Microsoft posted Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 to the Web on Wednesday. The service pack includes fixes for the usual security and reliability problems but also includes new features for spam protection, administration and mobility.
New spam protection features include support for the SenderID framework, an update to the Exchange Instant Message Filter and other new tools for blocking spam, phishing and spoofing. A major new administrative feature is support for a 75-GB mailbox storage size limit in the Standard Edition of Exchange Server 2003.
As of today, Shared Source Initiative technologies will be simplified under a new three-license regimen, which includes The Permissive License (Ms-PL), The Community License (Ms-CL) and the Reference License (Ms-RL).
The Ms-PL allows users to view, modify and redistribute source code for non-commercial and/or commercial purposes. It also allows a developer to actually charge a licensing fee for modified code based on an Ms-PL-licensed application.
Microsoft announced today that eight new Visual Studio 2005 starter kits and the next Windows CE Bluetooth Wrapper would be offered under the Ms-PL.
Microsoft plans to keep customers happy and competitors at bay "the good old fashioned waywith innovation," according to company CEO Steve Ballmer.
"It's top priority for us to be an innovative company," Ballmer said in a keynote address at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo here.
"If we don't innovate, we don't have new versions. Nobody needs to upgrade. Nobody needs to buy. We have to have a variety of ways to innovateWe're at the beginning of 12 months of the greatest innovation pipeline that our company has ever had."
Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer believes the company has ironed out all of the security problems in its forthcoming Windows Vista operating system so that users can consider adopting it the first day it is released. For the most part.
"Most people will trust it from day one on their home computer, and then they will have to decide about their corporate [PC].
I encourage you to get it early but I must be honest among friends," Ballmer joked Wednesday before an audience of IT professionals and analysts at Gartner Inc.'s Symposium and ITxpo 2005.
The price of software is just one issue for the developing world to consider as it takes up high tech, according to a pair of Microsoft executives. Gerald Ilukwe, the general manager of Microsoft Nigeria, said that although the average annual salary in the West African country is only $160, software cost is not what's important.
"It's easy to focus on cost, but at the end of the day, it's the total impact that's important. You can give people free software or computers, but they won't have the expertise to use it," Ilukwe said in response to a question on the role of open-source software in Africa. "Microsoft is not a helicopter dropping relief materials; we're there in the field."
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has pledged $15 million to the Computer History Museum, the Silicon Valley institution's largest donation yet. The gift from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will be applied toward the Mountain View, Calif., museum's $125 million fund-raising effort, which aims to expand educational programs and exhibits, and create a long-term endowment. The donation also will help create an interactive exhibit chronicling the history of computing.
Microsoft has warned that the U.K.'s national identity card plans pose a security risk that could increase the likelihood of confidential data falling into the hands of criminals.
Jerry Fishenden, a top security and identity management expert at Microsoft, said that the British government's current technology proposals are flawed. He also criticized other technology suppliers for failing to speak out publicly about their concerns for fear of damaging any future bids for part of the lucrative contract for ID cards.
Microsoft researcher Ward Cunningham is joining the Eclipse Foundation, according to a Web log entry posted by Eclipse executive director Mike Milinkovich Monday. Cunningham's role at the nonprofit foundation will be to help improve collaborative and cooperative efforts between members of the Eclipse open-source community.
Cunningham, a computer programmer, is best known as the inventor of the WikiWikiWeb or Wiki concept to enable users of a Web site to quickly change its pages. He created the first wiki site, the Portland Pattern Repository, in 1995, focusing on people, projects and patterns in software development.
In a windowless room where Microsoft manages worldwide computer security crises, George Stathakopoulos, the general manager for security, opened a small refrigerator, revealing three bottles of champagne.
"These are for the arrests," he said, with a brief smile.
Locked in a struggle with a shadowy "black hat" computer underground that exploits any software flaw, Microsoft has spent 3 1/2 years trying to transform its engineering culture to make security the company's priority.
The October Community Technology Preview build of Microsoft's next release of Windows client includes lots of Internet Explorer and networking enhancements. But it also offers glimpses of other features that are coming soon.
On Monday, Microsoft made available to its 15,000 to 20,000 technical beta testers the second Community Technology Preview release of Vista, Build 5231. Company officials said they expected to expand availability shortly of the CTP to include an additional 625,000 Microsoft Developer Network and TechNet subscribers .