industry news
Microsoft news
Monday, 29 September 2008
MICROSOFT: ALL THAT 7 ALLOWS
Microsoft will be showing a pre-beta of the Windows 7 operating system at its Professional Developer Conference next month. Not much is known about the new OS at this stage, but it has been confirmed that it will not feature any built-in email, photo-editing or movie-creation applications.
The applications in question will instead be made available via Windows Live as downloads. This new approach has been widely interpreted as an attempt to dodge the numerous interoperability issues that plagued Microsoft’s previous OS, Vista.
(Source: The Register)
Epicentre Says:
“It sounds like Microsoft have learnt a lot from the lessons of Vista – although when coding for a platform as broad and varied as the PC, it is not unfair to still expect trouble ahead…”
ISO FOR MS
Microsoft’s much maligned Office Open XML standards have finally been approved, after ISO rejected four new appeals against the formats. This must surely come as a great relief to Microsoft as they’ve battled against many objections. In light of the failure to include ODF support for the OpenOffice Suite’s own standardised file format, Microsoft will be adding support in the next service pack for Office 2007.
(Source: The Register)
Epicentre Says:
“With an end in sight to this particular Microsoft fiasco, the giant must surely be ready for a lie down. Epicentre will be keeping a watchful eye over the format war and keep abreast of any changes!”
MS EXPAND VIRTUAL SUPPORT POLICIES
Microsoft have announced extended support policies for businesses running a range of MS server applications and virtual platforms. From 1 September 2008, customers can move certain server applications between servers without having to pay additional license fees and also receive technical support for MS server applications running on both MS & third-party virtual platforms.
To publicise their promotion of the benefits of virtualization software, Microsoft are running a worldwide series of over 100 events covering over 50 countries.
(Source: ars technica)
Epicentre Says:
“For businesses running virtual environments, this move could certainly help the process go a little more smoothly, as well as being a shrewd plan to help keep Microsoft at the forefront of virtual server technology by offering support for use of its competitors’ products.”
Thursday, 28 August 2008
MICROSOFT’S OPEN SOURCE EU-TURN
In his keynote speech to the Open Source Convention in Portland, Oregon last month, Microsoft platform strategy director Sam Ramji pledged to release source code details for a number of the company’s communication protocols to the wider development community. He also announced that Microsoft has become a ‘platinum sponsor’ of leading open-source web server developer Apache.
Many see these moves as a response to pressure from European Union regulators, who have ordered Microsoft to pay over 1.6 billion euros in fines over the last five years for refusing to make its products more interoperable with those of its rivals.
(Source: BBC News)
Epicentre Says:
“The dawn of a new era for Microsoft or just a token gesture? Either way, this is good news for the open source community – and a timely reminder to developers that they neglect open-source platform testing at their peril!”
IE GIVES US SOME PRIVACY
It’s likely that the next Microsoft web browser (IE8) will be the first to feature a full ‘privacy mode’ for limiting the tracking of users’ online activities. Although this has not yet been officially confirmed by the company itself, bloggers have noticed that Microsoft recently sought trademarks for two applications – ‘Cleartracks’ and ‘Inprivate’ – that relate to turning off browser history logging, informing users when a site is recording their details, and so on.
Most browsers already have features which enable users to clear their history and change security settings, but only on a per-session basis. Apple’s Safari 3 already has a full privacy mode, and Mozilla are reported to be considering something similar for the next version of Firefox.
(Source: BBC News)
Epicentre Says:
“The big question about privacy mode concerns how much it will affect the user’s online experience. Will it create or appear to create new bugs, as the pop-up blocker and ‘improved’ Vista security measures did? Only time will tell.”
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