Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley's blog covers the products, people and strategies that make Microsoft tick.
Mary Jo has covered the tech industry for more than 25 years for a variety of publications and Web sites, and is a frequent guest on radio, TV and podcasts, speaking about all things Microsoft-related. She is the author of Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft plans to stay relevant in the post-Gates era (John Wiley & Sons, 2008).
Office Communications Server 2007 will hit public beta some time later this month. Meanwhile, Microsoft has decided to make the protocols behind OCS 2007 available to any and all interested parties.
Another Microsoft app gets the "works with Vista" nod. The Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack (SP) 1 refresh for Windows Vista is out, as of March 6.
New Microsoft Research (MSR) search techniques and technologies under development were a hot topic at the March 6 kick-off of Microsoft's TechFest 2007 research showcase. On the short list: "Mix", a new search-based authoring tool, machine-learning technologies and new analysis tools desiged to improve search relevance.
The Department of Transportation has put an indefinite ban on upgrades to Windows Vista, Internet Explorer 7 and Office 2007. Microsoft has issued a response to some of the charges outlined in the DOT moratorium memo.
I stumbled onto a great way to tie the Elizabeth Hurley-Arun Nayar wedding of the year in with Microsoft Dynamics. I kid you not.
It's official. Blake Irving, Microsoft's Corporate VP in charge of Windows Live Platform, is retiring by "late summer." Here's the text of Irving's note, edited for length.
Novell has released for download an Open XML translator that allows users to open and save Microsoft Office Open XML-formatted word-processing documents in OpenOffice. As a result, Microsoft is ready to proclaim that the document file-format wars are now officially over.
Microsoft is continuing to roll out updates needed for a number of its products as a result of the early switch to Daylight Saving Time (DST) on March 11. The latest product to get the DST treatment is Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0.
Blake Irving, a Corporate Vice President in Microsoft's Windows Live Platform group, is resigning his post, according to sources close to the company.
Whatever happened to Microsoft's LOBi (Line of Business Interoperability) strategy/technology/products? Weren't they supposed to be the answer to Microsoft developers' Office-integration prayers?