Peter Galli

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on Wednesday plunged headfirst into the controversial waters of comparing the benefits and advantages of the Windows platform with Unix and Linux in an executive e-mail he sent to customers, partners and subscribers. Ballmers e-mail is the latest in an ongoing series of communications from Microsoft Corp.s top executives addressing issues […]

Sun Microsystems Inc. and Vodafone Group, one of the worlds largest mobile carriers, have strengthened their existing relationship by signing a global framework agreement that gives Vodafone consistent terms for Suns hardware, software and services product line. The deal, to be announced on Tuesday, also includes specific extensions for the Sun Java Enterprise System and […]

By announcing plans to maintain its current per-processor server software licensing, Microsoft Corp. has pleased customers and, in the process, put serious pressure on competing software developers to do the same. The Redmond, Wash., company announced last week that it will keep licensing products in the Windows Server System family—including SQL Server, BizTalk Server and […]

Microsoft Corp. on Thursday posted a 12 percent rise in revenue to $9.19 billion for its fiscal first quarter, ended Sept. 30, up from $8.22 billion for the same period a year earlier, on the back of strong consumer and business demand for both servers and desktop PCs. But that revenue figure is lower than […]

Sun Microsystems Inc. on Tuesday will make its Sun Cluster 3.1 update available for free for existing Cluster and Java Enterprise System customers. This update to Suns cluster software, an availability platform for improving the predictability and resilience of business critical applications that is also included in the Sun Java Enterprise System, was talked about […]

Microsoft Corp. does not plan to change its per-processor software licensing model when hardware containing dual-core and multicore processor technology for the Windows platform becomes available next year. The Redmond, Wash. software maker will announce on Tuesday that all its software currently licensed on a per-processor model will continue to be licensed that way for […]

About 10 years of development work on information retrieval at Microsoft Corp.s Research division is culminating, with many technologies about to find their way into products. Microsoft Research teams in Beijing; Cambridge, England; and Redmond, Wash., have been working on search for years. But, recently, the research and product teams have been working together to […]

Microsoft Corp. on Monday revealed a revamp of its online global support site. Executives said the changes were driven by direct customer feed-back about what was needed from the site and the company. The updated site provides more support options for customers, including a new solution center, which brings together in one place information and […]

Macintosh users running Microsoft Office 2004 for the Mac will be able to download the first service pack for that product via AutoUpdate on Tuesday. The service pack addresses potential security issues and bugs. SP1 for Microsoft Office 2004 for the Mac is a cumulative set of security and critical updates that have been tested, […]

Netline Internet Service GmbH, of Olpe, Germany, will release the third version of its Open-Xchange Server later this week, which includes code, fixes, expertise and opinions contributed by the open-source community. Open-Xchange Server—the engine behind Novells SuSE Linux Openexchange Server—is a modular, standards-based communications tool that provides businesses with groupware functions including e-mail, calendar, contacts, […]

As Microsoft Corp. has acknowledged more than once, the company is losing business to Linux deployments. But the story doesnt end there. Some large enterprises have taken the Linux challenge only to switch back to Windows, dissatisfied with the open-source alternative. Problems with application incompatibilities, poor performance, escalating support costs and an immature Linux ecosystem […]

Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday ventured further into the complex world of software licensing, making some changes and adding new features to its programs. Wednesdays fifth quarterly Volume Licensing Webcast to customers and partners was led by Brent Callinicos, who assumed the role of corporate vice president of Microsofts Worldwide Licensing and Pricing group earlier this […]