November 2006 - Posts
To download files and slides from the New England Licensing bootcamp that occurred on November 16th please CLICK HERE and select the Licensing folder.
Thank you so much for your time and participation.
Microsoft licenses Office UI for free
Developers may use Office 2007 as a platform but Redmond gets to protect its investment
By Elizabeth Montalbano, IDG News Service
November 21, 2006
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Microsoft Corp. is licensing the new UI (user interface) in Office 2007 for free so developers can build applications that look similar to the programs in the suite, the company said Tuesday.
Microsoft is licensing both design and functionality of Office 2007's RibbonX UI, as well as offering guidelines for implementing it, through a new program, said Takeshi Numoto, Microsoft general manager for Office Client. Developers and ISVs (independent software vendors) can sign up with Microsoft on the Web and register products that will use the UI.
More information about the new licensing program can be found here .
Microsoft said it decided to launch the licensing program after being approached by ISV partners that wanted to build applications using Office 2007 as a platform.
The RibbonX UI is a completely new interface for Office 2007 that is designed to make common Office features easier to use.
According to Numoto, the company has spent hundreds of millions of dollars revamping Office 2007's UI; indeed, it is the suite's most significant new feature. The company wants "qualified developers" to be able to use these investments, but it also wants to protect its proprietary investment from unauthorized use.
"The new licensing program enables developers and ISVs to benefit legally from Microsoft’s innovation by using the UI for their own applications," he said.
Andrew Brust, chief of new technology for New York consulting firm twentysix New York, said a new formal program for licensing RibbonX makes a lot of sense because the UI is "the result of a significant investment by Microsoft in usability research and UI development," and Microsoft naturally wants to protect that.
Brief Description
This document shows you how to install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 side-by-side with Windows SharePoint Services 2.0, so you can use the exciting new features in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 without breaking the integration between Windows SBS and Windows SharePoint Services 2.0
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Quick Details
Overview
System Requirements
Instructions
Related Resources
Quick Details
File Name:
SBSWSSv3.doc
Version:
1.0
Date Published:
11/15/2006
Language:
English
Download Size:
128 KB
Estimated Download Time:
1 min 56K
Dial-up (56K)DSL/Cable (256K)DSL/Cable (768K)T1 (1.5M) 1 min
Overview
Use this document to install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 side-by-side with Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, so you can use the exciting new features in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 without breaking the integration between Windows SBS and Windows SharePoint Services 2.0.
Top of page
System Requirements
- Supported Operating Systems: Windows Small Business Server 2003
To view this document: Microsoft Word or Word Viewer for Windows
This document applies to: Top of page
Instructions
- Click the Download link to start the download.
- Do one of the following:
- To view the document immediately, click Open or Run this program from its current location.
- To copy the document to your computer for viewing at a later time, click Save or Save this program to disk.
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Microsoft backtracks on Vista transfer limits
Amid outcry from tech enthusiasts, Microsoft says it will allow retail Windows buyers unlimited license transfers to a different PC.
By Ina Fried
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: November 2, 2006, 11:00 AM PST
REDMOND, Wash.--Reversing a licensing change announced two weeks ago, Microsoft said on Thursday that it will not limit the number of times that retail customers can transfer their Windows Vista license to a different computer.
On Oct. 16, Microsoft issued the new user license for Vista, including terms that would have limited the ability of those who buy a boxed copy of the operating system to transfer that license. Under the proposed terms, users could have made such a switch only one time.
However, the new restriction prompted an outcry among hardware enthusiasts and others. Microsoft is returning the licensing terms to basically what they were in Windows XP--users can transfer their license to a new PC an unlimited number of times, provided they uninstall and stop using it on the prior machine.
The software maker said it paid attention to the response both directly to the company and on blogs and decided to reverse course. Microsoft had hoped to use the change to aid its ongoing efforts to thwart piracy.
"We're trying to be really clear about our intention to prevent piracy," said Microsoft product manager Mike Burk. "At the same time, after listening to the feedback that came in, (we) felt that we needed to make this change."
By reversing course, Burk said, Microsoft hoped to assuage users' concerns, particularly those of hobbyists who frequently upgrade the components of their PC, in some cases triggering Windows to consider the machine a new PC.
The plan to limit transfers was part of a series of changes to the terms that apply to boxed copies of Vista, not to the license that comes on a new, Vista-equipped PC. Separate rules apply for the versions of Windows installed on new PCs, which is how the majority of buyers get their copy of Windows. Typically, copies of Windows purchased on a new PC cannot legally be transferred to another PC.
Burk said that Microsoft isn't planning to back off any of its other planned licensing changes, including a move related to virtualization, in which a computer runs multiple operating systems, or multiple copies of the same operating system, at the same time.
Under those new license terms, any Windows version can serve as the primary, or host, operating system. However, only the Business and Ultimate editions of Vista can run as guest operating systems in virtualization.
"We're not planning on making any other changes," Burk said. "We'll keep listening to people's feedback."
Microsoft wraps up work on new Office
Software giant has finalized the code for Office 2007, marking the completion of the first of two key projects.
By Ina Fried
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: November 6, 2006, 6:00 AM PST
Microsoft said Monday it has finalized the code for Office 2007, marking the completion of the first of two key projects for the software giant.
Both Windows Vista and Office are slated for release to big businesses on Nov. 30. Microsoft has issued near-final test releases of Vista, but has not yet completed the final, or "gold," code for the new operating system.
As for Office 2007, the upcoming release sports some major changes from Office 2003, including new file formats and a radically revised user interface. In addition to those and other changes that have been known for months, Microsoft noted that it has also added a feature to Outlook to make it easier to send text messages to cell phones.
As Microsoft is doing with Vista, there will be a higher-end "ultimate" version of Office 2007, as well as other options for both businesses and consumers. In addition to old standbys like Word, Excel and PowerPoint, some versions of Office 2007 include accounting software, the OneNote note-taking program and server-based tools.
The upcoming release marks the most significant update to Office in a decade, said Jeff Raikes, president of Microsoft's business division. "It's rewarding to be able to send this release off to our customers and help them take the next big leap forward in productivity," he said.
Office is slated for a broad release "early next year," while Vista is due for a mainstream launch in January. Microsoft had hoped to have both programs on store shelves and on new PCs in time for this year's holiday-shopping season.
In March, Microsoft said it would push back the consumer launch of Vista until January, announcing that week that it would also move the broad launch of Office to coincide with Vista. In June, Microsoft said that it wouldn't have the Office code finalized by October, as originally planned and the company became more vague on when Office would ship, stating only that it would come out in early 2007
2 Giants in a Deal Over Linux
George Nikitin/Associated Press
Ronald W. Hovsepian, left, chief executive of Novell, having a word with Steven A. Ballmer, his counterpart at Microsoft, at a news briefing in San Francisco Thursday after the two software makers announced a deal.
By LAURIE J. FLYNN and STEVE LOHR
Published: November 3, 2006
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 2 — Microsoft acknowledged the influence of the Linux operating system on Thursday by striking a deal with Novell, a longtime rival, to ensure that Novell’s version of Linux could operate together with Windows in corporate data centers.
In an industry known for strange bedfellows, the two companies said they were collaborating on technical development and marketing programs. They also took steps to ensure that Microsoft’s intellectual property was protected as it modifies its software to work with the operating system Novell acquired in January 2004, known as SuSE Linux.
Steven A. Ballmer, the chief executive of Microsoft, said that the companies began discussing the collaboration in April, but that Microsoft had been getting pressure from its largest corporate customers far longer.
“I certainly recognize that Linux plays an important role in the mix of technologies our customers use,” Mr. Ballmer said at a news conference here announcing the partnership. But he added that Microsoft would continue to push Windows over Linux to customers, endorsing SuSE Linux only if customers insisted on using it.
The partnership, according to industry analysts, is driven by both competitive and customer considerations. Linux and Windows are increasingly used on corporate server computers powered by the lower-cost microprocessors from the personal computer industry.
“This is a customer-driven information technology world now, and this move by Microsoft is partly an accommodation to its corporate customers,” said Gary Beach, publisher of CIO magazine, whose audience is mainly the chief information officers of companies.
Analysts said Microsoft’s move might well help its fast-growing server software business by reassuring corporate technology managers that they could make continued investments in Windows and Linux. Both proprietary Windows and open-source Linux have made strong gains in corporate data centers, not so much against each other, but by supplanting costly machines that run commercial versions of the Unix operating system and sometimes, mainframe computers.
Microsoft’s server software sales are now running at $10 billion a year, rising 17 percent in the most recent quarter.
Richard Sherlund of Goldman Sachs said, “Microsoft doesn’t have to like Linux, but C.I.O.’s want Windows to play well with Linux.”
As part of the agreement, Microsoft said it would not file patent infringement suits against customers who purchase Novell’s SuSE Linux.
Stuart Cohen, chief executive of the Open Source Development Labs, said that aspect of the deal could further increase acceptance of Linux among corporations. The risk of lawsuits by Microsoft had been a lingering fear among Linux developers because Microsoft executives have been highly critical of what they said was the Linux world’s careless disregard for intellectual property rights.
“Microsoft customers are going to run a lot of Windows and a lot of Linux, and today Microsoft is saying that’s O.K. and there will not be resistance from Microsoft,” said Mr. Cohen, who leads a consortium that promotes the adoption of Linux.
In trading Thursday, Novell’s stock rose 92 cents, or 15.7 percent, to $6.79 as word of the deal leaked out. The formal announcement was made after the close of regular trading. Financial terms of the deal, effective until at least 2012, were not disclosed. Microsoft declined 4 cents, to $28.77.
Microsoft’s and Novell’s move comes a week after Oracle, the big database company, announced that it would provide technical support for Linux software distributed by Red Hat, a leading Linux company. But Oracle also said its support would be at about half the price of Red Hat’s service.
Red Hat makes its money on technical support, so the Oracle move was seen as a hostile act, noted Charles di Bona, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company. Red Hat shares fell on the Oracle announcement last week. They slipped 2.7 percent on Thursday, after the Microsoft partnership with Novell, Red Hat’s main competitor as a Linux company, was announced.
Matthew J. Szulik, chief executive of Red Hat, said the announcement was recognition by Microsoft that Linux is now a “core component of information technology infrastructure” and an effort by Novell, a “weakened and vulnerable” Linux company, to gain ground.
Mr. Ballmer, though, disputed the notion that Microsoft’s announcement was in response to Oracle’s arrangement with Red Hat.
“We’ve been working on this deal for a long time,” he said, calling Oracle’s deal “just a service agreement” with Red Hat. “You get no covenant not to sue if you chose Oracle.”
Microsoft and Oracle are the two largest software companies in the world, competing in databases, programming tools and some business applications. Yet Oracle’s fundamental business is corporate database software, while operating systems are Microsoft’s core franchise.
“As of last week, Oracle essentially got in the operating system business,” Mr. Beach of CIO magazine said. “This is Microsoft’s response.”
Microsoft plans within weeks to introduce the first major upgrade to Windows in many years. In the meantime, some customers have defected to Linux to reduce their dependence on Microsoft’s development schedule and to cut their costs.
Open-source software, which developers are free to modify and redistribute, is seen as the antithesis of proprietary software like Windows. Linux companies like Novell make the bulk of their revenue from support and service for Linux, not the initial sale.
Laurie J. Flynn reported from San Francisco and Steve Lohr from New York.
iPod Users Consider Zune
Study says that more than half of the iPod faithful surveyed would consider a Zune.
November 1, 2006
Are the Apple faithful contemplating apostasy?
A study released Monday would suggest so: More than half of Apple Computers’ iPod users would consider switching to Microsoft’s upcoming Zune media player.
ABI Research conducted a survey that found 58 percent of iPod owners planning to buy another MP3 player would consider Microsoft’s Zune.
The study asked 1,725 teenage and adult U.S. residents if they plan to buy an MP3 player in the next 12 months. Of respondents interested in making a purchase, 58 percent said they were iPod owners who were either “somewhat likely” or “extremely likely” to choose a Microsoft Zune player over an Apple iPod or another brand of player.
"Our conclusion," principal analyst Steve Wilson wrote in the report, "is that iPod users don't display the same passionate loyalty to iPods that Macintosh users have historically shown for their Apple products."
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The report also found that only 15 percent of iPod owners said they were "not very likely" or "not at all likely" to choose Zune.
Is Zune a real threat to Apple’s dominant position? ABI Research said in its report that Microsoft’s Zune media player will have to prove itself to be different from competing products in the market. It pointed to the example of Zune’s Wi-Fi sharing feature as one such example, but said that the software giant fell short on that score.
Zune's Wi-Fi sharing feature "isn't all that compelling, at least not now," notes Wilson. "There's a lot more you could do with that capability."
Still, the analyst said that the ABI Research's survey proves that Apple will need to come through with some compelling features in 2007.
"Apple needs a new high-end device that works really well and looks really cool, because other brands are catching up," wrote Mr. Wilson.
Apple may make that happen just in time. Apple is widely expected to debut its music iPhone players in January (see Two Apple iPhones Coming).
ABI Research is an independent research firm.
Vista, Office 2007 launch Nov. 30
Microsoft is confident it can meet schedule for business customers
By TODD BISHOP
P-I REPORTER
Microsoft Corp. said Wednesday that it plans to launch Windows Vista and Office 2007 for business customers Nov. 30, resolving a key question surrounding the timing of the next versions of its two biggest products.
The company did not answer the larger question -- specifically when the retail versions will be available.
However, Microsoft's apparent confidence in meeting the November deadline for Windows Vista's business launch was seen as another indication that the company is on track for the retail release in January, as the company has promised. Windows is Microsoft's most profitable product, and the new version has suffered repeated delays during its five years of development.
"A Nov. 30 business launch is a very clear sign that Windows Vista will be widely available in January 2007," said Joe Wilcox, a Jupiter Research analyst. "The question is when in January."
That question is important, Wilcox said, because it would be ideal from a marketing standpoint for Microsoft to have Windows Vista available in stores and on consumer PCs during the high-profile Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, toward the beginning of the month. Bill Gates is slated to give his annual CES keynote address Jan. 7, on the eve of the international trade show.
One key will be when Microsoft is able to release Vista to manufacturing, a step that marks the end of the product's development, before the business and retail releases. The company will have a better chance of timing the retail release to the Consumer Electronics Show if it can hit that milestone in the next week, Wilcox said.
The company hasn't announced a date for the product's release to manufacturing. Some online technology news sites, citing anonymous sources, have reported that the company could reach that point next week.
Microsoft previously had planned to release Vista and Office 2007 to both business and retail customers by the end of the year. However, in March, the company said it would delay the retail launches, after determining that it couldn't meet the schedule required by some PC manufacturers and others in the industry.
The revised retail schedule misses the critical holiday shopping season. Trying to compensate for that, Microsoft and PC makers announced a program last month in which people who buy certain PCs for the holidays with the current Windows XP operating system will receive discounted or free upgrades to Windows Vista when it comes out.
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When the delay to January was announced, some in the computer industry questioned whether Microsoft could meet even the revised schedule, given all the previous delays.
However, that skepticism began to fade as the company passed milestones for program development and testing. Some saw the completion of the first release candidate, or RC1, in September as an important turning point.
"The software turned a pretty definitive corner around RC1, when it became much less buggy and much better performing," said PC industry analyst Roger Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies Associates. "It's been clear that the launch is going forward."
The company disclosed the Nov. 30 business launch date with little fanfare Wednesday after the stock market closed, sending out electronic invitations to a media event to be held that day to "mark the business availability" of the products. The event will be held in New York City with Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer.
Also scheduled to be launched Nov. 30 is Exchange Server 2007, the next version of the company's e-mail and messaging server. The invitation noted that it's the first time in 10 years that versions of all three products will be launched together.