Stuart J. Johnston

A leading open source legal advocacy group this week lashed out at Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) regarding what it calls uncertainty about the free use of the company’s specifications for its Office application suite file formats. Microsoft, in turn, lashed right back. On Wednesday, the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) issued a white paper criticizing Microsoft’s contribution, […]

Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) cheeks must still be burning from the embarrassing disclosure two weeks ago that some senior executives feared the company’s “Windows Vista Capable” sticker program in late 2006 misled some computer buyers. In a new wave of filings last week, however, the Redmond, Wash.-based software behemoth has gone on the offensive against the […]

Come May, developers who want to write and release their own programs to work with Office 2007’s much-discussed default file formats will finally get their chance. That’s when they’ll be able to get their hands on the final release of the first software development kit (SDK) for Office Open XML (OOXML). Microsoft this week disclosed […]

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is buying desktop virtualization software maker Kidaro in a move to incorporate the smaller firm’s technology into a key enterprise tool suite. The purchase marks the latest step in Microsoft’s aims to weave the benefits of virtualization throughout its enterprise offerings. “Kidaro is an important component of our virtualization strategy, and it delivers […]

Continuing moves to gain new traction among business customers, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer today gave attendees at the software giant’s Convergence 2008 conference a glimpse into its upcoming enterprise resource planning (ERP) release — and clues about developments to come. At the conference, taking place this week in Orlando, Fla., Ballmer also tipped his hand […]

Does Windows Vista seem a little sluggish and underpowered? Want to switch to an edition of Windows with a little extra kick to it? No, it’s not Windows XP. Welcome to Windows Vista “workstation” – better known as Windows Server 2008. Windows Server 2008, which Microsoft officially launched on February 27, has a feature called […]

You may not be able to get an early look at the next major release of Windows – but the law can. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) recently submitted an early build of what has been referred to as Windows 7 to the Technical Committee (TC) – the group of technology experts appointed by the Department of Justice […]

It was about as predictable rain in Seattle. The committee that advises the U.S. delegation to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), which last fall voted to approve Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) bid to make Office Open XML (OOXML) an ISO standard, has decided not to change its vote to ‘disapprove.’ Duh. “The U.S. technical committee that […]

With the kick off last week of beta testing for Microsoft’s next major browser update, users – developers, at least – will get their first chance to check out its new features. Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) released what it calls the Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 (IE 8) developer preview at the company’s MIX08 conference for […]

P>At this week’s TechFest event held by Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Research, the WorldWide Telescope (WWT) has garnered plenty of attention. WWT, which will be available this spring, is an experimental application that merges images from many of the world’s major telescopes, including ones in orbit as well as radio telescopes, into a Web application that […]

For tech veterans, it must have seemed a little odd to see such virulent former adversaries sitting onstage together, joking about the past and chatting seriously about the future. The occasion was day two of Mix 08, Microsoft’s annual conference in Las Vegas for Web developers and designers. The speakers, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)CEO Steve Ballmer and […]

Ray Ozzie has taken over the role of head visionary at Microsoft, but those looking for the “vision thing” at the company’s Mix08 developer’s conference in Las Vegas, might have been disappointed. Instead, the opening Mix08 keynotes in Las Vegas today, seemed more a culmination of several technology threads than a revelation of a new […]