Peter Galli

Microsoft has won the battle to get its Office Open XML format approved as an international ISO/IEC standard. In a statement released April 1, standards organization Ecma International said that the International Standards Organization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) had approved the Office Open XML File Format as an international standard. Ecma approved Office […]

Microsoft launched on April 1 an effort called the Interoperability Forum, a Web site where customers, developers and members of the broader open-source community can discuss their interoperability issues, ask questions and get technical advice. The forum was first announced in February when Microsoft revealed its four new interoperability principles designed to ensure open connections, […]

Microsoft has made a public preview of Windows Search 4.0, the next version of desktop search for Windows, available for download. Windows Search is the desktop search engine for Windows Vista and Windows XP, and allows users to search for files, photographs, e-mail and Word documents on their PCs. Microsoft released on March 27 the […]

The future of the operating system took center stage at the Open Source Business Conference here March 25, as a panel of vendor representatives debated the topic. Dirk Hohndel, the chief Linux and open-source technologist at Intel, said the company was totally driven by what the market wanted. “If customers say they only want Microsoft’s […]

SAN FRANCISCO-Microsoft’s general counsel Brad Smith took the hot seat at the Open Source Development Conference here March 25, facing an hour of questioning from panelists and attendees. But before the grilling started, Smith gave a 30-minute address about the parallels between open-source and proprietary software business models. Microsoft respects and appreciates the role free […]

SAN FRANCISCO-Experience has shown a weakening U.S. economy would be good for open source, as a shortage of cash is usually a major catalyst for innovation, particularly around open-source applications, Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Ubuntu Linux, said at the annual Open Source Business Conference here March 25. Roger Burkhardt, president and CEO of open-source […]

SAN FRANCISCO-So, what exactly can the open-source community learn from Microsoft and the proprietary world? Quite a lot it would appear, if the discussion of the topic at a session here at the annual Open Source Business Conference March 25 is anything to go by. While the discussion was largely serious, there were some lighter […]

SAN FRANCISCO-Red Hat hasn’t done a good enough job of promoting its position as the leading Linux vendor, and also needs to do a better job of getting its customers involved with the community, Jim Whitehurst, Red Hat CEO and president, told attendees at the opening keynote at the Open Source Business Conference here March […]

Microsoft’s Windows Live team is working with Facebook, Bebo, Hi5, Tagged and LinkedIn to allow users to move their contacts between the various services. The software giant is also introducing a new Web site that people can use to invite their friends from these partner social networks to join their Windows Live Messenger contact list, […]

The war of words between Microsoft, IBM and others with an interest in document formats has reached a boiling point ahead of the crucial vote later this month on whether or not Microsoft’s Office Open XML format should be approved as an ISO standard. The format failed to achieve the two-thirds vote needed for approval […]

Microsoft made the feature-complete Release Candidate for Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V available to customers and partners March 19, as the company moves to meets its own August deadline to deliver the final code. “This is a key milestone signaling that Microsoft is on track to deliver Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V virtualization by August 2008,” Bill […]

SALT LAKE CITY-Novell will use its annual BrainShare conference here March 17 to announce new and expanded partnerships as well as to show off some of the features and functionality of its upcoming SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11. Novell officials told eWEEK that several new partnerships will be announced during the opening keynotes, including a […]