Microsoft has won a patent for an instant messaging feature that notifies users when the person they are communicating with is typing a message. The patent encompasses a feature that's not only on Microsoft's IM products but also on those of its rivals America Online and Yahoo. The patent was granted on Tuesday.
Patent No. 6,631,412 could serve as a weapon in Microsoft's battle for IM market share. Microsoft is investing heavily in IM as a springboard for selling communication software to businesses. Later this year, Microsoft plans to launch Live Communications Server, a software product that will initially offer IM for the enterprise and then expand into Internet voice calling and video services.
Windows Small Business Server 2003, which Microsoft is launching officially on Thursday, was found to require substantially less time and fewer steps to deploy certain audited tasks in a full-installation scenario, vis-à-vis Red Hat Enterprise Server 2.1. Veritest also found Windows Server 2003 and Red Hat Enterprise Server 2.1 both achieved the same levels of up-time over a 61 day period. The same study found that Windows was easier to set up and recover. In addition to the new Veritest study and the aforementioned Forrester report, Microsoft also funded earlier this year another Veritest study which measured Windows Server 2003 vs. Red Hat Linux 7.2 reliability. (The two were found equal, although Windows was proclaimed easier to administer and recover.)
Microsoft also commissioned a study earlier this summer on WebSphere vs. .Net security, which was performed by @stake. Microsoft's .NET was proclaimed the winner in that contest. And late last year, International Data Corp.-performed total-cost-of-ownership (TCO) study, which examined Windows vs. Linux. IDC found that Windows beat Linux in four of five categories in that report.
Redmond plans to bring all of its integrators and resellers - including those who have focused exclusively on SMBs - under a single umbrella. While Microsoft is readying myriad security and small-business product announcements that it will unveil this week at its worldwide partner event in New Orleans, the company also is planning to unfurl a new, unified channel partner program there, as well.
Called the "Next Generation Partner Program," the latest version of Microsoft's sales program for integrators and resellers, is due to go into effect in January, 2004, according to a note sent to existing Microsoft partners on Monday from Redmond's U.S. Partner Group. Microsoft expects the transition to the new program, which the company describes as "a significant evolution" of its existing program, to take 18 months.
Microsoft is expected to show off a number of its latest small-business products - not to mention beat the security drum - at its partner conference next week. Brand-new small-business wares - including the Microsoft Business Network, Windows Small Business Server 2003 and new demand-planning modules for its Great Plains and Axapta applications - are expected to be among the highlights of Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans next week in New Orleans.
A software application allowing access to Amazon.com products and data without a Web browser while users are working in Microsoft Corp. Office System applications will be available for free download later this quarter, the companies said Tuesday.
Amazon.com Research Services for Microsoft Office System will be available for download. The companies did not say specifically when the application will be ready for download.
The software will integrate Amazon Web Services so that users can access Amazon.com from the Research Task Pane, available in the Microsoft Office 2003 Edition. Users will be able to access information at Amazon.com and buy items without launching a browser or closing the Office document, e-mail message or presentation application they are using at the same time.
Microsoft late Monday announced a series of changes to Internet Explorer to address a recent jury verdict against it in a Web browser patent infringement lawsuit. New retail and OEM versions of Windows XP will have a modified version of Internet Explorer 6 in early 2004 but Microsoft has not yet determined whether it also will alter IE service packs or downloads, said Michael Wallent, general manager of the Windows Client Platform at Microsoft.
In the modified IE, Microsoft is changing the way the browser handles Web pages that use Microsoft's ActiveX Controls, its version of an applet, including Macromedia Flash, Apple QuickTime, Real Networks RealOne, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Sun Java Virtual Machine and Windows Media Player.
The change will mean that Web developers must update methods used in Web pages with ActiveX Controls or users will face a dialog box asking them to click "OK" for the Web browser to load the control, Microsoft officials said.
Microsoft and Sun Microsystems are making nice and agreeing to extend the period through which Microsoft will support its Java Virtual Machine. Under the agreement announced Tuesday, Sun and Microsoft have agreed to extend Microsoft's maintenance agreement for its Microsoft Java Virtual Machine (JVM) until September 30, 2004. This move enables users of the Microsoft JVM to have more time to transition their applications off the Microsoft Java platform.
Microsoft has been phasing out its support for the JVM. And in a settlement agreement reached in 2001 following a Sun lawsuit against Microsoft, the companies agreed to limit the period where Microsoft would support the JVM. But Sun officials said many developers have asked for more time to make the transition.
Microsoft is planning a licensing scheme similar to an open-source arrangement for one of its code libraries. Months after hinting it may try an open-source approach to support the Microsoft C++ Windows Template Library (WTL), Microsoft is hammering out licensing details of what could be a small but radical step for the company. "One of the delays in this case is we think WTL is going to require a different type of licence than we've used in the past," visual C++ libraries director Pranish Kumar said.
Unlike its .NET languages, C#, J# and Visual Basic.NET, C++-based programming modules do not support a managed-code approach. However, some developers, particularly those creating applications for mobile devices, prefer unmanaged code, as it allows them to create smaller, faster programs.
Internet search company LookSmart said on Monday that Microsoft's MSN Internet division will end its licensing agreement after Jan. 15, 2004. San Francisco, California-based LookSmart said that Microsoft chose not to renew its distribution and licensing deal with the company, which provides paid search technology that allows advertising to be displayed along with search results.
As the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) countdown clock ticks down -at this writing, we're 19 days, 14 hours and 36 minutes away from the Longhorn stampede, according to one enthusiast's Web site - it's a good time to start separating Longhorn fact from fiction.
This feat is a lot harder than it seems, as the next version of Windows already has taken on mythic proportions, surpassing even that of Windows 95, despite the fact that the first "official" technical-preview build isn't even out yet, and the final code isn't expected until 2005+. When an operating system (at least at this point) is set to include an estimated 700 new features, according to one Microsoft insider, there's bound to be trouble in discerning what's the kitchen sink vs. real, quantifiable new components.