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).
Standards battles tend to be all about politics and politicking, as the increasingly heated Open Document Format (ODF) vs. Open Office XML (OOXL) file-format contest proves.
Does it seem odd to anyone else that Apple allegedly is planning an anti-Vista campaign that will be waged from within Apple's 170 retail stores?
"Quattro," a k a Windows Home Server, has been a puzzle to me, in terms of its codename. It didn't seem to fit with the other members of the Windows Server family: Longhorn Server, Cougar, Centro, etc. Here's the story behind the Quattro codename.
One of the most surprising features of Windows Home Server, the product formerly codenamed "Quattro" (and later, "Q") is how Microsoft managed to keep it a secret until it was officially unveiled in early January.
On January 29, Microsoft posted on the Office Live blog a status update on its plan to transition nearly 200,000 beta testers to the final version of Office Live. The news isn't good
Microsoft quietly raised last week its per-incident support prices across the board for Windows and Office. Officials are attributing the changes to a desire "to provide more personalized support options based on customers’ technology usage."
What will Windows 7, the next full version of the Windows client operating system, bring to the table? Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has been dropping a few hints lately.
Apple is advising users attempting to use iTunes on Windows Vista to wait a few more weeks for an update that will be designed to be Vista-compatible from the get-go.
This update just in from the Windows Vista licensing department. If you are one of the folks who purchased this week the Vista Family Discount Pack and got an invalid licensing key, the fix is coming soon.
Microsoft has been fleshing out the Windows Live development platform for almost a year now. One nagging piece has been missing, until this week, that is, was the Windows Live ID software development kit (SDK).