Microsoft

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News

  • Microsoft takes rent-to-own route to add datacentres

    There are a number of ways to get more datacentre space. One is to be like Google, which is building new datacentres in Iowa and other states at a cost of US$600 million each. Another is to lease some space first and then buy it if you like it — and that's what Microsoft appears to have done via a deal with Savvis.

  • Microsoft spells out virtual licence deal

    Microsoft has released a white paper clarifying how licensing for its current version of Windows Server works when paired with virtualisation software. However, customers may face a whole new set of licensing rules once the next version, Windows Server 2008, is released later this year.

  • Redmond gets into furniture-making

    And now, the Microsoft coffee table. Don’t kid yourself, Microsoft is going into the furniture business. The product that Microsoft unveiled recently under the name “Surface” isn’t a technology, a reference design, a user interface, an application, a PC or an appliance. It’s furniture. And yes, that really is the business Microsoft intends to get into.

  • No secret search engine says Microsoft

    Speculation that Microsoft has a crack team of developers in Silicon Valley working on a cutting-edge search project is news to the company’s head of search and advertising.

  • Microsoft Orcas beta offer much improved IDE

    While the Visual Studio team at Microsoft has been burning the midnight oil for some 18 months to bring us Orcas beta 1, the CLR (Common Language Runtime) team has been hammering away on .Net Framework 3.5 beta 1. Happily, all the effort appears to be paying off.

  • Microsoft slates six patches for this week

    Microsoft will issue six security updates this week for Windows, Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, Windows Mail and Visio, the company has announced using its new expanded format for advanced warnings.

  • Microsoft funds new open-source ID projects

    As part of its plan to promote identity management across multiple platforms, Microsoft is funding several new projects to develop open-source versions of its digital-identity technology for information cards.

  • Microsoft backs ODF

    Just days after declaring its intention to aggressively collect patent royalties from open-source distributors, Microsoft backed adding ODF, the document file format used widely in open-source alternatives to Microsoft Office, to a list of business standards.

  • Microsoft says licensing protects customers

    A top Microsoft executive promoted the company's licensing of network security protocols at the Interop trade show earlier this week, but not before taking time out during a keynote address to defend the company's patent licensing program for open-source software.

  • Microsoft targets Google with US$6B purchase

    Even though the US$6 billion price tag on Microsoft's acquisition of digital advertising vendor aQuantive is nearly twice what Google paid for DoubleClick last month, analysts didn't see the move as a sign of panic on Microsoft's part.

  • Software piracy hits US$40B worldwide, says study

    Efforts to curb software piracy in China are bearing fruit although the piracy rate remains high, costing vendors billions of dollars in lost revenue, according to a survey paid for by large vendors, including Apple and Microsoft.

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