Microsoft’s hardwork in 2009 »

Mashable has an interesting article on Microsoft’s products in 2009 and how it corrected its course (with encarta, flight simulator etc). We saw some big products like Bing and Windows 7 in this year. Read more about it here.

Microsoft pulls Juku after Plurk complaint »

After the Canadian startup, Plurk claimed 80 percent overlap between its code and that of Juku, another microblog created for MSN China, Redmond responded by pulling the site down and starting an investigation. I think Microsoft is handling the situation well. Read more about this here.

The most secure OS on the planet »

Microsoft COO, Kevin Turner thinks that Microsoft Vista, post SP2, is the most secure OS on the planet. I am not sure of the name of the planet he is referring to, but Vista does not mean much to me. Then why, you wonder, I picked up this news for my blog?

Interestingly, that statement reminded me of two things:
1. An old Apple’s Get a Mac Ad – (It needs quicktime).
2. Charlie Anna’s statement in Roadside Romeo – I am so dangerous that sometimes, I get scared of myself.

Anyway, security is good and if they believe that Vista is the safest product they ever launched, thats even better. They are trying their best, whether you and I use it or not.

10 worst Microsoft product names »

We all know how important it is to brand a product. We would have debated hours, if not days, on selecting a cool name for the product. But finding an appropriate name is very tricky…unless, of course, you follow Microsoft naming convention for its products, it is has one (What is Windows 2000 and Windows ME?)

Here is an article from PC World on the 10 worst Microsoft product names.

Microsoft and Red Hat virtualization deal »

Less than two years back, Microsoft claimed that software like Linux, violates its patents. You can read all about that here. But lately, Microsoft is changing its approach towards the Open Source community. I recently posted about Project Stonehenge here.

Now, Microsoft and Red Hat signed agreements to test and validate server operating systems running on each other’s hypervisors. You can read more about it here. This is a very good development because customers can now get support for the OSs on the virtualization platforms.

Yes, we can change…and so can Microsoft. »

The Internet changes everything – especially the software business; and I am not echoing Larry Ellison’s mantra. It is unbelievable how Microsoft is changing itself nowadays, to be more friendly to open source community. As posted earlier, Microsoft has Express editions of its Visual Studio products, supports jQuery and it is now contributing Project Stonehenge code to Apache. You can read more about it here.

This is a good development. I believe the power of the Internet is not fully leveraged on Windows machines. Apple is far ahead with its iTunes and iLife. There are no compelling, similar products on Windows. I know that companies like Adobe are re-looking at developing more desktop based applications for the internet , like Adobe AIR. But there still are lot of cool internet-based apps that we can develop on Windows…though it is not too much of a fun!