Thor Olavsrud

Linux operating system server shipments are forecast to be on a high growth track, which is likely to convince Microsoft to begin moving some of its proprietary application enablers to the Linux environment by 2004, according to research firm META Group. Microsoft has not made a definitive answer one way or the other. “Microsoft will […]

Aiming to turn its upcoming Office 11 business productivity suite into an extensible platform for business applications, Microsoft Monday unveiled plans for a set of tools that will allow Visual Studio .NET developers to build business-specific applications based on Word and Excel documents. Dubbed Visual Studio Tools for Office, the technology will allow developers to […]

Gambling on the future of wireless connectivity, tech bellwethers AT&T , Intel and IBM Thursday pooled their resources behind a new company that will offer wholesale nationwide wireless Internet access. The company, Cometa Networks — backed by investment concerns Apax Partners and 3i — will leverage its backers’ technology to sell services to telcos, ISPS, […]

Microsoft and Sun Microsystems may have ironed out their differences long enough to get Sun to join the Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I), but they already seem to be redrawing battle lines over standards. On Wednesday, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS), of which both Microsoft and Sun are members, formed […]

Microsoft Monday used the Comdex Fall 2002 tradeshow as a springboard to unveil a host of new Windows XP Media Center PC manufacturers and a slew of product announcements, including a target date for the release of Visual Studio .NET 2003 (code-named “Everett”) and Windows .NET Server 2003. Microsoft launched Windows XP Media Center Edition […]

Many of the gadgets coming out of the technology sector in the past year have been aimed at mobile workers giving them the ability to stay in-touch and on-the-job while on the road. But, fresh off of its victory in its landmark antitrust case, Microsoft and its hardware partners are aiming their newest products, based […]

Aiming to build momentum on its speech technology efforts for the .NET platform, Microsoft Wednesday used the annual SpeechTEK International Exposition and Educational Conference as a platform to unwrap the beta 2 release of the .NET Speech Software Development Kit (SDK), a technical preview of the .NET Speech platform, and a new Joint Development Program […]

Web services technology is coming into its own within the enterprise, according to a new survey prepared jointly by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) and Systinet (a provider of Web services infrastructure software), with the promise of accelerating adoption in 2003. Even so, and perhaps surprisingly in light of the hype which has […]

Microsoft-watchers got a glimpse of the newest iteration of a cornerstone of the software giant’s core business Tuesday when it unveiled the beta release of Office 11. The Office 11 beta, a major makeover for the flagship Office XP suite, targets developers looking to integrate Office into other business applications and create software like collaborative […]

Microsoft Monday announced a “major expansion” of its strategic relationship with Siebel Systems , under which the two firms will jointly engineer Siebel’s customer relationship management (CRM) software for Microsoft’s .NET architecture. Together, the two companies hope to capitalize on the possibilities of Web services by utilizing the technology’s capabilities to provide application integration above […]