U.S. Government Sides with Microsoft in Antitrust Battle

So a group of pesky states (hello, California -- we know why you're here) wants to keep the consent decree covering Microsoft's nasty little habit of being a monopolist alive for five more years. Microsoft says, as you might imagine, that it's time to put the whole consent decree business to bed.

Well, Redmond now has a pretty powerful ally More

Posted by Lee Pender on November 13, 20070 comments


Did Microsoft Pull A Nigerian Scam?

So, this is kind of weird: A French Linux vendor named Mandriva thinks it has this contract all wrapped up with the Nigerian government. Then, all of a sudden, the government announces that it’s going to pay Mandriva for the computers and software it’s shipping -- but the government’s not going to install the Linux distro; it’s going to run Windows instead More

Posted by Lee Pender on November 02, 20070 comments


Leopard's Probably Better than Vista, But Who Cares?

Well, here we go again. Apple is out with a new version of OS X, this one called Leopard , and everybody (and we do mean everybody ) is telling us how much better Leopard is than Vista. Everybody who's not complaining about Leopard's More

Posted by Lee Pender on November 01, 20077 comments


Ingram Micro Also Raking In the Cash

Well, it only makes sense, right? Microsoft lights up the scoreboard with its earnings report, and big channel partners fall in line. In case you missed it, last week, great big distributor Ingram Micro reported its best third quarter ever.

Hopefully your own revenues are rising with this tide, as well.

Posted by Lee Pender on November 01, 20070 comments


Judge Extends Oversight of Microsoft

The consent decree Microsoft made with the U.S. government as part of its 2002 antitrust settlement was supposed to expire this month, but it'll run until the end of January , thanks to a federal judge's decision. Some states want to monitor Microsoft for antitrust-like behavior for another five years. The judge will be mulling that over in the next few months.

Posted by Lee Pender on November 01, 20071 comments


Evaluate Windows Server 2008

Partners! In case you missed one of about a billion Microsoft e-mails you must get every month, here's a tip for you: You can now participate in an evaluation of the latest release candidate of Windows Server 2008. Our first comment in the evaluation? "Change the name back to Longhorn."

Posted by Lee Pender on November 01, 20070 comments


Vista for Christmas?

Redmond magazine contributing editor Mary Jo Foley has a report on what Microsoft is doing to get consumers to buy Vista for the holidays . So far, the answer is...not much of substance, actually. But we are kind of looking forward to Steve Ballmer's appearance in Vogue .

Posted by Lee Pender on October 25, 20070 comments


Dynamics: The Same, But Different...For Now

It's all butter cookies and, uh, Danish, we suppose (if Danish -- as in the sweet, sweet pastry -- is actually Danish, unlike french fries, which aren't French) this week at Euro Convergence in Copenhagen. (OK, so the only other thing we can think of when we hear "Copenhagen" is chewing tobacco, which just sounds so much less appealing than cookies and pastry -- or even fries. But go with whatever you like. Just use the spittoon, please.) And just as we've had from Microsoft at prior Convergence get-togethers, we've got messaging about the four disparate Dynamics suites cozying up to each other in some way. More

Posted by Lee Pender on October 25, 20070 comments


Oracle Still Gunning for BEA

Mr. Ellison usually gets what Mr. Ellison wants (right, Siebel and PeopleSoft?), but the Napoleon of the software industry hasn't managed to pillage BEA yet. He's still on the warpath, though, and it wouldn't surprise us to see BEA fall into Oracle's hands before this little drama is finished.

Posted by Lee Pender on October 24, 20070 comments


Symantec and Microsoft Find Common Ground

They've joined up in some sort of security forum , but we're mainly posting this to remind you that John Thompson told RCP that Forefront "sucks." We still find that hilarious.

Posted by Lee Pender on October 24, 20070 comments


Microsoft Thinks BlackBerry Is Ripe for Competition

Microsoft introduced Mobile Server this week, hoping to pick BlackBerry's position in the "smartphone" market. And, by the way, we'd like to thank Research In Motion for naming its product BlackBerry and giving us all these great fruit references to use in RCPU. Now let's see whether Mobile Server turns out to be a lemon. (See? It just never stops.)

Posted by Lee Pender on October 24, 20071 comments


October RCP: Feeling Good About Health Care

Maybe you missed Microsoft's introduction of a Web site for medical records , which the company announced last week. If you did, that's OK -- it wasn't in the newsletter, so it won't be on the test.

Health care, though, is a great big ol' booming business, chock with profits for partners who know how to take the temperature of the market and prescribe some implementations for customers. (Health care metaphors never fail!) Rich Freeman has a More

Posted by Lee Pender on October 12, 20070 comments