News


UK Health Agency Enters Huge, Long-term Licensing Deal with Microsoft

Agency claims nine-year deal on up to 900,000 desktops will save British taxpayers more than 330 million pounds. Deal's overall worth reported at about 500 million pounds.

Unisys to Ship Three New ES7000s

Unisys this month plans to ship three new Intel Itanium-based servers, including one that enables IT shops to run both 32-bit and 64-bit processors in the same rack-mounted unit, giving customers a more cost-effective migration path for expanding into 64-bit applications.

Microsoft Throws Doors Open on Early Security Bulletin Notifications

Microsoft officials said on Thursday that the controversial early notification program on security bulletins that has been available to certain customers for a year will be open to everyone starting immediately. The company posted its first advance notification on Thursday. Expect one bulletin next Tuesday addressing an important flaw in ISA Server.

NEC and Softricity in SoftGrid Bundling Deal

NEC Solutions has teamed up to offer its fault-tolerant servers with Softricity’s SoftGrid application management system.

Hotfix Available for Windows XP SP2

Microsoft on Wednesday made available a hotfix for a problem on Windows XP Service Pack 2 systems where Internet Explorer 6.0 crashes on certain types of Web pages.

Microsoft Faces Market Share Erosion on Two Fronts

A pair of reports this week show minor erosion of Microsoft's share in two separate desktop markets where the company dominates.

Microsoft Unveils Axapta for Life Sciences

A version of the Microsoft Business Solutions Axapta application specifically developed for the life sciences industry is scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2005.

64-bit Webcast Week at Microsoft

Microsoft is holding a series of IT administrator-focused Webcasts this week on the transition to 64-bit Windows computing.

Microsoft Posts Primer on Virtualizing Domain Controllers

Running multiple domain controllers as virtual machines on a single physical server may not sound like a great production strategy, but Microsoft contends that it's doable in the right circumstances.

Ballmer Takes Anti-Linux Campaign to IT Executive E-mail List

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer took the company's anti-Linux campaign to its IT executive e-mail list on Wednesday afternoon, with a 2,600-word message that restated Microsoft's well-worn case against open source software.

VMware to Support 4-Way Virtual SMP

VMware plans to expand its virtual SMP technology from the current two-processor support to four-processor support by the second half of 2005. By that time the decision should be substantially more relevant as dual-core processors come onto the market.

Sybari Updates Spam Protection Software

Sybari Software this week released a new version of Sybari Advanced Spam Defense that moves the junk mail folder off the Exchange Server.

HP to Introduce New Dual-Processor Server

Virtual Server Migration Toolkit on the Way

Microsoft will release a free toolkit later this week to help organizations migrate to Virtual Server 2005, the company announced Tuesday.

Microsoft Live Communications Server 2005 Coming Dec. 1

Live Communications Server 2005, Microsoft's second-generation real-time communications server, is released to manufacturing and will be generally available on Dec. 1, the company said Tuesday.

Microsoft Credits Server Sales for Income Gain in Q1

Microsoft's net income rose 11 percent on strong sales in its server and tools business unit for the quarter ended Sept. 30, the company said Thursday. Company revenues grew 12 percent overall, while the server and tools business grew 19 percent.

Ballmer in Gartner's Hot Seat

In a wide-ranging discussion with Gartner analysts, Microsoft's CEO discussed the Windows "Longhorn" wave and WinFS, competition with Linux, 64-bit prospects and software piracy.

5 Threats from the Internet

It's good to step back and get a sense of the landscape every once in a while. Security giant Symantec Corp. offered an opportunity to do that recently in its semi-annual document called the "Internet Security Threat Report."

Microsoft: 106 Million Downloads of Windows XP SP2

It was an ambitious, self-imposed goal -- distribute 100 million copies of Windows XP Service Pack 2 within two months of the critical security update's release. On Wednesday, Microsoft declared success.

Istanbul to Bring Telephony to Windows Instant Messaging

"Istanbul" is Microsoft's client component for moving its Live Communications Server-based presence platform forward with telephony.