Beyond Binary

Microsoft said Friday that its inquiry confirms that a tool aimed to make it easier to load Windows 7 on a Netbook does in fact contain open-source code.

"After looking at the code in question, we are now able to confirm this was indeed the case, although it was not intentional on our part," Microsoft's Peter Galli said in a blog posting. "While we had contracted with a third party to create the tool, we share responsibility as we did not catch it as part of our code review process. We have furthermore conducted a review of other code provided through the Microsoft Store and this was the only incident of this sort we could find.

As a result, Microsoft said it will make available next week the source code for the tool as well as the binaries under the terms of the General Public License (GPL v2). Microsoft will also make the tool again available to customers at the Microsoft store.

Microsoft had pulled the software utility down earlier this week after blogger Rafael Rivera noted in a posting that the tool appeared to use code from the open source ImageMaster project. (Of note, that project is now no longer available on CodePlex, where it had been posted).

Though somewhat arcane, the Windows USB/DVD Tool was Microsoft's answer to a tough problem--upgrading the operating system on Netbooks and other PCs without an optical drive.

Microsoft had been exploring for months different ways to handle the issue, eventually settling on this software program, released last month, which lets users take a downloadable copy of the operating system and create a bootable drive.

Releasing software under an open-source license is not entirely new to Microsoft, although Microsoft typically doesn't do so under the GPL, which it sees as one of the more restrictive of the open-source licenses.

The software maker did release a few Linux drivers under GPLv2, although it may have had its hand forced there as well. Some have suggested the drivers contained GPL code, meaning that they necessarily would have had to be released back under the same GPL license.

Microsoft confirmed on Friday that a tool aimed at making it easier to get Windows 7 on to Netbooks does, in fact, use open source code. As a result, Microsoft said it will make the code for the tool publicly available next week.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Seizing what is perhaps its most valuable advertising real estate, Microsoft said on Friday it has launched a pilot program to sell ads on the Windows desktop.

Advertisers can buy the right to offer various themes that customize the desktop image and that promote various gadgets and even custom sounds for the Windows 7 operating system. Microsoft stressed, however, that users will choose which, if any, of the customizations they want to download.

The Windows Personalization Gallery offers a desktop branding experience for users throughout the operation of their Windows 7-based PC, including backgrounds, slide shows, borders, and application audio elements.

Microsoft's pitch is that the program will allow consumers to connect with brands they particularly like.

Images: Getting personal with Windows 7

"The new Windows Theme Experience and Windows Personalization Gallery in Windows 7 allow consumers to customize their technology to reflect the things in life they are most passionate about," Microsoft vice president Darren Huston said in a statement. "These are great examples of Microsoft innovation and technology coming together to enable top global brands to reach audiences in new and interesting ways."

Microsoft said that the advertising program is a test that will run through October of next year. Early partners include Porsche, Infiniti, and Ducati, and Microsoft itself is participating.

"Microsoft is a key partner in our global advertising strategy; they constantly provide new ideas and opportunities which are tailored to our brand and exciting for our customers," Infiniti marketing director Jon Brancheau said in a statement. "The Windows Personalization Gallery and Windows Theme Experience are unique offerings that will provide Infiniti with a new set of tools to integrate our brand elements into the lives of consumers everywhere."

Twentieth Century Fox, another early advertiser, will use the Windows desktop to promote its movies.

"People connect emotionally with films and the stories they tell," vice president Bettina Sherick said in a statement. "These are the same people who personalize their digital experience. We are thrilled to be able to bring our film properties to consumers and let them engage more deeply with the stories that move them."

Microsoft said that the themes are available globally from Microsoft's Web site.

"We pride ourselves on listening to our clients and developing the most innovative, accessible and relevant products based on their feedback," said John Nicol, general manager, Last Mile Innovation, Microsoft Consumer & Online.

Although new to Windows, sponsored themes have been common in other PC experiences, such as instant-messaging programs.

So, Windows 7 users, what do you make of this?

In addition to the usual collection of pretty pictures, Microsoft is now selling businesses the option of offering sponsored desktop themes for Windows 7.

(Credit: CNET)

Those who can't wait until next week for the beta of Office 2010 can apparently find the code already on torrent Web sites.

According to Neowin, the beta code has popped up on peer-to-peer sites in recent days.

Meanwhile, another enthusiast site has posted screenshots of what it says is the beta of Office 2010 and its source--Microsoft itself. Craving Tech said that it got the code on a flash drive from the software maker, and the site has posted a number of screenshots.

Microsoft is widely expected to release the updated test version at next week's Professional Developer Conference in Los Angeles. Microsoft has said that it will have a beta of Office 2010 this month and has hinted on its Twitter feed that it will have big Office news next week, all but guaranteeing the release of the beta.

The beta is an update to the technology preview of the software that was released in July. That version also leaked to the Web ahead of its official release.

In addition to the desktop versions of Office 2010, Microsoft is also prepping browser-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. It has released a preview version of the Web apps (except for OneNote), but it is unclear if those will see an update next week.

For its part, Microsoft is staying mum. "We have not officially released the beta code of Office (2010)," a representative said. "We recommend that people do not download code from unauthorized sources."

Among the features of Office 2010 is a "paste preview" function that lets people see what different options will look like before they paste text from the clipboard.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Sharing a computer doesn't have to mean sharing a computer.

Microsoft is working on a new product, due out next year, that will let multiple students work independently and simultaneously off a single PC.

Although each student will have their own mouse, keyboard and screen--and be able to work on their own application--the computation will be done by a single PC running a new version of Microsoft's Windows Server operating system. The new product is being dubbed Windows Multipoint Server 2010.

Windows Multipoint Server, due out in the first half of next year, allows a multiple students to work off a single PC, each running their own applications and off their own keyboard, mouse and display.

(Credit: Microsoft)

"Over the past few years, we at Microsoft have been exploring the area of shared resource computing--a new computing category that allows a customer to tap into a computer's excess capability to let a single computer support multiple users simultaneously," Multipoint Server General Manager Ira Snyder said in a blog posting. "In the world of education, shared resource computing has great potential to extend the reach and utilization of affordable computing for students."

The approach is similar to one taken by NComputing, a start-up run by former e-Machines CEO Stephen Dukker. Will Poole, the former Windows executive who also led Microsoft's emerging markets efforts for a time, serves as NComputing's co-chairman. NComputing sells Windows and Linux-based systems to both schools and businesses.

Multipoint Server can handle up to 10 different set-ups, each with their own keyboard, mouse, and monitor. The product is based on the latest server OS--Windows Server 2008 R2. Systems running the new software will be built by computer makers, who will then offer them to schools in the U.S. and across the globe.

The product shares a name--but is separate--from an existing MultiPoint product that allows students to each have their own mouse and work off a single display. (Note that the story I link to has Poole--then at Microsoft--talking about the MultiPoint mouse.)

Microsoft hasn't said what it will charge for the product, but on the software side, Multipoint-based systems require a license for the server and then a client access license for each set-up that is connected to it.

For now, Microsoft says it's aiming the product only at the education market.

Update: I asked NComputing for comment and expect to have something later Thursday. In the mean time, I asked Microsoft for its thoughts on what this means for NComputing. Here's what I got back:

Microsoft does not wish to comment on its relationship with NComputing at this time. Through the implementation of Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 and other shared resource computing solutions, we believe that education scenarios including school labs, classrooms and libraries can greatly benefit by potentially reducing total cost of ownership and providing more users with access to computing. We believe that with Windows MultiPoint Server 2010, we can deliver great value with a platform that provides a stable and well-supported Windows experience for a shared environment.

There are many companies, like NComputing, who also offer shared resource computing solutions. Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 is a product that will be available to all OEMs, and we encourage third party providers in the shared resource computing space to participate with this product.

Update 2, 4:15 p.m. PT: In a telephone interview, Poole indicated that NComputing was likely to be among the companies selling products based on MultiPoint server.

"We knew it was coming," Poole said. "We obviously have close relationships with Microsoft. We have not announced any products here yet but you should assume that we would."

The availability of the software option from Microsoft could bring more competition, Poole acknowledged, but said there is enough demand for shared computing to support additional players in the market.

"It certainly could create additional competition coming in and we feel fine about that," Poole said.

About three-quarters of NComputing's sales are in the academic market, with the remainder coming from the business space, Poole said. Just this week, NComputing announced a large deal with India's Employee State Insurance Corporation. There NComputing, along with Wipro, will be setting up 31,000 virtual desktops throughout the country.

The "vast majority" of NComputing's sales are of Windows-based systems, Poole said, although NComputing also offers Linux-based options.

Unlike when you stand over your coworker's desk, Microsoft's Bing search engine actually works better when you hover.

One of the key features of the would-be rival to Google is that when you hover to the right of a result, you can get a preview of what to expect. As part of an update this week, Bing's hover result will now feature more information including a thumbnail preview of the site in question.

Microsoft is using Wolfram Alpha to help power certain results, such as this search for the fat content of french fries.

(Credit: CNET News)

One of the ongoing challenges for Bing, besides just getting more people to use the site, is letting them know that the hover feature is there. Microsoft's research has shown it gets high usage from those who know about it, but also finds that lots of people don't know the feature is there. Microsoft has been experimenting with some different visual cues that might make it easier to stumble upon the previews.

The hover feature was developed by the San Francisco-based team that Microsoft acquired as part of last year's acquisition of Powerset. Powerset, which developed a semantic search technology, also powers Bing's index of Wikipedia.

Bing's fall update update also includes the first fruits of a deal with Wolfram Alpha. As part of that arrangement, certain health related searches, such as "how many calories in a hamburger" will now feature information from Alpha. Bing will also rely on Alpha for some math calculations, Microsoft said in a blog posting on Wednesday. Wolfram noted that Microsoft is one of the first customers for a commercial licensing program that was formally announced several weeks ago.

Other changes to Bing include improved local results for topics such as weather and events.

It's all part of a wave of updates Microsoft is making to Bing this week. On Tuesday, Microsoft said it is moving its MSN Video site under the Bing umbrella, with a new video page that can be used to watch videos from places like Hulu and elsewhere.

The company also announced some enhancements to Bing Maps, including the ability to use the mouse to alter a suggested route and have one's directions re-calculated.

The improvements come as Microsoft is looking for ways to stand out from Google as it tries to wrest share from its much larger rival. The software maker has seen a modest uptick but faces steep hurdles in trying to make more significant gains.

Experian Hitwise said Wednesday that Bing's share reached 9.57 percent in October. That's up from 8.96 percent in September, but still well behind Google, which had more than 70 percent and Yahoo, with 16 percent of the U.S. search query market.

While adding features is clearly important, trying to stay ahead in the search game can be quite a challenge. Just hours after Microsoft announced a deal last month to index real-time tweets from Twitter, Google announced plans to do the same.

Microsoft has also gotten some unwanted attention for one of its features--the Bing Cashback program--where users can get a portion of their online transactions rebated by starting off on Bing. A blog posting outlined a flaw in the mechanism that could allow people to get cash back without ever spending money via Bing.

That posting was pulled after a demand from Microsoft's lawyers.

Microsoft said on Tuesday that it is merging its video search efforts with its MSN Video site into a new page that will bear the Bing moniker.

Bing Video, Microsoft said, will serve as a site for watching everything from viral videos to full-length TV shows and video, drawing on content deals with sites such as Hulu, CBS, MySpace, DailyMotion, and YouTube.

The new Bing Video page replaces MSN Video and includes both video search as well as content from sites such as Hulu and CBS.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft notes that video is now a mainstay of the redesigned MSN home page and says MSN will continue to create original programming, such as its "Last Night on TV" effort.

The branding remains a challenge though, as evidenced by a video from Microsoft's Rob Bennett talking about the changes. The video, embedded below, features a "view more on MSN Video" link that, when clicked on, takes a user to the new Bing Video site.

The new Bing Video page is part of a series of changes Microsoft is making as part of a fall refresh of its search site. Earlier on Tuesday, Microsoft made some enhancements to Bing Maps, including the ability to use the mouse to alter a suggested route and have one's directions re-calculated.

The company said to expect more announcements later this week.

Disclaimer: CNET News is published by CBS Interactive, a unit of CBS.

Adoption of Windows 7 continues to grow, with the weeks-old operating system accounting for 4 percent of PCs accessing the Web over the past weekend, according to Net Applications.

By contrast, it took Windows Vista seven months to reach that level, the Web-monitoring firm said in a report.

"The early anticipation and high expectations for Windows 7 seem to have been warranted," Net Applications Executive Vice President Vince Vizzaccaro said in an e-mail.

One of the key questions, though, is whether Windows 7 will help Microsoft regain share from Apple, Vizzaccaro said. "Can Windows 7 stop the slow Windows decline, or even reverse it? I think we'll see that answer develop in the next few months," he said.

A week ago, Net Applications noted that Windows 7 use had topped 3 percent. The new operating system tends to do better on weekends, the time when consumer use accounts for more of the market and then share dips back somewhat as the work week starts.

Windows 7 went on sale October 22, though it was already topping 2 percent market share in Net Applications' daily tracking statistics even before its official debut.

Market researcher NPD said last week that boxed copy sales of Windows 7 were also outpacing those of Windows Vista in its initial days on the market.

Microsoft has also said it is seeing strong interest from businesses, although typically corporations take many months to test a new operating system before deploying it widely.

At TechEd Europe, Microsoft talked about enterprise adoption of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, highlighting some early customers of the two products.

"We remain just pleased and humbled by the very warm reception we're seeing," Windows Vice President Tami Reller said in a Webcast on Monday.

Microsoft has halted distribution of its Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool after questions were raised as to whether the software utility makes improper use of open-source code. The tool is designed to help owners of Windows XP-based Netbooks get Windows 7 onto their machines.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft has halted distribution of a tool aimed at making it easier to put Windows 7 on Netbooks amid allegations that the utility makes improper use of open-source code.

The software maker said on Tuesday that it has pulled down the Windows USB/DVD Tool while it investigates the issue, which was raised last week by Windows blogger Rafael Rivera on his Within Windows blog.

In his blog post, Rivera said Microsoft appears to use code from a tool called ImageMaster that is licensed under the GPLv2 open-source license. The General Public License, like other open-source licenses, allows code to be freely used by others, but has its own set of terms and conditions, such as sharing any modifications made to the code.

Microsoft confirmed it has launched a review of the matter and taken the utility off its online Microsoft Store until that inquiry has been completed.

"Microsoft is looking into this issue and is taking down the (Windows 7 updating) tool from the Microsoft Store site until its review is complete," the company said in a statement. "We apologize to our customers for any inconvenience."

Though somewhat arcane, the utility is important because it solves a technical challenge in upgrading the operating system on Netbooks and other PCs without an optical drive.

Microsoft had been exploring for months different ways of trying to help users of Windows XP-based Netbooks move to Windows 7. The tool, which was released last month alongside Windows 7, allows users to take a downloadable copy of the operating system and create a bootable drive.

The issue is also a thorn in Microsoft's efforts to show that it can play nice with the open-source community. As ZDNet blogger Mary Jo Foley notes, this isn't the first time Microsoft has been accused of misusing GPL code.

The latest dust-up comes as Microsoft is celebrating the third anniversary of its deal with Novell, one of Microsoft's biggest--and most controversial--efforts to blend its world with the open-source world.

Under that deal, Microsoft agreed not to sue Novell customers for their use of its Linux distributions.

Microsoft has also released a number of products under various open-source licenses itself, though typically not under the GPL, which it sees as one of the more restrictive licenses. Redmond has been particularly critical of terms in version 3 of the GPL.

The software maker did release a few Linux drivers under GPLv2, although it appears its hand may have been forced there. Some have suggested the drivers contained GPL code, meaning that they would have necessarily needed to be released back under the GPL.

Microsoft has taken a number of different approaches to open-source software, particularly Linux. The software maker has at times accepted the notion of a heterogeneous world where Linux and Windows co-exist, pledging to do better to make sure IT administrators can manage mixed environments.

At other times, Microsoft executives have lashed out, painting open-source software as violating hundreds of Microsoft patents. In its lawsuit against TomTom earlier this year, Microsoft for the first time made those accusations in court, alleging that TomTom's implementation of Linux in its GPS systems infringed on Microsoft patents. The two companies quickly settled the matter, although terms were not disclosed.

Microsoft made two enterprise moves on Monday, one expected and the other a bit of a surprise.

As promised, the company used its TechEd event in Berlin to release Exchange 2010, the latest version of its e-mail and calendar server software. Microsoft finalized the code for the product last month and had said it would launch at TechEd.

Microsoft VP Tami Reller talks about enterprise adoption of Windows 7 as part of a Webcast held after the first day of TechEd Europe.

(Credit: CNET News)

Meanwhile, the company also announced it is buying the Teamprise technology from SourceGear. Teamprise allows developers using Eclipse and those working on non-Windows operating systems to build applications using Microsoft's Visual Studio product.

"We know our customers face daily challenges with management, collaboration and development in heterogeneous environments. The industry must take steps to make interoperability a stronger business asset for our customers," senior vice president and developer unit head S. Somasegar said in a statement. "With the acquisition of the Teamprise assets, we're taking a step forward on this journey, providing customers with a viable cross-platform development solution that will help produce business results more quickly."

Microsoft didn't announce financial terms of the deal, but did say the Teamprise technology will be integrated into Visual Studio 2010.

At TechEd Europe, Microsoft also talked about enterprise adoption of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, highlighting some early customers of the two products.

"We remain just pleased and humbled by the very warm reception we're seeing," Microsoft vice president Tami Reller said in a Webcast on Monday.

As part of the same Webcast, senior vice president Chris Capossela sounded off on Cisco's announcement of updated collaboration tools that could take on Exchange.

"Rather than stitching together acquired products and calling that a solution, we've built Exchange form the ground up," he said.