Stuart J. Johnston

Microsoft is riding high as the dominant operating system provider for so-called netbooks, but is increasingly facing challenges from old rivals in new clothes for that dominance. Can you say Linux? How about Android? Google’s Android, some analysts and observers think, could displace Windows in one of today’s hottest markets – but it could be […]

Always looking for unserved or underserved markets, Microsoft unveiled a Windows Server offering on Wednesday that aims to provide very small businesses with an entry-level server. Dubbed Windows Server 2008 Foundation, the server offering, which targets small businesses that have 15 or fewer users, will be available through PC OEMs beginning in April, the company […]

Amidst a plethora of other relatively small newsy items, Microsoft announced this week that several significant vendors have signed up for its upcoming Windows Marketplace for Mobile, along with new billing options, designer screen tools, and ties to social networking sites. In fact, the common theme of many of the announcements is enhancing the user’s […]

Microsoft has quietly begun delivering a new capability for its Live Search competitor to Google Search. But while the long-term goal of the company’s new Live Search Active Answers technology is expansive, Microsoft has decided to start modestly: by providing the ability for users to quickly check airline flight status online. “We are simplifying key […]

Microsoft announced Monday that it has settled its month-old patent infringement lawsuit against GPS navigation device maker TomTom — quieting a spat that for a time had sparked the concern of open source advocates and other critics of the software giant. The software giant sued Amsterdam-based TomTom in late February, claiming the navigational device company […]

Microsoft’s execs must be biting their tongues this week after someone at the company posted a Web page on the software giant’s TechNet site implying that the public release candidate of Windows 7 is now due in May. The company typically doesn’t preannounce intermediate or final ship dates until it is sure it can meet […]

Microsoft confirmed it is looking into a potentially dangerous security hole in newly shipped Internet Explorer 8, but played down as speculation that the shipping version of IE8 is at serious risk of attack. In fact, the potential exploit, according to a posting on Microsoft’s Security, Research, and Defense blog, is prevented from working in […]

The ink was barely dry in the suit and countersuit passion play of Microsoft versus TomTom, when another tech firm sued Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) for allegedly infringing four of its patents in the software behemoth’s automatic update technologies. Israel-based BackWeb Technologies filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco […]

One of the analysts who originally suggested that Windows Vista was a dog and needed to be replaced with a new version — which has emerged as Windows 7 — is now recommending that enterprise IT buyers begin planning as soon as the new OS ships, instead of waiting for Microsoft’s first Service Pack update. […]

If Microsoft was waiting for the other shoe to drop in its patent lawsuit against TomTom, it did — but it may not have been the shoe Microsoft expected. Microsoft in late February sued TomTom for what it claims are violations of eight separate patents, after what Microsoft officials claims was a year of attempts […]

When Microsoft released Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) on Thursday, there were no immediate outcries over missed show-stopper bugs or jammed download servers. Indeed, the first day and a half of IE8’s public availability seems to have gone exceptionally smoothly. Still, at least several hundred users have sought help on Microsoft’s community forums for what are […]

The blackout of Microsoft’s Windows Azure servers last weekend was due to a glitch in an operating system update, the company said this week. Microsoft’s disclosure came in a post Wednesday on the Windows Azure blog. The roughly 22-hour service outage began last Friday evening at around 10:30 p.m. Pacific and ran into early Saturday […]