As Linuxphiles descend on Boston for the big LinuxWorld convention scheduled to begin next week, Microsoft has issued a press release touting a pair of recent independent analyst reports that praise its indemnification initiatives.
The reports from IDC and Forrester Research highlight the improvements made to Microsoft's indemnification program last November when the company extended protection to end users of a long list of current and past versions of its software.
"By expanding protection to average consumers, Microsoft has set a precedent that should help protect the investments of its customers -- protection not currently offered by other vendors," Julie Giera, a vice president of Forrester Research, said in a statement.
Microsoft wants PC makers to mount cell phone-like displays on the lids of laptop computers so users can check the time, battery status, appointments, or see if new e-mail has arrived without having to open and start up their PC.
The Redmond, Washington-based software maker is including support for such displays in the next version of Windows, code-named Longhorn, due out in 2006. Microsoft is developing software and reference designs for the displays, which it says will give users instant access to select data and save time and battery life because there is no need to open and boot up the PC.
Microsoft's famously slippery ship dates are sliding once again when it comes to the company's long-delayed Microsoft CRM 2.0 update.
Microsoft said Thursday it is expanding the software's feature set and delaying its release-to-manufacturing until the fourth quarter of 2005.
The move comes one week after Microsoft installed ex-PeopleSoft executive Brad Wilson as its new general manager of its CRM product. Partners say the delay is no surprise. Though Microsoft most recently said it would ship CRM 2.0 in the middle of this year, after delaying a planned 2004 release, those involved with the software say Microsoft was clearly not going to meet that deadline.
Virus writers have created a malicious program that can disable Microsoft's new anti-spyware application, security experts warned on Wednesday. Antivirus experts, who are calling the Trojan "Bankash-A," say it is the first piece of malicious software to attack Windows AntiSpyware, which is still in beta.
"This appears to be the first attempt yet by any piece of malware to disable Microsoft AntiSpyware," Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at Sophos, said in a statement. "As Microsoft's product creeps out of beta and is adopted more by the home user market, we can expect to see more attempts by Trojan horses, viruses and worms to undermine its effectiveness."
Microsoft's idea to purchase Sybari Software came from a place where many of its ideas are born--its labs.
Late last year, the software giant wanted to build on an important technology--the RAV antivirus software that it acquired from Romania-based GeCad--to take it beyond a desktop virus scanner to a security product for businesses. Rather than develop the extra software needed, the company looked to partners. Sybari's Antigen scanner for Microsoft Exchange e-mail and SharePoint collaboration servers seemed an obvious fit, because Microsoft's customers were already using it.
Microsoft posted second release candidates on Wednesday night for Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1, Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition. The RC2 version of SP1 is a public preview, available here.
Access to the x64 release candidates will be limited to members of Microsoft's technical beta program or, for the XP version, by signing up for the Customer Preview Program.
The release candidate stage is one of the last steps in Microsoft's product pre-release process. Final versions of SP1 and the x64 editions, which support the AMD64 processor family and the Intel chips with EM64T, remain on track for delivery in the first half of this year, according to Microsoft.
Malicious code that can take advantage of a newly disclosed hole in Microsoft's MSN Messenger instant messenger program has been published on the Internet. The publication of the code could set the stage for a possibly virulent IM worm or virus, according to security experts.
The code attacks a hole in an MSN Messenger component called "libpng," which is used to display PNG files that are used to show smiley faces, buddy icons and other graphics. More than one example of code to exploit the hole was available on the Internet Wednesday, along with directions on how to use it to attack vulnerable Messenger applications.
A U.S. district court judge on Wednesday praised Microsoft for efforts to improve technical documentation for its communications protocols, but questioned the effect in the marketplace of her final judgment in the U.S. government's antitrust case against the software giant.
"I think we should never lose sight of the fact that all of those provisions of the decree have been implemented," Rule said. "All of these benefits are out there, and that was part of the environment in which Firefox was introduced."
The goal of the judgment was not to "hinder Microsoft or ensure that its market share declines," Rule added.
Kollar-Kotelly agreed, saying her goal was to give Microsoft competitors a more even playing field than they had in the past. "How the marketplace responds to that is not under the control of this court." she said.
Microsoft has quietly started testing its Microsoft Update service, which will replace Windows Update later this year. Like Windows Update, Microsoft Update will give Windows users a central location to download Windows-related patches and software updates. But Microsoft Update will also provide update downloads for all supported Microsoft non-Windows applications, including Microsoft Office.
Aiming to get developers behind its approach to Web services, Microsoft plans in March to offer a first look at the company's forthcoming Indigo technology.
The company will release a pre-beta version, known as a "community technology preview" of Indigo--a type of release Microsoft has done with increased frequency in recent months.
Microsoft said on Monday that it will release an updated preview of Avalon, the software giant's new presentation engine. Taken together with an update to Microsoft's Visual Studio programming tools, the two previews will give developers a good look at WinFX, Microsoft's next-generation programming model.