Microsoft

Microsoft has announced its plans to offer its Office software to developing countries. The cost? Only $3. The new plan contrasts the OLPC effort, which aims to equip classrooms in developing countries with an entirely new platform. Rather than ... offering any hardware, Microsoft is expected to rely on the upcoming Intel Classmate PC to run its software. Microsoft is offering Windows XP Started Edition, Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student Editions, and various other educational programs. (Source: dailytech.com ) Microsoft has dubbed this effort "Unlimited Potential," a title which reflects ... (view more)

Dell has announced that it will begin offering Windows XP on some of their consumer systems due to significant customer demand. The company said many customers have been asking for XP as part of the Dell IdeaStorm project, which asks customers to ... help the company come up with product ideas. "We heard you loud and clear on bringing the Windows XP option back to our Dell consumer PC offerings," Dell said on its Ideas in Action page. Users vote on various suggestions. Bringing Windows XP back received over 10,000 votes. Interestingly, adding Linux received over 123,000 votes. Starting ... (view more)

Since last November and even before that, Microsoft has been aggressively hyping the features and virtues of Vista. We've all seen it talked about in the printed media, on television, and on web sites, including Infopackets. Is Vista the latest and ... greatest Windows operating system ever produced? The jury is still out on that. Even I, the local Linux 'geek', look upon Vista and can see where there are seeds of potential greatness, but only the potential. It's just too soon to say for sure if will attain greatness. Why So Much Memory? On the technical side, the reasons for the expanded ... (view more)

Since Vista was released early this year, there has been no shortage of analyses judging the success of sales of the new operating system. But months have passed, and there still doesn't seem to be a consensus on how Vista is doing. Even Microsoft ... CEO Steve Ballmer seems to have changed his mind a few times. A few weeks ago, Ballmer said: "We think in the next three months we'll probably sell five times as many copies of Windows Vista as we ever did [Windows 95] in the equivalent period of time... We'll probably go double what we did with Windows XP." But last week, it sounded like he changed ... (view more)

In what appears to be a last ditch effort to sell more of it's newest operating system (OS), Microsoft has notified computer manufacturers that by the start of 2008, they will no longer be allowed to ship PCs loaded with Windows XP. "The OEM version ... of XP Professional goes next January," said Frank Luburic, senior ThinkPad product manager for Lenovo. "At that point, they'll have no choice." "Dell recognizes the needs of small business customers and understands that more time is needed to transition to a new operating system," Dell said on its Direct2Dellblog . Dell plans to continue offering ... (view more)

Online advertising company DoubleClick is looking for a buyer, and many analysts speculate that Microsoft is going to spend the big bucks necessary to acquire the company. In 2005, the private-equity firm Hellman ... (view more)

Windows Vista took a long time to develop. Some 10,000 plus Microsoft employees worked on the new operating system, with the project -- codenamed "Longhorn" -- eventually expanding from a mere update to XP to something as radical as the epic Windows ... 95. With all of the pent-up hype over the new product, it's meant just as much anxiety for Microsoft's competition. That's the word right now, with reports that the release of Vista -- as delayed as it seemed to be -- has also prolonged the wait for Apple's new Mac OS X "Leopard". So, why the delay of Apple's operating system (OS)? One of the ... (view more)

Although most of us are aware that Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows Vista, is an improvement to yesterday's XP, few are convinced it's worth the pain of upgrading. Further hurting Microsoft's efforts have been a plethora of ... sensationalist reports on Vista shortcomings, many of which overlook the available improvements. Despite the negative light, Vista appears to be shining on the global stage, accounting for some 20 million licenses sold in a month. Still love XP? It's worth noting that Vista's initial sales are double that of XP, Microsoft's previous operating system. By ... (view more)

Research carried out by analyst Vanson Bourne shows that UK firms have little enthusiasm for the new Windows Vista operating system. Nearly 6 out of 10 businesses say they have no plans to deploy it. (Source: Techworld.com ) 100 IT directors and ... chief technology officers at UK companies employing more than 1,000 staff were surveyed. 1 percent of those surveyed planned to deploy Vista immediately. 58 percent of those surveyed were not. In larger companies that employed more than 3,000 staff, 68 percent of those surveyed said they had no plans to deploy Vista. 78 percent of respondents across ... (view more)

Ever sit, stewing in mixed emotion as entertainment journalists report on those grab baskets bestowed upon celebrities for attending the Academy Awards? It just seems as though the rich get richer, or at least offered expensive gadgets and ... moisturizers. Now, tech fans can get that very same feeling, with recent word that Microsoft chief Bill Gates will be presented an honorary doctorate from Harvard University, some thirty years after he dropped out of the world-famous college. Gates will be given the doctorate at Harvard's 356th Commencement, which takes place on June 7. He'll also be the ... (view more)