Microsoft engineers have toiled for years to make the company's software industrial strength and worthy of large corporations' dollars. Now the software giant faces a different challenge: fending off open-source alternatives that are good enough for most jobs.
Open source "is the first competitor we've ever had where our cost of acquisition is higher than their cost of acquisition," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. "Usually, we're able to come in and say, 'We're cheaper and better'...Here we have to say, 'lower total cost of ownership--and better.'"
In its latest effort to curb software piracy, Microsoft has filed suits accusing five companies in two states of selling counterfeit copies of Windows and related products.
The suits, which Microsoft publicized Wednesday, allege that two software distributors in California and three in Virginia violated copyright and trademark laws that protect the Windows franchise. Specifically the suits allege the companies sold counterfeit versions of its programs or program components, and counterfeit certificates of authenticity.
Use of Microsoft Windows XP has grown inside corporations, but a new study shows that nearly half of business PCS are still running the older Windows 2000.
Windows XP use surged to 38 percent by the first quarter of this year, up from 6.6 percent in the third quarter of 2003. However, the popularity of Windows 2000 has remained high, with the venerable operating system still in use in 48 percent of business PCs during the first quarter of 2005, down just four percentage points from the third quarter of 2003.
A leading Linux figure, Daniel Robbins, the founder of Gentoo Linux and its former chief architect, has announced that he has accepted a position at Microsoft
In a brief note to the Gentoo Foundation Inc. community, Robbins said he was leaving Gentoo and that he will be "helping Microsoft to understand Open Source and community-based projects."
Microsoft confirmed that Robbins began work at Microsoft's campus in Redmond, Wash., on May 23. Sources at Microsoft said Robbins is working with Bill Hilf.
Stung by a series of defeats at the hands of Apple Computer's iTunes and iPod products, Microsoft is revamping its digital music strategy in a bid to regain lost momentum. WinInfo Daily UPDATE readers already know about the first phase of this new battle: As I exclusively reported on May 27, Microsoft now plans to ship a public beta of Windows Media Player 11 (code-named Polaris and originally scheduled for inclusion in Longhorn) in November 2005. Phase two, according to recent reports, is an MSN Music subscription service. And phase three, according to a report this week in "The Wall Street Journal," is new leadership: Microsoft has brought over Xbox maven Robbie Bach, senior vice president of the company's Home & Entertainment Division, to run the music business.
Recent speculation about problems with Microsoft's new Internet Protocol television software could give Siemens, the German telecommunications equipment giant, just the opportunity it's looking for to break into the emerging IPTV market.
The next step is taking on Microsoft. The software giant is already considered by many to be the leader in this nascent market, with a software package that manages distribution of video content from the time it's picked up from a network until it reaches the set-top box in the home.
Though dozens of smaller companies offer pieces of the IPTV software solution, Microsoft is the only one that offers one-stop shopping for all the necessary applications.
Always on the lookout for ways to continue to build the buzz around Windows, Microsoft launched on Monday a beta release of a new community-outreach initiative, called "The Hive."
Microsoft officials denied the company is trying to build a Windows version of Slashdot. Unlike Slashdot and other Microsoft community-building projects - such as Channel 9 and The Spoke, - all of which target developers, The Hive is aimed at online leaders who specialize in consumer-oriented applications of Windows and other Microsoft technologies, such as digital photography, gaming, multimedia, home-finance and the like.
Microsoft may have banned the words "democracy" and "freedom" from the Chinese version of its MSN Web site.
The MSN Web site is blocking anti-communist phrases by sending an error message to anyone using the words, in a bid to avoid upsetting the Chinese government, according to the Financial Times.
The message reportedly says: "This item contains forbidden speech. Please delete the forbidden speech from this item." The words "demonstration," "democratic movement" and "Taiwan independence" are also said to be banned.
U.S. District Judge Frederick Motz in Baltimore said yesterday that Novell could pursue claims that Microsoft tried to shut out sales of Novell's word processing software to protect its own Windows operating system software. The judge dismissed four other allegations, saying Novell waited too long to raise them.
In supporting his decision to allow Novell to pursue claims that Microsoft's Window's monopoly damaged Novell's ability to sell WordPerfect, Motz cited a Microsoft e-mail to billionaire investor Warren Buffett.
Microsoft has chosen Aruba Networks to upgrade the company's global wireless LAN . The deal means that Microsoft will replace over 5,000 Cisco Aironet access points worldwide with Aruba's thin access points and WLAN switches. It's also a setback for Cisco's pricey recent acquisition of Aruba's archrival, Airespace.
Besides being a vitally important win for Aruba, the Microsoft deal will be seen as a blue chip stamp of approval on the use of WLAN switches and thin access points for large-scale WLAN deployments.