Microsoft is lashing out against a revised IT policy planned by Massachusetts that would kill the use of Office in state agencies unless the company adopts the OpenDocument file format.
According to a proposed plan distributed by the state's Information Technology Division on Wednesday, only two document formats Open Document and Adobe's PDF will be acceptable for state use in the future.
The OpenDocument format, which was ratified in May by Oasis, is supported by OpenOffice, an open source Office suite, and in Sun's StarOffice, which is owned by Sun Microsystems.
Microsoftclarified its strategy for Longhorn server on Itanium-based systems, saying it would focus on "big iron" applications.
The upcoming version of Microsoft Windows Server, still code-named Longhorn, is designed for Intel Itanium-based servers, will be optimized for three workloads, the company said on Friday.
The next-generation version of the server software designed for Intel'shigh-end Itanium chips is designed specifically for database workloads and custom and line-of-business applications. Microsoft said that's consistent with how the majority of current Windows Server on Itanium customers are using it.
Microsoft says e-mails that Kai-Fu Lee sent to Google executives bolster its case that the researcher is seeking to violate his employment contract by taking up a position as head of the search giant's China efforts.
According to a Microsoft filing made public on Friday, Lee sent a May 7 e-mail to Google's founder and chief executive saying that he had heard Google was opening a China office and expressing interest in discussing the matter. In the e-mail, Lee described himself as "Corporate VP at Microsoft working on areas very related to Google," Microsoft reveals in court documents seen by CNET News.com.
Microsoft plans to build more Unix features into future versions of its Windows Server operating system and cease work on its separate Services For Unix product.
Historically, Microsoft has provided, in a package known as Services For Unix, software tools to help companies integrate their Windows and Unix machines. At one time, the software giant charged for Services For Unix, but early last year the company made the tools free for Windows customers.
Microsoft plans to include some of those features in Windows Server 2003 R2, an update to the server OS due at the end of this year. At the same time, the company said it is not planning any further releases of the standalone Services For Unix product.
Microsoft is addressing the applications integration issue with a strategy that goes beyond the ESB standard, according to a paper the company has posted.
ESB is an emerging standard for integrating enterprise applications in an implementation-independent fashion, at a coarse-grained service level via an event-driven and XML-based messaging engine.
The term is considered a catch-all by some. Recently, in an attempt to develop an open-source Web services framework, companies such as Iona Technologies, WSO2, Infravio Inc., Sonic Software and Blue Titan Software Inc. teamed up to bring together various projects to deliver what would amount to an open-source ESB.
Assuming these products actually ship this year (I'm hearing some weird rumors), MSDN subscribers will get early download access to SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005 ahead of the products' projected November release dates. If you don't mind grabbing a near-final release, Microsoft is set to ship release candidate (RC) versions of both products just in time for September's Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC) 2005. The RC versions will be feature-complete, Microsoft says.
Microsoft released two new add-ins for its MSN Search toolbar, one aimed at fighting identity theft and the other designed to help people find their favorite MSN online games more quickly.
The phishing add-in is reportedly the first technology of its kind. It responds to growing reports of identity theft that result from bogus e-mails and Web sites.
Phishing is a technique in which unsuspecting users are tricked into logging on to impostor sites which typically pose as the Web sites of banks or other financial services firms.
Microsoft is looking at retail space once again, apparently with ambitions to create a high-visibility, showcase store.
The software giant is inquiring about retail space in New York's Times Square, a much larger stage than its previous venue in San Francisco, according to real estate brokers.
One place it has been trolling is the 1 Times Square building, said Jeffrey Roseman, a broker with Newmark Retail, the agent for the building.
Roseman, who in the last three months has started to market the property, noted Microsoft approached his company about leasing the space.
Even for me, pro-MS person, this seems taken too far. MS nor Hollywood has no business to determine how I view my media.
As Microsoft readies the next version of its Windows operating system, called Vista, the software giant is building in unprecedented levels of safeguards against video piracy.
Most analog plugs, and some digital connections, don't support this kind of copy protection. Part of Vista's job will be to check to see what kind of devices are linked to the computer, and through what kind of connection, and decide whether the content can be encrypted or otherwise protected over that link.
If the answer is "no," in the case of high-resolution Video Graphics Array (VGA) connections, or some early Digital Video Interface connections, the computer could shut down output of video altogether through those plugs, if the content owners require that.
Microsoft plans to announce Tuesday that it has purchased a small Internet calling start-up called Teleo, as part of a move to expand the capabilities of MSN Messenger.
The move comes as all the major portal and IM companies are moving more heavily into Internet calling. Last week, Google launched its own instant-messaging service, dubbed Google Talk, with a focus on voice chatting.
Microsoft has its eyes set on something more like Net phone company Skype's service, however. A key part of Teleo's technology is focused on making calls from a computer to an ordinary telephone, a feature that company executives said would start finding its way into MSN Messenger before the end of 2005.