Windows 95 turns 15: Has Microsoft's OS peaked? | Beyond Binary - CNET News

Windows 95 turns 15: Has Microsoft's OS peaked? | Beyond Binary - CNET News: "Windows 95, which was separate from the company's business-oriented Windows NT product, added a number of features over its predecessors including better network support, the ability to send faxes (yes, there was a time when that was a big deal) along with basic audio recording, audio playback, and video playback tools. Features now thought of as core parts of Windows, such as the start menu and taskbar, also made their debut with Windows 95. Plus, it just looked a whole lot better graphically and was far more stable than past consumer versions of Windows.

Internet Explorer debuted around the same time, but was sold separately as part of Microsoft's Plus Pack for Windows 95. It was eventually bundled in directly with the operating system in an update to Windows 95 released the following year.

By the time Windows 95 was finally ushered off the market in 2001, it had become a fixture on computer desktops around the world.

'If you look at Windows 95, it was a quantum leap in difference in technological capability and stability,' Gartner analyst Neil MacDonald said at that time.

A decade and a half after Windows 95 hit the market, though, one question looms large for Windows? Are all its best days in the past?"

Ballmer pitches cloud to fellow CEOs

With a high-power crowd in the audience, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer went hard-core with his sales pitch on the role cloud computing will have for businesses in the coming years.

Speaking to about 125 chief executives and other leaders, Ballmer said that truly big shifts in technology actually don't happen all that often.

"The really big ones you have to totally jump on," Ballmer said during a speech at the company's annual CEO Summit, which runs through Thursday at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Wash. "We are, right now, all of us in the midst of a big one.

"Among those Ballmer was speaking to were CEOs like Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway, as well as other leaders ranging from Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to Jordan's Queen Rania Al Abdullah, who was given an award from the Tech Museum.

Source

Microsoft exec: Next Windows Server a major release | Beyond Binary - CNET News

Microsoft exec: Next Windows Server a major release | Beyond Binary - CNET News: "Although Microsoft won't say when it will arrive, the next version of Windows Server won't be another minor release.

In an interview on Monday, server and tools unit president Bob Muglia said Microsoft is sticking to a schedule set out several years ago in which the server and tools unit puts out alternating minor and major releases every two years or so. The most recent update, the server version of Windows 7, was a minor update--Windows Server 2008 R2--completed last year.

'There's no question you're due for a major release of Windows Server,' Muglia said, following his keynote speech at the TechEd conference in New Orleans. Microsoft isn't expected to talk much about its plans for the next versions of Windows until next year."

Microsoft boxing up its Azure cloud | Beyond Binary - CNET News

Microsoft boxing up its Azure cloud | Beyond Binary - CNET News: "Microsoft is announcing on Monday that it plans to let businesses and partners run Windows Azure in their own data centers by purchasing a new server appliance.

The software company had previously hinted that customers might someday be able to host their own instances of the cloud-based operating system, but had yet to commit to that option.

The Windows Azure Platform Appliance will be made up of hundreds of servers, along with networking gear and other components in a container-size package. HP, Dell, and Fujitsu will be among the first to sell the appliances, although Redmond is offering few details, such as how much the appliances will cost or when they will be available."

Microsoft hungry to eat VMWare's lunch | Beyond Binary - CNET News

Microsoft hungry to eat VMWare's lunch | Beyond Binary - CNET News: "'VMware is asking many of you to sign three-year license agreements for your virtualization projects,' Microsoft vice president Brad Anderson writes in an open letter to VMware customers. 'But with the arrival of cloud computing, signing up for a three-year virtualization commitment may lock you into a vendor that cannot provide you with the breadth of technology, flexibility or scale, that you'll need to build a complete cloud computing environment.'

Microsoft hopes to make the case that VMWare's approach centers on virtualization as a cost-saving means rather than in the broader shift of data from being stored in a company's own data center into one in which data is stored both locally and on a third-party's cloud-based service.

'Virtualization, while a necessary component of a move to the cloud, isn't by itself sufficient,' Microsoft's Amy Barzdukas told CNET in a telephone interview on Monday. Microsoft talks about how it is moving all of its major server products to being offered as both server software and hosted cloud-based services."

BBC News - Paul Allen sues tech giants over 'patent violations'

BBC News - Paul Allen sues tech giants over 'patent violations': "The co-founder of Microsoft, Paul Allen, is suing several high-tech giants for infringing patents held by a firm he founded in the 1990s.

The legal action against Apple, Yahoo, Facebook, Google and eBay, as well as six other firms, asserts that web technologies first developed by Interval Licensing have been infringed.

The patents are key to how e-commerce and search websites worked, it says.

Google, Facebook and eBay immediately said they would fight the accusations.

'This lawsuit against some of America's most innovative companies reflects an unfortunate trend of people trying to compete in the courtroom instead of the marketplace,' a Google spokesman said in a statement.

'Innovation - not litigation - is the way to bring to market the kinds of products and services that benefit millions of people around the world.'

A Facebook spokesman called the action 'completely without merit'."

BBC News - The rise and rise of the 'mummy bloggers'

BBC News - The rise and rise of the 'mummy bloggers': "There is an immovable force in the blogosphere.

They come in their thousands, and command dedicated followings who trust in their every word.

They are the so-called mummy bloggers.

Real mothers, blogging about the minutiae of family life to offer a no-holds-barred account of life with children.

For the mums, they provide a discussion and support network, but for advertisers they are the holy grail: popular, trusted - and worth paying for."

BBC News - Blackberry makes offer to India ahead of ban deadline

BBC News - Blackberry makes offer to India ahead of ban deadline: "Blackberry-maker Research in Motion has said it is willing to work with India to support the country's need for 'lawful access' to encrypted services.

RIM and the Indian government are holding last-minute talks ahead of a 31 August deadline, when a ban on the devices is due to begin.

India wants the ability to monitor secure e-mail and instant messaging services provided by the firm.

RIM maintains that it does not do 'specific deals' with countries.

The firm said that it had now offered to 'lead an industry forum focused on supporting the lawful access needs of law enforcement agencies'"

BBC - Computer games course in Norwich scores record uptake

BBC - Computer games course in Norwich scores record uptake: "A Norfolk university is reporting its highest ever enrolment for its computer games degree despite struggles in the gaming industry.
Sixty students will start their Games Art and Design undergraduate course at the Norwich University College of the Arts (NUCA) in October 2010.
The course's popularity has increased by 200% since 2005."

Icons of the Web

Icons of the Web

Apple Is Not the New Microsoft. And, Yet … | Epicenter�| Wired.com

Apple Is Not the New Microsoft. And, Yet … | Epicenter�|

Wired.com:

"Apple reported record revenues earlier this week but Microsoft had a blowout quarter of its own, reporting revenues Thursday of $16.04 billion — enough to keep the Redmond giant ahead of the Cupertino company in this particular financial metric."

Block Zuck? Not So Fast … (Updated) | Epicenter�| Wired.com

Block Zuck? Not So Fast … (Updated) | Epicenter�| Wired.com