Microsoft

A collection of 200 posts

Microsoft

OOXML Payback Time as Global Standards Work in SC 34 "Grinds to a Halt"

A couple weeks ago, Andy posted about the current problems the SC 34 was having as a result of the sudden surge in "P" members.  From the post: One of the more egregious behaviors observed in the recent vote on OOXML was the sudden and last minute surge

Dell

Linux Losing Market Share to Windows Server II

As a quick follow up to this post, it seems that Dell is not seeing the same trend.  From the article: Dell CEO: Linux server sales increasing Claims made by Microsoft that Linux violates its software patent have not affected sales of Linux-based hardware, according to Dell's CEO

Linux

Linux Losing Market Share to Windows Server

That's the title of this eWeek article: Linux growth in the U.S. x86 server market has, over the past six quarters, started to falter and reverse its positive course relative to Windows Server and the market as a whole. The annual rate at which Linux is growing

Linux

Asian Linux Distributor Strikes Patent Covenant with Microsoft

Looks like Microsoft struck another patent deal with a Linux distribution, this time it's Turbolinux.  From the article: In a deal that could lead to the creation of a unique cross-platform authentication system for heterogenous networks, Tokyo-based Linux distributor Turbolinux announced this morning, Japan time, it has reached

Linux

Microsoft and the EU anti-trust battle

Earlier this week, Microsoft agreed with the EU Commission’s 2004 ruling that it was abusing its dominance in the market in the workgroup server market and would not appeal against a further EU court ruling, which upheld the Commission’s initial findings.  Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner for competition policy,

Microsoft

OSI Approves Microsoft License Submissions

A few moths ago, Microsoft submitted the Microsoft Permissive License (Ms-PL) and the Microsoft Community License (Ms-CL) to the OSI for approval.  Both have been approved, albeit with some modifications, including name changes for both.  From the official announcement: Acting on the advice of the License Approval Chair, the OSI

Microsoft

Patent Infringement Lawsuit Filed Against Red Hat & Novell III

(coverage continues) Via 451 CAOS Theory: It looks like the Acacia lawsuit may indeed have little to do with Open Source and be just another general patent troll case.  From the article: The nation's first Linux patent suit currently facing Red Hat and Novell isn't about

Apple

Patent Infringement Lawsuit Filed Against Red Hat & Novell II

(A follow up to previous coverage) As you may have guessed, this topic is being discussed heavily around the web.  Mark Radcliffe points out that Open Source companies are likely becoming a more tempting target to patent trolls due to the stunning growth in the sector (keep in mind that

Apple

Patent Infringement Lawsuit Filed Against Red Hat & Novell

Earlier this month, Ballmer reiterated his stance on patents and Linux: Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer has warned users of Red Hat Linux that they will have to pay Microsoft for its intellectual property. "People who use Red Hat, at least with respect to our intellectual property, in a

Microsoft

The .NET announcement from Microsoft

Contrary to some of the headlines I am seeing, Microsoft did not Open Source .NET.  To be fair, they didn't claim to in the announcement, but many people seemed to misunderstand what they actually did.  From the announcement: One of the things my team has been working to

Linux

EU Court Holds the Antitrust Line Against Microsoft, but May not have Stemmed its Dominance Tide

Yes, I am a bit late on this one.  I had a couple items on the blog TODO a bit longer than I anticipated.  I'm working my way through those now, but will still post the items I think are especially important. So, as you've surely

IBM

IBM joins the OpenOffice.org

To the collective cheer of "It's about time", IBM is now officially supporting the OpenOffice.org project.  From the press release: The OpenOffice.org community today announced that IBM will be joining the community to collaborate on the development of OpenOffice.org software. IBM will be

Linux

Microsoft kills its 'Get the Facts' anti-Linux site

A little late on this one, but Microsoft has replaced its Get the Facts site with one that is ostensibly less biased. "The goal of the site is to offer more in-depth information and customer-to-customer opinions about many of the issues IT administrators face," a company spokeswoman said.

Microsoft

Microsoft Fails to Gain Approval for OOXML

There are so many posts flying around about this that it's been difficult to keep up (and I'm still digesting a lot of it), but the bottom line is that the OOXML is not an ISO standard.  Well, at least not yet.  A bit oddly, Microsoft

Microsoft

Why Microsoft fears Open Source more than other proprietary vendors do

It does seem as if Microsoft fears Open Source more than companies that are just as proprietary as Microsoft is.  Matt has a potential explanation: Now look at Oracle, SAP, IBM, etc. You won't find a single other company making a concerted effort to fight open source. Not

Microsoft

OSI email group gets catty over Microsoft's Permissive License request

In what should come as no surprise, it looks like the discussion surrounding the Microsoft OSI submissions are getting a little cantankerous.  From the article: Another community member, Donovan Hawkins, doesn't like the MS-PL's requirement to keep its code separate from any other code licensed differently.

Linux

Q&A: Torvalds on Linux, Microsoft, software's future

LinuxWorld has posted an interview with Linus, and as usual there are a bunch of interesting sound bits.  A few here: Lest people think that commercial and Open Source don't mix... CW: How did Linux, as a product, benefit by being released as it was? Torvalds: Well, in

Linux

Open Source: Locked Into Uncertainty

At times it seems like parts of Microsoft are legitimately trying to change.  It's hard to believe anything they say when you see things like this though. The ad takes you to case studies from Microsoft, including one showcasing the State of Illinois' email consolidation project. Utah

Microsoft

Massachusetts Falls to OOXML as ITD Punts

From Andy Updegrove: In a not unanticipated move, Massachusetts announced today that Ecma 376, the name given to the Microsoft Office Open XML formats following their adoption by Ecma, would be acceptable for use by the Executive Agencies of the Commonwealth. The announcement was made even as it appears more

Microsoft

Microsoft to Submit Shared Source Licenses to OSI

From a Radar post: In his keynote at OSCON, Microsoft General Manager of Platform Strategy Bill Hilf announced that Microsoft is submitting its shared source licenses to the Open Source Initiative. This is a huge, long-awaited move. It will be earthshaking for both Microsoft and for the open source community

Microsoft

Microsoft development still broken, but they seem to be learning

Some recent information released by Microsoft seems to indicate that the Windows development model is still badly broke, and will be for some time, but will likely become less broken in the future.  From the article: Microsoft is planning to ship its next major version of Windows--known internally as version

Microsoft

Microsoft to its hosting partners: Get ready. Here we come

From a recent Mary Jo Foley blog post: At its Worldwide Partner Conference in Denver this week, Microsoft officials are trying to walk the tightrope when it comes to explaining Microsoft’s plan to get into the managed services business in a major way. Microsoft officials have made no bones

Linux

Red Hat CEO Says He Talked Patents with Microsoft III

A quick final follow up on this post (for those of you who still have a little doubt).  From eWeek: Microsoft and Red Hat are no closer to a deal involving intellectual property cooperation, Microsoft has confirmed. "Red Hat and Microsoft have previously had conversations about interoperability, but none

Linux

Comes vs Microsoft Petition Shows How Microsoft Blocked Linux Sales

Some people wonder why OEM Linux preloads like this didn't happen sooner.  Don't forget that a couple companies did make small attempts, but were smacked down (PDF warning) by Microsoft: Microsoft’s Predatory Response to GNU/Linux 142. GNU/Linux is an "open source"

FSF

Microsoft Statement About GPLv3 II

To answer a question I posed in a previous post about how Novell was going to handle the fact that Microsoft does not want to be a party to the GPLv3 (from the Novell PR Blog): Shortly after the GPLv3 license was released, Microsoft issued a statement in which they