Microsoft

Bill gates last day at Microsoft is just days away, so it’s a good time to take stock of what the man has and hasn’t done for us and in some cases to us, by and large, I think we owe bill gates a world of thanks. Say what will about the intense, driven man, …

Today Microsoft announced two new search servers: Microsoft Search Server 2008 and Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express. The interesting one is the Express version, since it’s free. A download is available warning: it’s beta software, although Microsoft says it’s close to final at www.microsoft.com/enterprisesearch/ Furthermore, the only difference between it and Search Server is that Search Server can be run on multiple servers for load balancing. This announcement is a game-changer, in terms of Microsoft’s relation to its arch competitor, Google, as well as the market in general. In several calls I had with reporters, I was asked, “Is this Microsoft playing catch up to the Google Search Appliance?” Sort of, but with a twist — while Microsoft is not offering a search appliance itself, it certainly expects its partners to do so. Interestingly, the Microsoft offering is more nuanced than the Google Search Appliance. The Google appliance pretty much …

For years Microsoft kept its “shared source” distinct from the broader open-source movement, but now the company is seeking official blessing for its work from the organization that bestows official open-source status. The company said last week at the O’Reilly’s Open Source Conference that it’s submitting its shared-source licenses to the Open Source Initiative, which judges whether new licenses meet its criteria for listing. Increasingly, the organization also is trying to cut down on the number of open-source licenses, too, which is a problem for programmers who don’t want legal obstacles in the way of source code sharing. Jon Rosenberg, Microsoft’s director of source programs, described the move on the company’s open-source blog, Port 25. “Today, we reached another milestone with the decision to submit our open licenses to the OSI approval process, which, if the licenses are approved, should give the community additional confidence that the code we’re sharing …

Today, Microsoft took another step in its relationship with the open source software community. We did this by bringing up a new web property that clearly outlines Microsoft’s position on OSS by providing specific information about Microsoft, the OSS community and the interaction between the two. The new site also details information about getting started with OSS and Microsoft technologies.  We’ll keep the site updated with new content featuring Microsoft’s engagements with the OSS community – be that events like OSCON, partnerships, offers or just interesting articles highlighting different work we’re doing across the company. Port 25 will continue to be the source for technical analysis and community with the Open Source Software Lab. Visit the site

Microsoft began with a dream of a PC on every desk and in every home. Thirty years ago this seemed impossible. Today, for the more than one billion people we’ve reached, life has changed profoundly. But for more than five billion people, the opportunity to learn, connect, create, and succeed remains elusive.”All human beings deserve a chance to achieve their full potential,” said Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft. On April 19th, 2007 Microsoft unveiled its new commitment to help close the digital divide. Through the expansion of Microsoft Unlimited Potential, we are expanding our efforts with new business models, technology solutions, and advanced research, all focused on solving critical pieces of the economic development puzzle in developing and developed countries. The expansion of Unlimited Potential will focus on three areas; education, innovation, and jobs and economic opportunity, with particular emphasis on young people, as they represent the future of all …

It’s only been six months since Microsoft launched Office 2007 at retail. But as of July 1, 2007,  Microsoft won’t be making the OEM version of Office 2003 to its PC partners, a k a “OEMs.” Eric Ligman, Senior Manager of Small Business Community Engagement with Microsoft, reminded OEMs and customers of the pending cut-off date in a blog posting dated June 18: “After June 30, 2007 , OEM Microsoft Office 2003 will no longer be available from Microsoft. Some authorized OEM Microsoft distributors may have some remaining inventory left for a short time after June 30th; however, Microsoft will no longer be shipping OEM Microsoft Office to them.” Ligman reminded resellers that customers still withing to run Office 2003 can take advantage of the downgrade rights available to volume licensees of Office 2007. He blogged: Customers “can utilize Office 2003 today and then move to Office 2007 when they …

Microsoft Corp. unveiled on Sunday a new brand name for its Internet-based television platform, a service deployed by 10 companies including AT&T Inc. Microsoft Mediaroom, formerly known as Microsoft Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), will link with computers found in the home to allow users to access a PC hard drive to listen to music or view photos on a TV screen, the company said. The television push by the world’s largest software maker aims to deliver TV over high-speed Internet networks and hopes the software will eventually open up the TV to a world of services already on the Web. Microsoft said Mediaroom will also enable some applications that access the Internet without a Web browser, so users can view streaming online video or look at photos uploaded onto the Internet. The company said it will introduce a toolkit to allow developers to create applications for the Mediaroom platform.

Microsoft Corp. launched a redesigned MSN portal optimized for mobile phones on Sunday, stepping up its offering at a time when more powerful devices increase the demand for richer content on handsets. U.S. mobile Internet use still represents only a fraction of computer-based Web usage, but technology heavyweights like Microsoft see increasingly powerful mobile phones and faster networks opening the door for new services and content. “We firmly believe there is an inflection point here,” said Phil Holden, Microsoft’s director of mobile Web services. “There’s a new battle, a new frontline developing on the mobile phone.”

Microsoft has released its June 2007 security bulletin, which includes six updates: four are designated Critical by the software giant. Two of the patches affect Windows Vista, with one Critical patch specific to Internet Explorer. One of the Important patches affects Microsoft Office. To keep your Windows XP SP1 system secure, update to Windows XP SP2 today. All Microsoft security patches for Windows and Office software are available via Microsoft Update or via the individual bulletins detailed below. MS07-030: Important Entitled “Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Visio Could Allow Remote Code Execution (927051),” this bulletin affects users of Microsoft Visio 2002 and Microsoft Visio 2003 but does not affect Microsoft Office Visio 2007, and it addresses the vulnerabilities detailed in CVE-2007-0934 and CVE-2007-0936. Successful exploitation could lead to remote code execution. MS07-031: Critical Entitled “Vulnerability in the Windows Schannel Security Package Could Allow Remote Code Execution (935840),” this bulletin affects users of …