Microsoft

SAN FRANCISCO--The server market is rough these days and the tough times are having a variety of repercussions.

One of those impacts, says Windows Server Vice President Bill Laing, is the reported deal in the works between IBM and Sun Microsystems.

"It's not surprising," Laing said, as part of a wide-ranging interview on Friday. "I think the economy has accelerated this," he said, pointing to other deals, such as this week's acquisition of SGI's assets by Rackable Systems.

"The server business has certainly been struggling really the last six months," Laing … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Windows Server boss Bill Laing said in an interview Friday that the server version of Windows 7 will ship this calendar year.

Using a little bit of deduction, I'd say that means Windows 7 continues to be tracking ahead of schedule. Although Laing's comments referred to Windows Server 2008 R2 and not to the desktop version, server products traditionally ship after desktop operating systems based on the same code base, owing to greater testing needs.

"We've really been executing," Laing said, noting that although the R2 product is a relatively minor release for the … Read more

The Russian government is exploring whether Microsoft deserves closer scrutiny under its antitrust laws, specifically whether the software maker should be added to a government-maintained list of companies with high market share.

Being added to the list itself doesn't mean the company is under investigation, but rather that it must comply with laws governing firms that have a significant market share. Unlike in some regions, Russia starts keeping an eye on companies with even a relatively low share. Anything upwards of about 35 percent share could land a company on the list.

"Russian authorities have opened an inquiry … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Microsoft had little new to say about its Windows Mobile phones at CTIA 2009, but reinforced its intention to play in all the future arenas of personal computing.

Robbie Bach, head of Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division, ran through essentially the same news that his boss, CEO Steve Ballmer, presented about six weeks ago during the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona, Spain. The company demonstrated how Windows 7 has built-in software for connecting to 3G wireless networks, showed off some of the features of Windows Mobile 6.5, and played a quick video highlighting its mobile application store, … Read more

Microsoft is working with Facebook to keep the persistent Koobface virus off the popular social-networking site, the companies said on Thursday.

"In working with Facebook, we were able to add detection of Koobface to our Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT), which checks computers running Windows software to detect and remove viruses," Jeff Williams, a principal group program manager for the MRST, wrote in a guest post on the Facebook Blog.

The MSRT has removed Koobface nearly 200,000 times from more than 133,600 computers around the world just in the past two weeks, he wrote.

Koobface is … Read more

Microsoft reportedly plans to spend up to $100 million in an ad push aimed at trying to reposition the company's search efforts.

According to a report in Advertising Age, the company is likely to tap ad giant JWT for the campaign. Microsoft declined to comment on the report.

Having failed to strike a search deal with Yahoo, Microsoft has been working to revamp its own search efforts.

Microsoft has been testing changes to its search under the Kumo brand but still won't say for sure if that's what it will go with.

The software maker clearly needs … Read more

For those wondering about Microsoft exec Stephen Elop's suggestions that Office is coming to the iPhone, let me be unequivocal. It is.

How do I know? Microsoft has already said so. The software maker is planning over the coming months to introduce Web-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. Those programs will run not only in Internet Explorer, but also in Safari and Firefox. And, lest there be any ambiguity, Microsoft has already confirmed that this means Office for iPhone and Office for Linux.

Don't get me wrong. Those are both big deals--particularly Office for Linux (think … Read more

Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway is hoping that Microsoft's telephony software can help it replace its aging phone system. But it also hopes the software might help it replace another asset that's getting older: its workforce.

About 40 percent of the company's workers will become eligible for retirement in the next few years. BNSF is hoping that by adding tools like unified communications, it can help attract workers who have grown up with tools like instant messaging and video conferencing.

"We've got to attract and recruit that next generation of workers," said Gary Grissum, … Read more

Updated at 10:10 p.m. PDT to correct amount spent on R&D. The correct figure is $9 billion. Also, updated at 9:10 a.m. PDT on April 2 to correct the spelling of Stephen Elop's first name.

During an on-stage chat on Wednesday at the Web 2.0 Expo, Stephen Elop, Microsoft's president of the business division, defended himself against conference instigator Tim O'Reilly's challenge that Microsoft's traditional office applications aren't making, and may not be able to make, a successful transition to the Web.

Elop, a slick spokesman for … Read more