And then there were three. Microsoft and Lindows are putting years of legal sparring behind them now that the company has bought into Microsoft's Linux patent covenants. Linspire is the third company after Novell and Xandros to enter into a patent covenant with Microsoft regarding open source applications.
"Over the years, in an effort to expand choice, we have entered into dozens of agreements with commercial software vendors," Kevin Carmony, chief executive officer at Linspire, said in a statement. "It certainly made sense to collaborate with Microsoft, one of the most important partners in the PC ecosystem."
Microsoft has built a tool to track the daily progress of Scrum-based software development projects. The eScrum 1.0 project management tool was released this week. It provides "a one-stop place for all Scrum artifacts, such as product backlogs, sprint backlogs, task management, retrospectives, and reports," said Microsoft's S. "Soma" Somasegar, corporate vice president of the company's developer division, in his blog.
Intended for users of the company's Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server application lifecycle management server, eScrum integrates with TFS Team Explorer, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft Project. A Web-based UI is featured.
In a very real sense, Microsoft may have had more to do with the creation of the so-called "dynamic language" than most any other company. Back when the BASIC language interpreter shipped as part of the ROM of machines like Radio Shack's breakthrough TRS-80, I and many other novice developers first experimented with the prospects of code that changes itself to suit the specific needs of users. It involved statements with terms like "POKE," which was exactly as dangerous as it sounds.
Today, the re-emergence of dynamic applications through Web-oriented languages like Python and Ruby has awakened an old spirit within Microsoft, which is rediscovering a concept it helped create decades ago...and after years of denying its presence and usefulness, has now come around to embracing it.
Microsoft said Wednesday that it had ended its multiplayer beta of Halo 3, adding that it had attracted over 820,000 unique participants contributing over 12 million hours of game play.The company now turns its focus to promotion through Halo-themed merchandise, such as a special edition wireless controller and wireless headset. While the accessories are not available until September, Microsoft is building buzz by permitting pre-orders.
Other promotions include a special edition Halo 3 Zune to be available exclusively through GameStop on June 15 for 249; a book by Tor Books debuting on October 2; and a Marvel comic series beginning on July 25.
Microsoft is America's 49th largest corporation, dropping one spot from a year ago in the Fortune 500 list released today.
Microsoft is the top-ranked software company in the list, with revenues of more than $44 billion. Revenues were up 11.3 percent over last year, when it ranked No. 48, and profits were up 2.8 percent from 2006.
Several IT-related companies ranked above Microsoft, but none are primarily software companies. Hewlett-Packard headed the list, coming in at No. 14 with $91.6 billion in revenues; IBM, right behind at No. 15 with $91.4 billion; and Dell placed 34th, at $57 billion.
Microsoft announced on Wednesday that it has released to the AIDS research community the source code for four analytical software tools, a move intended to aid the development of a vaccine for the disease.
The source code, available as a free download from Microsoft's CodePlex Web site, is designed to use the software giant's machine-learning technology to sort through thousands of human immunodeficiency virus strains. Researchers hope to use the technology to identify genetic patterns that could help them train an infected person's immune system to combat the virus.
Microsoft has clarified how licensing for its current version of Windows Server works when paired with virtualization software.
However, customers may face a whole new set of licensing rules once the next version, Windows Server 2008, is released later this year.
In a white paper called "Licensing Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 to Run with Virtualization Technologies," Microsoft outlines clearly how to license the current version of Windows Server -- Windows Server 2003 R2 -- for specific third-party virtualization technology, including VMware ESX, VMware Vmotion and SWsoft Virtuozzo. It also explains licensing for Microsoft's own System Center Virtual Machine Manager.
Microsoft won a round in its battle with patent licensing company Timeline. On May 29, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington dismissed Timeline's accusations of patent infringement, ruling that Microsoft's patent licensing agreement with Timeline is valid.
The case dates back to 2005 when Timeline sued ProClarity for patent infringement. A few months later, Microsoft acquired ProClarity, and shortly after that, Timeline added Microsoft to the ProClarity suit. In the suit, Timeline claimed to have terminated its contract with Microsoft based on breach of contract and charged the software giant with patent infringement.
The biggest news Apple Inc. made yesterday at the opening of its Worldwide Developers Conference was its announcement that it had ported its Safari Web browser to Windows. CEO Steve Jobs called the beta of Safari 3 "the most innovative browser in the world, and the fastest browser on Windows." He could have added "the most insecure browser on Windows" to that list of superlatives.
In what must be a delicious irony for Microsoft, security researchers have found a host of bugs in the Safari beta within hours of downloading the bits. Apple touts the security of its products, and disparages the alleged insecurity of Microsoft products, every chance it gets.
Microsoft notified beta testers of the software's availability within the last 90 minutes or so. In an earlier e-mail, Microsoft warned beta testers that they would have to start fresh when moving to the RC, meaning that all backups and data shares would be wiped away.
RC testers will be able to make the release code upgrade without the same kind of hardship.
The RC is an important milestone for Windows Home Server, which Microsoft only announced in January. While the software is designed for consumers, they won't be able to purchase it at retail. Microsoft will only offer the software to OEMs and system builders so most people will get the software and the hardware together.