News


Firefox 2 Beta 1 Bows

The Mozilla Foundation began shipping Beta 1 of Firefox 2.0 this week, just days after a leading Web analytics firm reported the open source browser and its close relations have gained another 2 percentage points on Internet Explorer.

EU Warns That Vista May Mean More Fines for Microsoft

European Union regulators fines Redmond and warns that the company needs to make sure it doesn't get into the same trouble again.

Microsoft Introduces Virtualization Licensing Plan for Vista

Microsoft on Wednesday at its Velocity 2006 partner conference in Boston debuted a desktop virtualization licensing plan for Windows Vista Enterprise in hopes of generating more interest in its Software Assurance program.

Lotus Notes Arrives on Linux

IBM announced this week it is shipping a Lotus Notes client that runs on top of Linux in a move one analyst says is primarily about reassuring Notes customers that their old standby collaboration platform continues to have a place in Big Blue's evolving Linux strategy.

EU Fines Microsoft $357M, Threatens More

The EU fined Microsoft Corp. $357 million and threatened more penalties, saying the company failed to obey a 2004 antitrust order to share technical information with rivals.

Ballmer: Future Windows to Arrive Faster

Microsoft Corp.'s customers will never again face as long a wait between new versions of Windows software as they're enduring now, Chief Executive Steve Ballmer vowed Tuesday.

U.S. State Department Suffers Widespread Computer Break-Ins

The State Department is recovering from large-scale computer break-ins worldwide over the past several weeks that appeared to target its headquarters and offices dealing with China and North Korea, The Associated Press has learned.

N. Korea Cyberwarfare Unit Hacking S. Korea, U.S. DOD, Official Says

North Korea has been operating a cyber warfare unit that seeks to hack into South Korea's military command communication network and destroy Internet servers, a South Korean intelligence official said Wednesday.

Dynamics CRM Live Made Channel-Ready

Ballmer takes wraps off hosted CRM app at partner confab.

Microsoft Issues 7 Security Patches for July

Microsoft Corp. issued seven patches to fix a variety of flaws, five of which the company has deemed "critical" -- its highest security rating.

Firefox Use Rises as IE Falls

While the stock market sits on pins and needles worried over any further delays in major Microsoft products, some users apparently are tired of waiting -- at least when it comes to browsers.

Ballmer: Future Windows to Arrive Faster

Microsoft Corp.'s customers will never again face as long a wait between new versions of Windows software as they're enduring now, Chief Executive Steve Ballmer vowed Tuesday.

Ballmer Asks Partners to Bet on Microsoft in Security, Search, Unified Communications

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer used his Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference keynote to give partners a choice. Ballmer also unveiled Microsoft CRM Live and launched Small Business Server 2003 R2.

Vista Updated to Display Low-End Graphics Desktop

Reacting to complaints from users, Microsoft has quietly decided to give Vista users who do not have the latest display technologies a somewhat "cooler" user interface than what has been seen in the beta copies so far.

Intel Price Cuts Throw Fork in AMD Plans

Intel Corp.'s attempt to stanch the loss of market share to Advanced Micro Devices Inc., its smaller rival in the computer microprocessor business, appears to be working and may allow it to gain lost ground over the next six months, analysts said Friday.

Gates: 80 Percent Chance Vista Will Make January Deadline

Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said there was an 80 percent chance the company's next-generation operating system, Vista, would be ready in January.

Adesso To Launch Partner Program

Adesso Systems, Inc. will use Microsoft's WorldWide Partner Conference, which kicks off in Boston on Tuesday, to raise the curtains on its first partner program aimed at developers looking to create Web-based mobile and distributed applications.

Microsoft Cuts Jobs, Fights the Law

Microsoft streamlines its training and sales divisions and gets beat on by the EU and South Korea. Also, IE7 beta 3 ships and Office 2007 is delayed.

Microsoft Announces Finalists, Winners of Partner Awards

Microsoft Corp. announced Thursday the finalists and winners of its 2006 Microsoft Partner Program Awards.

Microsoft Edges Closer to OpenDoc

Microsoft said this week it has started an open-source project on the SourceForge collaborative software development management site to create free translators that can transform Office Open XML documents into OpenDocument format and vice versa.