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).
Microsoft and Novell are touting the results of a new, paid-for study on the customer impact of the November 2 interoperability deal forged by the companies. But there are other survey questions I feel the researchers could have and should have posed that would have been far more telling about how customers running both Windows and Linux really see the deal.
Is Vista's security really so much better than that provided by Windows XP Service Pack 2? The short answer to that question, according to the Associated Press, is not a whole heck of a lot.
If you were wondering when Microsoft plans to publish an official list of applications that don't work well with Windows Vista, the answer is never.
In Week 2 of my "Microsoft code name a day" series, I'll be looking at some of Redmond's "vista-themed" code names, starting with "Fiji."
It's definitely a balancing act for Microsoft. The company wants to encourage users to upgrade (preferably via new PC preloads), but doesn't want to scare off the ones who are interested in running Vista on older machines.
Starting with Exchange Server 2007, the Exchange team is committing to delivering multiple fixes and updates in the form of single "roll up" delivered once every six to eight weeks. Under the current model, the Exchange team has been releasing multiple, near-simultaneous hot fixes, some of which are incompatible with others.
There are two different "Crossbow" projects at Microsoft. One has to do with Windows Mobile and the other with Windows development tools. I cover both projects in the fifth installment of my "Code Name a Day" report.
There's definitely a move underfoot at many -- might I dare say, "most" -- divisions at Microsoft to squelch the practice of providing to the public ship-date targets by which the company may be measured. Good idea or not?
Mac users: Don't feel singled out, re: Microsoft's failure to provide file-format compatibility between Office for Mac and Office 2007 for Windows documents until 2007.
"Cider" is a Microsoft code name with an interesting origin. It all goes back to Windows Presentation Foundation, code-named "Avalon," and an apple-producing region of medieval England ....