Microsoft

With the next big Microsoft operating system already looming in the form of a Windows 7 beta, many home and business users are beginning to look past Windows Vista. However, a controversial new report from Computerworld suggests that the fat lady ... may not have yet belted out her final note. In a recent article, Computerworld columnist Eric Lai suggested that at least two significant segments in the tech population have begun to adopt the maligned 2007 operating system . Lai cites a survey last month by Valve Corporation, which found that more than one-third of gamers playing online are using ... (view more)

Government antitrust attorneys are reportedly still receiving complaints from hardware makers and other companies about Microsoft business practices, even as the software giant has stepped up its efforts to cooperate with those state and federal ... authorities overseeing its antitrust consent decree. In a recent court filing, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and numerous other states said complaints were received from several companies that manufacture and sell a variety of products that work with Windows. The department has been enforcing the consent decree for more than six years. (Source ... (view more)

Despite the upcoming release of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) , it appears that Microsoft is still losing market share to its competitors at Apple and Mozilla. (Source: computerworld.com ) Web metrics firm Net Applications released a new ... market share analysis Sunday, placing Microsoft at 67.6% -- the lowest market share percentage for the company since 2005. This 0.6 point drop follows an unfortunate trend for Microsoft, who has lost approximately 8 percentage points in the last year. While nowhere near as devastating as the drastic drops of November and December 2008, it seems that ... (view more)

Documents unsealed by a federal court in the "Vista Capable" lawsuit reportedly reveal that Microsoft would have to come up with as much as $8.5 billion to settle accounts with customers affected by its 2006 "Vista Capable" marketing debacle. Keith ... Leffler, a University of Washington economist and expert witness for the plaintiffs, estimates that it would cost a minimum of $3.92 billion to as much as $8.52 billion to upgrade the 19.4 million PCs that were sold as Vista Capable to hardware capable of running premium versions of Windows Vista. (Source: computerworld.com ) Leffler said in a ... (view more)

After flirting with open source development for some time, Microsoft has made another step towards real commitment with the release of source code for Web Sandbox, a program used to test and secure web site content. (Source: zdnet.com ) The Sandbox ... source code will be released under the Apache 2.0 license, an open source license agreement allowing the content creator to maintain copyright while permitting others to develop the product for their own use. Microsoft has gradually been increasing their involvement with the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) since 2008 when they agreed to fund ... (view more)

An early release of Microsoft's uber-popular web browser Internet Explorer version 8 (IE8) is now available for download. The Redmond-based company boasts that it's the safest and most secure browser ever constructed, and has included several new ... features meant to protect users against even the most innovative hacker attacks. As expected, Microsoft has simply added yet another digit to its browser, dubbing this one simple "IE8". There are a number of good reasons to invest precious download minutes in Internet Explorer 8; at the top of the list is a special new feature meant to protect ... (view more)

Recently unsealed documents relating to the ongoing "Vista Capable" class-action lawsuit revealed that a group within Microsoft recommended in 2005 that the lowest-priced version of Windows Vista be released without the "Vista" name due to concerns ... over "user product expectations." The lawsuit claims that Microsoft misled consumers with its "Vista Capable" marketing program in the months leading up to the January 2007 release of Windows Vista. Part of the allegations in the lawsuit contend that Windows Vista Home Basic is not the "real" Vista because it lacks the ... (view more)

The European Commission has once again attacked Microsoft for bundling Internet Explorer with Windows. The EU (European Union) body recently ruled in principle that such behavior breaches European competition laws. The ruling concludes a year-long ... investigation which is the latest in a series of battles between European regulators and Microsoft. In one case, involving the inclusion of Windows Media Player in Windows, Microsoft was fined a total of $745 million. The European Commission is the executive wing of the European political system: it carries out the laws made by politicians. Its new ... (view more)

According to a court document, an expert estimates that Microsoft earned more than $1.5 billion through the sales of PCs labeled as "Vista Capable" when they allowed some PC makers to label XP-running PCs as "Vista Capable" prior to the release of ... the Windows Vista operating system in early 2007. (Source: nwsource.com ) Last February we reported that a "Vista Capable" lawsuit was granted class-action status because some PCs labeled as "Vista Capable" were only capable of running the most basic version of the operating system. (Source: infopackets.com ) Despite claims that Microsoft ... (view more)