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).
How much would you pay Microsoft for a port of its BitLocker drive encryption -- a technology slated to be available only to Vista Enterprise and Vista Ultimate users -- that could run on the Vista Business SKU? This might not be a purely hypothetical question.
The consumer launch of Windows Vista and Office 2007 is next week. But business users, partners and developers have been able to get their hands on these products since late November 2006. A number of these folks are starting to weigh in with their two months' worth of advice.
After lots of wavering, Microsoft has finally made the due date for Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) official: The update will ship in the latter half of 2007.
Microsoft s trying to change public perceptions of Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) and Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) -- programs that many company observers and customers consider to be much more punitive than protective.
Stephen Walli, the former Microsoft exec turned open-source proponent, is at it again.This time, the former Softie is making a case for why Microsoft should consider open-sourcing some of its crown jewels, including SQL Server and SharePoint. And he's got a few reasons that might make even closed-source proponents reconsider their business-model philosophies.
If Microsoft made Vista available for legal retail download, would the masses come? Looks like we'll soon find out.
In an interview this week with Knowledge@Wharton, however, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer finally admits on the record that the Zune DRM system is where Microsoft's putting its future eggs.
Can Microsoft parlay its software-development experience into superior tools for those willing to give its adCenter platform a whirl? The Softies are attempting to send that message with some of Microsoft's latest Live-centric announcements and unveilings.
Microsoft has hired Donald Ferguson, the so-called "father of WebSphere," to work in Microsoft's Office of the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) with Ray Ozzie, as reported by the .Net Developers Journal. But what, exactly, will Ferguson do in his new role as technical fellow in the "Platforms and Strategy" area?
Even though the retail launch of Windows Vista just a couple of weeks away, Microsoft is still continuing to fine-tune its licensing and pricing details. Sources said that Microsoft will announce some time over the next few days that the company will allow Vista Ultimate customers to purchase two additional copies of Vista Home Premium for somewhere between $50 to $99 a piece.