Microsoft released the beta of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 to a private group of testers, taking one step closer to the anticipated official launch in the first quarter of next year.
In late August, Microsoft for the first time offered a release schedule for the long-awaited SP1. At the time, the software giant said the beta would become available this month to between 10,000 and 15,000 testers.
One beta tester, Brandon LeBlanc, author of the Windows Experience blog, has already written about his experience with SP1.
Critics who blasted Microsoft three months ago for failing to deliver Windows Vista add-ons have again called the company on the carpet, this time for missing its self-imposed deadline to provide promised extras.
In late June, bloggers and users were already panning Vista Ultimate Extras as a bust. Extras, available only to customers running the top-end Vista edition, was one of the features cited by Microsoft to distinguish the $399 operating system from its $239 cousin, Home Premium. Microsoft's online marketing, for instance, touted Extras as "cutting-edge programs, innovative services, and unique publications" that would be regularly offered to Ultimate users.
Microsoft is hosting its sixth BlueHat security conference at its Redmond, Wash. campus later this week, giving Microsoft employees a chance to pick the brains of security experts. As such, this is a closed affair for Microsoft staffers only, but what they learn will make its way into all Microsoft products.
This event is called BlueHat v6: The Vuln Behind The Curtain, and runs for two days. One of the main areas of concern will be security around virtualization and process isolation.
Naturally, virtualization is a big concern for Microsoft. With all the rush to virtualize, there hasn't been much emphasis on security in those environments. VMware is making a fortune virtualizing its operating systems on servers. Microsoft's response, Viridian, has been delayed for undisclosed reasons.
Master data management will be part of Office 14, a first Community Technology Preview of which is due in the first quarter of 2008.
Thats according to a September 19 blog post by Microsoft IT Pro Evangelist "PatricG.
Master data management is technology that allows for the management of common reference data across disparate IT systems or groups. Microsoft stuck a toe in the MDM space in June 2007 with its acquisition of privately held MDM specialist Stratature. Microsoft said at the time of the acquisition that it planned to withdraw existing Stratature products from the market and instead integrate the Stratature +EDM technology into Office applications and servers.
Microsoft has passed the OpenAjax Alliance's suite of interoperability tests to prove that its software can interoperate with other parts of the OpenAjax ecosystem.
On the eve of the AJAX World Conference and Expo 2007 West taking place Sept. 23-26 in Santa Clara, Calif., Microsoft officials said the Redmond, Wash., company's software passed the OpenAjax InteropFest 1.0 tests and is interoperable with other AJAX components in the OpenAjax ecosystem through the OpenAjax Hub.
The OpenAjax Hub is a set of standard JavaScript functionalities defined by the OpenAjax Alliance, with strong focus on being small and fast.
Microsoft has teamed with public relations and marketing agency Burson-Marsteller on a campaign to garner industry support for asking regulators to scrutinize and potentially block the proposed merger of Google and DoubleClick.
[ Plus: DoubleClick launches mobile ad platform ] Called the Initiative for Competitive Online Marketplace, or iCOMP, the group's mission, according to its Web site, is "to highlight important principles in online services and begin important industry discussions around copyright, privacy, and competition." So far, Microsoft and Burson-Marsteller seem to be the only companies behind the initiative, though Gavin Grant, the U.K.
Microsoft has approached Facebook in recent weeks proposing an investment that would give Microsoft a stake of up to 5 percent in the popular social-networking company, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
With Microsoft willing to invest between $300 million and $500 million, the deal would value Facebook at $10 billion or more, the Journal reported, quoting anonymous sources.
Google has also expressed an interest in acquiring a Facebook stake recently, according to the Journal. Thus, Microsoft could find itself competing for Facebook's attention with Google.
Microsoft raised Chief Executive Steve Ballmer's overall compensation 32 percent in 2006 after sales climbed the most in six years.
Ballmer got $1.28 million in salary and bonus for the year ended June 30, the Redmond company said Friday in a regulatory filing. Ballmer, with a fortune of $15.2 billion, ranks 16th on Forbes magazine's wealthiest Americans list.
Unlike some technology companies that spend millions on executive security, travel and other perks, Microsoft gave Ballmer a modest $6,750 in matches to his 401(k) retirement plan and approximately $3,000 worth of life insurance and athletic club memberships.
The long march to the release of Windows Server 2008, aka Longhorn Server, continued on Monday, as Microsoft announced that it is making the first Release Candidate version of the upcoming operating system available for public download.
Microsoft said that RC0, as it's being called by the software vendor, will become available on its Web site within the next 24 hours -- replacing the Beta 3 release that it has been offering to early users.
RC0 is the first pre-release version to include a built-in virtualization hypervisor, which is code named Viridian. But Ward Ralston, senior technical product manager for Microsoft's Windows Server group, noted that the hypervisor component "is not yet in beta" and is thus less mature than the rest of Windows Server 2008.
Master Chief's mission is clear: Save Earth from alien invaders -- and play the role of hero for Microsoft in its attempt to storm the worlds of video games and home entertainment.
See review of 'Halo 3'
That's what rests on the "Halo" protagonist's cybernetic shoulders as Microsoft prepares for the Tuesday release of "Halo 3," the final installment in the hit trilogy for the company's Xbox game consoles.
The fate of a fictional Earth notwithstanding, the business stakes for the company are big. "Halo 2," released in 2004, made $125 million in sales in its first day -- three times as much as Microsoft's Windows PC operating system makes on an average day.