After 25 years as an IT journalist, I've seen a million patent and copyright lawsuits like the one from i4i. Often, a patent holder demands royalties. Sometimes they get a part of what they ask for, and sometimes they get beaten down by high-priced lawyers.
Some of these claims are legit. If I invented something that an IBM or Oracle used, I'd want some scratch. In other cases, entrepreneurs buy up patents then go after anyone that even comes close to infringing.
More
Posted by Doug Barney on August 17, 20092 comments
Microsoft should be happy that millions of people are using IE 6 instead of Chrome or Firefox. But that's just not enough for the IE product team. They want you on the latest and what they believe is the greatest. There's a big push to move users up to IE 8 to take advantage of vastly improved security.
More
Posted by Doug Barney on August 17, 20093 comments
I have an interesting proposition. My high school-age son Dave just finished a writing course at Brown University and is itching to become a real published author (he mostly wants to show up the old man).
We thought an article on Bing, based on your experiences, would be fun to work on and fun for you to read. Do you want to be quoted and help a decent lad out at the same time? If so, report your interest to [email protected] and Dave will get back to you with some detailed questions!
Posted by Doug Barney on August 17, 200913 comments
Why do Microsoft executives talk endlessly about VMware? Sure, VMware currently is the leader and a pioneer in x86 virtualization technologies. Like any upstart, VMware got a jump on the market. So why harp on the matter? Isn't Microsoft the perpetual Avis of the software market ("We try harder")? Doesn't it always come from behind to attain near-monopoly control of the market that it challenges?
More
Posted by Kurt Mackie on August 14, 20096 comments
Who will tell the investors? Bill Koefoed, Microsoft's GM of investor relations, has that task. And he recently explained that Microsoft's profitability as a company had a lot to do with PC sales, which were "down somewhere between 6 and 8 percent" in the last quarter. In particular, high-profit business PC sales were lower than consumer PC sales. A particular stumbling block for Microsoft was netbooks, representing "about 11 percent of industry PC sales." The low-tech, low-cost, smallish netbooks bring in less OS revenue for Microsoft than traditional PCs. Microsoft's revenues have been dogged by this "netbook effect" for the past nine months, according to Koefoed.
More
Posted by Kurt Mackie on August 14, 20093 comments
Microsoft and Nokia have struck a deal in which Nokia will use Office Mobile applications on its Symbian open source mobile phone platform.
Microsoft will be developing its Office Mobile solution for a non-Windows platform, and that represents a new first for Microsoft, according to Stephen Elop, president of Microsoft's Business Division.
More
Posted by Kurt Mackie on August 14, 20090 comments
Windows 7 is pretty much done, as the release-to-manufacturing (RTM) version has been, er, released. That's good news for IT and great news for the economy. But it's not so hot for those beta testing either Visual Studio 2010 or .NET Framework 4. The three just don't get along.
More
Posted by Doug Barney on August 12, 20093 comments
Wow, a busy couple of weeks for Google. Besides leaking news about its new search engine, Google also announced a new beta of the Chrome browser (seems like this has been a pretty long beta for what seems like a clean and solid product). The already fast Chrome is now supposed to be a third faster and now supports HTML 5.
More
Posted by Doug Barney on August 12, 20095 comments
It may be just a coincidence, but shortly after Microsoft released Bing to good reviews, Google leaked news of its new search engine back end: Caffeine. Now being tested by Web developers, the new engine is supposed to be way faster and offer more real-time results as well as more Twitter and FaceBook findings.
More
Posted by Doug Barney on August 12, 20091 comments
If you're jonesin' for a real, pretty much final copy of Windows 7, you're in luck -- provided you're an MSDN or TechNet member.
Now, bear with me if you're not a Ph.D. in Microsoft naming conventions. Recently, we had a beta of Windows 7 that turned into a release candidate (RC), which means it's almost ready for release (not sure if it has to win a majority of votes). Before we get to the real, true, actual, final, final commercial product, we have one more little beauty -- the release-to-manufacturing (RTM) version, which means OEMs now get the software.
More
Posted by Doug Barney on August 10, 20097 comments
Dang, it's almost the second Tuesday of the month, and you know what that means: time for some patching. This month, there are nine fixes to contend with, with five deemed critical.
I know I sound like a broken record, but pretty much all or most of the patches plug remote code execution (RCE) holes. As is happening more and more frequently, one patch plugs multiple products, like the critical patch for everything from Office Small Business Accounting, Office 2000 and 2003, to BizTalk, Visual Studio and ISA Server. That's one well-rounded patch!
More
Posted by Doug Barney on August 10, 20090 comments
The Office ribbon interface is pretty controversial. According to many of your recent letters, most of you are frustrated having to relearn Work, Excel and PowerPoint, while a handful love the new look.
To keep up with Office, Sun is looking to add a ribbon to OpenOffice -- possibly. The ribbon is available for download and the open source community is already up in arms. Not only that, the comments underneath our news story on this issue are universally negative.
More
Posted by Doug Barney on August 10, 20092 comments