Microsoft is expected to simplify how it licenses Windows Server System, a move aimed at making it easier for customers to deploy software in networks where multiple virtual images of Windows are running, according to a company official.
The move, to be announced Monday, is part of Microsoft's Dynamic Systems Initiative, which is a plan to urge customers to adopt network virtualization technology, said Bob Kelly, general manager, infrastructure server and IT pro marketing for Microsoft.
Microsoft promises its software will make people better workers more productive, more profitable, more able, as the company likes to say, to achieve their potential. Yet some wonder why the software behemoth isn't taking more of its own medicine.
As Microsoft hits 30, critics reel off a list of complaints that sounds like, well, a Microsoft commercial: stifling bureaucracy, frustrating miscommunication, different units working on overlapping technology without adequate cooperation. In short, the very ills Microsoft promises to cure with its software.
Officials at software tools vendor Borland have combined their Windows IDEs and will release the integrated software later this year.
The Borland Developer Studio combines the Win32-based IDEs of Delphi and C++ Builder with the .NET-based C# Builder and Delphi .NET development platforms, as well as support for C.
The move to an all-encompassing IDE was made so customers could continue developing applications on the older Win32-based platform as well as Microsoft's replacement .NET technology.
The first service pack for Microsoft Business Solutions-Navision 4.0 became available to some customers on Monday, marking the start of a tiered release.
SP1 delivers an Employee Portal and makes general quality improvements to the business management software suite for small and mid-sized companies and divisions of larger companies. Navision includes financial management, supply chain management, customer relationship management and e-commerce functionality.
Microsoft officials said they believe the new features in the upcoming version of Visual Basic will go some way to appease developers who have been upset since the company moved from Visual Basic 6 to Visual Basic .Net.
New features in the upcoming Visual Basic 9.0, such as the LINQ Project and others, are expected to significantly enhance developer productivity.
Microsoft's phase-out of Visual Basic 6 and move to Visual Basic .Net set up an uproar in the ranks of some of Microsoft's most loyal developers.
Microsoft on Monday unveiled two new financial incentives designed to get U.S. small businesses more deeply invested in Microsoft infrastructure and onto the latest versions of Windows and Office.
Microsoft has created a Small Business SKU within the Open Value licensing program. The SKU combines a Windows XP upgrade, Office 2003 Small Business Edition and a Client Access License for Windows Small Business Server 2003 for $922. The price discounts current pricing in the Open Value licensing program by 28 percent.
The U.S. still has a tremendous innovation capability and is unlikely to lose it to countries such as India and China, Craig Mundie, Microsoft's chief technology officer and senior vice president for advanced strategies and policies, said on Friday.
A number of analysts and executives have warned that the U.S. could be losing its technology and innovative edge to countries like India and China. The U.S. government must increase its funding for research and development (R&D) and reform the nation's education system, members of the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) said in March. Intel's chairman, Craig Barrett, called R&D spending and educated workers the foundations for innovation and creativity in the U.S.
A senior Microsoft official in the United Kingdom confirmed this week that no computer manufacturers took up the option to install Windows XP N, the operating system Microsoft created in response to the European Commission decision against it. Windows XP N is a version of Windows that is unbundled from Windows Media Player.
In addition to confirming that no computer manufacturers had adopted the product since its launch four years ago, Microsoft's UK managing director Alistair Baker acknowledged that retailers were also unenthusiastic about stocking the new version of Windows.
The European Commission, which proved with its 497 million Euro fine and behavioral restrictions last year to be a formidable antitrust adversary for Microsoft, is showing interest in the American software giant's security plans.
On Thursday, the same day that Microsoft unveiled its hotly anticipated plans for a Microsoft Client Protection product to protect corporate client software from viruses and spyware, Symantec officials acknowledged that they have been exchanging information with the European Commission. The commission is the enforcement arm of the European Union.
These days, Microsoft is no longer content with just being on your computer screen. The largest software company in the world has repositioned Windows to not only become the operating system for home computers, but also for other devices that we use everyday.
"These embedded devices serve a single purpose," Mike Hall, technical product manager for Windows Embedded, told BetaNews. "Things like ATM machines, a point-of-sale system in a retail store, or a traffic control system."