Sun Microsystems has fixed five security bugs in Java that expose computers running Windows, Linux and Solaris to hacker attack.
The flaws are "highly critical," according to an advisory from Secunia posted Tuesday. Vulnerabilities that get that ranking--one notch below "extremely critical," the security monitoring company's most severe rating--typically open the door to a remote intruder and to full compromise of the system.
All the flaws affect the Java Runtime Environment, or JRE, in computers loaded with Microsoft Windows, Linux or Sun's own Solaris operating system. This is the software many computer owners have on their system to run Java applications. The bugs could allow an intruder to use a Java application to inappropriately read and write files, or to run code on a victim's computer, Sun said in three separate security advisories released late Monday.
Microsoft said it is readying an online marketplace, code-named Fremont, which is apparently in response to a similar feature that rival Google Inc. introduced a few weeks ago.
Fremont is a free service in which people contribute listings, whether it's about a couch for sale or someone looking for a commuting partner.
Microsoft plans to index each item, thereby adding it to the results from using Microsoft's Internet search engine.
The software giant will enhance the Fremont listings with localized maps, and make them available through Microsoft's newly revamped Internet portal, now known as Live.com, according to the company.
The second beta of Windows Vista will not come until next year, Microsoft said Tuesday.
The software maker did not give a time frame for the release of Beta 2 of the operating system, and said only that it would have more to say next year. Microsoft had not said when Beta 2 will come, but some had expected it might come in December or January.
Microsoft did say it still plans to release the final version of Vista in the second half of next year.
"First and foremost, we are still on track for general availability in the second half of calendar year 2006," said Amitabh Srivastava, a corporate vice president in Microsoft's Windows unit.
Microsoft already plays the dual role of partner and competitor in many cases, but its foray into online services may be pushing it to an entirely new level.
The company on Monday announced a series of enhancements in its services for companies that offer online access to Microsoft programs. The move comes just a few weeks after the Redmond company signaled plans to move further into that area itself.
Microsoft's first tip for start-ups wanting to work with the software maker: Don't expect it to give you money. Microsoft--particularly its MSN group--has been on an acquisition spree, but said it typically doesn't buy companies that it finds through its emerging business team. Rarer still is a minority investment from Microsoft, said Dan'l Lewin, the corporate vice president heading up business development for Microsoft's .Net group.
"I would never say never," Lewin told the 90 or so entrepreneurs who gathered at Microsoft's campus for a daylong seminar titled "Partnering with Microsoft: The insider's guide for start-ups."
Microsoft is in the process of transitioning from its old accessibility model to a new model supported in Windows Vista. Microsoft is moving from its MSAA model to a new cross-platform accessibility model called User Interface Automation, which will be supported in Windows XP and Windows Vista, said Rob Sinclair, director of Microsoft's Accessible Technology Group.
One of the chief architects of UI Automation, Sinclair is leading the efforts to promote the advantages of moving the industry toward adopting one accessibility standard.
In a reversal, the state government of Massachusetts has thrown its support to Microsoft in an ongoing battle over office software formats and has launched an investigation into the states former IT chief, who had been championing open-source software.
"The Commonwealth is very pleased with Microsofts progress in creating an open document format, said the states Administration and Finance (A&F) Secretary Tom Trimarco in a short statement on Thanksgiving eve." If Microsoft follows through as planned, we are optimistic that Office Open XML will meet our new standards for acceptable open formats.
Microsoft tried to have references to free software removed from a document approved at the United Nations-sponsored Internet summit in Tunis two weeks ago, a blog discussion has revealed. But the attempt failed.
Several weeks ahead of the second phase of World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis, the Austrian government invited numerous companies and organizations to participate in a conference to help draft a briefing paper, called Vienna Conclusions, which Austrian government officials planned to present at the summit.
Microsoft, continuing its anti-Linux campaign, recently released the results of a study the company commissioned in an effort to show that Windows is more reliable than Linux.
The study, conducted by Herbert Thompson, chief security strategist at Security Innovation Inc., of Wilmington, Mass., and titled "Reliability: Analyzing Solution Uptime as Business Needs Change," compared two platformsMicrosoft's Windows Server System and Novell Inc.'s SUSE Linux Enterprise Serverunder evolving business requirements over an extended period of time. Interestingly, Thompson made clear that neither the study nor its findings are final or conclusive but rather a starting point for further work.
Microsoft is pushing mobility and security additions on its updated hosted messaging and collaboration suite, launched Monday.
The updated suite, Microsoft Solution for Hosted Messaging and Collaboration version 3.5, is targeted at small- to medium-sized businesses that want enterprise-grade applications but don't have the resources to maintain the applications themselves.
Hosted by service providers, the suite offers online versions of Exchange Server 2003, Live Communication Server 2005 and SharePoint Services. Version 3 was launched in January.