Microsoft

A collection of 200 posts

Linux

McAfee, Symantec Think Vista Unfair: Update

A follow up to this post.  It looks like Microsoft has done an about-face, and will allow kernel level access in Vista.  From the article: Microsoft Now Decides to Accept Outside Security for Vista Until now, Microsoft had planned to block those companies from installing their products in the deepest

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The Microsoft Exec Exodus Continues

A continuation of the trend I've covered before, the Microsoft exec exodus just keeps rolling on.  The latest two casualties are Rick Devenuti, chief of Microsoft's fledgling managed services operation and Jurgen Gallmann, CEO of Microsoft Deutschland.  Once again the hits are fairly severe.  Microsoft Deutschland

Linux

Microsoft Shown Involved with Baystar and SCO

Amazing how long we go between SCO stories these days, isn't it?  From the Groklaw article: On page 21 in IBM's Amended Redacted Memorandum in Support of its Motion for Summary Judgment on SCO's Interference Claims (SCO's Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Causes

Linux

Microsoft on warding off the Linux threat

Wow.  The hubris in this ZDNet interview is astounding.  While some people at Microsoft are certainly adapting to a shifting business landscape, Nick McGrath, Microsoft's head of platform strategy in the UK, is a shining example of what is wrong with the Microsoft corporate culture.  Reading the interviews

Linux

The Truth About a Claimed Firefox Exploit

I'm sure most of you heard about the recent Firefox security issue.  The one claiming Firefox is "critically flawed in the way it handles JavaScript" and that over 30 unreleased vulnerabilities exist.  It turns out, the whole thing was a hoax.  That's right, a

Linux

McAfee, Symantec Think Vista Unfair

It seems that both McAfee and Symantec are unhappy with some of the new security features in Vista.  McAfee has gone as far as taking out a full page ad in the Financial Times.  The issue at hand is PatchGuard, which Microsoft describes as a facility that protects the operating

Linux

Microsoft Re-Re-Releases IE Patch

Microsoft has recently released, for the third time, a patch for MS06-042.  From the article: According to Microsoft's security bulletin, the IE patch was updated September 12 to fix another remote code execution vulnerability in IE's handling of long URLs from Websites using HTTP 1.1

Linux

Microsoft Releases New "Open Specifications Promise" on 35 Web Services Specifications

From a post at consortiuminfo.org: Microsoft has just posted the text of a new patent "promise not to assert " at its Website, and pledges that it will honor that promise with respect to 35 listed Web Services standards. The promise is similar in most substantive respects to

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Quickest Patch Ever

As was guessed in the original article, Microsoft was able to patch the issue quite quickly. In fact, quicker than most security fixes.  From the article: If you really want to see Microsoft scramble to patch a hole in its software, don't look to vulnerabilities that impact countless

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Ex-Microsoft Security Strategist Joins Mozilla

You read that right.  Mozilla has announced that "Window Snyder is joining Mozilla to lead the company's effort to protect its range of desktop applications from malicious hacker attacks."  As you may have guessed, many people are having a field day with this one.  Comments like

Google

Google Apps for Your Domain

Today Google released Google Apps for Your Domain.  From the release page: Now you can offer private-labeled email, IM and calendar tools to all of your users for free*, so they can share ideas and get things done more effectively. You can design and publish your organization's website,

Linux

FairUse4WM strips Windows Media DRM

It was just a matter of time before something like this happened.  Interestingly, engadget has written An Open Letter to Microsoft - Why you shouldn't kill FairUse4WM, but I wouldn't be surprised if this one gets fixed before the next patch Tuesday hits.  For regular readers,

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Microsoft patch opens users to attack

Microsoft has spent a lot of time and effort trying to improve their security image.  Part of that was gaining mindshare among admins, so that patches would be trusted and deployed in an expeditious manor.  It seemed that the Microsoft vision went as far as to wish everyone simply enable

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Niall Kennedy is Leaving Microsoft

That didn't take long.  Niall Kennedy, who was seen as an ad hoc blogger evangelist replacement for Scoble at Microsoft, is already leaving.  From his post: The stock plummeted on the announcement Microsoft did not have its costs under control. Microsoft's market cap lost close to

Linux

Ellison Talks Up Red Hat Linux

It seems the rumors that Oracle may offer Red Hat support are intensifying.  One thing that seems to be slightly misunderstood by the MSM is that Oracle can't simply redistribute RHEL.  What they could do is offer a RHEL-compatible version of Linux, as CentOS does, that is completely

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Ballmer Analyzes Microsoft's 'One Big' Vista Mistake

This <a href="http://www.crn.com/sections/breakingnews/dailyarchives.jhtml;jsessionid=ZEQ0I0LMYJC1MQSNDLPCKHSCJUNN2JVN?articleId=191600739"CRN article covers a recent meeting Steve Ballmer had with industry financial analysts.  From the article we get such Ballmer quotes as: We made an upfront decision that was, I'll

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IE7 to be Pushed to Users Via Windows Update

If you're an ecommerce site, you'd better start testing your site in IE7.  Why?  It looks like they are going to push it out via automatic update, right before the holidays.  From the article: IE 7 will be delivered in the fourth quarter as a "

Linux

What can we Learn from Microsoft

Steven Vaughan-Nichols lists his top five things Linux can learn from Microsoft.  This list is: 1. MSDN 2. Common Interface 3. Common Format 4. Marketing 5. OEM Support While I don't 100% agree with every ascertation he makes, he brings up some very valid points.  I think Marketing

Linux

Microsoft and XenSource

Microsoft recently issued a press release entitled "Microsoft and XenSource to Develop Interoperability for Windows Server “Longhorn” Virtualization".  From the press release: Microsoft Corp. and XenSource Inc. today announced they will cooperate on the development of technology to provide interoperability between Xen™-enabled Linux and the new Microsoft

Linux

Microsoft outlines principles of competition

In what may become a continuing trend, Microsoft pledged today to follow a dozen principles of competition as it builds and sells its Windows desktop operating system software, the ubiquitous product that has been the subject of nearly a decade of antitrust battles.  From the article: "As creators of

Linux

Symantec sees an Achilles' heel in Vista

This CNET article covers the recently released "Windows Vista Network Attack Surface Analysis: A Broad Overview" paper from Symantec.  The paper covers the flaws uncovered by Symantec in the freshly rewritten Vista networking stack.  To me, that's not too interesting.  Vista is still in beta, and

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An Interview with Neelie Kroes

A quick follow up to a story I have been covering.  An interview with Neelie Kroes, competition commissioner for the European Union, has just been posted on cNet.  From the interview: Do you believe Microsoft answered your questions truthfully? Kroes: Microsoft has claimed that its obligations in the decision are

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Microsoft hit with 280m euro fine

The EU has indeed followed through, as promised, and fined Microsoft almost $357m USD.  From the article: EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said she had "no alternative but to levy penalty payments" against Microsoft, adding that "no company is above the law". "I regret that,

Linux

Open XML Translator project announced

Brian Jones recently  announced that Microsoft will be releasing an ODF converter for office.  The Open XML Translator project is hosted at SourceForge and is available under the BSD license.  From the post: While we still aren't seeing a strong demand for ODF support from our corporate or

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(Another) Microsoft Exec Jumps to Google

That's the title of this Business 2.0 article.  From the article: Another prominent Google-fighter leaves Redmond. This one concludes: If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Vic Gundotra, a general manager for platform evangelism at Microsoft and a 15-year employee, has agreed to