Dell and Microsoft said Monday they are working together to integrate their systems management applications to allow customers to update server hardware and software with a single tool.
Dell's OpenManage 4 change management software will work with Microsoft's Systems Management Server 2003 to offer customers a centralized view of all Dell PowerEdge servers on their network. When customers apply software updates, they will be able to use the integrated application to handle Dell firmware and BIOS updates at the same time they update their operating system and applications software.
After 10 years of fiery rhetoric against Microsoft, the Computer & Communications Industry Association turned off the flames last week. The organization, previously made up principally of Microsoft's adversaries, agreed to withdraw from participating in antitrust litigation against the company. But it's hard to forget all those quotable quotes made over the years by Ed Black, the association's president.
As the list of Microsoft adversaries receiving multimillion-dollar legal settlements grows, eyes are now turning to streaming media pioneer RealNetworks as a potential buy-off candidate.
Following deals this week with Novell and a computer industry trade group, Microsoft's top lawyer called RealNetworks the last company standing in the software giant's "litigation path" as it seeks to overturn a seminal European antitrust ruling that could force it to break out applications bundled in its Windows operating system.
Microsoft has a firm grip on the handheld software market, winning the lead in shipments for the first time, a new report from Gartner shows.
Shipments of handhelds that use Microsoft's Windows CE operating system rose by about 33 percent to about 1.4 million in the third quarter, compared with the same period last year. Meanwhile, shipments of handhelds that use the Palm operating system shrank by 26 percent to 851,000. Research In Motion showed huge growth, with shipments jumping more than 356 percent to 565,000 to round out the top three, the research company said.
Novell on Friday filed an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft, accusing the software giant of unfairly eliminating competition for office productivity applications during the time Novell owned the WordPerfect word processing application and the Quattro Pro spreadsheet application.
Novell said it intended to move forward with the lawsuit Monday, when it announced a settlement with Microsoft on other antitrust claims. In that settlement, Microsoft agreed to pay Novell $536 million, and Novell agreed to resolve all antitrust claims relating to Novell's NetWare product, and any other products it currently owns.
According to a report in The Inquirer, a questionable Web tech tabloid, Microsoft will ship three different versions of its next Xbox video game system, which is currently (and logically) code-named Xbox Next. The British online publication, which inexplicably refers to Microsoft as "the Vole" (no, I don't get it either), says that Xbox Next will ship in the following three versions: Xbox Next, a basic console with no hard drive; Xbox Next HD, which will include a hard drive; and Xbox Next PC, which will be a fully functional PC with Media Center and Xbox gaming capabilities. The first two units will ship in 2005, the site says, with the Xbox Next PC shipping in 2006, possibly alongside Longhorn. Is it all true? I have no idea, but it sounds cool at the very least. Microsoft is expected to announce its plans for Xbox Next at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January 2005, so we'll know soon.
Microsoft appears to be using its smash "Halo 2" game as a vehicle to crack down on mod chips and other hacks of its Xbox video game console. Hundreds of Xbox owners have reported in online forums in recent days that they were banned from Xbox Live, Microsoft's online gaming service, after trying to play "Halo 2" online with a modified console.
A Microsoft representative would not specify which additional security measures, if any, have been added to Xbox Live around the "Halo 2" launch. "Microsoft listens carefully to the Xbox Live community and reserves the right to take steps necessary to preserve the integrity of the user experience," the representative said in a statement. "Our goal is to provide our users with secure, consistent and fair online game play. Users are not permitted to manipulate the system to the detriment of others."
Microsoft Corp. is demanding that a small company change the name of a computer program because it contains the word "Excel"-the title of the software giant's own popular spreadsheet program.
Richard Tanenbaum, founder of Savvysoft Inc., said the company researched the name before selecting TurboExcel for its add-on program for Microsoft Excel. He said the search turned up no evidence that Microsoft had registered "Excel" as a trademark.
The Excel spreadsheet software has been on the market since September 1985, and trademark rights in some countries, including the United States, can be claimed even without an official registration.
'R2' still has yet to go to beta, but Microsoft is well on its way to finalizing the product due to ship in the latter half of 2005, according to sources.
Microsoft still has yet to release a wide-scale beta of its next Windows Server release, code-named "R2." But according to sources, the product is well on its way to being finalized, with packaging, licensing and support details already hammered out.
Microsoft officials said last month that R2 will ship in the latter half of 2005. To make that date, the company cut some features, such as network-access protection and file sharing over HTTP, from the product, officials acknowledged.
Halo 2, the much-hyped video game for Microsoft's Xbox video game console, had sales of $125 million in just 24 hours on the market, the company said yesterday. The figures for the United States and Canada, which represented sales of 2.38 million units, easily exceeded Microsoft's prediction that it would top $100 million in sales.
If independent sales figures show that Microsoft topped or exceeded $125 million in sales, then Halo 2 will definitely count among the top five best-selling games in history for first-day sales, said David Riley, senior manager with The NPD Group.