You Win Some and You Lose Some
Pen computer concern Go Corp., which folded its tent years ago after Microsoft
entered the market,
lost
an anti-trust suit claiming that Microsoft used its market control to steer
developers away from doing business with Go. Years after it went under, Go's
founder bought back the rights to his company just so he could squeeze some
cash out of Redmond. This is nearly the same tactic that former Novell chief
Ray Noorda used to sue Microsoft for squashing DR-DOS -- except that Noorda
won!
While a federal judge decided that Go waited too long to sue, the European
Union keeps on needling and needling Microsoft. Despite previous record fines,
EU cops are
about to pull out their ticket books again and demand more money, claiming
that Redmond violated an EU order two years ago. We'll just have to see
how much the EU charges this time around.
Microsoft Says Yes/Maybe to Open Source
Microsoft
has a new site, CodePlex, where developers can interact, work together on
projects, and even (gasp) post open source software! The site includes tools
to help teams build actual products, such as issue tracking and source control,
all thanks to Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server. Microsoft itself uses
the site to work on projects and even allows outsiders to make suggestions!
France vs. iTunes
You'd think that Microsoft owns iTunes, what with all the hullabaloo
over it being too proprietary. In fact, the
French government passed a law it hopes will force Apple to make iTunes
work with non-Apple music players. If Apple doesn't comply, the law seeks to
have iPods yanked from French stores. Maybe Microsoft will have its music player
built in time to fill those gaps on French shelves.
Fewer Salespeople Knocking on Your Door
If you buy a car or a house, and the salesperson keeps talking about
DLLs, templates or file formats, thank Microsoft. That's because Redmond
just cut nearly 150 salespeople loose. In typical corporate-speak, the layoffs
will make the company "more responsive." If that's the logic, it should've
fire them all!
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There's a New IE in Town
IE7
is now in its third beta, and the new features, while cool, are far from
earth-shattering. For instance, you can use a magnifying glass to see images
more clearly, and sort your browser tabs by dragging and dropping. Whoopie!
I'd like to see something radical. I've talked before about integrating search,
the browser and the file system so you can save and organize your search results.
Since Microsoft and Google won't do it, I give the idea free to the third-party
universe -- just don't forget to say thanks.
About the Author
Doug Barney is editor in chief of Redmond magazine and the VP, editorial director of Redmond Media Group.