Office 2007 suite is nearing the end of its long testing process. Microsoft on Thursday will offer a refresh
of beta 2, the last external test release of the product before it is released to manufacturing, the company said.
Office 2007 Beta 2 Technical Refresh will feature improved performance, enhancements to its collaboration tools and tighter
integration across the individual products, Microsoft said. It also will include improvements in the general look and feel
of the suite.
To encourage adoption of Web services by developers, including open source projects, Microsoft has announced a promise not to sue for use of its proprietary XML specifications.
The company posted its so-called Open Specification Promise on its Web site on Tuesday.
"Microsoft irrevocably promises not to assert any Microsoft Necessary Claims against you for making, using, selling, offering for sale, importing or distributing any implementation to the extent it conforms to a Covered Specification," the posting states.
The August Community Technology Preview build of Longhorn Server is available for download. It's still not an RC1, but it does include performance, reliability and UI changes, according to Microsoft.
Microsoft posted during the past weekend for download a new test build of its Longhorn Server operating system.
Microsoft made Longhorn Server Build 5600, designated as the "August Community Technology Preview," is available to Microsoft Developer Network and TechNet subscribers for download on the heels of Windows Vista Release Candidate 1. Microsoft delivered Vista RC1, which is also build 5600, at the start of September.
Two Moroccan men have been jailed for releasing the Zotob computer worm, which wreaked havoc on an estimated 250,000 Windows
PCs last year.
Farid Essebar, 19, of Morocco was sentenced to two years in prison on Tuesday by a Moroccan court, according to a report by
Agence France-Presse. An accomplice, Achraf Bahloul, also of Morocco, received a one-year sentence, the report said.
A third man, 22 year-old Atilla Ekici, of Turkey has been charged with financing the attack, which shut down PCs in a number
of major corporations in mid-August 2005.
Microsoft announced Tuesday that veteran manager Satya Nadella will succeed Doug Burgum as head of the company's Business Solutions group, which develops and markets the Dynamics brand of small and mid-sized business applications.
Burgum is leaving the company after a nine-month transition period. The executive shuffle is not expected to impact any upcoming product plans, including the pending debut of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Live.
"We are now on track to deliver Microsoft Dynamics CRM Live, Microsoft Dynamics GP 10, Microsoft Dynamics SL 7.0, Microsoft Dynamics NAV 5.0 and other products in the pipeline over the coming year," Nadella said in a statement.
Microsoft on Monday is unveiling its official Atlas technology branding for AJAX programming
on ASP.Net, and will make the software available sooner than planned.
The company hopes to ship its Atlas technologies around the end of 2006, as opposed to next year.
Previously, Microsoft used the code name ASP.Net "Atlas" to refer to multiple components of technologies designed to assist
Web developers with AJAX-style development, a Microsoft representative said in an e-mail. Now, the server-side Atlas functionality,
which integrates with ASP.Net, is called ASP.Net 2.0 AJAX Extensions.
The Redmond software maker has moved its replacement for MSN Search from beta to final. Microsoft also has launched simultaneously the final versions of Windows Live.com and Windows Live Local.
Microsoft moved its Web search service ? now dubbed Windows Live Search ? from beta to final on September 11.
Windows Live Search is the renamed and revamped replacement for MSN Search. Windows Live Search is powering the search on MSN.com, as well as on Windows Live.com ? another Live property that Microsoft made available in final form on September 11. Live.com is a customizable home page that users can use for search, as well as to track news, RSS feeds and blogs, images and video.
Microsoft plans to sell a cheaper version of its Xbox 360 game console in Japan starting Nov. 2 to bolster sluggish sales before Sony releases the PlayStation 3.
The cheaper model will retail for 29,800 yen ($256) and won't have the hard-disk drive and accessories that come with the 39,785 yen version currently available, Redmond-based Microsoft said today in an e-mailed statement. The company will also offer two free games for a limited period to entice potential buyers.
Microsoft is counting on a one-year lead against PlayStation 3 and lower prices to reverse Sony's dominance in the world's second-largest video-game market. In a move that may also help Microsoft, Sony this week halved its PS3 shipment targets for the U.S. and Japan to 2 million by March, citing parts shortages.