In the latest of a series of Linux versus Windows papers to be published by research companies recently, Gartner said that while many servers are dedicated to running a single application, and can therefore be replaced quite easily, the desktop environment is more difficult. Most workers use many different applications, all of which would have to be replaced or rewritten, it said.
Last week, Microsoft released benchmark results that, it said, showed that Linux on the mainframe performed poorly against Windows 2003 in terms of value for money.
Earlier this week, Forrester Research Inc. released a Microsoft-commissioned report saying that creating and maintaining a custom Web-based application with Java and Linux is almost 40 percent more expensive than using Microsoft software.
Microsoft's SMB unit is getting its Microsoft Business Network and demand-planning ducks in a row. Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) division has more than just the launch of the 1.2 release of Microsoft CRM on its plate in the coming months. Microsoft Business Solutions late last month released to manufacturing its Microsoft Business Network (MBN) code, a couple of months later than it had hoped. MBN officially RTM'd on August 22, a company spokeswoman confirms.
Acer America Corp. this week will introduce a new computer that runs Microsoft Corp.'s Tablet PC operating system but looks and costs more like a notebook than a Tablet.
"It's our first step at commoditizing Tablet functionality," said Jeffrey Friederichs, vice president of Acer's Notebook Business Unit in San Jose, Calif.
Other than the operating system, the TravelMate 250P is very much a traditional high-end notebook computer. It features an Intel Corp. Pentium 4 processor, a 14.1-inch display, 256 MB of SDRAM, wireless LAN and Bluetooth connectiviety and a 56Kbps modem.
A Microsoft-commissioned study has found that companies could save up to 28 percent by developing certain programs with Windows instead of Linux, the software company plans to announce on Tuesday.
The study, conducted by Giga Research and paid for by Microsoft, compared the likely costs over four years for a dozen medium-size and large businesses that were developing Web-based portals. Giga examined the costs of creating a portal using Microsoft's Windows operating system and related development tools as compared with those of Linux-based systems using Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) tools.
Microsoft on Tuesday launched a new version of Works Suite, its budget software package for consumers. Works combines a standard version of Word, the Redmond, Wash., company's widespread word processor, with specialty spreadsheet and database applications and consumer software such as the Encarta encyclopedia and Money financial software.
The significance of Works has faded recently, thanks to forces inside and outside Microsoft. While Works was once the standard choice for PC makers to load onto new consumer PCs, major manufacturers such as Hewlett-Packard and Gateway dumped Works last year in favor of Corel's WordPerfect for their low-end PCs.
Today, Intel will release two new versions of the 64-bit Intel Itanium 2 microprocessor that's designed for the rack-mount server market. The low-voltage Itanium 2 chip, code-named Deerfield, and a new lower-power version of the standard Itanium 2 chip, code-named Madison, are both aimed at small, two-processor servers that companies use in places where space, cost, and energy are crucial.
Microsoft said on Monday that it will open the specifications for its video compression technology, which would allow other companies to make products based on its technology.
The world's largest software maker, which launched its latest video and audio standard, Windows Media 9 series, in January, said it submitted the standard to the society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers on Monday for review.
Acceptance by the international standards body would allow Microsoft's Windows Media 9 to be more easily adopted by other companies since the specifications would be open for all to see.
Hardware makers could create digital video cameras that use the technology, for example, he said.
Microsoft is considering making commercially available advanced code-checking tools used mostly by in-house developers thus far. The tools have been under the purview of the Microsoft's Programmer Productivity Research Center. The center has tools for static analysis to examine static source text and patterns that indicate errors. Tools for dynamic analysis, which observe for program errors while the program is running, also have been a focus, said Thomas Ball, senior researcher with Microsoft's research group.
Static analysis tools that may be released commercially include Prefix, which features a toolkit to analyze source text for common errors. "It does a very sort of deep semantic analysis," finding errors such as memory leaks, corruption of memory, and null pointer references, said Ball.
Microsoft has revamped the online resource site for its Office software line, bringing together help resources, software add-ons and other content. The new Office Online site, launched Monday, is tied to the release next month of Office System, a wide-ranging revamp of the company's productivity software.
Many of the changes in the new Office focus on using Extensible Markup Language (XML) to integrate Office with corporate databases and Web services. The Office Online site reflects the Web services push by offering help resources that can be viewed directly within Office 2003 applications, meaning that people don't have to launch a Web browser to see them.
Red Hat it is the dominant Linux provider and has increasingly become the main Linux vendor for which third-party enterprise application vendors certify their products (often exclusively).
The main issue is that Red Hat and other Linux vendors need to make money somehow. And the main way they can do it is through support, patches and updates (Pay for product updates!!!, Can you image if MS would start changing for product updates!!). This has led Red Hat to charge its customers a yearly fee to receive support and, most important, regular patches and updates for each of their Red Hat Linux-based enterprise systems.
And for some Red Hat Linux customers, this has become too much to swallow. You can find customers on many Linux newsgroups and user boards complaining about the six-figure fees they owe Red Hat and vowing to move to another Linux distribution. The story by Anne Chen, "Linux for the Long Haul," part of our big Linux package this week, profiles just such a dissatisfied customer: the city of Steamboat Springs, Colo., which is considering a move from Red Hat Linux.