Category: Microsoft

EU Plans Fresh Strike on Microsoft

By | May 30, 2009 | 1 Comment

EU Plans Fresh Strike on MicrosoftArs Technica writes:

The Wall Street Journal is reporting today that European Union antitrust regulators aren’t done with Microsoft yet. The EU is looking into more sanctions against the software giant for including Internet Explorer with Windows, according to WSJ’s sources, and will likely announce a final ruling in the next few weeks. An EU spokesperson said that if the regulator rules against Microsoft, any remedy “would be based on the fundamental principle of unbiased choice” while a Microsoft spokesman says the company is “committed” to “full compliance” with EU law.

Continue reading at Ars Technica

Microsoft to Launch Silverlight 3 on July 10

By | May 29, 2009 | 4 Comments

Silverlight 3 Final
Picture Source: NeoWin

As per information from press invites, Microsoft is planning to launch Silverlight 3 and Expression Studio 3 on July 10.

Silverlight 3 introduces over 50 new features, such as: H.264 video support, MP4, ACC, 3D and GPU hardware acceleration support, major application development improvements and many more.

Although the following release was not expected to see the day of the light until later this year, apparently Microsoft has already finished what they had planned and is going to release it earlier than expected.

Why Hold a Hearing in the EU if Key Decision Makers are Unable to Attend?

By | May 21, 2009 | 5 Comments

Why Hold a Hearing in the EU if Key Decision Makers are Unable to Attend?Dave Heiner writes:

For as long as I’ve been at Microsoft (since 1994), there has always been keen interest in the antitrust issues raised by the success of Windows.

Interest peaked after we included a Web browser in Windows 95. That design choice led to the U.S. government case against Microsoft, which was resolved in 2002 with a consent decree and court rulings designed to promote competitive opportunities for browser vendors. Today Microsoft’s integration of the browser into Windows is regulated by these rulings, and computer users can choose Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Google Chrome, Opera or other browsers that run on Windows.

Continue reading at Microsofontheissues.com

Microsoft’s Last Minute Submission (IE Case)

By | May 9, 2009 | 1 Comment

Microsoft's Last Minute Submission (IE Case)Yahoo Tech Writes:

Microsoft says EU regulators will hand Google more dominance of the Internet search business if they go ahead with planned regulations on Microsoft’s Windows operating system, the Financial Times reported.

The FT said on Saturday that the move by Microsoft was contained in a confidential last-minute submission to the European Commission aimed at heading off antitrust action. Continue Reading

Moonlight 2.0 Preview Release now Available

By | May 8, 2009 | 0 Comments

Moonlight 2.0 Preview Release now AvailableMoonlight 2.0, a Linux alternative to Microsoft Silverlight has been released. Preview 1 can be downloaded from Go-Mono.com site for both, 32 and 64 bit systems. As for now, you can install it on Firefox only.

Moonlight 2.0 Alpha should be available somewhere in the next month, beta in summer and final release is set to be launched in September, 2009.

According to one of the developers, Moonlight 2.0 also includes some of the Silverlight 3.0 features, you can read more about it here.

Download Moonlight 2.0 Preview 1 (8.9 MB)

Microsoft Begins Collecting Suggestions for Internet Explorer 9

By | May 6, 2009 | 1 Comment

Microsoft Begins Collecting Suggestions for Internet Explorer 9 Today IE Team has posted the following message on Microsoft Connect website

“Hi Everyone!

We have added a new feedback form on Connect designed specifically to handle improvements for the next version of Internet Explorer. This includes not just feature requests, but all types of feedback including issues that currently exist in IE. Please continue to rate the submissions since we will look at the top rated reports first. Continue Reading

New Feature in Windows 7 RC Gets Removed

By | May 6, 2009 | 0 Comments

New Feature in Windows 7 RC Gets RemovedJust a short time after announcing new Windows 7 RC and IE8 behavior (where if a tab crashes, user gets a choice on what to do with it), IE team already released an update which turns this feature off.

What’s the main reason behind that? It was way too sensitive and annoying as Windows Vista UAC pop ups. Worrying that this can have a negative impact on Windows 7 users experience, Microsoft decided to pull this one off.

EU Schedules Microsoft Antitrust Hearing for June

By | May 5, 2009 | 0 Comments

EU Schedules Microsoft Antitrust Hearing for JuneElectronista writes:

A date has been set for Microsoft to defend itself against European antitrust charges, Reuters reports. Between June 3rd and the 5th, representatives for Microsoft are expected to testify in a closed hearing before the European Commission, elaborating on the outlines of a written response submitted on April 28th. The company was originally ordered to reply by March 12th, but was granted two extensions, first to April 21st and then the 28th.

[Read]

Microsoft Responds to EU Browser Antitrust Charges

By | April 29, 2009 | 10 Comments

Microsoft Responds to EU Browser Antitrust ChargesYahoo News Writes: Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday confirmed it has submitted a formal response to European Union charges that tying the Internet Explorer browser to its Windows operating system violates antitrust rules.
….
At the time of the complaint, Opera said it was asking EU regulators to either force Microsoft to market a version of Windows without the browser, or to include other browsers with Windows.

[Read]

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World vs. Microsoft

By | April 16, 2009 | 23 Comments

ComputerWeekly reports that European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS) group has joined EU and MS case (as complainant).

ECIS group includes large and small companies, such as:
Adobe Systems, Corel Corporation, IBM, Linspire, Nokia, Opera Software, Oracle Corporation, RealNetworks, Red Hat, and Sun Microsystems

Still no sign of Apple which is developing Safari web browser.

As previously reported, other participants are Google and Mozilla.

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