Peter Galli

Microsoft has made Windows Vista Service Pack 1 available to its TechBeta customers, and will release the English version of the service pack to its volume licensing customers Feb. 15. MSDN and TechNet subscribers will get access to the service pack later in February, while general availability is still planned for mid-March, Mike Nash, Microsoft’s […]

This weekend marks the 10th anniversary of the publication of the “Open Source Definition” and the public announcement of the formation of the Open Source Initiative. The decade has been marked both by enormous achievements and serious setbacks. “This was the first time that the general public heard what open source was about. Friday, Feb. […]

Microsoft is conducting field trials to ensure that a modified version of Windows XP SP2 will be able to run well on the One Laptop Per Child’s XO machine and that it will be able to support customers with a good experience on that hardware. “We are encouraged by what we have seen of Windows […]

An increasing number of Web 2.0 companies are turning to user-generated financial and investing content to give them a strategic advantage in the cutthroat equity trading business. The commoditization of equity trades means the technology driving online trading platforms no longer provides a strategic advantage to financial firms. This is good news for the providers […]

NEW YORK – Is the concept of open-source finance a contradiction in terms? That was the question posed to a panel at the O’Reilly Money:Tech conference here Feb. 6. The question spawned a discussion as to whether open-source technologies were fundamentally at odds with the zero-sum world of capital markets and whether it is possible […]

Facing an uncertain future as Microsoft bids for Yahoo, Zimbra, the open-source messaging and collaboration software company that was acquired by Yahoo for $350 million last September, will release the next version of its Web client, Zimbra Collaboration Suite 5.0, on Feb. 5. ZCS 5.0, is available in 15 languages and now offers native e-mail, […]

Microsoft has hit the final milestone in the long and rocky road to Windows Server 2008, announcing Feb. 4 that it has released to manufacturing the final code for that product. The software maker will also issue customer advice and guidance about upgrading, as well as consolidated information on the upgrade tools it will offer […]

Microsoft released the final code for Windows Vista Service Pack 1 to manufacturing Feb. 4, and the final product will be made available to its volume licensing customers in March. But if users want to install it, there is a catch: there are still issues with a small set of drivers, which need to be […]

While Microsoft is hoping to buy Yahoo for $44.6 billion in stock or cash, the software maker has a long and difficult road ahead to not only make the deal a reality, but also make it work. The deal, which was announced Feb. 1 and will be priced at a 62 percent premium on Yahoo’s […]

Microsoft has offered to pony up $44.6 billion to buy Yahoo, an offer the Internet and search company said was unsolicited, but which it did not reject. Microsoft’s bid on Jan. 31, of $31 a share, which was offered to shareholders in the form of cash or stock, was a 62 percent premium on Yahoo’s […]

The non-games software market in the United States reported its best performance since 1999 last year, in large part due to the release of Windows Vista and Office 2007, and in smaller part due to releases from Apple and Adobe. U.S. software sales rose 15 percent in 2007 to $3.3 billion from sales of $2.9 […]

Microsoft has lost another round in antitrust court, with a new ruling extending by two years federal court oversight of the final judgments issued in the landmark U.S. antitrust case against the software giant. The decision extends those provisions of the final judgments that would have expired in November 2007 to Nov. 12, 2009, and […]