While SAP chairman Hasso Plattner was busy rebutting reports that SAP would drop .Net support in favor of Java, El Gato was hearing rumblings that the relationship between SAP and Microsoft may not be as happy as it once was. A Tabby tipster claims one reason Redmonds most important business partner over the last decade may not be thrilled with the relationship could have something to do with Microsoft proclaiming itself an enterprise software company. There have been whispers that Microsoft may be quietly making intellectual property claims against SAP to seek leverage in its relationship with the company, claims the tattler.
The Tawny Titan has also heard rumors that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Plattner may not have reached or maintained the steady relationship that Bill Gates held with Plattner in the past. “Whatever the case, SAP holds a lot of corporate accounts that everyone covets,” mused the Mouser. “A lot of companies would jump to be SAPs new pal, ASAP.”
Speaking of Microsoft, the Puss is still pondering whether anyone else noticed during the XP launch how blithely Gates indicted Windows 9x for being DOS a millimeter under its surface? A noted friend of the Furball added to the Kittys amusement by pointing out how Gates comments, which basically acknowledged that his Windows 9x products had been fatally dependent on their core DOS technology, would have been tantamount to treason in Redmond in 1994. Back in those days, what was then called Chicago was being touted with the promise that “the entire operating system is freshly designed from the ground up”—at least according to the Microsoft Systems Journal.
Independent observers such as Andrew Schulman, author of the 1994 book “Unauthorized Windows 95,” is probably gratified by Gates revisionist statement. It seems that “Back to the Future” Bill finally agrees with Schulmans assertion, which Microsoft furiously disputed at the time, that “Windows 95 is no more integrated than its predecessors and does not represent a complete rewrite.”
“Fire up the time-traveling DeLorean,” laughed the Lynx. “With all this revisionist history, maybe theres an alternate timeline where the DOJ didnt cave in.”
Just as Apple was trying to convince the world that spending $399 for its iPod MP3 player would be an insanely great thing to do, a bug popped up in the music software that supports the device. A version of the companys iTunes 2 app contained an installer error that erased the hard drives of some of the first folks who downloaded it. Apple quickly took down the app and replaced it with a new version.
Spencer wonders if well soon see another big-ticket handheld from Apple. They could call it an “iPDA,” cackled the Kitty. “That could be an acronym for its Price Defies Analysis.”
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